A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Author: Lewis Packwood
-
I really wasn’t a fan of Far Cry 2 (see my review) – it was a pretty game with high-falutin’ ideas about player agency, but what it actually delivered was mindless slaughter and repetitive cookie-cutter ‘missions’. In short, it was dumb. Therefore I wasn’t particularly interested when Far Cry 3 came around earlier this year,…
-
I finished Bioshock Infinite last week and boy, what a ride it was. It’s not often there’s a video game that keeps me playing just to see what happens next, but for those few days I raced home to pick up the controller and find out where it would take me. It was like being…
-
My lovely girlfriend bought me Bioshock Infinite as a surprise present the other day, and I’ve been happily exploring Columbia for the last couple of days. It’s an amazing game – the attention to detail is stunning, to the point where I’ve been dawdling through most areas just to eavesdrop on the citizens’ conversations and…
-
Good old Nintendo. You may remember that a while back I had my Nintendo 3DS stolen, meaning I lost all of the games I’d downloaded, including the almost-completed Link’s Awakening. Well, I’ve since received the insurance money (which came out at just £100 owing to some sneaky terms and conditions – read the small print,…
-
Kayla Mitchell died late on Tuesday night. She’d just managed to fight her way out of the Nursery after facing and defeating the horror that lurked in the basement, but she died tragically just feet from safety. Low on ammo and on health, she attempted to open a locked door between her and a manhole…
-
Whereas Sir Gaulian is content to just get stuck into his sports games nowadays, I’ve been getting more and more into the gaming scene recently. Over the past six months I’ve bought an unprecedented four games (X-COM, ZombiU, New Super Mario Bros. and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate) on day one at full price, which is…
-
I wouldn’t normally comment on the media circus surrounding the next generation of consoles – because to be honest I don’t really care that much – but some news from the Microsoft camp late last week got me all hot under the collar. The all-but-confirmed news that the Xbox 720 (or ‘Durango’ or whatever they…
-
My co-podcaster Ian (see 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen.com) spotted this little oddity on his travels round Walthamstow. It seems the Riddler has escaped Arkham once again and has been leaving trophies a bit further afield than Gotham… Sadly, Ian didn’t have his batsuit with him, so he was unable to scan the trophy using detective vision.
-
I’m a big fan of the original Lost Planet, and I picked up Lost Planet 2 a few months back in the hope of more of the familar giant-monster bashing, robot thrashing and emo Japanese plotting involving people with strange hairstyles. Sadly, it turned out to be rubbish. I was aware that the sequel had…
-
I listed El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron at number two in the ‘games I would have played in 2011 if I’d had the time‘, and I’ve finally, FINALLY got round to finishing it. And it was… pretty good actually. Not quite as good as it could have been, but good nonetheless. If you’ve never…
-
I underwent a somewhat traumatic experience last weekend: while I was on holiday in France, my Nintendo 3DS was stolen from my bag. It’s the first time I’ve ever had anything nicked, and I was pretty upset about it as you can imagine. However, luckily I had travel insurance, so hopefully I won’t lose out…
-
Zack and Wiki is a wonderful, funny, charming and compelling video game that’s hamstrung by a couple of flaws so enormous that eventually they ruin it completely. Seriously, I loved this game, but it really didn’t love me back. In fact, it took delight in slapping me round the face a couple of times before…
-
Satoru Iwata is just so… so lovable, isn’t he? I watched the latest Nintendo Direct presentation last weekend, and I just couldn’t get over what a brilliant marketing tool it is, mostly due to the cuddly persona of the Nintendo President, Mr Iwata. As he cheerfully whips his way through the presentation, you can’t help…
-
There really is very little to the Phoenix Wright games, but I can’t get enough of them. In essence the gameplay basically boils down to tapping through screen after screen of dialogue for about 25 hours, occasionally interspersed with the odd section where you’re required to make some leap of logic, but really it’s more…
-
I’ve finally given up on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. I’m 11 hours in and just about to face the dreaded Water Temple, but I just can’t ever see myself finishing this otherwise excellent remake, and I’ll tell you for why. It’s impossible to play this game on the bus. More to…
-
