Title: Far Cry
Format: PC
Release Date: March 23, 2004
My friend Tom recently pointed out that many of the experiences on this blog are uniformly positive. Friendships. The new. Fair point. Sure, I play games to see strange new lands, meet interesting characters. To experience the positive. But to imply this is always the case would be unrealistic. Enter: Far Cry. Read the rest of this entry »
Title: Grim Fandango
Format: PC
Released: 30th October, 1998
I’m going to be straight up with you, dear reader; I have no strong memories attached to Grim Fandango. No conveniently parallel life-stories to compare and contrast. Not a pithily contrived lesson in sight. Sorry about that. I have, however, one reason for writing about it today, and it’s actually the best one there is: Grim Fandango is a gorgeous, shining, pinnacle of the medium. I’ll probably still wring a tenuous message out of it, though. Don’t you worry about that. Read the rest of this entry »
Title: Grand Theft Auto IV
Released: 29th April, 2008
I often associate gaming with guilt. I love getting lost in luscious, fully-realised worlds, following the hero’s journey, developing a character from an underpowered weakling to an all-conquering powerhouse; it hooks me every time. And yet. When I play, there’s always a little snag jaggling at the corner of my mind, quietly whispering the words: “You’ve got better things to do, Jon.” Read the rest of this entry »
Title: System Shock 2
Released: August, 1999
2114. Experimental starship, the Von Braun. Flickering lights. Echoing silence. Desolate corridors, empty but for the bloodstains. A former crewmate rounds the corner, neck swollen and contorted by an alien parasite, swiping metal piping into your face whilst gargling the words: “Kill me.”
System Shock 2 is the scariest game I have ever played. I was fourteen when it came out, which certainly put me in an impressionable position when it came to horror. This was slap-bang in the middle of the film/sleepover era, which despite flirting with many genres, was most at home with horror. We’d often rent a terrible action film to laugh at the dialogue, or a dreadful martial arts number to check out the bad-ass moves – and to laugh at the dialogue – but for me it was always horror that worked best. We’d all be camped out downstairs, often in a rural Essex farmhouse conversion – which was a brilliant setting for scares in itself – and after pizza and videogames, we’d bust out the sleeping bags, gather round the TV, and fire up a scary film. Read the rest of this entry »
Title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Released: August, 2011
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a sci-fi epic all about choice. Consequence. Making a mistake at any point leads to repercussions further down the line. Example: an early mission has you meeting your boss to sort out a “situation”. Not being told what it was, I ignored my boss’ repeated requests to come find him; I’d just been given a whole office to explore, and that meant picking locks, hacking computers, and stealing as many energy snacks as I could. Fine.
I stole a lot, spoke to well-rounded NPCs (non-player characters), and got a feel for the game world. Then: “Get here right away Adam; the situation’s just got a whole lot worse.” Hm? Turns the “situation” was a terrorist attack, and my pissing about has resulted in the termination of eight hostages. Ouch. Read the rest of this entry »
Games That Rocked My World 