Game-related ramblings.

Month: September 2011

You Should Play Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I don’t always play old games.  For example, I am currently playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  I’m taking my sweet time with it, and I estimate I’m only about halfway through, but I wanted to write about it anyway.

If you play games, you have almost certainly heard of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and you’ve likely played it.  You also know that the gaming press has already written quite a lot about it. But if you are that person, this post is not for you.  Rather, this post is for those who have not played it, and perhaps have never even heard of it.  I am going to convince you to try it out.  The following contains only the mildest of spoilers.

History Lessons: Might and Magic Book One: Secret of the Inner Sanctum

The Might and Magic series is probably most famous for the Heroes of Might and Magic spin-off series of tactical fantasy warfare and conquest.  But the original games were old-school, party based RPGs.  I played and enjoyed games 4-6 of the series back in the day, so I was excited when a giant pack containing games 1-6 was (re-)released on GOG.com.  True to my methodical nature, I decided to start with the very first game, which I was surprised to learn was released way back in 1986.  Now THAT’S old-school.  While I am no stranger to ye olden days of DOS, still I braced myself for a very limited and trying experience, for how deep could a game so old be?  Just by virtue of the tiny file size limits, I was expecting a much smaller experience than the sprawling, epic games that came later.

I was wrong.  Might and Magic Book One is very, very impressive, and definitely worth a look as a History Lesson.

History Lessons: Introduction

History Lessons will be a series of posts about older games viewed through a modern lens.  I take a look at a bunch of games of yesteryear and examine the ways in which these games have inspired and evolved into the games of today.  For readers who have already played these games, the posts may not be particularly informative, but my goal is to inspire those who never experienced these games to give them a try, to gain some historical perspective on our favorite pasttime.  As such, I will endeavor to avoid spoilers.

The focus will be on games that I did not play when they were released, but have only played for the first time recently.  This will hopefully keep me relatively free of the effects of nostalgia, and allow me to make unbiased judgements about the games’ merits.  I will not completely exclude games simply because I’ve played them before, but if I write about those games I will re-play them to make sure I have a fresh perspective.  Some entries will be about games I’ve already finished and will be single posts, while others I will write as I play, in several installments.  I’m not going to impose any limits on what I write about, so some entries may be entirely about mechanics while others might be about how the games evoke emotion in the player (me)… basically I’ll write about whatever strikes me most.  Hopefully they’ll be interesting.

So without further ado, let’s get started!

The Case For Bad Games

It sounds strange, but sometimes I get tired of playing good games.  Or perhaps a better way to put it is, playing good games all the time isn’t enough.  Many games are very good and a lot of fun to play, but fail at something that is just as important: they fail to be interesting.

Blog Begins

Recently I have been inspired to write about games, so I started this blog.  It’s going to be pretty much anything-goes, but I do have some ideas for some series I will run alongside anything else.  I will likely spend most of my time talking about PC games since that’s mostly what I play, but I may cover games on other platforms too.  Maybe even board games!  We shall see.

Since I am new to the whole blog thing, the site will be a bit basic at first.  It should get spiffied up as things move along.

Critiques and discussions in the comments are welcome!  Just be sure to keep everything civil.

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