Jon Gracey's

Archive for the ‘PlayStation’ Category

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Games That Rocked…Julian van der Zee’s World – #55: Heart Of Darkness

In PC, PlayStation on February 7, 2014 at 6:00 am

Title:  Heart of Darkness

Format:  PlayStation, PC

Released: July 31, 1998

HoD Box Art

Like most people, growing up I had a fear of the dark. Of course, I wasn’t actually afraid of the dark per se; that would be completely illogical – darkness is nothing, merely an absence of visible light. It couldn’t really hurt me – except of course for that one time in the middle of the night I awkwardly trod on my PlayStation controller as I got up to go to the toilet. No, I was afraid of what could manifest in darkness. I was afraid of the monsters that lived in the dark.

Darkness

If you squint you can see the monsters

Read the rest of this entry »

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Games That Rocked…Benita de Wit’s World – #53: Theme Park

In Amiga, DS, Mac, Mega Drive, PC, PlayStation, PS3, Saturn, SNES on January 24, 2014 at 1:12 pm

Title: Theme Park

Format: Amiga, Mega Drive, PlayStation, Saturn, SNES, Mac, PC, DS, PS3

Released: 1994

Theme Park Box Art

Hello Internet.

I’d like to tell you a story. A story about a child who spent a lot of time alone on the computer. A story about creativity.

As a kid I loved building games (that is to say, games where you build. I didn’t build games, great as that would’ve been). I loved to spend hours making something original, whether from paper or pixels.

I grew up in a bit of a gaming family and enjoyed a thorough videogame education. SimTower, Age of Empires and World of Warcraft were favourites of mine as they all had wonderful elements of customisation, where you could play the game in your own weird way. Being an odd child I took the most joy in making odd things happen. I loved allowing a 100-storey building to become roach-infested, building a civilisation of monks who converted entire enemy armies to a peaceful way of life or riding my frostsaber across the plains as a male night elf in a wedding dress. Read the rest of this entry »

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Games That Rocked…Chazz Redhead’s World – #49: Ape Escape

In PlayStation, PSP on December 17, 2013 at 5:22 pm

Title: Ape Escape

Format: Playstation, PSP

Released: July 2nd, 1999

Ape Escape Box Art

One of the main complaints offered up against the ultra-high-def, macho, maybe slightly racist games of today is the lack of colour. The AAA line-up that defines the current generation features a similar palette to Henry Higgins’ brash description of Eliza Dolittle: Brown! Brown! Brown! When I think of the first game I truly became obsessed with, I think of a level of colour akin to a fireworks display in Cyberdog. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this game came from Japan. Read the rest of this entry »

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Games That Rocked…Matthew Highton’s World – #41: Resident Evil

In DS, PC, PlayStation, PSN, Saturn on June 28, 2013 at 2:47 pm

Today’s post is by Matthew Highton.

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Title: Resident Evil

Format: PlayStation, PC, Saturn, DS, PSN

Released: 22nd March, 1996

Resi Box Art

In 1997 I go to a small shop at the back of Oldham town centre and purchase a second hand copy of a game I’ve heard so much about: Resident Evil. I take it to my friend’s house and five minutes later I’m killed by a dog. The game resets and I ask: how the hell do you save on this thing?

From the moment the PlayStation fires up I already know this is everything I’ve ever wanted in a game. I don’t even know the term survival horror yet, all I know is that it appeals to everything I have ever loved: horror films and computer games. Read the rest of this entry »

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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.

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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 »

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