E3 2011: Impressions of the Microsoft Conference

You can't see how much I love Don Mattrick because he's so small here.

Well, I’m a day late but guaranteed to be not a single dollar short. I managed to catch the Microsoft E3 2011 Press Conference last night after work and I have to say I’m still not quite sure what I thought of it. They definitely know what a Kinect is, of that much I’m sure.

Unbearable Entertainment: The Survival Horror Genre

The wretched and foreboding beginning to Silent Hill 2.

From big-budget franchises such as the Resident Evil and Silent Hill series, to lesser-known titles such as Overblood and Illbleed, the Survival Horror genre is one of the most remarkable areas of the gaming world. I say this because I feel that it marks itself out from much of the rest of gaming based on its founding principle – It is not fun to play. You do not ‘win’ a survival horror game in the traditional sense. You make it out alive, barely.

DJ Hero 2, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Rhythm Games

I still prefer calling it DJ Herp.

Asides from my early teenage forays into Konami’s Guitar Freaks series, and a mild preoccupation with Beatmania, DDR, and Stepmania, I was never much into rhythm games once they made their way across the earth and became a bit of a thing in the western gaming world. Does that make me a games hipster? Perhaps, although my main problem with them was always firmly rooted in the difficulty levels I encountered, or rather didn’t, as it were.

Living under a rock: Portal 1 (X360)

Hole-ly disappointing.

Well well well, talk about late to the party on this one. Portal has pretty much been a mainstay of Internet gaming culture since it was released way back in 2007. I still remember the hype in ’08 of the game coming to Xbox 360 as part of Valve’s infamous The Orange Box package deal. For some reason, I was completely unenthused by its release at the time. I put this down to the fact that I have a fear of playing sequels before their original iterations, and TOB being primarily comprised of Half Life 2 left me quaking in my OCD boots. Furthermore, it was never fully explained to me that all of Half Life 2 was there, and not just Episode 2, which was the impression that I received from all the news. That’s no doubt my own fault for not paying attention in games class. Finally, last week, I got a chance to play through Portal from start to finish, a process that took me two sessions, if I remember correctly.

Netflix Instant Streaming, or What it means to truly feel love

All Netflix employees go to heaven, too. Just sayin'.

Two posts in one evening. Be still thy beating heart, dear reader! Fear not, this is simply a rabid burst of productivity, and normal service will resume promptly. We have our top men working on dragging me down, so simply enjoy this content overkill whilst it lasts.

I want to write many, many words here, but it simply must be stated: Netflix Instant Streaming is probably the most amazing advancement in modern home entertainment. There, I said it. When I think of Netflix Instant Streaming, I want to write sonnets about it. I want to take it out to dinner, and laugh at all its jokes. I want to sit with it in the evenings, and hold it close while it reminisces with me about that time we watched Johnny Mnemonic but it turned out to be terrible and so we had to go to bed without finishing it. In short, I never want to be without Netflix Instant Streaming.

Post-match Analysis: PAX East

PAX East Expo Hall from the Skybridge.

Well, call off the hounds. Here I am, back again on British soil. PAX East was an experience and a half, to say the least. If you are reading this, and you have not been, there aren’t enough superlatives in the world to justify a description of just how best it was.

So, I figured that rather than spew all the same coverage you will find on the various quality video game sites, I would eschew that approach for a brief overview, alongside some lessons learned from the experience.

PAX East: Preparing For Launch

What will get in my way?

Today is one my final few days in the country before I depart on a journey that will ultimately take me to Penny Arcade Expo East. Being my first experience of a convention, as seems in fact to be the case for many people I to which I have spoken, I am really keen to witness this quintessentially American experience. Of course, there are similar conventions that exist closer to home, but when it comes to the crunch of indulging and nourishing a niche market, the vastness of The States lends it a considerable advantage.

Games consumerism: How many is too much?

I googled 'pile of games'. I reaped what I sowed.

So, I’ve been ruminating on this point for a few days, and I figure that this is as good a place from which to launch forth as any other. As you may be able to tell from the myriad posts on this site, I do not buy a lot of games. Most certainly, I do not buy a lot of new releases. In part, this is due to the simple fact that, until recently, I could not afford to splash out £50-odd on a new title. Except for the big boys. A quick look over at my games shelf quickly tells me that the last new release I picked up was Halo: Reach. If anything, a perfect case in point. A great title that received much hype in the run-up to its release, I found a few friends who were willing to co-op the campaign with me, and I was ready to go. Fast forward to a fortnight later, and it was stowed away where it hasn’t been touched since. It got me to thinking, who is buying all these new games, and how often?

Why I bought a DSi one month before the release of the 3DS

DSi still sounds like a Vauxhall Corsa sports model to me.

So, I am now pretty pumped/stoked/high on hype for PAX East. I still don’t totally believe that I’m ever actually going to end up at it, despite having purchased everything necessary. Something will get in the way. I know it. Nothing that I get excited about ever works out, and it’s painful because, as each day passes, I become more and more excited about the idea of the whole thing. Guess we’ll see what happens, eh? I would love to be proved wrong. But what does this have to do with buying a DSi? Do you know nothing of product cycles? I was getting to that.

My favourite meme on the Citadel

Just hangin' out.

The final part of Mass Effect 2, the ‘Suicide Mission’, was one of the most edge-of-your-seat gaming experiences I have had in a long time. Making decisions that directly affected your teammates’ chances of survival, alongside watching them die, made for an exhilarating final chapter to what has been a very enjoyable game. I can plainly understand why this received so many Game of the Year commendations.

2010 in 2011 #1 - Mass Effect 2 (X360)

It's really, really good.

I came charging into this year with the intention of getting solidly into this thing, providing a better document of my gaming throughout the year to come. This past week and a half, it’s been really tough, and it’s all Mass Effect 2′s fault.

BioShock 2 (X360)

I don't know what that is, but it sure looks angry.

After around four months since buying it from Gameplay.co.uk, I decided to begin BioShock 2 again last weekend. When I first started  out, it just didn’t compare to its predecessor. Everything felt hackneyed, tacked-on, needless. Then I encountered my first Big Sister, and I became intrigued.

Gaming in the past: 2010 in 2011

Osmos: It really grows on you.

Another year marks almost the first anniversary of this web log, and the pretty harrowing reality that I have made eight posts in that time. That’s an average of something like two posts every three months, which frankly sounds like more than I feel I have made. In the spirit of the season, I make the resolution to post more often; to try and get into a schedule that I can manage.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (XBLA)

Anamanaguchi's soundtrack is divine, by the way.

This post may mark a slightly sharp turn in approach. I set this whole thing up around January last year, and I thought that if I was diligent, I could probably hold myself to a decent-enough schedule of a fortnightly post to chronicle what I’d been doing. How I was wrong. It turns out that things get in the way. Well, who’d have known?

Movie: The Town

Boston makes me feel good.

This post will begin with a disclaimer: I am still lingering in the period of my life which shall be described in my future memoirs as ‘The years when I had not yet seen Michael Mann’s critically-acclaimed Heat. This review is not about Heat. This review is about a film that is a lot like Heat. I have not seen Heat. How do I know it’s like Heat? Because that’s what everyone’s saying, and these sentences must end in Heat. Heat.