A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Category: From The Armchair
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In which I bring exciting news, and wax lyrical about the wonderful Spiritfarer.
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I give up. There are too many games. Who has time for all this?
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This is it. I’m doing this. Within the next few months, the slate is being wiped clean.
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Yoku’s Island Express! Tomb Raider! Inside! Firewatch! Batman: Enemy Within! And more! I certainly got through a lot of games this Christmas.
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One thing that helps to thin out the backlog is sticking to just the genres you enjoy.
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2018 was an amazing year for games, but there’s only so much time to play them all. Here are the ones I wish I’d had a chance to try.
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PlayStation VR has entered The Manor, and it’s flippin’ amazing.
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Sunless Sea and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey could do with picking up the pace a bit – we don’t all have endless time to kill.
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I’ve spent most of my life wishing there were more games like Super Metroid, and now there’s a ton of them. Bring it on.
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‘Tis a sad day, for Baron Richenbaum Fotchenstein is leaving us. Which begs the question, who on earth is going to review all the scary games now he’s gone?
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As the dying embers of 2017 fall into the grate and 2018 roars into life, now is a good time to reflect on the achievements of the past year.
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What ho, chums! Well, I’ve had a bit of disappointment this week. I’ve got a press pass for EGX 2017, but due to work/childcare committments, I’m not going to be able to get down there to see all those lovely shiny new games. Sometimes, being an adult – to use the American phrase – ‘sucks’.…
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I only just found out about JRPG July, and it turns out I’m already participating in it – quite by accident. The other week, after reading reviews of the just-released Valkyria Revolution, I decided to have a go on Valkyria Chronicles Remastered, the first game in the series. I got it for my birthday last…
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Today I’m going to talk to you about The Witness again. I spoke very briefly about it once before, but this time I’d like to take that analysis a few steps further, as well as discussing what it all means about why and how we play games, why this game has attained the dreaded label…
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What ho, chums! I’ve been thinking of giving my Xbox 360 the old heave ho for a while now. But before I let the old girl go, I wanted to sample some of the handful of games I’ve procured for it that I’ve yet to cast my critical eye over. I blew the dust out…
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What ho, chums! First of all, a big thanks to everyone who has contacted me about writing for A Most Agreeable Pastime, it’s great to hear from you. Sorry for my lack of replies so far – I’ve been hugely busy over the past couple of weeks, but I will get back you all eventually.…
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What ho, chums! Friends, I’m growing old. As I near the end of my fourth decade on this planet, my listening predilections are veering from rock and roll towards radio plays, and my shoes are getting comfier and less fashionable with every passing year. I’m wholeheartedly embracing it – bring on the grey hairs, I…
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What ho, chums! I’ve finally reached what I suppose is the No Man’s Sky plateau: I’ve maxed out the slots in my exosuit and multitool, I’ve almost maxed out my spaceship, and I’m starting to notice a fair bit of repetition in the planets I’ve been visiting. After my initial fever of exploration, it feels…
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One consequence of getting sucked in by Pokemon Go is that I’ve ‘rediscovered’ mobile gaming, to an extent – just as Eurogamer predicted. Bar the odd game of Threes, I’d pretty much given up on mobile games before this summer, but the Pokemania earlier this year prompted me to see what else the App Store…
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What ho, chums! This week I was excited to read about the new game Virginia – or rather to read a tiny bit about it and then completely avoid reading any more for fear of spoilers (it appears that the game relies heavily on keeping its surprises hidden). Yes, Virginia is yet another must-buy indie…
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The traditional ‘summer games drought’ comes as something of a relief for those, like I, who are imbued with a phenomenal gaming backlog. It’s a chance to dust off some unplayed titles and finally give them some time in the gaming spotlight before the inevitable deluge of games arrives in time for Christmas. Then again,…
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After realising the other week that actually I don’t really like 2D platformers very much, no matter their illustrious provenance, I decided it would be a good time to have a bit of a clear out of the games cupboard… ahem, I mean The Mantelpiece. First for the eBay pile was New Super Mario Bros.…
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As I said a while back, I’ve been getting back into Batman recently. I’ve read a few more Batbooks since that last post, and they’ve reflected the general trend for Batman stories veering wildly between genius and utter rubbish, with the tales being told in the main ‘canon’ Batman storyline generally being overstuffed and hamstrung…
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The other day, I took Merriweather Jr down to the local library for ‘Bookbugs’, a sort of pre-school jamboree involving singing, hollering and general high-jinks. Afterwards, we tarried a while, and he selected a few cardboard books to borrow that he especially liked the taste of. I decided to get in on the borrowing action,…
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What-ho, chums! It’s been an inordinate amount of time since our last tete-a-tete, but you can blame this dearth of communication on the heavy mantle of fatherhood, which I now carry proudly across my shoulders. As such, the lightweight blouson of gaming has been left hanging on the neglect peg, although of late I’ve had…
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What-ho, chums! You may well have noticed my conspicuous absence from this illustrious online tome over the past month or so – my endless thanks to Sir Gaulian for keeping things ticking over with a steady stream of fantastic articles. I have a good excuse for my blogging slackness, however – the birth of my…
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What-ho, chums! So, Ms. D’s two lovely sisters came a-visiting recently, and we ended up chatting about their video game habits of old. It turns out that the sisters three were once enthralled by the Sega Mega Drive as youths, and would happily spend hours passing the controller back and forth through epic sessions of…
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What ho, chums! Well, what a wonderful week I’ve had. I downloaded Affordable Space Adventures for the Wii U on Saturday, and it has proved to be an instant hit in the Merriweather household, with even the normally video-game-reticent Ms. D singing its praises. The game is one of those rare beasts – a Wii…
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What-ho, chums! Since my last missive back in January, events have continued apace. The expected arrival of Merriweather Junior is now mere weeks away, after which I expect all gaming exploits will cease, at least for a time. So in the run up to the big day I’ve been luxuriating in my precious gaming time,…
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What ho, chums! So no doubt you’ve already heard the news by now: Club Nintendo is to close later this year, which will be very sad news for fans of free tat. Perhaps ‘tat’ is being a bit harsh, but there’s no denying the fact that the stuff being hoiked through the UK site is…
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What ho, chums! After struggling to enjoy Assassin’s Creed III, I finally decided to permanently shelve the game this week. It’s not often that I’ll leave a game unfinished – I hate abandoning things halfway through, and the same goes for TV series, books and pretty much anything really. So that gives you an indication…
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What ho, chums! As we hurtle down the final furlong of the year, I for one will be grateful for the powerful respite offered by the festive season. The past few months have seen unending turmoil, mostly thanks to my relocation from London to “The McManor” in beautiful Edinburgh. This tumult has been combined with…
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 