I have a tale of misery and woe for you today. On Monday . sales man Andy Spenceley convinced me to play PGR4 with him over Xbox LIVE that evening - he even tweeted excitedly about the events that were set to play out that very evening. I'll cut a long story short and say that there were no events that evening. He stood me up. It's a moment in my life I'll never be able to forget, the loneliness felt so great that I can't even bring myself to look Andy in the face any more.
Still, PGR4 remains great. I played it properly so long ago that I didn't even have the same gamertag, so I've started again and loving playing through all the events as if they're brand-new. Sadly bikes still aren't very good (in my opinion anyway), so I ignore them completely in favour of whatever cars are available. If a racing god exists, which going on the closure of Bizarre there probably isn't, PGR would return one day, sliding around a bend, racking up tons of kudos and then appearing in my disc drive. That would be a good day.
As I mentioned in my blog earlier this week, Double Fine's recent antics have inspired me to check out a few of the old adventure games I missed way back in the Old Days of point-and-clicking. I was always put off by Gabriel Knight, mainly because I assumed he was a bit of a Goody Twoshoes. I mean come, on: Gabriel Knight?
Well, turns out I was wrong, and it only took me the best part of two decades to find out. Gabe is a womanising egotist, but it's okay because he's voiced by Tim Curry in an amazing Southern drawl. He's the kind of guy who breaks into houses so he can chat up the posh lady who lives there. Elsewhere, New Orleans locals are getting their hearts ripped out by a gang of untraceable weirdoes who are definitely not practising Voodoo, though they clearly are. Oh, and Mark Hamill is in charge of the police. The puzzles might be maddeningly hard, but that won't put me off – there's far too much to enjoy here.
I had to buy lightbulbs this week. Lightbulbs! Has anyone ever bought lightbulbs? Basically, there are loads of types of them, with all different kinds of fitting. Previously I thought there was just, like, lightbulbs. Anyway, I went with a 9W energy saving halogen bulb with an E11 fitting. That was basically a game, right? I also played The Witcher II this week, but in the end I played Skyrim more. So for me it's basically diddling around with my new flat, playing a game that's a year old or playing a game I feel like I've been playing for about a decade now.
Unsurprisingly, Skyrim won. Skyrim always wins. They should have called it Skywin. I haven't done the main quest in so long I think I've forgotten what the main quest is actually about. Something about dragons, right? If you ask me the main quest was to get Daedric armour and then stomp around looking like a complete dude, which I am currently excelling at. I spent, like, another couple of hours rummaging around in mines for useless stuff I don't need. Skyrim.
Games are really boring at the moment, aren't they? I feel really sorry for people who, like, play games. Let's grit our teeth and bear it until Fez, Trials and Diablo III come out. Still, nothing like this time of the year to remind us how addictive those mobile games can be. Anyone playing DrawSomething? I'm squidmania.
Without giving too much away I spent the last week playing through The Witcher 2 on console, and by week I mean the last three days for something like 15 consecutive hours a day. So now that I've peeled myself off the couch and took out my IV drip of Redbull I can at least say I'm very excited to see how console gamers interpret the game. Where Dragon Age II has faint God of Wars-style tendencies in its combat and responsiveness, Witcher 2 is a slightly different animal. It encourages twitch combat, but in an oddly slower manner than what other games similar in vein tend to offer. Often actions aren't immediate when you trigger them, which is something that needs getting used to - and it can take hours. Still, if you've seen my review for PC you'll know how highly I think of the game - it's genuinely one of the most solid fantasy world's you'll find.
