A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Category: Opinions
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What-ho, chums! I’ve just returned from five glorious days in sun-kissed Sicily, and the shock of returning to the griminess of The Big Smoke has yet to soften, although some rare outbreaks of London sunshine are helping to alleviate the transition. As Ms. D and I were waiting for our flight home, I had a…
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You don’t have to look very far in Ubisoft’s Watch_Dogs to see how much time they’ve put into creating a realistic and immersive world, and with every person inhabiting the virtual Chicago having a back story, you could spend hours upon hours poring over every minute detail – some of it tragic and some of…
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Hype is an absolutely amazing and wonderful thing that is sure to play into your future nostalgia in a very significant way. While sometimes it can lead to unfounded excitement once you’ve got your shiny new game home, usually it is enough to build an incredibly strong memory of playing a game that will last…
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A few of my thoughts on online streaming, as originally posted on 101 Films…
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I never thought it would be the Wolfenstein series that touches on the more sinister and taboo issues arising from the rise of the far right and Nazism during World War II. We’ve had scores of games based on that six year period, 1939-1945 where most of the developed world was embroiled in war, as the…
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I was browsing through a book shop the other day when I came across a volume that got my nostalgia glands throbbing from just one look at its cover. The Fantasy Art of Oliver Frey is a celebration of the artwork of one of the most famous individuals in the eighties computing scene, and I…
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What ho, chums! It’s been fairly quiet in the gaming world over the past couple of weeks, no doubt because everyone is holding back announcements for the upcoming annual mayhem of E3 on 10th June. Add in the fact that I’ve been journeying around the untamed wilds of Scotland for the past few days, and…
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What ho, chums. Well, what an exciting week it’s been in the world o’ gaming. For a start it’s been an absolute rollercoaster ride for Nintendo: first they announced another loss on the back of dismal Wii U sales, then everyone got excited about the reveal of Skylanders-style figurines based on Mario and his ilk,…
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What ho, chums. Last week I found myself in the unusual position of having nothing to play on my Nintendo 3DS. Considering the tottering (although diminishing) pile of unplayed games on The Mantelpiece, this was an almost unprecedented situation. But yet there I was, Saturday morning stretching ahead of me like a great shoe with…
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Relic’s Warhammer 40K: Space Marine is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. I acknowledge that it isn’t the deepest and most polished third person shooter of all time, but for me it made my imagination run wild and spurred an interested in that universe that hasn’t abated since I first played the game in 2011.…
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Indie developers are great. It is truly impressive what these guys and girls can pull off with relatively small amounts of money while still being able to push genres forward. They have carved out their little niche and its great that they are able to make ends meet, to some extent, pushing the bounds of…
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What ho, chums. I must admit, I can’t help but be drawn in whenever a new Nintendo Direct video pops up on my 3DS. These tiny saccharine video bonbons never fail to bring a smile to my embittered lips. Seeing Satoru Iwata and chums enthusiastically teasing their latest gaming treat with undisguised glee reminds me…
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I’m not afraid to admit that Ouran High School Host Club is not only one of the greatest anime series of all time, but perhaps even one of the greatest television series ever. Based on the manga of the same name it tells the tale of lower middle class scholarship student, Haruhi Fujioka, who is forced…
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What-ho, chums. Of all the gaming news that I’ve browsed through this week, the one piece of information that made me sit forward in my armchair with a quizzically raised eyebrow was this: China has revealed its censorship rules for console games. I would encourage you to take a look at the long and sometimes…
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An article published on Kotaku a few days ago read “OK, I’m addicted to Hearthstone“. It is the sort of turn of phrase we throw around all the time without giving it so much as a split second’s thought. Seemingly every game that we play and enjoy elicits a claim of addiction. That Skyrim was…
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I have played my fair share of violent video games. I’m not proud of it, nor am I ashamed of it, it is just an accepted truth when you play as many games as I do. In fact it is so common that I don’t tend to notice it any more. A head blown off…
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I can remember people laughing at cell phone games. And its not really that long ago that people in the west laughed at Square-Enix releasing a Final Fantasy game in Japan exclusively for mobiles. It goes to the fickleness of consumers and the games media proper that it was not long until they were celebrating…
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It’s funny just how similar Trials Fusion is to its predecessors. On picking up the controller I was immediately thrown back into the light touch input mode that has caused me no end of repetitive strain injury symptoms from playing the series in the past, and before long the nuances of traversing across perilous platformers…
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Following on from my post on the Americanisation of gaming history I invited fellow games enthusiast, writer and friend, Matt Mason to lend a US perspective on the issue… Matt – When I see a fresh-faced kid walking down the street, pants a bit too skinny and his hair a bit too foppish, wearing a shirt…
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Anyone who grew up alongside Commodore’s home computer powerhouse, the Amiga 500, recognises the name Dino Dini. As the man responsible for the incredibly popular Kick-Off series, his name is etched into all of our brains as one of the grandfathers of virtual football. Kick-Off was fast, frantic, and a hell of a lot of…
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Or Americanized…. I never owned a Nintendo Entertainment System and in fact only knew a handful of people that did. But if you talk a stroll through the virtual pathways of the internet you’ll likely find hundreds if not thousands of Australian video game enthusiasts in their 30’s and beyond spouting their eternal and undying love…
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What-ho, chums. It seems that barely moments after out last little chat about VR, Facebook caused the gaming community to fall off their bar stools in astonishment by buying Oculus Rift for a whacking great sum – $2 billion to be exact. Not exactly small change, but ’tis but a drop in the ocean for…
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I am embarrassed to say I play games. Not because it’s an unvirtuous or unjustifiable pastime, but because of what being passionate about games has come to represent. We like to think we are more sophisticated and relevant than people that follow the Kardashians, hanging on their every word, waiting for their next nipple slip.…
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Good morrow to you all, and welcome to ‘From The Armchair’, the first in a series of regular posts in which I, Lucius P. Merriweather, spout forth on any old subject that’s been picking at my addled brain, as well as giving you the odd salacious titbit about what’s been happening behind the hallowed doors…
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I like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine more than I ought to. Before playing it I had never been into a Games Workshop and have certainly never painted a figurine, but Relic’s game made me walk into a store, lined with unpainted models and filled to the brim with players sitting at tables discussing their armies, and…
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Ubisoft’s acquisition of Playstation stalwart Reflections, and with it the Driver name, was a stroke of genius. Driver is one of the most versatile and potentially valuable properties in video games, having potential as a brand to extend beyond the tales of car chases and dodgy criminal masterminds and cops it has told until now,…
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As an economist I analyse markets for a living. But I am shocked at the amount of absolute garbage being written day after day by professional writers who somehow think there is some hidden meaning or grand plan hidden in plain sight within often straightforward announcements to investors. Here’s a hint, there’s not, and believe…
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Seven years after its launch in the UK, I can finally give you my first impressions of the PS3. Here on A Most Agreeable Pastime, we’ve never been ones to hurry. We can often be found dawdling around The Manor, idling flicking through The Times and absent-mindedly wondering how long it will be until Mrs…
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There have been so many dissertations written about the Super Mario series of games, with everything from the physics of the jump, to the design of the levels being subject to critical analysis by video game enthusiasts and game designers. I’m not a professional game designer, but I am an economist and so with that…
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Forza 5 is an excellent racing simulation. On the surface you’ve got probably the best racing simulation currently available on consoles with excellent controls giving you the means to race at blistering speeds around some breathtakingly picturesque tracks. Racing around Bathurst’s Mount Panorama, new to the series, is a pure joy and highlights the game’s real…
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