Warhammer 40k Space Marine is different; the game throws out most of the slow paced conventions fans will be used to and lays itself neatly into the action category. Don’t go thinking this will be a change for the worse, instead imagine you’ve been magically whisked down onto the game-board just like in that Robin Williams movie; Jumanji, You’re no longer hovering over an army of nicely painted plastic figurines. You are one of those figurines and down here this is real, there’s no rolling of dice or taking turns – this is war baby.
I thought it was strange that we had a brand new Goldeneye game last month for the Nintendo Wii. I can quite understand if James Bond Blood Stone for PS3 is equally confusing. Not only have Activision re-imagined the N64 classic thirteen years after the original; they’ve also gone and released a totally new and original Bond game for the HD consoles starring Daniel Craig.
Keeping fish as a past time is typically considered more of a hobby rather than the lifestyle change of keeping a pet Dog or Cat. I suppose the main reason for this is that rather than having access to your whole home, Fish are enclosed in a small area and don’t create too much mess. Of course keeping Fish isn’t actually as simple as you’d think; to keep your Fish healthy and happy they’ll need a good amount of space as well as a clean environment. Keeping Fish in a tank without a filter and regular water changing will result in dirty water and unhealthy fish. Doesn’t it just make sense to avoid all that hassle and risk killing innocent fish when you could just enjoy the beauty of your Fish on your television screen with My Aquarium for PlayStation 3?
My Aquarium from Hudson Software originally appeared on the Nintendo WiiWare store and was popular enough to spawn a recent sequel. Now PS3 owners can experience the fun of keeping virtual Fish in High Definition because My Aquarium is now available on the PSN store.
Upon first booting My Aquarium you’ll be taken through the basics of introducing Fish into your first small tank and then if you fancy, you can individually name your Fish. After that very basic tutorial you’re then left pretty much to your own devices and with plenty of things to do.
At any time you can add or remove fish to your current tank up to the specified capacity. Small tanks obviously hold fewer fish than larger tanks. You can also customise the tank with plants, rocks, coral and other silly features such as a novelty Halloween pumpkin or a ship wreck. More advanced features such as the type of gravel, lighting and glass are very customisable too for those pros who know exactly what they’re doing. Of course I should mention that you’ll also need to feed your Fish and Plants regularly, this is simply done by choosing the food icon and using the analogue stick to move a food container around and clicking your X button.
Now people have called My Aquarium nothing more than a screensaver which I feel is a trifle unfair, yes it’s true that for the most part there isn’t much to do except watch the Fish swim around or just float there. Hudson have tried to keep your attention by not giving you everything up front, just like a typical PlayStation game with rewards, you unlock new Fish, new Plants and New objects the more you play.
As I mentioned previously, the graphics are High Definition and look very pretty indeed. I don’t want to go on record and say that this is the best looking Fish tank simulator in the world because it probably isn’t. The fish are colourful and well animated but won’t quite fool anyone but a small child into thinking they’re truly real. In game special effects are limited to water ripples, air bubbles and underwater lighting – they all do the trick and look good. Watching the Fish swim around is relaxing but for those that need a little extra chilling can enable the rich library of Classical background music that comes with the game, or if you prefer, any music stored on your PS3 hard drive.
A video of my very own Aquarium uploaded to YouTube.
Initially you have around 12 fish in your catalogue but this soon increases after every few days you play until you have a total of over 40 different fish. With such a pretty collection of fish it’s fortunate that you can have run multiple Aquariums at the same time, this mean that you do not have to constantly swap Fish in and out to see all the species you have unlocked. Those who like to can even take in-game screenshots of all your Aquariums to use as your PS3 wallpaper and even record a video that can be directly uploaded to YouTube.
Despite Hudson’s best efforts My Aquarium is not a game and gamers will probably not enjoy the subtle experience offered here, those who already are fish lovers are perhaps the only ones who will truly enjoy the benefit of keeping virtual fish. Downloadable content packs containing more Fish will be available shortly so don’t worry about not having enough variety.
My Aquarium for PS3 looks good, sounds good but will really be of long term interest to those who take an interest in the subject already. 6 out of 10.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 at 3:48 PM 
Warhammer 40k Space Marine is different; the game throws out most of the slow paced conventions fans will be used to and lays itself neatly into the action category. Don’t go thinking this will be a change for the worse, instead imagine you’ve been magically whisked down onto the game-board just like in that Robin Williams movie; Jumanji, You’re no longer hovering over an army of nicely painted plastic figurines. You are one of those figurines and down here this is real, there’s no rolling of dice or taking turns – this is war baby.
