A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Category: Opinions
-
I just forgot I owned a video game and the worst part was I was about one mouse click away from purchasing it again. That game was the Heroes of Mana, the Brownie Brown developed Real Time Strategy/Role-playing hybrid released in 2007 for Nintendo’s DS. It was one of the many games of its type…
-
I cringed when I spotted this – I mean a game about Wedding Planning? Those Germans do they ever rest in their quest to develop the PERFECT video game? But wait I hear you say, give it a chance. It may be a really great business simulator – the Football Manager that we can…
-
I was sitting in my underwear playing Forza 4 the other night, and when I say playing I mean virtually exploring some of the world’s most exotic super cars in the rather cool autovista mode, when I realised something about myself. First thing was that I needed a shower, it had been while and I’d…
-
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,…
-
MTV’s Daria may be long gone, but it’s perfect representation of growing up as a teenager in the late 90’s continues to be the most accurate depiction of that time around. The music, the attitude, the fashion and the general disdain for the cool people, younger people and older people -for humanity basically- viewed through the…
-
I really don’t enjoy mobile (or cell) phone games. You see there are times, believe it or not, where games just aren’t at the forefront of my mind. Job interviews. Exercising. Telling people they are stupid and retarded and that it ‘just isn’t that hard’ at work. And taking a crap. These are just not…
-
On 31 July 2012 Tony Sly, frontman for the punk band No Use For a Name, passed away in his sleep. He was 41 years old. Death is an inevitable part of life and as humans we are cursed with knowing that some day we are going to cease being. It sucks. The death of…
-
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…
-
Primal Rage is pretty awesome. I admit that it’s not the deepest, most playable, best designed, best looking, best sounding game in the world. It’s not even really that great of a fighting game when all is said and done. But that doesn’t stop me from having a bit of a laugh from loving it.…
-
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,…
-
I grew up playing 2D fighters at a relatively competitive level. In fact I would say that it was something that I, stupidly perhaps, was pretty proud of. It took patience, perseverance and many many hours of practice at whichever arcade I could find at the time. They were, in some ways, many of my greatest memories,…
-
DOOM is one of the greatest games ever made. It certainly is one of the most influential games ever made, and was so big of a phenomenon that every console known to man from the Super Nintendo onwards has found itself with a copy of DOOM in its lap. The Game Boy Advance even had…
-
I actually remember the time when the house that Mario built was on top of the world. Nintendo was a hot commodity and it was hard to come across anyone who had not played a Mario game. It is a stretch to say that Nintendo’s success was solely built on the humble plumber, but it…
-
‘My Dinner with Andre’ is a really strange film. The first I’d heard of it was in an episode of Community which heavily referenced it. But it turns out that the film is a bit of a cult classic. I watched it. I liked it. And I still have no idea why. Andre was an…
-
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 think that everyone underestimated Sony in its entry to the console market before the Playstation hit. But oh how we were all wrong. Looking back at the mid 90’s when the Playstation was released, I remember the fanfare. The kids at school talking about the absolutely mediocre Kileak: The Blood like it was the second coming…
-
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.
-
There is something personal about the hand-drawn art that permeated through every aspect of video game culture 20 years ago. From magazines to box art to awesome little drawings in instruction manuals, hand-drawn art was everywhere. Yesterday I wrote about Agro Soar, a Game Boy game based on a children’s television show in the 80’s…
-
Sometimes when I sit back and really think about how much everything, including videogames have changed since I was a kid I am blown away. I’m nearly thirty and its only in the last 12 months or so I’ve started to feel my age. How is this for old – kids listening Blink 182’s album ‘Dude…
-
Casey Jones is just cool. He is funny, tough and has that sense of ‘vigilante moral ambiguity’ that every guy just wishes he possessed. I know every time I see some punk kid crossing against the lights I want to hook his legs out with a hockey stick and smash him over the head with…
-
It is time to cry me a river. I have a whole lot of friends that play sports games almost exclusively. But it’s not fair in the slightest to consider these guys ‘non-core’ gamers (whatever that means) because I am talking about people I grew up with playing Adventure games in the 80’s, First Person…
-
There is something about the simplicity of the Worms series that makes my heart sing whenever I play them. The satisfaction of slotting that bazooka shell through an almost impossible space to win that trench-based war of attrition in the last throws of a hard fought and endured battle is near unmatched in the gaming…
-
I woke up screaming last night. I was being chased by a horse with what seemed like a green mohawk and steam (or smoke, it was hard to tell) coming out of its nose. Okay I’m lying, I just wanted an excuse to share my favourite video game box art of all time which you…
-
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…
-
HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY! It’s Australia Day down under and we Australians like a good celebration. The First Fleet arrived in Australia on 26 January 1788 and marks the date of European settlement in this great nation. Of course on the flip side of that it marks the beginning of a rather difficult period in the…
-
If you’re like me, video games are one of many things that I spend my free time doing. You may also be like me in that I find I am having less and less time to actually spend with games, what with all the earning money, keeping fit and domestic duties that have quietly seeped…
-
There it sat, full of mould waiting for its next battle. It was a well made machine of war, having been to hell and back again and battled the most harsh and bloody opponents. But it was always ready, always standing to attention and willing to follow me into war. It was my Competition Pro.…
-
Meet Clint Mansell, the man responsible for parts of the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack. And what a brilliant accomplishment that was – a perfectly paced mixture of atmospheric synth punctuated some of the more poignant parts of the storyline, with the track “Leaving Earth” a particular highlight. Say what you will about Mass Effect 3, but the…
-
We all talk about piracy now as it is this killer of consoles. For a while there it was the killer of the PC until steam came along. And then it was the killer of the PSP. Now people are all on about how it’s going to kill retail. Kill video games. Kill the world.…
-
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…
-
Present Day I would love to give an impression, a glowing review, an unashamed love letter to the Wii U. Unfortunately that is not possible. For almost 48 hours I have owned Nintendo’s brand spanking new console. I have played it for around two of those. Not for lack of wanting of course but the fates…
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 