Seemed like a good idea at the time

Following on from an earlier post about Steam achievements, I've been doing some comparisons between the achievements scored in the games I've played against everyone else.
It was then that I saw a pattern emerging: It seems the most unlocked achievements are those that detonate certain progress through the game itself. But in the terms of progress achievements, it's the first in a series.
What this means that it seems that people got part way through a game before giving up and not bothering to go back and complete it.

To back up this claim, let's take a look at the following:

Eversion:

Gemini Rue:

Secret of Monkey Island 2:

The Stanley Parable:

True my claim may be BS as I've been relying on games I've scored perfects on to base this theory. And again this theory is BS as I too have been guilty of playing a game so far before giving up on it completely. And finally, I've included The Stanley Parable here even though the achievements in that game aren't really designed to be unlocked without some near -insane level of commitment.

However there is some weight to the theory that there are so many games available on Steam and many of which are designed to be played quickly without the need for a massive time investment. Thus, one can expect, in amongst the Steam users, that there are the kind of users that download a game, give it a go before deciding the game wasn't for them and give up on it and then move onto the next game.
Indeed, one can imagine this to be a side-effect of having so many games readily available: With so much variety, the time committed to a game is subsequently on the wane. After all, why spend hour on a game when something potentially better is within easy reach?

Still I would like to think that the people who played Eversion only to gave up were traumatized victims of being broken by the game itself.

Seventh Heaven

And so the seventh generation of console gaming has well and truly rode off into the sunset. So where does this leave us? Well for me this may as a good a time as any to do a retrospective on this generation outgoing.

At first I had no interest in the seventh generation. At the time the seventh generation was dawning, I got off my arse and got a PS2. A bit late to the party true but I didn't care: I merely wanted to find out what the PS2 had to offer - as well as what I'd missed out on with the PS1. And the shaky start of the Xbox 360 confirmed the wiseness of this decision.
True I did eventually obtain a Wii but that was more for the Virtual Console than the actual games the Wii had to offer.

But it didn't take long before something came along that really piqued my interest. The game was Dragon Age Origins - and somehow it being marketed as a successor to the mighty Baldur's Gate  was enough to warrant more investigation. And then, seeing a friend play Mass Effect 2 furthered my decision to fork out for a 360. It seemed a dumb decision to get yet another console when I had a PC, PS2 and a Wii but I don't regret it one bit.

Now. Do I have any favorite games from this last generation. Funny you should say that: I've got a top ten list prepared!
So here's my favorite games of the last generation all arranged in order of preference. All of these games I may have, at one stage or another, already talked about at length on this blog so I'll try and keep this brief.

10. Cave Story
It was made by one guy but damn what a labor of love this was. True the last boss may have prevented me for beating the game (otherwise this will be ranked much higher) but Cave Story has plenty of charm that puts a lot of triple A games to shame.

9. Braid 
I found Braid bogged down by the pretensions towards artiness this game had. But then I remembered this game had fun puzzles, clever mechanics and a lovely art direction. Enough to save it? Damn right.

8. Dragon Age Origins
Say what you like about Bioware but somehow Dragon Age Origins feels like one of their last watermarks. True it is more enjoyable on the PC, with mods, than the Xbox, but there is still a lot going for this game with it's art direction, gripping plot and solid writing.

7. Bioshock
Before I played Bioshock I was feeling somewhat unhappy with gaming - but by playing Bioshock I got the kick up the arse I was needing. Compelling in it's narrative, inventive in it's ideas and a great game all round, Bioshock was all this and more. Now about System Shock 2....

6. Bastion
A lot of games seem to rely on spectacle and explosions - so any game that attempts the 'Less is More' approach is worth nothing less than my interest. Four characters, a glorious narration, and an art direction to die for, Bastion is nothing short of brilliant.

5. Spec Ops the Line
The slap in the face that military shooters needed. It's not a game I'd play for enjoyment but it's a game that is indeed worthy of my respect. It takes balls for a game to critique it's audiences and Spec Ops The Line has the biggest balls of them all.

