It hasn't even been ten days since the stench from Superman Returns surrounded our Xbox 360, and now we have yet another ghastly movie-licensed game in our midst. Eragon, the game based on the film adapted from Christopher Paolini's novel, features a young Dragon Rider who must protect a precious Dragon Egg at all costs. An evil king looks to seize it and... make a dragon omelet. The storyline has potential, but the game sucks.

In an attempt to cash in on pre-release movie buzz, Vivendi Games shipped Eragon a full month before the film's release. Some players will be baffled by the in-game events if they've never read the book or (obviously) seen the film, while others will be spoiled by its events, foretold in quickly-produced CG clips. Vivendi probably would have been better off simply waiting for a mid-December release. It certainly could've used the extra time to create a better video game.

Developer Stormfront Studios essentially copied the Lord of the Rings games, which it developed for EA. Characters move from point A to point B, taking out as many of the king's followers as possible. Players will make use of a series of weak and strong attacks blended into combos, fire off arrows, or use magic. It sounds exhilarating, as a good action/adventure should, but plays poorly. The player never evolves over the course of the five-to-six hour adventure, using the same combos again and again. The magic and arrows are nothing notable either -- players simply aim, press a button and vanquish an enemy. The hero does obtain new weapons, but they do not affect his in-game performance whatsoever. It doesn't help that the adversaries are as dumb as dragon dumpings either. One catches on fire and burns to a crisp without even an attempt to roll on the ground. Another catches on fire and burns out, even after standing in water. They deserve to die if they're THAT dense.

Dragon-riding sequences break up some of the monotony. Riding around atop their fire-breathing buddy, the player gets to torch grounded enemies with flames and shooting off arrows, but these sequences are way too short and riddled with problems. Players can't move the camera to see if an object is in their path. As a result, they'll strike this object (like a tree branch or a rock) and take serious damage.

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