Bad Day L.A.

The checkered history of Los Angeles suggests that on occasion it can help, ahem … redefine the concept of the human love/hate relationship. Even so, the city's seen nothing like this. In thethird-person action game Bad Day L.A. you'll face missions involving plane crashes, zombie hordes, meteor showers, riots, a tsunami, an earthquake, and more. Crips vs. Bloods this is not.

At the center is misanthrope and reluctant hero Anthony Williams. He's a former Hollywood agent so disenchanted with modern existence he's (somewhat implausibly) decided to become homeless. The designer of the game, American McGee (ex-id Software employee and architect of the dark cult hit Alice), is renowned for pushing boundaries and trying to create challenging work. Thus half the point of this uniquely styled and cel-shaded gorefest is poking fun at a city sick enough to produce such a character, and a government that wields fear over its citizens like a baton. Anthony is partly motivated by keeping the voracious government out of his affairs, and all indications are that parody and caricature will be abundant amidst the plentiful explosions and disastrous mayhem. It'll be interesting to see if Bad Day L.A. can make good on its promise to inject some decidedly low-brow humor into a usually fairly formulaic genre.