An Open Letter To Christmas.

Christmas, you infernal festive impediment, we really need to talk. Now I like you, always have. That isn’t going to change. I’ve always enjoyed your childish exuberance, your garish, overstated presence even if your innocent platitudes are often saturated by commercialism and increasingly celebrated prematurely as a burgeoning impotent affair. I enjoy watching the Father Ted Christmas special, gauging myself on yuletide goodies and I especially adore how I can use Santa Clause annual generosity as an incentive for my daughter to behave. Christmas is a very useful commodity, but do you have to take up so much of my time? Your incessant presence over such a prolonged and unnecessary preamble has severely encumbered my ability to play games in any substantial capacity.

Red Dead Redemption 2, arguably my favourite game of the year has remained largely forlorn. Its considerable expanses have remained unexplored, Arthur Morgans guns have been confined to there now underused holsters. Trouble being is that Christmas, even during spare time demands significant considerations. Preparations have to be made, Christmas trees have to be decorated, presents conceived and then purchased with money I don’t have. My partner and I then have to work additional hours to afford the costly goods and sundries that for the rest of the year would be considered frivolous expenses. We have to write Christmas cards to family members, both superfluous and prominent. Send ones to friends, colleagues, neighbours, strangers, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers.

Even if I’m lucky enough to wrangle 5 minutes away from festive exertions and domestic obligations, I’m usually so tired that I full asleep in the middle of games! Often waking from my stupor to see Arthur Morgan stood at camp nursing wounds from a failed mission I nodded off in, silently judging my idleness as a slight against him and his band of merry men. So please Christmas, take heed. Lessen your influence in the months before. Inform supermarkets that stocking up on Mince Pies and Christmas puddings really isn’t a necessity in September. That it’s okay not to market the birth of a fictional baby as a way of passively enforcing people to buy expensive thrift you don’t really need for one another just because society dictates that you should. Diminish the overall pageantry and stress of Christmas and allow people to enjoy the flamboyant spectacle in a way they feels most comfortable. Like celebrating the day by gauging myself on booze and food, dozing on the sofa and being left alone for the entire build up to Christmas to play games. Perhaps next year.

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Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The One Problem I Have With “Red Dead Redemption 2”.

The pursuit of realism is something most modern games should aspire to. Simulated instances of authenticity give a game added complexity, allowing players to really integrate themselves with the environments, characters and even the narrative. Sure it’s not necessary for Mario to adhere to the laws of gravity or for Sonic The Hedgehog to run at a glacial pace, but in some cases such attention to detail can benefit an experience. Red Dead 2 exemplifies this methodology with a veracious depiction of the old West, without binding the player’s experience with mundane trivialities of real life. Such as going to the toilet, preparing meals from scratch or dying without the convenience of resurrection. But there’s one aspect of Red Dead 2 that I confess leaves me rather conflicted: Hunting wild animals.

Though I’m not opposed to its inclusion, particularly as a means of commerce, I just find the whole sordid business rather unsettling. Hunting in Red Dead isn’t vindictive or a malicious undertaken, implemented as a kind of incentivized errand arbitrarily installed to accentuate the expansive diversity of the environment, but a necessity to survive the harsh, oftentimes unpredictable climate. As a source of nourishment hunting deers, elks and even rabbits are invaluable to your little menagerie of fiends, crooks and outlaws to sustain a faction separate from the binding authority of civilised society. Not only is the meat harvested for food to feed your camp, but the Pelts can also be used. It’s an understandably popular feature that has probably enticed a number of prospective poachers to seek fabled beasts of notorious repute. But to me it’s not an attractive errand.

It’s curious as to why the simulated slaughter of animals is so deplorable to me, yet persistent explicit violence against virtual people who I’ve callously mutilated without any hint of morality is acceptable behaviour, particularly as a practiced and veteran carnivore. There is so much to do, see and be killed by that such a barbaric activity can be ignored or at least mitigated. Does it ruin my experience? No. Do I wish such an inclusion, indicative of such times was exempt? Again, no! What this demonstrates is that a game of such eminent quality and scale can provide a multitude of features to engage you that even something I find conflicting can be completely ignored and not diminish my enjoyment. Damn this game is good!

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What have you made of Red Dead Redemption 2? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.

Games Are Best Played On Days Off.

Traditionally the release of a new game would necessitate time off from work and a chance to reserve a couple of days devoted to the engagement of some relaxation. Usually I’d bookend the weekend with the nurturing splendour of a new exciting game, brimming with untapped potential. All the speculative assertions you’ve made about a games quality can be vindicated, the game has the potential to exceed all expectations, with the farcical monotony of the world and all its trivialities for a short passage of time is everyone else’s concern. Your world is localised entirely through your 50 inch, 4K television with soundbar and compartmentalised on your preferred gaming console. An uninhibited experience that truly enables you to absorb a game without distraction or adhering to the limitations of time. Time off work or perhaps even school are always the best gaming times.

