I hate February. I can’t say it, can’t do Rs properly. Anyway, short month, only two games finished.

DEAR ESTHER

A truly remarkable thing, let down by an industry incapable of giving it its due. The videogame “press” showed a woeful inability to review the damn thing properly, often flat out stating that this isn’t a game. Rock Paper Shotgun complained that “I don’t even have arms”, Kotaku attempted to argue that this is not only not a game but is in fact a book, easily the most ridiculous of a number of ridiculous assertions. The fact is that refusing to call this a game does games a disservice. It is absolutely a game. If we won’t call this a game ourselves how do we expect the artform to ever be taken seriously? Clearly our definition of ‘game’ is outmoded.

I read something a while back, I’m afraid I can’t remember where, that characterised us as explorers of virtual worlds. It saw the worlds presented in videogames as actual places that could be visited and experienced and remembered. Certainly the drive for me with a high proportion of games is to “see more.” I won’t stop until I’ve crawled over every inch of New Vegas or Liberty City. The drive to push on is always lower once I feel like I’ve seen everything. And many of these places feel as real to me as actual places I’ve visited, I could probably show you around Kamurocho, or Rapture or the Mushroom Kingdom with greater confidence than I could around the city I live in right now.

Dear Esther takes that idea of exploration for its own sake and strips almost everything else away in order to heighten the player’s emotional attachment to the place. All there is to do is walk, listen, look and feel, and those elements are heightened by the fact that there are no others. I disagree that these deliberate limitations make it a passive experience, it had me more invested and involved than a ton of other games of the last few years. The fact that the environment is little more than a (beautifully signposted) corridor is neither here nor there, hundreds upon thousands of other games are similarly linear.

I do agree that this game rests at the edge of the current definition of what constitutes a game, but the thing about the edge is that it isn’t a fixed point. In all art forms whenever an artist reaches the “edge” it turns out to not be the actual edge at all, rather that our view was too narrow.

The other frequent criticism is that it is too expensive for a game that only takes a couple of hours to play through. As somebody who often complains that games are overpriced I find myself in the novel position of defending this one.

I have often (unhappily) paid more than the cost of this game to see movies which hold a lot less value. To support fringe games especially when they are this confidently realised is a pleasure. Surely the value is in the quality of the game, not the running time?

If the game has a bum note it’s that it wrestles control away from you at the worst possible moment. The lure of the tower is so vital I should have been able to make the decision to climb it myself. A shame that a game that has clearly been so lovingly put together gets such an important moment wrong. Really dragged me out of the experience at a point where I should be more involved than ever.

Not for everyone but then again NOTHING IS FOR EVERYONE, THAT’S STUPID.

FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS

I spent nearly two hours loving Dear Esther, I spent over 60 hours living in New Vegas. Both were great, IS THAT NOT ENOUGH?

I’d not paid it any attention on release as I’d had such a BAD TIME with Fallout 3 and Oblivion. New Vegas was a million miles from those tedious trudges, I loved every second of this, and was a little aggrieved when it was over. What I hadn’t realised about these games is that they do in fact end. I’d been looking forward to finishing up the narrative and just living in the world for a bit, skills and guns intact but apparently this was not to be. Instead I was clumsily told the outcome of my various actions with the various factions and that was that. Game over, get the fuck out of my beach community you bum.

POO BALLS.

NEW GAME PLUS PLEASE MOTHERFUCKERS.

FEBRUARY COMPLETE.

dumbrunningsonic:

photoshop.  by Nicole (m) Hamilton

MERE SECONDS into Dear Esther.

Flagman looks extra terrible but fuck it. Love these.

(Source: gameandgraphics, via jackal27)

The view from Tai Yong Medical.

This year I have vowed to finish more games than I acquire, January proving mostly successful in that I managed to wrap up three games, two from last year one from fuck knows when.

DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION

This was loads of fun. I wouldn’t have been averse to a New Game + option, always nice to have a second play through with all the shit you picked up first time round, but definitely one of the best games I’ve played this generation. Even the story was mostly well handled and held my attention almost til the end. Slight fumble on what constitutes a satisfying ending. Uncovering the conspiracy was secondary at best, finding the girl was the bigger deal and they fluffed it. Never mind. Not sure what everybody’s complaints were about the boss battles. I found them all to be something of a breeze and totally in keeping with the game’s Metal Gear Solid styling. Are we really at a point where the idea of a boss battle is no longer welcome in a game? If so, fair enough, I AM OLD.

Of course the whole thing looked incredible. At one point I stopped and just had a look out of the window at Tai Yong Medical for AAAAAAAAGES. Gorgeous fucking game. I kind of wish there was an option to play it without the piss yellow filter just to see what that would look like.

Also the soundtrack bit just a little too much of Daft Punk’s Tron soundtrack but I’ll let that slide because it fit the bill nicely.

GHOST RECON: SHADOW WARS

Super shit title guys. Really bad. It feels like every game released last year was called Shadow Protocol: Combat Horizon (apart from El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, that had a fucking awesome title). Why can’t games be called SUPER THUNDER BLADE any more? ARE WE TOO “SOPHISTICATED” NOW? No. No, we are not.

Dreadful “story” and presentation as well. I know this was a 3DS launch title and didn’t cost much to put together but I literally have no idea what it was about, outside of shooting Russians. There are plenty of writers out there who will happily do you a better script than the one you’ve got folks and they don’t cost much (get in touch).

Game wise though I couldn’t have loved this more. TOP NOTCH GUYS. SEQUEL PLEASE.

RESIDENT EVIL 5

A bit shit all told, as evidenced by how long it’s taken me to complete it. Nothing about it sticks in the memory (apart from Chris’s weird delivery on “Chew grab it!” when he couldn’t carry any more shit himself). It was always going to have a tough time measuring up to RE4, one of my favouritest of all the games, but it didn’t even come close. Bonus points awarded for having a New Game + but then deducted again because I don’t want to play it a second time.

The stories in these games have always been terrible but this one really hammered home just how needlessly convoluted the continuity has become. The word UNFOLLOWABLE has never meant more. Time to drop continuity and start fresh, fuck the fanboys. And for the record, Capcom, instant deaths are TOTAL BULLSHIT and have no place in these games any more. Also QTEs.

Luckily, so far, Resident Evil Revelations has been super awesome so somebody over there still has their shit together.

JANUARY COMPLETE

gameandgraphics:

Game & Watch - Multiscreen series

Donkey Kong (DK-52), 1982.
Donkey Kong II (JR-55), 1983.
Green House (GH-54), 1982.
Oil Panic (OP-51), 1982.

 [ Click one of the pics for zoom in mode! ] 

 

(via geek-art)

Put on your 3D glasses NOW.

dotcore:

submitted by thumbs.