The 'Feel' of a Game

Let’s get metaphysical about games.

                When I say that I am not a metaphysical person I mean that I do not believe in some greater power in the sky that throws down sunbeams and lightning at us, or occasionally pisses upon us, but I do rather enjoy believing in some immaterial things – no, I do not believe that the spirits of the dead still inhabit this world, even if they do I rather doubt someone will have more power dead than they did alive since I don’t think ‘spontaneous telekinesis’ is something you attain when you’re worm chowder or ashes or whatever – but I enjoy believing in there being a metaphysical layer to things and experiences, that indeed there is a subconscious lurking within every human and that our physical and social manifestations are but our persona to deal with the world while we have shadows that hide our own deepest, darkest and strangest desires from us, like a fetish for women in suits, and I do enjoy believing that our enjoyment of media goes beyond merely experiencing it.

Upping the Ante

It is time.

                This blog is a bit of a volatile thing, prone to explosions of content followed by aeons of silence. It’s also a fair bit volatile on the quality front, with some articles being pre-planned and carefully thought out and most articles being written on the fly using the secret technique of ‘rolling my face on my keyboard and then pressing F7’.

Yet another stream-of-consciousness: Introversion

A state of being, but not being too much or near much.

I get to stay home and play games and read books and watch movies guilt free? Sweet!

                If we are talking in extremes then it is time for us to talk in bubbles. People exist in bubbles, and these bubbles vary in size and the general volume of things they encompass. An extrovert’s bubble is a rather large thing, encompassing quite a bit of space and possibly even encompassing other human beings within it, making it the extrovert’s state of being, but when the time comes for the extrovert to take a step back, clear her/his mind or just be refreshed, he/she will generally step out of the large bubble and go into the vast nothingness for a breather. An introvert’s bubble is rather small, you could call it a personal size, generally encompassing little beyond themselves and their core activities/passions and when the time comes for the introvert to take a step back, clear her/his mind or just be refreshed, he/she will generally step out of their personal bubble and go where things are voluminous.

Let's Breakdown: Half-Life 2 [part 2 - Water Hazard and Black Mesa East]

Vroom Vroom

                Water Hazard

                                Water Hazard starts with an example of a staple feature of the Half-Life series - little 'moments' in the game that the player can interact with, moments that are somewhat picturesque and set themselves up from a bit of a distance. In this case the 'moment' is the brief encounter with the abandoned (err... infested) Resistance station in the little house just a little out of the way.

Let's Breakdown: Half-Life 2 [part 1 - Point Insertion, A Red Letter Day and Route Kanal]

Wake up and smell the ashes.

                What is this?

                You see, naming things is not one of my talents, which is why I’ve decided to give this a nice and simple name ‘Let’s Breakdown’, which isn’t an invitation to dance but an attempt by me to breakdown and analyse various videogames. Why? Think of it as me doing a bit of my bits as an aspiring game designer… that and I rather enjoy playing games analytically, it can be fun to examine the gears and cogs that make everything work, as well the various obstructions and chinks that hold things back.

What is Gaming?

 (This article is a Stream of Consciousness, which means that I took a topic, formulated a thought or three and just wrote out whatever came to my mind – which means that you can expect a fair share of typos, syntax errors and logical errors in the entire thing – I’m not a spontaneously bright person after all.)

The nature of the beast and other randomised contemplations.

SupergiantGames' two games: Bastion and Transistor are examples of story+gameplay done right. 

                I love games. I love games enough that I wouldn’t make a saucy ‘I’d marry it if it was a person’ remark because it’s fucking stupid. But the point being is that I love games.

I just played... Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

 Featuring more cuts than a movie by an OCD crew.

                I seem to be making a lot of confessions these days, mostly to myself and the wall that I seem to enjoy talking to so much, and I’m continuing the trend here. I have never played a Metal Gear game before, is my confession, and Metal Gear Rising is my first Metal Gear game. And having the boxes stacked as such is much like confessing your love to your school crush on the day of her funeral.

I just played... Transistor

 A sword that is not a sword, with an awesome voice.

                I seem to be following my trend of existential sci-fi even when I don’t go around looking to do so. I am an existential person but I do like to go about occasionally experiencing something rather life-affirming, though a whole lot of the life affirming works plaguing me these days makes me want to do a root canal on myself using a buzz saw, but I suppose I can’t help the world. As the world buckles and heaves out yet another vampire-teenager-supernatural oestrogen centric work, I do turn around and enjoy showing these sci-fi works a fair bit more love, though I’d probably withhold on showing them such love considering that it is not love they are looking for.

I just played... Bioshock Infinite

In this reality, much wasted potential.

                I find pineapples rather interesting. How externally they are coarse and sharp, capable of leaving you with cuts to rival that of your average depressed teenager’s wrists; but the inside is something else, soft, sweet and delicious, with only a tinge of prickly fibre to remind you of its exterior. What does this have to do with Bioshock Infinite? Nothing, I just wanted to talk about pineapples for a moment.