A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Tag: Video Games
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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…
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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…
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Sim City never gets old. Prior to the disastrous launch of the latest entry in the city-building simulator Maxis were on a ‘can do no wrong streak’. Which is probably why we saw Sim City games make their way onto almost every platform known to man. Including the Game Boy Advance. That’s right the evergreen franchise made…
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SYNDICATE (PS3) REVIEW – It is pure madness that Syndicate exists, really. Like XCOM last year, Syndicate is a reboot (of sorts) of a cult classic 1990’s strategy game. Unlike XCOM however, Syndicate is a far cry from its origins, and instead is a first person shooter based on the universe. Developed by Starbreeze –…
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Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing (Review) I’m not sure if you’ve heard but kart racing is really fun. But did you know that you don’t need balls to race? Just ask AiAi who rolls around the track without his ball. Or Danica Patrick*. Taken at face value anyone can appreciate ASR as a pretty solid racer. It…
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It had all gone wrong. After making my way through the cruise ship incognito, taking out my targets in silence in the process, I had finally reached the top deck where the remaining members of the Gator Gang, and their leader, were awaiting their execution. Disguised as a waiter, I had made my way to…
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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…
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Limbo will likely forever haunt some part of my being. It may not come to the forefront and manifest in me wetting my bed, experiencing night terrors, or jumping off of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but somewhere in a dark, dank crevice of my mind Limbo is making me very, very uncomfortable. And that’s because there…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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My finger is hovering over the pre-order button for Wii U. For the first time since the GameCube, I’m actually considering buying a console on the day it comes out. I think what clinched it was the announcement of Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive: where Platinum Games goes I will follow. As you’re…
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I watched The Dark Knight Rises recently and came away with a vague feeling of disappointment. It just wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be – too much ‘realism’, far too much daytime Dark Knight (he just doesn’t work in the sunlight, does he?) and not enough fancy detective work. Considering Batman is meant…
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“Just beat BioShock, still processing it all” That was the title of a blog post on Grinding Down I stumbled across not too long ago. It still sounds odd to me when people say they’ve ‘beaten’ a video game, and it’s not something I’ve ever said myself: I’ve ‘completed’ games, but never ‘beaten’ them. As…
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The chances are that if you’re reading this blog, you regard games as something more than just a teenage hobby. Most of us will have played video games to varying degrees as we grew up, and the number of gamers is growing ever larger thanks to the recent foray into the casual gaming market by…
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 