Back and Fourth

I am now in a state that I often revert to after just completing such a magnificent game such as Braid. It is what I refer to as Video Game ADD. I bounce back and forth between titles in my backlog, searching for something profound and amazing, something that just clicks. This often ends in tears, or I just start watching a lot of movies and I take a break from games for a little while. I am determined not to end up in such a slouch this time. I just completed Metroid Fusion, I title that I started over a year ago. Sometimes I take these portable systems too literally and only play them when I'm out, a few minutes here and there. This can make a 4 and a half hour title like the one I just mentioned turn into a year long conquest. I still feel fit to review it though, which I will do soon.

I also re-downloaded DOS-box, a program that emulates DOS and basically allows you to run abandonware PC games from the late 80's/early 90's DOS era, aka the "Golden Age" of PC gaming. I just re-played through Quest For Glory: So You Want To Be A Hero, which was the first RPG I ever played back in '93 on my parent's Mac. All these years later I noticed several things, none really fit for a review as these are not qualities that are objective or biased, but more things I discovered about myself playing through this old game again. The first is that despite it's dated graphics, I feel that these old graphic adventures have more personalities in their art than 95% of the games that are made today. I feel more of a sense of a realized world than I do running around Oblivion's massive landscapes. I also appriciate sublety more than I thought. I like that the game never really tells you what to do, it never holds your hand. You're never given a "quest". You just run around and figure out through talking to people, reading signs, looking at things. Speaking of looking at things; I love it. I just adore that I can click on my little eye icon and then move it to any spot on the screen and get a detailed description of what my character believes he's seeing. So awesome. Why aren't games like this made anymore? In a more modern fasion, of course. I miss adventure games. I know I said it was an RPG earlier, shut up; it's a hybrid. The other point of realization was that most of the length in this game is probably from figuring out just what you have to do since, as I indicated, they never tell you what to do or where to go. My memory being impeceble, I was able to complete what I had originaly thought to be a lengthy adventure, in a single evening. This dissapointed me somewhat. However, It is still an amazing game for it's time and holds up quite well today. But this nostalgia once again put me back in the shoes of "what to play next".



My ADD the next night had me bouncing from Bioshock(3rd playthrough), Rainbow Six: Vegas, Viewtiful Joe, Castles 2: Siege and Conquest, Indigo Prophecy, Halo 3, more Braid, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, and Boom Blox. Now that I have my PS3 back in possession, I started playing ICO. I beat Shadow of the Colossus last fall and absolutely loved it so I kind of delayed playing ICO as not to overdose on the supposed greatness that is Team ICO's work. So far I enjoy what I've seen, but I'm not sure if I can handle another super sparse indie type puzzle/platformer with Braid still so fresh in my mind. I've been told you often need to go the opposite direction after playing an amazing game, as not to directly compare what you just played with what you're currently playing too intensely.



I think I'm just going to write some reviews and post them up for you guys to see, to get some context of how I do things. These will be from games I've completed in the last 18 months or so, so it's not all super retro on yo ass. Maybe some games I haven't completed as well, but played well enough to review, after all, that is what we do, right?