That was the year it was: 2015

Well here we are at the tail end of 2015. The festive season is well and truly upon us so now is the time to step away from this blog and spend some time with family and friends - which is what we all should be doing around this time.
Therefore, this will be the final post for Game Tumour in 2015.

This year has been a quiet one: Its not just because I choose to scale back the amount of time and effort in this blog due to outside commitments.
No, much of my time has been invested in playing Star Trek Online. But if playing World of Warcraft has taught me anything it is too easy to fall in the trap that is common with MMORPGs: You find it is the only thing you play, the one thing you invest the most time in that the other games tend to get neglected and because you're continually investing money in this game you convince yourself to make the effort not to make the investment going to waste (WoW with the subscription, STO with Pay-as-you-go). But being in that trap doesn't mean you can escape from it.
Why, in the past week I've found myself moving away from Star Trek Online and enjoying an old favorite, Dragon Age Origins, again.

Still it's not all been bad news: I've knocked down more games off my Hall of Shame: System Shock 2, Curse of the Azure Bonds and some of the Leisure Suit Larry games.
Other highlights of 2015 have been:

• my delight at seeing the Gold Box finally make it's way to GoG
• Convincing a friend to play Divinity Original Sin and both going into it blind - and both of us finding it quite enjoyable
• Meeting Bajo and Hex
• In another coup for GoG, the arrival of the original Star Trek Adventure games!
• Obtaining a copy of New One Lives Forever (and defying the legal confusion preventing it's re-release)

So what can I take away from 2015? Well, I think the less time I spend on MMORPGs, the better. Yes they are time-sinks - hell, that's what they're designed to be! - but the amount of hours invested in a MMORPGs can really be better invested in working on some of the many games that I have left untouched.

You know, I've been playing a lot of Western RPGs these past few years that it's been quite some time since I last played, and enjoyed, a JRPG.
Therefore, I think I will, in 2016, play Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky...

So this concludes Game Tumour for 2015. Thank you to everyone who has visited this blog over the past twelve months and I look forward to speaking to you all again in 2016 :)

It took ten years to get here

It is well documented in this blog that whilst I have had an interest in gaming over the years, it is only since late 2005 that it really took off and entrenched itself like it has now.
What really triggered this interest was tumbling across a list by IGN on the 100 Greatest Games of all Time. Curious, I sat down and read through all of it. As i did so, i found myself recognizing games I was familiar with, games I knew of and games that were completely new to me. In any case, it became clear to me that I had been missing out on a lot. So I made it my goal to track down all of these games and give them a shot.

That was a full decade ago.

 So where are we now?

Well I am pleased to say that, out of the hundred games listed, I have managed to obtain all but five.
Not a bad effort if I say so myself. Many of these games have been obtained as physical copies whilst others as digital downloads (through the Virtual Console and later GoG).

So which are the five that eluded my grasp? Well:

• Star Wars Arcade (no idea how I'm going to obtain that game)
• Pokemon Red/Blue (Pokemon has a massive fanbase. It scared me off)
• Advance Wars (truly worth getting a GBA for?)
• Super Smash Bros Melee (Somehow owning Brawl made owning Melee redundant)
• and Panzer Dragoon Saga (and good luck finding a copy of that).

And after ten years invested in this project what can I say at this point in time?

This project of obtaining the (then) Hundred Greatest Games of All Time has really been my stepping stone into the wonderful world of gaming.
What originally started out as a goal of hundred games has ballooned into (according a Raptr) a collection of just under three hundred games (!).
I have played, and enjoyed, games I have originally missed out on.
I have found much to love within games I originally never thought possible.
I have got off my arse and got my true first console the PS2 - and later, the Wii and 360.
I have stepped into the world of gaming and have made many friends through doing so 
And I have started this blog and have been rambling on it ever since.

They say that it often pays to acknowledge one's roots and to never forget where you've come from. And I acknowledge that this list sent me down a path that was bewildering but at the same time lot's of fun. In fact, now that I think of it, the original list pretty much functioned, to me at least, as a way to acknowledge gaming's past and to salute the pioneers that brought us all here to then then present state of 2005. And that's what I've done with this collection process: I have collected games, many of which I've never played before, and I've seen how they've managed to shape and inspire those which have followed in their wake. I've found material that have been completely new to me and it's interesting to see where certain ideas have originated from.

So where do we go from here?

