For most of my life, I've been a PC gamer. Yes, I am a member of the master race I do believe that there is no better way to experience gaming than with a personal computer that allows you to play however you want to play and with little to no limitations. However, as of the Playstation 3, I have also enjoyed the reliable and predictable experiences that console gaming can bring. There's something to be said about knowing that every game you buy for a system should be able to run well on it, as the hardware is the same for every single player. Not to mention the many console exclusives that get released regularly as an enticement to buy the hardware, which is why about a year ago I found myself with a brand new Xbox One X - the first Xbox I have ever owned.
Every now and then I read some article on some gaming web site that attempts to go in-depth on the notion that video games and movies have something in common. There's an ongoing discussion about whether the two mediums are able to be combined, or if they should ever cross paths at all. At the very least, I think many of us will have played a game that straddles the line between video game, and movie.
Here is a game that says it's "for adults" and will respect you time with a "mutation in text-based adventure". If it weren't for the integrity of Bithell Games' track record, this would all smell a bit fishy and invite hard-nosed scepticism. Thankfully, the lame marketing speech only goes as far as the sales pitch, leaving the actual game experience to be engaging and unique.
It's been quite a while since I posted about any games, but it's probably because I've spent most of that time playing Factorio. Remember when we were younger and spend hours and hours playing Sim City, because the time seemed to vanish without realising? This is a time vampire if ever there was one, and it's not even finished yet.
For the longest time "procedurally generated levels" was gaming blasphemy and an immediate turn off when used in a game's description. It felt like as soon as Minecraft hit it big, everyone and their mother was including procedurally generated elements in their game. The promise was millions of combinations and infinite replay-ability, which ultimately wound up meaning an endless gauntlet of bad content to slog through.
In the last decade we've seen a lot of indie darlings make a splash for being small little creative games that big studios wouldn't even bother thinking about. It's been an awesome period in gaming, as we've seen smaller games have a bit of a boom, which has introduced some truly unique experiences, and even defied traditional genre definitions. At the same time though, there's been a flood of games that piece together seemingly random elements to form another eye-rolling attempt at grabbing the hype for a few minutes of success.
In the last few years I've been increasingly turned on to the whole re-imagined 1980s style that's brought on some interesting interpretations of alt-retro-isms. I don't know if it's been around the whole time, but all the amazing synthwave music and neon-fueled art has become some of my favourite retro-media these days.