For most of us any opportunities to play a game is solely regulated on the caveat of restricted time. Whether there are other domestic or professional obligations to full-fill, borrowed time, restricted and mediated by the critical considerations that dominate our lives. So any time dedicated to the solitary delights of gaming is embraced as though the 4 Horseman were coming round “with the boys”. Utilising this time efficiently is dependant on external interference’s or in later years, battling dreaded unconsciousness, at least in my case. The only truly liberating method is taking time off these compulsory duties. To really engage and assimilate without yielding to some other pedantic or menial task. These are the best times to game.

Memorable moments are almost exclusively reserved for those introductory sessions of uninitiated catharsis. Those little points where your grasp of game mechanics are erratic, tentative and downright embarrassing. Familiarizing yourself with it takes time, with only fleeting sporadic periods that impart the briefest slivers of potential skill. You can’t replicate this kind of “toddlers first steps” progression with interspersed engagements, nor truly immerse yourself in new insatiable environments. You have to take your time to marvel at what you are playing. To savour the experience permitted by the luxury of time unrestrained by responsibility.

I remember playing Skyrim on day of release. I’d booked the day off, ventured out bright and early to my local Sainsbury’s that I’d reserved a copy from. Entering the store I sauntered over to customer service desk and requested my copy of Skyrim. After explaining to the elderly receptionist precisely what a Skyrim was, I purchased my copy, thanked the bewildered lady and dashed off picking up a few choice snacks to consume over the course of my day. I’m not ashamed to admit that I spent the first 20 minutes just looking at the case, not even considering the contents. Of course I eventually tore through the protective casing and rescued the trapped disc from its cellophane prison, idly trekking through this frigid and enchanting land. Such extended vagrancy and slow, listless ambling wouldn’t have been possible without taking time off work.

With only a few hours at your disposal you’re compelled to make good use of the time. You can’t compromise it by idly wandering with no direction, at least not without feeling like you’ve wasted your evening. That’s why it’s so important to take time off to play new titles. No commitments. No responsibilities. Just you, some unhealthy food and oodles of time to meander. I had the same experience with GTA V, Uncharted 3 and many others besides, simply because my first play-through was uninhibited by life. The simple extension of time is crucial to really experience a game without restriction. And nothing promotes this quite like a day off.

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There, I think I’ve just about justified to myself that booking the day off to play “Red Dead Redemption 2” is the right decision. As if I needed an excuse.

The Joy Of Playing A Game I Forgot Existed.

Gaming is an expensive hobby, an activity that sadly isn’t getting any easier to fund. With bills, finite income and the general malaise of regulated austerity, being a consumer of games requires an increased prudence. You have to be discerning, discriminate between which games deserve your hard-earned salary and which, for the moment at least, can be ignored. It’s not always easy, with conflicting reviews and opinions clouding your judgement. Being informed isn’t always a reliable means of gauging quality and your ability to determine the right game at the right time is often dictated by our own intuitive spontaneity, not a throughly composed and rational decision. As a result some games are forgotten, peripherally ignored by our ever shifting gaze to new, exciting prospects. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise when games aren’t just callously dismissed, but are forgotten about entirely. In this instance its “Mad Max”.

How the hell did I miss this? How did I forget that this game even existed?! I feel remorse for this blatant lapse in memory. Never has a game been so ideally poised to dominate my evenings. It’s discovery has come at a time when games I’ve been playing regularly are becoming trite and with new interesting games not scheduled until the latter part of the year I was beginning to feel fatigued. What’s curious about Mad Max’s captivating allure is the way in which it shamelessly “borrows” from other games. Utilising composite elements such as Fallout, Batman’s Arkham series, Red Dead Redemption and Twisted Metal, which are all prevalent in some malformed capacity. But it’s so assured in its consolidating imitation of these appropriated facets that it plays as if it invented these mechanisms itself. What this game really thrives on though is sheer, demented lunacy.

Your command of the vacant, sprawling, post apocalyptic landscape is navigable with a vehicle both criminally rustic, yet deftly menacing. Allowing this augmented beast to gallop across the chaotic world with all of its V6 horses unleashed is adrenaline fuelled euphoria, especially once its been upgraded to a V8! Driving the “Magnus Opus” through the course terrain, shunting enemy transports into mobile bonfires and engaging in vehicular battles never gets old. The auditory notations of the V6 engine snarling like a cornered beast is like an angel pouring honey into your ears. With the exhaust bellowing its errant fumes, the tires engraving the sand like footprints you feel intimidating, powerful, like a fabled warrior, whose name is only ever uttered in hushed barely audible tones.

