A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Tag: Video Games
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I finished The Wonderful 101 at the weekend, and I’m still not sure whether I enjoyed it or not. The game has a nasty habit of being utterly opaque and confusing, yet it offers up moments of sheer delight along the way. For the first few hours of the game I was frankly lost. The…
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I really didn’t get on with Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D – so much so that I sold it when I was just halfway through the second world. I figured I’d prefer that my copy gave someone else some pleasure rather than simply causing me consternation. I had the original Donkey Kong Country on the…
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Yesterday afternoon I had a chance to check out this year’s Eurogamer Expo at Earl’s Court, which proved to be a lot of fun. I have to say I’m paying for it now though – I had a cold coming on yesterday morning, and half a day of excitedly wandering around buzzing and flashing booths…
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Just in case it’s escaped your attention, the Wii U isn’t doing very well. Not very well at all, in fact. It got off to an OK start, with around 3 million consoles sold worldwide between its November 2012 launch and the end of 2012. These sales weren’t quite as good as the Wii’s (3.19…
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The internet is generally a wonderful thing. It allows creators to meet, it allows communities to form, and it allows businesses to get feedback directly from consumers about their business. It’s all good, solid stuff. Thanks internet for making all of our lives easier. But with easy access to everyone, all the time, about seemingly…
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It’s fair to say the Wii U hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts. I met a gamer the other day and told him I owned a Wii U, and his look of surprise was palpable – he admitted that I was the first person he’d met who actually owned one. With just 10,000…
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Modern Warfare 3 shows that war really never does change. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’ve never been a huge fan of Call of Duty Multiplayer. I appreciate what it brings to the table, and why millions upon millions flock to it. But its not my cup of tea. The single player campaigns…
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I’m a big fan of the Phoenix Wright games, as regular readers will have gathered from my glowing reviews of games one, two and three in the series. But Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – the fourth game – almost defeated me. I was keen to complete Apollo Justice ahead of the release of Ace Attorney…
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It wasn’t even deliberate, I just did it. I bought into Disney Interactive’s $100 million-plus gamble, Disney Infinity. And not just the starter pack, but all the playsets and all the individual characters. Chuck in a few power discs for good measure? Why not. $250AUD later and I had two full bags of Disney Infinity…
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As the species at the top of the food chain, humans – particularly in the more affluent countries – don’t really know what it is to struggle to survive. We complain about the job we didn’t get, about the price of petrol and food, and about the girl or boy that got away. We even…
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I only finished ZombiU a few weeks ago, despite buying it when it came out in November 2012. This isn’t just because it’s hard to find time to play games these days (although I do struggle to fit them in), it’s because I couldn’t play it for more than an hour without wanting to rush…
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I respect the current models designed to monetise free-to-play games. They use that ol’ chestnut concept of ‘opportunity cost’ to encourage players to internalise the value of their time, and convert that into revenue for the publisher – that is if their time is worth more than the price set for goods and services in…
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My first article for Eurogamer was published yesterday, and judging by the positive comments piling up beneath it, I’m pleased to say it was well received. Phew! If you missed it, here’s everything you ever wanted to know about the DIY computer revolution in Yugoslavia: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-30-the-story-of-yugoslavias-diy-computer-revolution. I’d be the first to admit that it doesn’t…
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Far Cry 3 is brilliant at making you feel like whatever you want to be. While you play the role of rich-kid and kind-of-a-jerk Jason Brody it is easy to mistake yourself for the best hit and run warriors of the Viet Cong or Sam Fisher at the height of his stealthiness. The game gives…
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Hotline Miami (PS Vita, PS3) – Hotline Miami is like a drug-enduced high that will take you on a trip through the violence, white suits and craziness of a brutal 1980’s Miami that will leave your eyes blood-shot, your sense heightened and your mind warped and twisted. Bloody, bright and brutal, Hotline Miami is a loving homage to 80’s…
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NBA 2K13 has single-handedly defined Nintendo’s newest console’s place in my life. Sitting there playing through a basketball season with the Celtics on the gamepad made me realise just how awesome of a proposition the Wii U is for a subset of people. Being someone who spends a majority of my game time buried deep…
