Jon Gracey's

Posts Tagged ‘videogames’

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Games That Rocked…Adam Blampied’s World – #26: Shadow Of Memories

In PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox on February 14, 2013 at 12:28 pm

Today’s post is by Adam Blampied. I have intervened only when etiquette insisted:

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Title: Shadow Of Memories

Format: PS2, PC, Xbox, PSP

Released: March 30th, 2001

Shadow_of_memories_box_art

How many times has Mario died by my hand? Hundreds? Thousands? Over the course of countless games, Princess Peach must’ve seen more widow’s pensions than the Women’s Institute during a world war. And how about Link? Sonic the Hedgehog? Snake? Snake!! SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!! In games, death is mostly an inconvenience, mostly the fleeting error in ‘trial and error’, or mostly a gentle reminder not to jump off That Thing at That Height.

Mostly. Read the rest of this entry »

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Films That Rocked My World: Wreck-It Ralph

In Arcade, Film on February 12, 2013 at 1:14 pm

Written by me. Contains copious profanity. You fuck!

Title: Wreck-It Ralph

Dir: Rich Moore

Released: 8th Feb, 2013 (UK)

Wreck-it_ralph

First up, a quick disclaimer: I hate spoilers. I’m sure no one likes spoilers (though there seems to be one hell of an appetite for them, if the internet’s anything to go by – and unfortunately it is), but I hate them. Nothing gets my goat more than a friend going “check out this film! You won’t believe the devastating scene at the end of the second act!”. Brilliant. Now I’m totally prepared for devastating scene at the end of the second act. You unimaginable penis. Best case scenario? It lives up to the expectation, and I go: “oh yeah, X was right”.

Which is what they want, by the way. All would-be spoilers are needy little urchins, clamouring for your attention and approval, desperate to piggyback on and leech off a film’s achievements, claiming they called it and understand it, like the validation-hungry, glory-seeking guttersnipes they are.

Worst case scenario? I’m totally underwhelmed by what otherwise might have been a pivotal and life-altering moment in a landmark picture and will never enjoy it in the way it was intended. Way to go, you afterbirth. 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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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:

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Title: Dwarf Fortress

Format: PC, Mac

Released: August, 2006 (Alpha version)

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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 »

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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:

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Title: Okami

Format: PS2, PS3, PSN, Wii

Released: 9th February, 2007

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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 »