1) Desperate Housewives (Buena Vista Games, 2006) – Timed between Seasons 1 and 2 of the series, this game has you playing the role of the new mysterious housewife moving into Wisteria Lane. Beset by the usual dysfunctional family, amnesia and a shady past that comes back to haunt you, you set out to unravel the mysteries that surround you and become prima housewife in the suburb by taking part in a fashion show, sabotaging Edie, beating Bree in a cooking competition and sleeping with all and sundry. The gameplay is basically a dumbed-down version of the Sims 2, but it’s fun with good music and voice talent (Brenda Strong reprises her role as narrator Mary Alice Young and the rest aren’t bad either) and really immerses you in the gossip and melodrama of Wisteria Lane. The game has some technical bugs, especially if it’s not patched, but is generally recommended for fans of the series. Gamespot has reviewed the game more fully here. Someone has also recorded their playing through of the entire first episode here.

2) CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Ubisoft, 2003-2008) – OK, CSI has inspired several video games. There are currently 4 based on the original CSI (Las Vegas) and 1 each for the two spinoffs. P has actually only played 1 game, CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder (2006), although she understands the mechanics are quite similar for all of them. The game was developed by Telltale games who now do the excellent Sam and Max adventures (P strongly recommends them, do try the excellent Abe Lincoln must die! which is available as a free download). Essentially, in this game you join Grissom and the rest of the CSI team as a new recruit and help to solve 6 cases. It’s nice seeing and hearing the 3D avatars of the team, but P felt that it was a little ridiculous that she ended up having to do nearly all of the evidence-collecting and analysis herself – the rest of the team mostly stand around and offer advice. P does understand that the developers want the game to be interactive, but honestly, by the last case, she was desperately wishing she could automatically check the sample against the DNA database… Voice-acting was good, but some of the dialogue took absolutely forever. P should mention that she is not a great fan of the series and bought the game because she likes adventures and problem-solving in general. Still, even diehard fans of the series could probably find better outlets for their passion. Justadventure has a review here (the reviewer liked it more than P did).

3) Lost: Via Domus (Ubisoft, 2007) – Given the weirdly disjointed, keep-the-viewer-guessing nature of the Lost TV series, P couldn’t really imagine how this would translate into a video game. Like the Desperate Housewives game, the player is cast as a new amnesiac character, in this case, one Elliot Maslow, photojournalist and Flight 815 passenger. The game seems to take place during season 2, but P noticed a few season 3 characters in the expositions. All the main characters are in place (Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Locke Sayeed etc), and the game does a good job of immersion with mostly decent voice-acting and recognisable locations. The characteristic Lost flashbacks and flashforwards are implemented pretty well in-game, with the protagonist’s disjointed memory represented by ripped photos. The player needs to find the locations and people represented by the photo on the island and take a picture to be transported into a flashback. Some of the other gameplay mechanics were absolutely tedious and frustrating ‘though, especially wandering through the jungle (well, this is why its called Lost!) and fixing fuses (you’ll be able to redo the house wiring by the time you complete the game). Also, when P mentioned mostly decent voice-acting, she wasn’t talking about the guy who voiced Sawyer – she cringed everytime he said anything. P didn’t complete the game, but Lost fanatics might find it worthwhile. Review on Videogamer.com here (Xbox version) and game trailer below.

4) Law and Order (Legacy Interactive, 2003-2005) – Like the CSI series, Law and Order has spawned a whole series of games, 3 based on the original series and 1 from the spinoff Law and Order: Criminal Intent. P has played the third game Law and Order: Justice is Served. Working alongside Lennie Briscoe and Ed Green (voiced by the actual actors in the show), the player has to piece together a case from the clues and then prosecute the criminals in court. The plot is set in the world professional tennis and begins with a murdered Anna Kournikova lookalike on the eve of the US Open. With an engaging plot, good voice-acting and less pixel-hunting than the average detective game, this adventure scores well on P’s list. Interesting, publisher Legacy is making both this game and the first in the series free to play online from their site, ‘though the server always seemed busy when P tried. You can also download a free trial of the game at the same URL here. Recommended.

5) Heroes (??,??) – Now that someone’s saved the cheerleader, who’ll save the game? The Heroes game was originally announced by Ubisoft back in 2007, only to be cancelled in November 2008. Perhaps Ubisoft thought that there might be too much competition in the wannabe superhero market from established MMORPG City of Heroes or the sales figures on the Lost game (above) weren’t good enough. Anyway, P rather hopes a decent publisher sees the potential in the series and realises it in any game made from it!

P has chosen to focus on the more recent TV to game spinoffs, but of course many more have been made. Some, like the Alias game, pretty much sucked for P. However, some of the Star Trek ones have been decent as have one or two of the Simpsons franchise (Hit & Run in particular). ER managed to make saving lives incredibly tedious and P has never played or even seen the Stargate MMORPG. The trailer looks cool ‘though (below).

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