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The release of the Xbox Controller “S” was accompanied by wild cries and applause from all of those for whom the original whopper-sized controller didn’t fit into their hands. Understandably too, it was a bloody handful that while technically ergonomic wasn’t really designed with the average 2002 human’s hand-size in mind. But amongst my friends…
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When Capcom revamped Resident Evil: Revelations for console release recently, I was tempted to pick it up for the Wii U. After playing the demo though, it just didn’t quite feel right on the big screen – it was designed for the 3DS after all – so I ended up buying the original 3DS version…
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Killer 7 (Gamecube) – “At the very least you will appreciate the game’s style”. That’s what I told people way back in 2004 when they asked about Killer 7. A collaboration between Capcom heavyweights Shinji Mikami and Hirokyuki Kobayashi, and the enigmatic Goichi Suda (Suda 51) Killer 7 promised a hyper-violent and hyper-stylised video game…
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Did you know that a graphically enhanced port of SkiFree was released on the Game Boy Color as part of a compilation of PC games that included six other games, including Minesweeper and Free Cell. The Microsoft Entertainment Pack was released in 2001. Released in 1991 the original SkiFree was developed for Microsoft Windows…
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Milestone – “Games Made With Passion” I admire a developer that pours so much care and attention into its games that it is infectious. Milestone – a small developer located in Milan, Italy – has lovingly crafted racing titles of both the two and four wheel persuasion since the mid-nineties. Since screaming onto the…
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Wow, what an E3 it’s been this year. Revelation after revelation. It’s been so exciting I even tried to engage some of my non-gamer friends in conversation about DRM policy, with predictably unsuccessful results. I think we can safely say that the show has been a complete PR disaster for Microsoft. After confusing the hell…
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It is unbelievable how many developers always seem to be closing due to financial difficulties. With so much riding on each title because of increasing production values, some developers and publishers are seemingly always just one game away from financial ruin. Jester Interactive was one such company, going into administration in 2003, before a brief…
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EA Sports has pretty much a cart blanche when it comes to its stranglehold over key sporting licences – now more than ever with it extending its FIFA licence through to 2022. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you what a bloody outrage it is, that competition pushes innovation, and that NFL 2K for the Dreamcast was…
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Today I bought myself a brand spanking new Nintendo DSi XL to add to my seemingly ever growing stable of Nintendo handhelds for a paltry sum of A$40. As someone who still owns the original 3DS with its small screens, and retain my DS Lite for all things 2D, holding the XL in my hands for…
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I loved the original Luigi’s Mansion – I bought a GameCube at launch, and Luigi’s Mansion was one of the first games I got for it (along with Bloody Roar: Primal Fury, in case you’re interested). I can’t believe that was all the way back in 2002 – Nintendo sure took their sweet time in…
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The successes of the last generation of Nintendo hardware, both handheld and home console, had the effect of bringing to the forefront of peoples’ minds how far gaming has come and just how deep it runs in everyday culture. At one point everyman and his grandmother had a DS and was enjoying the trials and…
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So Sim City wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I feel so sorry for all those budding town planners and socialites hoping to get to know their citizens and build the utopian dream. Where will they go now to fullfil their dreams? Well dreamers, you’re in luck because the PS2 has just what…
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Max Payne (Xbox) review – In an age where it is all about the cover and simply rushing head on to take the battle directly to the enemy is out of fashion, it blows my mind that Max Payne holds up so well. Both from a narrative standpoint and gameplay this decade-old game feels…
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Spec Ops: the Line (Xbox 360) – This is actually the first time that Lucius and I have written something on the same game and honestly I couldn’t think of a better game to have two separate pieces about so if you haven’t already check out his. excellent and comprehensive review of Spec Ops: The Line from…
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So let’s get this out of the way first: Xbox One is a stupid name. I’m vaguely aware that the idea behind it is probably that there should be ‘one’ box under your telly that does everything, but it just sounds like it’s the first ever Xbox. I’ll bet they spend AGES thinking it up…
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For me Lemmings is video games. Put a picture of a little man with flowing green hair and a blue body suit in front of anyone on the street that doesn’t remember the end of World War II and in all likelihood they’ll know what it is. That’s not just because it’s wonderful. It is,…
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 