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: Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords
Format: Gamecube
Released: 7th June, 2004 (US)
I have a friend called Jay. He is a dick. But then, so am I, so I guess that’s why we get along so well. I first met him at Prep School when we were both 7, and despite him being cool (and me being not), and despite us having wildly different interests, (he was into football, I used to go around pinching people on the ass. I wish I was joking) we bonded over ones we did share – and the biggest was video games. Read the rest of this entry »
Games That Rocked My World 