Title: Mario Kart 64
Format: N64, Virtual Console
Released: June 24th, 1997
If nostalgia is a beast that seduces the brain during one’s formative years, then the resultant offspring is truly spawned at university. (If you’re white and middle class. Like me!) All of a sudden everything you were into as a kid is retro and cool, and approximately 90% of university life is young adults repeatedly discovering they weren’t the only person to watch The Raccoons. Read the rest of this entry »
Title: Mario Kart 64
Format: N64, Virtual Console
Released: June 24, 1997
Title: Gears Of War 2
Format: Xbox 360
Release Date: November, 7th, 2008
Videogames are, for me, a shelter from the storm. When the controller’s in my hand, I often enter a zen-like, focused state which shuts off the outside world. In the right context, playing is a soothing, cathartic experience.
Everyone feels there could be more success in their lives. There’s always more you can be achieving, no matter what path you choose, and with gaming there’s a certain symbolic delight to be had in conquering your foes and saving the world; people like to be heroes, and gaming is in a unique position to replicate that. On a crude level – and this week’s game is nothing if not crude – people like to kick the shit out of things to make them feel better. *Knock knock* Who’s there? Gears Of War 2, you say? Come on in! Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
Games That Rocked My World 