Update: January gaming, reading, listmaking

On 01/14/2014 at 04:50 PM by Michael117

See More From This User »

Howdy, pardner

My first blog of 2014. It's rushed, ill conceived, and it's coming in hot so get ready.

Games I've played

Spelunky - I'm a little obsessed. I play it every night, and I get a few sessions in before I play any other game. It warms my brain and hands up, makes me furious, makes me equally joyous, and keeps me coming back for more. Spelunky is the closest thing to a perfect game I've played in the past, I don't know...25 years.

I'll leave that thread there and move on or else I'll end up babbling attempts at theory about the game that will probably come out half-baked and embarrassing. Oddly I haven't quite figured out what to say about this game despite it being so good. My professional opinion is that Derek Yu is a smart cookie and his game is dope.

Red Dead Redemption - I tend to not like Rockstar games very much. I give them a fair shake for several hours, but I eventually get bored and quit without resolution. Things have been different in Red Dead. I have problems with the terrible cover system and the occasional dicey encounter design, but there's so many things I appreciate about the game that it far outweighs the negatives. When Red Dead is at its worst it can be frustrating, but when this game is at its best it's magical. I should be smart enough to better articulate without falling back on a juvenile adjective like magical, but that term is the first thing to come to mind when I'm in the world of Red Dead. At least I haven't used the word visceral yet, I still have some hope.

My favorite thing about the game is the setting and the sense of place. Each region has a palette, architecture, flora, fauna, and music that combine to give each a sense of both cultural and geographic identity. I appreciate the effect of heat rising off the desert floor in midday sun, the white sands in Escalera, early 20th century automobiles in Blackwater, the colors of the sunrise, watching snowfall in the mountains of Tall Trees, and the way the score subtly highlights a feeling of majesty in a place that's harsh and demanding, yet stunning. Oh, and the game has trains, they're rad.

Historically there's only ever been two games with settings and such a sense of place that I could easily elevate them above all the other games I've played, Half Life 2 and the first Bioshock. I think Red Dead Redemption is going to make it onto that list now. I have to resort to saying it again, but being in the world of Red Dead is magical (ick). It just is.

Things I bought

Minerva's Den - I'm one of those people who thoroughly appreciated Bioshock 2. A sequel to Bioshock set back in Rapture was completely unnecessary, but despite that the resulting game turned out way better than it had any right to. The game received a highly praised story-driven stand-alone piece of DLC called Minerva's Den designed by Steve Gaynor amongst others who went on to create one of last year's better indies, Gone Home. I saw this DLC on sale for $2.50 on XBL last night so I had to grab it. I haven't played it before so I'll be happy to see what it's all about.

Reading

A Feast For Crows - I'm right near the end of this novel and it's been pretty enjoyable. I'm now way ahead of the Game of Thrones TV show that the novels are based on. If the coming Season 4 is anything like A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows, fans will be in for a pretty wild ride.

Games of the generation list deliberation

Last week I started thinking it would be a "fun exercise" to try and throw a list together of my 5 favorite games from the past generation of console hardware. It turned into a week of misery, shame, and indecision, but in the end I came up with a solid 4 games accounted for. I have one spot to fill out, and I'm waiting until I finish one particular game before I make the list final. I will begin playing that very game soon, so sometime in the next month or so I should have a list published (it's an RPG so it'll take a while).

Whether it was back at 1UP or here at Pixlbit most of us have been blogging around one another for a little while now, and you might have noticed over the years that I rarely do lists. I usually hate trying to make lists. They're suppose to be simple, fun, and a quick way to get a conversation going about some games, so that's what I'll try to do with mine and keep it simple, fun, and quick. It'll be good to talk with you guys about some of your favorite experiences from last gen as well as my own.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

01/14/2014 at 05:03 PM

I love RDR too. It is, as u say, a magical game, despite its deep flaws. It's just so much fun to ride around on your horse, it just transports you to a different land. I loved it.

Michael117

01/14/2014 at 07:42 PM

Driving around in GTA games was always so boring to me, but I think that because of the setting and execution of all the various congruous elements I end up enjoying riding around in Red Dead a great deal. Riding around the wilderness is always the best time to see the sunrise, see the geographic vistas, and come across the cooler effects and systems of the game.

There was one afternoon I was playing the game where I spent like 45 minutes riding the train all around the world and interacting with it anyway I could (hopping onto it from horseback or riding on top, sitting in the cabin looking out the window, etc).

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

01/14/2014 at 05:05 PM

Ah, Red Dead Redemption. This is likely my game of the generation. Like you said, it certainly is not without its flaws, but it's one of the only games I've ever truly gotten lost in. I would spend hours just moseying about the various landscapes - exploring the world, instead of partaking in pointless time sinks that litter other Rockstar games. It's a gem - absolutely - and overall just a great game to experience.

You're at the point in the Song of Fire and Ice books when they became more...difficult. It'll be interesting to see how the television show handles the later books as there is a definite change of pace, though the latest does bring things back to a bit more normal keel in my opinion.

01/14/2014 at 07:52 PM

One of the things I didn't mention in the blog that I really appreciated was some of the random events. Not all of them are homeruns but there are a few of the random events that lead to really crazy moments that stand out from other open worlders I've played. Did you ever come across a couple in the wilds, one of them is dead, the other is weeping, and if you stay around long enough the surviving person will commit suicide with a pistol? The first time I saw that I was stunned and I didn't know what to do or where to go next because I was in a little bit of shock at how raw and sad that event was, and how I was totally unexpecting something so thematically serious. Overall I thought the tone of the world, characters, and story was just comedic enough to be charming and have a nice flavor, but it was very successful in painting a picture of a very beautiful but harsh frontier.

I've really enjoyed A Feast for Crows, there's a lot of small moments that are compelling and interesting to keep up with, but overall since this is an epic series with so many moving parts I definitely feel like the book is paced really slow in the big picture. I've enjoyed all the chapters and developments but as a whole they don't seem to progress things very much, just a great deal of building. The personal dramas with characters are fascinating but I feel like the big dramas and overarching themes and grand schemes are unfolding really slow so far. I'm still really into it though, I'll like to see where it goes and how the TV show handles it.

Alex-C25

01/14/2014 at 11:55 PM

Oh Rockstar, why haven't you brought Red Dead Redemption to PC?

Anyway, i'm about 75% in A Storm of Swords. So far, it's been a emotional ride, specially when the Red Wedding and the other wedding happened and I with various conflicts happening in everywhere, you just wonder how it'll go down. That, and as always the ambigous morality is treated very well and some good character development is happening with Jaime.

01/15/2014 at 11:20 AM

A Storm of Swords has been the hardest book for me to read so far, a lot of crazy things happened to my favorite characters and I felt like I was getting punched in the gut throughout that whole book. I really love the ending of Storm of Swords though, it's really weird and spooky.

transmet2033

01/15/2014 at 09:13 AM

If I were to narrow down my favourite games of the past generation to just five games I know that Bioshock 2 and Ratchet and Clank A Crack in Time would be on that list.

Spelunky is pretty sweet. It took me at least a week, but I finally opened up the shortcut to the Jungle. Such a pain in the butt.

01/15/2014 at 11:22 AM

It took me a while to get that shortcut open as well. It took a long time before I could reliably survive the mines and make it to the jungle. It's really fun making progress and getting accustomed to the new areas.

jgusw

01/15/2014 at 01:29 PM

Red Dead Redemption is a damn good game. I really hope Rockstar make another like it.

PixlBit