4. Thomas Was Alone
If the seventh generation proved anything it's the time that indie games truly flexed their muscles. And Thomas Was Alone could well have been the best of the lot. It may have won me over on sheer personality alone but being a great game certainly didn't hurt either.

3. Rock Band 2
I hate to think how many hours i may have sunk into Rock Band 2 but I honestly loved every minute of it. The implementation of the music library was a masterstroke and I've gained a new appreciation for music I wouldn't have otherwise been aware of.

2. Mass Effect 2
Dragon Age Origins may have proven that the seventh generation my be worth my time but Mass Effect 2 truly sealed the deal. It seems to me that Bioware were taking the concept of the Dirty Dozen and putting into game form for the first time. And I personally wouldn't have it any other way, 

1. Red Dead Redemption
Game of the generation? Hell yes. Beyond that I can't really think of much else to say about Red Dead Redemption. It's the game I got the most out of in the entire generation and it looks set to be a favorite in the years to come. Can something top it? Now there's a challenge to rise up to.....

So where am I at the beginning of the eighth generation? Anything but confident.
I'm serious: Nothing has come along that has really grabbed my attention. Indeed I have found, like most people, the seventh generation being truly defined by the presence of indie games on XBLA & Steam. And in particular I've found, much to my surprise, that many of them are more substantial than the games available on the shelves of EB Games. It is indeed telling that the only game I've truly gotten excited over in the past twelve months is The Stanley Parable.

But then again I have no patience for the eighth generation - not while my Hall of Shame continues to exist anyway.

That was the year it was: 2013

Well it's that time of the year again: The tail end of the year where I step away from this blog, this computer and indulge in off-time presented by the Christmas holidays.

So 2013: What about it eh? Well in retrospect it is something of a transitory year: the seventh console generation has shuffled off and the eight generation has stepped up to take it's place.
Not that it matters to me: Much of this year has been spent catching myself spending more time on the PC than the console. Indeed, I have found nothing of interest (...yet....) being offered by the Wii-U, XboxOne and PS4 so I think it's fair to say that the console race may continue but it can't make me care.

Continuing on the wavelength, 2013 will, for me, be defined as the year I discovered Steam. I tried my hand at it on an off-chance and found myself enamored off it (So much so I wrote an article on Steam for Muse Culture). Indeed, it is now difficult to imagine how I could've done without Steam. I have found a wide variety of games that I had previously been unaware of, indulged in a game distribution system that actually works and found an oasis when my interest in consoles was drying up.

Other highlights over the past twelve months was knocking down more titles from my Hall of Shame (I'll get on top of it one day!), obtaining the long-lost classic Blade Runner and playing my game of the year The Stanley Parable

So this post will conclude Game Tumour for  2013. So 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 2014.

Stan the Man

This week I’ve been playing a lot of The Stanley Parable.

Like everyone else I came to this game through the some rather abstract descriptions of the game itself (that and everyone gushing about it). It seemed that everyone was recommending it but giving little to no explanation why. Well that’s enough to pique my curiosity so I picked up the game via Steam.

And I really enjoyed it.

Of course I’m going to keep up the trend via not going to give anything on this blog because doing so will most likely get me shouted down as ‘benefits of finding things out for yourself’ is the current trend on the Internet (I guess we can all blame Game of Thrones for that). But what I will say is that I think I enjoyed The Stanley Parable more than I enjoyed Portal.

I guess most of it can be attributed to my enjoyment of Portal being tainted with the ‘Cake is a Lie’ and ‘Still Alive’ jokes being run into the ground. This is not the case here: The rigidly little that has been revealed about The Stanley Parable beforehand has left me completely in the dark here and it’s worked wonders here. Thus there isn’t much more I can add here apart from giving credit to the narrator Kevan Brighting who really makes the game and delivers a VA performance to end all VA performances. In fact given a choice I would rather listen to the Narrator than GlaDOS (SHODAN was better anyway)

So in the end what The Stanley Parable proves is that there is indeed some value in allowing people to discover things for themselves. In fact I'm not sure how this game got greenlit by Steam but I'm certianly it did. I just hope nobody looks at The Stanley Parable the same way they did with the Companion Cube and sees a whole lot of marketing potential.....