Halycopter

Come on, admit it, so are you. So many of us are after years of games playing. We sit there and can’t help but gasp when new gamers are in awe of games that we’ve already dismissed as derivative crap. But by doing so, are we missing out on the joys that we used to experience as a new gamer? When everything was fresh and exciting, when every puzzle wasn’t a matter of ‘oh it’s one of those like they had in soandso’, the excitement of finishing a level at last. I believe we are.

This article’s come about thanks to my mother. She’s been gaming off and on for much of my life thanks to me. I got her into the Gameboy and it came to a point where she was playing it more than me, always Tetris. So she moved onto a Gameboy Advance and then a DS. We now own a DS each to stop any chance of fighting! She’s never been the quickest of gamers physically due to a disability which has made the choice of games a little more restrictive but her enthusiasm has always been high for them. Due to recent events, she’s had a lot more time for games and a much more urgent need to keep her brain occupied. The DS puzzle games like Bust a Move and Gunpey helped keep her busy but didn’t really keep her mind off things. So along came me with the suggestion that she try a few new games as I’ve always found them great stress relief. As we had a recently acquired Wii that was fairly untouched, it made perfect sense to start there.

We picked up Zelda:Twilight Princess. Great game, she loves it, only problem is she gets stuck very easily. So I bought her the guide, problem partially solved. All that was left was the awkwardness for killing monsters in it as sometimes her arm just couldn’t cope with it. Plus some bits are a little frustrating as she’s just not used to the gaming conventions we all have engrained in our brains after so many years of the same concepts.

So she thought she’d go a simpler route, which made sense. Start at the basics, just like where we used to be when we were first gaming and work your way up. She’s now currently downstairs from me playing Casper and The Ghostly Trio on the PS2, a game that I would be embarrassed to go near and a game that appears to have gone under the radar due to mediocrity so much that I can’t actually find a review of it! But I think if there was one, it’d be a pretty low mark. I’ve watched her play it and wondered just how she can manage to play it for more than 30seconds without discarding it with disgust, but she loves it. And you know why that is? Because currently, she doesn’t know any better. It’s all new and exciting to her, and when something is new and exciting, you want to get your hands on anything remotely connected to it and not let go until you’ve had your fill. Something that I suspect many of us cynical gamers that have been gaming for over 10 years or more, have forgotten about.

That’s not to say that I don’t have any plans to re-educate her in the world of what counts as a quality game in my eyes of course As soon as I reckon, she won’t be scared off by them, I’ll be trying her with some RPGs. I think she’ll love them once she’s understood the basics. Gaming is just like anything else, you need to learn to walk before you can run. So don’t go confining your parents or your grandparents to the casual gaming world of Wii Sports and Wii Fit, get them into some real games. You may well be surprised one day!

Point increase since 26th August: 1064
Not bad going. I hit 60k not long after my last update thanks to Samurai Warriors 2: Empires. I love SW2:Empires even if it does have a daft name, just like Dynasty Warriors 5 and Bladestorm. 800pts in it already and it’ll just take a bit of effort for me to get the other 200 points, nothing major. That will make it my 23rd retail completion, bit low really considering how many games I’ve played! However, I’m not very keen on Samurai Warriors 2:XL. It just didn’t grab me at all so I sent it back to Lovefilm today, I’ll go back to it when I’m more desperate for points I think. Warriors Orochi is another one in Koei’s neverending stable of Dynasty Warriors/Samurai Warriors games, but I prefer it to SW2:XL. Points look a bit harder to get though but hopefully it’s just more time consuming rather than anything else.

Forza 2 has certainly been my surprise hit of late. I’ve put off purchasing it for a long time. I’ve never been very good at racing games, I get by usually, but I don’t tend to have the patience to hone my skills at them so generally I just don’t bother. The last racing game I played was probably PGR3, again I kept meaning to buy PGR4 but never got round to it. So as the Forza 2:Collector’s Edition was available at the same time as I was purchasing SW2:Empires in the 2 for £20 range, I thought it was worth a go. I’m very glad I did, I’m hooked! Nokkon sent me a ridiculous number of cars to get me started and I’ve been having a great time, it’s probably not quite the correct way of doing it as I’ve got so many good cars to start with but I’m enjoying it which has to be the main thing. Looks like it’ll last me a good long while too

Both Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Infinite Undiscovery come out Friday and I really wish I could buy one or both. But unless money magically appears in front of me, it won’t be happening I’m going on holiday Monday-Friday to Center Parcs with friends (arranged before my Dad died and when I was still working so could afford it) and it’s going to cost me a fortune so no chance. I’d trade something in but there’s nothing I’ve completed that I can trade in, which means that really I have plenty of games to play anyhow so I should get on with that first!

Hoping to have more chance to write while I’m away so fingers crossed for some more interesting discussion soon. Oh and a Space Siege review for the PC has just been uploaded, feel free to read, just don’t buy the game! A STALKER:Clear Sky review will be up in the next week or so too as my copy’s arriving tomorrow hopefully.

Point increase since 4th August: 1149

I’ve not been in the most sociable of moods lately which is why the lack of updates. Luckily for me and my mood, the Olympics has (or is it have?) been on and has kept me very occupied. I’ve been V+ing everything possible throughout each night and catching up on it in the day fast forwarding anything I wasn’t overly keen on. I particularly loved the athletics, swimming and BMXing while still watching at least one heat from every event. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt: simply wow. And great to see the British team doing so well.

Anyway, now the Olympics are over, it’s time for my gradual re-introduction back into society :p So I’m seeing friends Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. I’m also signing up to do a bookkeeping course at my local college, and me and my Mum are signing up to do dog walking for our local RSPCA.

Games wise, I’ve been playing fairly intermittently. I also lost my 105 day streak which was a pity, I just completely forgot to log in one day. Eventually I’ll hit 60k, hopefully won’t be too long now as I’ve got Samurai Warriors 2: Empires to help me along the way now! I do love a good hack n slash.

More will follow when it’s not nearly 2am and I’m knackered.

I’ve had a bad cold the last few days so no major update just yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

However for now, I’ll point you at a couple of interesting links instead.

First up is a group of people from a forum I frequent. They’re raising money for the children’s charity Whizz Kidz. They’re doing it by playing a 48hr Tomb Raider marathon, attempting to complete every Tomb Raider game in 48hrs straight. Good luck to them is all I can say! If you want to track their progress or contribute a donation, go to their site http://tombraider.jimmed.net/. The 48hr marathon kicks off next weekend, 23rd August.

Second up is a collection of articles on family gaming at wired.com. These articles by Paul Govan look pretty promising and I’ve liked his past writing thanks to discovering him via play.tm. Makes a change from briefer writing on other sites that doesn’t seem as journalistic in nature as these. So hop over to it at http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/08/thing-a-day.html

I wrote my piece on Final Fantasy for this article quite a while ago, in fact now I’ve checked my files, it was the end of May. But here it is in all its glory.

Final Fantasy: one of the biggest gaming franchises?

I don’t like my piece. It was the first piece I wrote after my Dad died and I felt very out of the game. Plus looking at it now, as is usual with group pieces, I look at everyone else’s and they seem so much more appropriately written!
Of course there is the chance that this may all be down to me being a perfectionist.