Viewing entries tagged
story
It’s been a while since I posted, but I just finished playing Emily Is Away Too, and I'm feeling emotional and sad. I often fail to connect with games that lean on nostalgia and retrospective themes, but for some reason this series of little games has managed to rise up and punch me in the gut of memories with gusto. It's clear this sequel has had something of an effect on me, but I'm a little unsure as to what that effect might have been.
As recently as about a year ago, if anyone had asked me whether I liked zombie games or not, I would have replied with an emphatic "hell no" and left it at that. I've never been big on horror in any form of media, but especially in games, as I find the interactive nature of the experience a little too visceral. That and I never understood how anyone can find it entertaining to be scared and stressed when they could be doing literally anything else.
When I was younger, I had dreams of writing and drawing my own comic book (or 'graphic novel' if you will), but it always seemed like more work than I was willing to put in. I wasn't the fastest artist in the land and producing that much art regularly and quickly enough to keep the whole thing moving was a bit overwhelming. Although, I'm not one to be put off so easily, and I tried out a few alternate methods, which came with their own levels of success and complication.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how much I'm a fan of Annapurna Interactive as a publisher, as they seem to consistently put out interesting and unique narrative heavy games that are usually right up my alley. I love it when a publisher has a kind of theme to the games they release, and as a fan of those games, I always feel pretty confident when Annapurna Interactive are in the credits. At least, I used to feel that way, but now I'm a little less certain.
While narrative games have often been at the forefront of innovation and originality in game design, it's fair to say that many contemporary titles tend to follow a similar formula. We're all very used to the "walking simulator" that lets you progress through a location while a story unfolds around you. Even as a big fan of this kind of storytelling, it can definitely get stale and sometimes feel a little bit like an easy option for creating a narrative experience in gaming. At least until a new entry into the genre comes along and reveals another twist on the formula, providing a fresh perspective on how a story can be delivered via this medium we all love.
I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by just how enlightening and informative good story-telling can be. After all, the whole reason I love stories so much is that it's one of the few ways we are able to empathise and learn about lives that are different to our own. In some ways, it's the closest we'll ever get to certain experiences, so when a story is able to inform as well as entertain, It really is a beautiful experience.
When I recently loaded up Dear Esther for the first time and started playing, I couldn't contain the excitement I was feeling. There I was, finally about to experience on of the most controversial and hotly debated games released in modern times. I felt like I was meeting an old friend, while getting to know a stranger. I had questions that needed answering and I was about to find out for myself, just what the hell everyone keeps arguing about.
Sometimes I find myself as far from my comfort zone as I've ever been before, and it usually means I’m playing something close to a JRPG and the like. In fact, I doubt I would have ever really given this game a fair shot if it hadn't been for some friends emphatically recommending 13 Sentinels to me, repeatedly, and without hesitation.
I've always been a fan of publishers and developers who work with a theme and focus on their own little niche. Not only does it mean you know what you're going to get from them, but it creates an identity for something that would otherwise be a faceless company. Lately, I've been seeing Annapurna Interactive's name come up in the credits for a number of neat little games with a quirky twist, so when I checked out I Am Dead, I was pleased to discover more of the same.
Puzzle games are often doomed to be limited in scope, as they involve some kind of abstract game mechanics that have been taken from real world equivalents. Translating something like a sudoku puzzle into a video game actually appears to be a difficult task, at least if you're trying to jazz it up a little and not just make another cookie cutter version of the same thing. With that in mind, I'm thrilled to have discovered that Murder by Numbers is to Picross, as Huniepop is to Match 3.
There's always so much to be gained from going into a game blind, with no real idea about what to expect. Then again, we've all be burned by a movie or a game that looked interesting, but turned out to be a stinker. However, when you go in blind and discover an excellent little experience that you were never expecting, the overall level of satisfaction gets raised significantly.
I often post about a game because I feel like I have something to say that actually has a point beyond whether or not I think it's good or not. I find myself enjoying just about every game I play for one reason or another, but not every game gives me something meaty enough to talk about. However, every now and then I find myself wanting to say something about a game that ultimately doesn't need to have much said about it at all.
I've never gone back to a game that I've already posted about before, but I also didn't think I'd be going back to Spiritfarer after the technical difficulties I faced last time around. In fact, it should be a testament to the game's success that I even went back at all, because after hitting a game-breaking bug ten hours in, I would usually uninstall with glee and never give it any more of my time.
I remember when I was first getting into visual novels in general. At first I didn't really understand the appeal, as most of the ones recommended to me consisted of little more than sexually suggestive anime. In fact, I didn't realise that visual novels as a genre could ever exist without some kind of horny element, which I later found out to be completely false. This, however, is not one those visual novels. This is one of those anime-looking, unnecessarily horny entries into the visual novel library.
Expectations are an interesting thing when it comes to entertainment media. In many ways, we're thrilled to have our preconceptions subverted and we love twists and turns. On the other hand, our monkey brains love the consistency that allows us to keep track of what's happening and follow a story from start to finish. Perhaps this is why so many of us feel short-changed when our expectations are completely thrown out the window.
It wasn't so long ago that I delved into Remedy Entertainment's odd sci-fi experience, Quantum Break, which now seems like an interesting experiment along the way to much better things. In fact it seems like they studio have learned a lot of useful lessons from some of the key successes and failures from this troubled entry in their development history.
Hype is a dangerous thing, and it's the main reason I was never looking forward to Death Stranding in any way at all. I'm completely sick of hearing about Kojima and how he's the golden god of game design. It seems like everyone on the internet has been creaming themselves over the potential of his latest game baby, which is enough to turn me off entirely - and for the most part, it did.
Of all the crazes and gimmicks that have had their time in video game history, full-motion-video (FMV) has never been one that I expected to make a comeback. There was a time when it seemed like the greatest invention of all, as the implementation of FMV in games meant that we could finally witness the combination of a digital world with our own. After all, what's more realistic than actual footage of real people?
Ever since I was a kid I've loved science fiction, but mostly one particular kind of science fiction that doesn't always stand out. I suppose a lot of the time when I mention science fiction, people tend to think up fantastical future things like Star Wars, or something completely off the wall like Transformers. While I do enjoy that side of the genre, what really gets me going are the stories that seem to be firmly tied to what's actually possible.
There aren't many genres that I tend to avoid like the plague, but horror has never really been my bag. The closest I get to modern day horror in media, is classical gothic literature, which is a different beast entirely. When it comes to movies and games, being scared is not something I find enjoyable, and my active imagination always ensures that I feel the spooks.
