Consolation Prize

Although I’ve been back from my travels for a few weeks now (for those that weren’t aware I’ve been to Whistler, Canada, to try and improve my limited Snowboarding skills) I have still not had the urge to boot up the Xbox 360, PS3, or DS, and immerse myself in our electronic pastime.

Unfortunately, a direct consequence of my general listlessness and disillusionment towards videogames is that the blog writing suffers. There’s no point in denying it, I don’t have vast repertoire of articles parked ready for publishing to tide me over, nor a great deal to write about once my muse has been unceremoniously dumped in the binary wasteland. And thus the blog has been barren ever since - a fact that I feel I need to apologise for.

However, not everything lasts forever, and fortunately the desire to play a game is starting to manifest itself. Instead of just deciding to pick up whatever “hot” game is generating the most discussion, pick up the latest release, or play through numerous demo’s that are of no interest, I thought it would be worth examining my back catalog to decide what game to play next. The hope is to avoid the need to rush through a game as fast as possible to voice my thoughts, and instead take my time, savour the experience, and learn to love games again.

With this in mind I’ve drawn up a shortlist of games that have piqued my interest, but due to various circumstances never had the time to play them.

Okami (Wii)

This respected swansong from Clover Studios is at some point or other always at the forefront of my back-catalogue. It is perhaps the only game I’ve actually purchased twice. Once when it first appeared on the PS2, and then again when it was ported to the Wii by Ready at Dawn.

I find myself looking wondrously at the watercolour inspired graphical style whenever I see images of this game, and the various references I read with regards to its Zelda-esque game design only cause to enhance its appeal. I’m curious to see how well “Celestial Brush”, a unique design feature of Okami to draw images on the screen canvas for use in combat and puzzle solving, translates to the “Wii-mote”. It should in theory be a perfect match, although I’ve heard comments to the contrary.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)

I’ve been somewhat a fan of The Legend of Zelda series since my first experience playing Link’s Awakening (Gameboy Pocket) during the rainy days whilst on a holiday in Scotland. This is the first foray on the Nintendo DS, and being the natural successor to Wind Waker employs the same cute cel-shaded graphical style which I personally have no qualms with.

I’m under no illusion that Phantom Hourglass will be structured in a similar manner to its brethren, but I don’t really see this as a negative. Zelda has yet to disappoint me, and when I’m at a low ebb I know I can rely on Link et al to remind me what gaming is all about.

Heavenly Sword (PS3)

Although I’ve had my PS3 for over a year now, I’ve not actually played a full retail (off the shelf) game on the system - I will now hang my head in shame. However, to be honest, I initially bought the system as a knee jerk reaction to the discontinuation of the backwards compatibility that was being removed with the introduction of the new 40GB models. My perhaps illogical thinking is that I would want the possibility of playing PS2 games should the need arise, which so far it hasn’t, without having to dig out the packed away PS2 hardware.

Heavenly Sword is one of the games that was bundled with the system, but I’m drawn to it not only because it’s a “hack ‘n slash action-adventure” game, a genre I’m particularly fond of, but also because I’m keenly aware of the need to use the PS3 as more than just a Blu-Ray player. Of the other games that came bundled, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motostorm, this is certainly the most appealing.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (DS)

Even though a game receives critical acclaim it’s unfortunate that it’s success isn’t guaranteed. This seems to be the case with Chinatown Wars, which has had a rather lacklustre sales record to date - at least in comparison to its predecessors.

Nevertheless, I’m intrigued to see how the developers, Rockstar Leeds, have handled bringing a fully featured and rich Grand Theft Auto experience to Nintendo’s all conquering clam-shell, and I’m keen to discover what gameplay innovations (if any) can be reaped from the device.

Visually Chinatown Wars looks nothing less than spectacular. However, I missed out on the first two games, only jumping onto the bandwagon with Grand Theft Auto III, and therefore I do have my reservations about the top down viewpoint.

Fable II (X360)

The anticipation and exuberance I felt towards Fable II was nullified in a single dose of bad luck on a dark evening last October when I discovered the game disc I had received was unplayable. At least the fault reared its ugly head very early in the game just after opening the magic music box and my time wasn’t wasted, but because of this disappointment I’ve not had the heart to play it since. Besides, plenty of other games were jostling for my attention at the time.

Perhaps now is the right time to jump into Peter Molyneux’s and Lionhead Studios latest offering, and I’m positive that once I start down the adventurers path I’ll fall in love with Albion once more.

So there we have it. Hopefully it’s a worthy list that will reignite the passion and I’ll be making the decision imminently. So far I’m swaying towards Okami, especially as it was suggested a few times by fellow tweeps when I canvassed for suggestions.

Didn’t you say that you had Links Awakening DX on your playlist too (Twitter)? I think that title is particulaly breezy, so if you’re finding it a little tricky to jump back in, Link’s Awakening isn’t a bad place to start.

Hi Daniel, thanks for the feedback. You’re right, I just picked up Link’s Awakening DX yesterday, but on reflection I decided to start with a game that I hadn’t played before. I had the pleasure of playing Link’s Awakening many moons ago and it’s certainly a title I’m keen to revisit soon, especially as it will now be in glorious colour!

A fine array of games to pick from. I can say, despite my comments on Okami’s controls, it’s still a wonderful game to play, very much in the Zelda style.
Zelda PH is on my stock pile also. Linda has played it some and really liked it until she got stuck on a boss, and has so far not returned. i’ve yet to boot the game up myself, I have a strage relationship with my DS, loving the idea and the games available, yet never quite feeling like ‘nows DS time’
Fable II is a game we don;t yet own, but we are very tempted to try it out. Never played the Original, and a little unsure if we should go back experiance that first.
Overall, I think any of the mentioned games would be an excellent way to spend some time and reignight your gaming passion.

Fable II is a lot of fun. Especially if you are not set on being good all the time

@Steven - I know what you mean with regards to the DS. For some reason when I’m at home I prefer to play on a console hooked upto the TV rather than on a mobile device, and I never have the opportunity to play the DS when I’m out of the house.

I really enjoyed Fable (one), it had some good ideas which I would imagine have been built on in Fable II, but it was quite linear and definitely didn’t live up-to Peter Molyneux hype. I remember it fondly, but I can’t say how it compares to Fable II. I wouldn’t think you’d need to experience Fable before its Fable II.

@Jigsaw hc - Yeah it does look excellent. For some reason I have trouble being evil in games I always walk the path that’s whiter than white, but it still looks like great fun.

Cheers for the comments guys