What Strange Creature Bimbles…?

I often find rewards in computer games slightly puzzling, not merely in what they are but when they are received. For the last couple of weeks, I've been playing Sable, a game about a young woman undertaking her coming-of-age quest on a world that is a blend of many things from hunter-gatherer to high-tech. The …

From That Angle

I recently started playing Pine, which the developers describe as an “open-world action adventure game set in a simulated world that does not belong to humans”. What they don't describe it is a “third-person adventure game with a lot of platform jumping puzzles”. Which stoked my pondering of what people choose to prioritise, both when …

Pause to Reload

The gaming community (both roleplaying and otherwise) are divided on what makes a good or bad game. Having started playing Wolfenstein: The New Order a couple of days ago, I was reminded that perhaps the most important criteria for me is a subjective rather than objective one: context. Wolfenstein is first-person-shooter franchise set in a …

Stay Mediocre, Scrub

One of the main theories for why we like fiction, especially speculative fiction, is we enjoy experiencing lives we don't—or even can't—lead; a theory that resonates with me, and resonates doubly for roleplaying games as they allow some choice of how one experiences that other life. Over the last few days, I've been reminded that …

Behind Superficial Mutability

On Saturday, I played through Bit Golem's Dagon game. As some of you will know, I am a casual player of computer games rather than one who seeks to speed run them or plays into the early hours of the morning; so my having completed the game the same day I started (in fact within …

Is Sorcery Unnatural?

I've played a lot of Conan Exiles recently. As I'm playing single player, I have the ability to allow admin commands to be used in game; which raised the question of whether or not I should maintain strict separation between "I am playing the game" and "I am running the program". After some thought, I …

Hot Chocolate Macro

If one pleasure is good, then it seems logical two pleasures are better; however, that way might lead to the most lively awfulness. I rather enjoy Yog-Sothothery, computer gaming, and interesting recipes, so when I came across the Necro-Nom-Icon, a game that mixes Lovecraft and cooking, I felt an unspeakable draw. And once I began, …

What a Way to Make a Hobby

Last Friday, Athena Scalzi bravely stated that some computer games are too difficult for her to enjoy. As someone who gets more from the story than from collecting achievements and trophies (does that come as a surprise to anyone in the audience?) I too dislike games that require nigh perfect skill to proceed at all. …

Almost Ex-Com

I have a momentous announcement: I have almost completed X-COM: Enemy Unknown. I installed the game at the start of January 2013, so it's taken me nearly six years, including some agonising over how to replay missions if one of my mistakes was accidentally reversed by benevolent techno-goblins. Of course, the figure of six years …

Bat(ttered)man

I've recently started playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. Overall, it's a great fun game but there's one niggle: saved games - or rather the lack thereof. When playing computer games with character options, I always gravitate toward stealth and cunning over charging around and brute force. However, I play for relaxation not to hone my keyboard …