It’s January, the weather’s horrible outside and no-one has any money – in other words it’s the perfect time to stay in and rattle through a few games from my epic games backlog. No doubt my Australian blogging companion Sir Gaulian is currently sunning himself in the 42 degree heat of the land down under,…
-
Dead Space 2 is easily one of the scariest games I’ve ever played, possibly only surpassed by the original and perhaps more recently by ZombiU. I really did have to turn all of the lights on when playing it one night – it creeped the hell out of me. I think it’s the sound effects…
-
So, seeing as we’re already in the second week of 2013, I thought it’s about bloody time I wrote something about my favourite games of 2012. Unlike in 2011, in 2012 I actually managed to play a few games in the same year that they were released, which somewhat goes against our steadfast determination to…
-
I was originally going to post something about my first impressions of the Wii U back on the day it came out (30th November), but in the end I decided I’d rather spend my free time playing on it than writing about it. Then suddenly the December party season hit, I became incredibly busy at…
-
Well, this is a bit of a turn-up for the books – I got home from work to discover that my Wii U has arrived A DAY EARLY. Thanks ShopTo.net! I’m not quite sure how this has happened, but I’m glad I didn’t bother queuing up at HMV on Oxford Street tonight… Sir Gaulian should…
-
It turns out that the Wii U is actually powered by tiny little Pikmin running around in the machine. This confirms my long-held theory that processors are a myth and that all computers actually work by a combination of magic and tiny little beings running back and forth. Here’s the charming animation you get when…
-
I’m not a big fan of first person shooters set in real-world conflicts. I played through the first Modern Warfare game a while back, and I found the whole thing just a little bit… distasteful. Like I said in my review, I’m not quite sure why you’d want to recreate that great war feeling in…
-
It fascinates me how gaming has gone from being a niche hobby to something that’s firmly ensconced in mainstream culture (even if there’s still some way to go before it gains widespread acceptance), and for evidence of this you need look no further than the burgeoning fan art community. The current generation of artists is…
-
Here’s a revelation for you: I actually bought XCOM: Enemy Unknown on the day it came out. I can’t remember the last time I paid full whack for a game on its actual release date, but I suspect it was sometime back in the dim and distant days of the Dreamcast, so this should indicate…
-
I’ve done it. No going back now: the Wii U has been preordered. Maybe it was Adam Buxton’s voiceover on the new Wii U TV ad that finally pushed me to commit – I mean, if Adam likes it, surely it must be great? Right? Seriously though, I’m pretty excited about finally getting my hands…
-
I finished Vanquish at the weekend – boy what a game. It’s the kind of game that’s so intense you need to take a break every half hour to imbibe a soothing cup of tea and have a lie down in order to rest your shattered senses. Never is there a pause in the action…
-
Lucius here, just wanted to trumpet the wonderful new wallpaper I found while chugging along the information supermotorway. I’ve put up in the Manor – it’s rather dashing don’t you think? Toodle-pip, have a smashing weekend!
-
I remember the moment when I reached the waterfall cave in the original Tomb Raider on the PlayStation and an involuntary “wow” fell from my lips. That “wow” moment has happened many times before and since in many different games: encountering my first Colossus in Shadow of the Colossus, fighting Mother Brain in Super Metroid…
-
It’s very rare that I’ll buy a game on the strength of the box art alone. Usually a game purchase will be the end result of a meticulous information-gathering process: hours spent sifting through reviews and hearing friends’ recommendations before deciding on a game to buy, usually followed by a wait of a few months…
-
I finished Far Cry 2 (buy on Amazon) the other day, and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. The designers took on some controversial subject matter by setting the game in an African civil war, and they really don’t do it the justice it deserves. But before I get onto that, let’s look…
-
I finally finished Bayonetta last week, just days before the announcement that the sequel is not only in development but that it’s exclusive to Wii U. Who’d have thunk it? Glad to see Nintendo have rightly but their might behind Bayonetta, although it still seems odd: a bit like finding out that Disney are producing…
-
When was the last time a film made you cry? Even this embittered blogger can admit to a few tear-inducing moments in his film-watching past, the ending to Casablanca being one. Now when was the last time a video game made you cry? I’m guessing quite a few of you will answer ‘never’, and I…
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 