Jon Gracey's

Archive for January, 2013|Monthly archive page

, , , , , , ,

Games That Rocked My World – #25: The Neverhood

In PC, PlayStation on January 30, 2013 at 5:10 pm

Today’s post is by…me! Jon Gracey. Finally pulling my finger out.

———

Title: The Neverhood

Format: PC, PlayStation

Released: 31st October, 1996

Neverhood_box_art

Or: Wallace and Gromit via biblical quantities of acid.

The Neverhood. Part claymation adventure game, part existential psychadelia-tinged nightmare, it’s not a game to be played by an eleven year old.

When I was eleven I played The Neverhood. My uncle Johnny worked in Hong Kong and occasionally he’d send games. Hong Kong had a prosperous piracy scene (sadly only in the illegal-copying-media-side, not rum and pieces o’ eight) and sometimes these thin, card CD slips would appear containing enticing, label-free discs within.

At eleven, any game with an animated bent was sure to catch my eye, and titles like Innocent Until Proven Guilty 2 introduced me to the “combine-poisoned-cheese-with-racist-mouse” logic of adventure games. Their slow methodical pace allowed my vaguely completist tendencies to blossom as I slowly scoured the static environments for clues, obessively clicking on each successive pixel like a young Howard Hughes but also a massive virgin. Read the rest of this entry »

, , , , ,

Games That Rocked…Fred Crawley’s World – #24: Dwarf Fortress

In Mac, PC on January 30, 2013 at 2:32 pm

Today’s post is by Fred Crawley:

———-

Title: Dwarf Fortress

Format: PC, Mac

Released: August, 2006 (Alpha version)

Df_logo

A cyan full stop flickers clumsily across a field of green punctuation on a black screen, and I push my tongue out of my mouth in concentration as I search for the right key.

Open next to the game window is a browser tabbed to the gills with wiki pages, and a wordpad document of my own confused notes – by the time I have finished rustling through them for the information I need, however, the little bright dot has disappeared.

When it blinks up again, I triumphantly stab the pause button and rattle the arrow keys until the cursor is hovering over my adversary. With a newfound sense of confidence I press the ‘k’ key (k stands for ‘look’, of course) and watch as the word “dragonfly” appears in a sidepanel.

I have identified an insect, and feel the warm cortical spasm of a rat receiving a pellet after leaning on a lever. In any other game, this feat would be too minor to even feature in gameplay, but here it is my first triumph over a notoriously baroque interface, and I am genuinely excited. Read the rest of this entry »

, , , , , , , ,

Games That Rocked…Guy Kelly’s World – #23: Okami

In PS2, PS3, PSN, Wii on January 28, 2013 at 8:00 pm

Today’s article by Guy Kelly:

———–

Title: Okami

Format: PS2, PS3, PSN, Wii

Released: 9th February, 2007

Box_art

I should have written this ages ago.

Not in the sense that I burn to share this with the world. I don’t wake up sweating in the middle of the night, purple-faced and unable to breathe, one thought racing through my mind like a hamster in a tornado: I must write about this game.

No. While I love video games dearly – I can chart the formative points in my life by the games I was playing at the time¹ rather than, you know, real world achievements – I have to draw the line somewhere.

Nor am I suggesting that I should have wrestled control of this blog from Jon long ago. I barely have the commitment to wash myself every morning, never mind pooping out reflective nuggets of thematic introspection on anything approaching a regular basis. Read the rest of this entry »

, , , , , , ,

Games That Rocked…Tom Livingstone’s World – #22: Super Smash Bros

In N64, Virtual Console on January 21, 2013 at 12:28 pm

Today’s article is by Tom Livingstone:

——

Title: Super Smash Bros

Format: N64, Virtual Console

Released: 19th November, 1999

As a child I was often alone. I recall a small dark room with no food or water…  I remember screaming.

Dark_room

Dramatic right?

Fear not intrepid game-blog reader, you haven’t stumbled upon a rough draft of ‘A Child Called It’ or some sweepy-fringed emo poetry. I’m merely setting the scene of my first memories as a gamer. I was alone because I would suffer no distractions. It was dark because I would do anything to avoid reflections on the screen. I was without food or water because my mother operated a strict no-snacks-upstairs policy. “You’ll only get Ribena everywhere,” she would insist. It was probably for the best; It wasn’t like I had time to eat or drink! Alex Kidd wasn’t going to save Miracle World on his own! Read the rest of this entry »

, , , , , , , ,

Games That Rocked…Paul Foxcroft’s World – #21: Day Of The Tentacle

In Mac, PC on January 14, 2013 at 8:00 pm

Title: Day Of The Tentacle

Format: PC, Mac

Released: June, 1993

———–

Hello Jon’s readers, I’m Paul Foxcroft. This guy:

PaulTrust me.

This will mean little to you, but I’m a human man, I live in London, I make my living by pretending; and like Jon, I like games. Here’s the quite simple request I’ve been putting off for a few days now…

“The brief is simple: 1,000 words or less, on a game that you love / has changed your perspective / made a big impact on you in some way.”

So has that eaten into the word count? Yes. But now, you and I swim in the sea of context. Brilliant.

A game that I love, has changed my perspective or has made a big impact on me. There’s so many, I mean really. THERE ARE SO VERY MANY. Read the rest of this entry »