Through obtaining, and playing, these games I have gained a sense of history and, like any gamer, built up some treasured memories to call my own. Indeed, one could say that I have forged my own identity as a gamer and have seen many more new places emerge before me. But that wouldn't have happened it it not been for those magical 95 games.
Okay so yeah a fair number of those 95 games have gone unplayed but i reiterate: It's important to know where you've come from. Why, recently IGN has released a new list of the 100 Greatest Games of all Time. And I found this new list places a lot of emphasis on more recent titles - but it means little to me as it seems more a celebration of the previous generation than a salute to the pioneers that the 2005 list was. Maybe it's a generational thing?

But no matter: This post marks the endpoint of a ten year journey so where do we go from here?
I have no idea but I tell you: It's going to be a lot of fun :)

Dark as the Darkest Night was Diablo

Lets talk about Diablo for a minute.

With the passage of time, I find Diablo something of an oddity: It was a huge hit in it's day but now no one seems to talk about it a lot. Okay so maybe the game has, in the years since, been surpassed by many RPGs, and Blizzard have made other games, but I still believe this is more to this franchise than it's most recent iteration.

I first played Diablo in 2002 - where I got my copy of a friend. I was to reluctant to play it at first (largely because I knew of the big twist that happens at the end of the game) but within time, I played Diablo all the way to the end (with both the Rogue and the Warrior) and it was quite enjoyable. As an action RPG it was a lot of fun but in the terms of atmosphere and art direction, the game was unbeatable. It was indeed engaging to have this mood of dread creeping throughout the game - the type that no other game has done since (with the possible exception of Eversion).

In fact maybe that's what I got the most out of the first Diablo: It does Dark Fantasy really well. These days Dark Fantasy seems to be a tag used to describe fantasy set in less-than glorious settings (ie Dragon Age and Game of Thrones). But I however subscribe to the traditional description of Dark Fantasy in that it's the combination between the genres of fantasy and horror. And it's that niche that Diablo fills nicely. It's not just slaughtering demonic enemies and slowly descending into Hell: It is, again, the atmosphere. It is the increasing discomfort that resonates the further progression is made. It is, again, that feeling of dread that drips throughout the game itself.

But really, the strengths of Diablo as a Dark Fantasy is best viewed through the intro:

Original video located here. Accessed 11th December 2015

To me this is Dark Fantasy done right: The ruined buildings, the use of shadows, the foreboding  music, the monsters all accumulating to the scream at the end. Indeed, one can't not deny just how being constantly returned to that sword in the ground suddenly comes across as unsettling. Amazing how this intro is still compelling nearly twenty years later.
In fact i can just point tot that intro and say: "That's Dark Fantasy".

Which in turn makes me wonder why no one has ever done anything to match it. Sure anyone can use Dark Fantasy to describe certain fantasy settings but Diablo truly feels like a game that walks the walk. Perhaps no one has bothered to try an match it: because the first Diablo game it so well.

So have I bothered with the other Diablo games? No I haven't. I will admit that the afore-mentioned twist at the end of Diablo left me feeling cheated of victory that it was enough to put me off further explorations in the series. It may sound petty but I don't know: I spent all this time with this character so having them befall the fate that was handed to them does indeed feel like a rip off. But then again, maybe that is part and parcel of a Dark Fantasy.
I will admit that it would've been a cool idea to have the stats of the PC in Diablo being imported over into Diablo 2 (like in Mass Effect) but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Still, you can't say that the trailer to Diablo 2 broke from the Dark Fantasy template:

Original video located here. Accessed 11th December 2015

"....There's something dark within me now..."

Telling a Tale of Batman

Apparently, Telltale games are making yet another series of games to add to their stable. And this new one will be a Batman game series.

What hasn't Batman got enough games already?

Trail of Torment

Nothing much to say for this week so here's a classic for dusting off: the trailer for Planescape Torment.

Original video located here. Accessed 4th December 2015

Its a compelling trailer but what is fascinating is that none of this footage actually appears in the game. Granted the game was still in development when this trailer came out but its interesting to see, with hindsight, how many ideas got scrapped. We do get to see Vhailor, Ignus, Nordom and the Lady of Pain as well as a glimpse (however fleeting) of The Nameless One. We also see Coaxmetal getting out and about.
Make no mistake: Planescape Torment is one of the best games I have ever played and one I will proudly champion. However looking at this trailer one can only wonder how much got left on the floor during the development phase