I look forward to new TV-tie-in games like a child looks forward to a visit to the world’s angriest dentist. Over the oh-so many years I’ve been doing this job, I’ve played a lot of them, and they’ve been universally terrible. Oh, with one sort-of exception – the extraordinary ER The Game, which managed to be a mix of Theme Hospital and a lunatic’s fever dream. That game had ninjas and ghost American footballers. Anyway, sidetrack. Perhaps the most consistently awful are the CSI games, whether developed by 369 Interactive or Telltale. (Telltale’s first, 3 Dimensions of Murder, holds a place in history. It has a plot about a developer who may have murdered a former publisher, for screwing him over for his rights to a game based on his two wacky cartoon characters. This was before they regained the rights to Sam & Max…) Anyway, this latest, CSI: Deadly Intent, also by Telltale, has recently had a demo appear. Despite being two months old. And while it’s not nearly as bad as previous games in the series, it’s not that great.