I’m being as deliberately vague as I can about this game because Mad Max is really something you need to experience to truly appreciate. Mad Max makes a concerted effort to immerse you into its deeply disturbing reality, one that relishes in its own morbid depiction of society gone feral. The breadth, the provocation of the inhabitants and the bleak land divided into districts of opposing militias vying for ultimate control is nothing new. The way in which the game portrays these elements with such exuberance is. It maybe a desolate, barren world devoid of hope, but it isn’t bereft of life or enthusiasm. Whether you’re scavenging for scraps, water or fuel, brawling with the denizens of some dilapidated structure in satisfying combat system or driving headfirst into vehicle, furnished with the rusted vestiges of some arcane exhaust or decorated with human skulls, Mad Max is a refreshing reprieve from the very different kind of insanity we endure every day. And controversially, if I’m being honest, a better experience than Fallout 4. Yeah, I did just say that!

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What great games have you discovered years after they were released? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.

My Top 5 Most Anticipated Games Of 2018.

2017 has left the building. It’s gone, dismissed, ceased to exist, striding off into the sunset like a fart in a hurricane, or something like that! To some this may come as a relief. To others a new year provides the opportunity to reflect on challenges presented over the past 12 months, some resolved others a permanent fixture in your life. A new year can feel like a passive reset that encourages newly discerned ambitions and a sense of productivity. We become conscientious of our bloated bodies, swelling from excesses of sustenance abuse during the festive period, seeking immediate nutritional alterations and workout routines that will swiftly erode within a few weeks when we rediscover our love for chocolate and dough. With a new year comes new perspectives and an expectant vigour for year infused with so much potential. So, rather tenuously it seems appropriate to start 2018 with a compact appraisal of my most anticipated games of the year.

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1. Red Dead Redemption 2.

This is the only game on my list that I have already pre-ordered. John Marston’s attempts to kill his former gang members at the behest of a corrupt government official, who had taken his family hostage is some of the most compelling, as well as justifiable incentives that necessitates the killing of everyone you encounter. It’s bound be the most rooting tooting game in the West. For a fistful of dollars (£) I’ll be sure to trot home to the prairie to down a few sarsaparilla’s, toiling across the deserted plains in my painted wagon, assisting the helpless, starting fights in my local saloon, going toe to toe with some vagrant gunslinger and perhaps update my perception of what being in the old West is really about. Yee Haaaaw! There’s a snake in my boot!

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2. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant King.

Ni No Kuni was a resplendent collaboration between Level 5 and the animated God’s of Studio Ghibli. And I loved it! It’s as cute as a button, as vibrant as a pool of skittles and possessing more charm than Roger Moore’s eyebrows. Don’t be fooled however by its yielding naivety or colourful imagery, as it also delivered an imposing turn based combat system as well as a surprisingly sullen tone, about a grieving boy trying to save his mother from dying. Ni No Kuni 2 is a sequel I didn’t even know I wanted, nor one I ever felt would exist, potentially arriving just a mere 7 years after the original! But I’m pleased it does exist.

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3. Spider-Man.

“Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can”. Which judging by Peter Parkers eponymous alter egos current form is making bad Spider-Man games. Since Batman’s illustrious turn in the Arkham series I’ve besieged to the arachnid God’s for Spidey to emulate the same dynamic qualities that have made that series so successful. Spider-man for the PS4 expands on the theatrical iteration helmed amiably by newcomer Tom Holland, boasting a potent combat and unrestrained verticality missing since “Spider-Man 2 The Game”. Being developed by Insomniac, the auteurs of the Ratchet & Clank series only intensifies the tingling of my spidey sense.

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4. The Last Of Us 2.

For me the fervent expectations I have for the other games listed here is somewhat more restrained in regards to The Last Of Us 2, purely because I never felt that the original would truly benefit from a sequel. The end, though not strictly conclusive felt absolute, espousing the controversial uncertainty between Joel and Ellie that has no doubt lead to many speculative dissertations into whether Ellie really did suspect Joel was lying. But then I remembered that this was NaughtyDog, a developer of the utmost distinction that has never disappointed me. So if they feel there is more story to be explored, that doesn’t merely unite beloved characters to re-tread familiar ground, you better believe I won’t be left out.

5. Pokémon for the Switch.

Now this one is a little more farcical, ambitious and frankly “Farfetched” but I’m hopeful all the same. Early indications suggest that this purported Pokémon Rpg is at the very least “a thing”, being developed by Gamefreak as a mainline Rpg that up until now had been exclusively synonymous with its portable brand. To experience a Pokémon game on the big screen is something I’ve petitioned for since Pokémon Red And Blue. So to finally get one on Nintendo’s coveted hybrid console is a 20 year dream realised. Yes I’m old enough that I shouldn’t care about Pokémon, but also immature enough to retort with raspberry blowing. So poo to you!

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Honourable mention: Uncharted 5.

Hey, a fellow can dream can’t he?

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What games are you most looking forward to this year? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.