Gaming Resolutions for 2019

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

As mentioned above I actually bought my Nintendo Switch to get and play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild back in 2017 and I haven’t progressed much beyond the the first Shrine. The game is universally loved and revered so why didn’t it sink its cell shaded leafy goodness into me?

The issue was the console for sure – I happily dug and chipped my way round Steamworld Dig 2 and the wonderful Golf Story at around the same time – all while Breath of the Wild stared at me longingly like an expectant puppy.

I had no history with previous Zeldas (Zeldi?) so it’s not like I was worried this might sully the good name of a beloved franchise.

I can only think that in some way the game was Too Loved, Too Good, the collective gaming internet was having too much of an amazing time exploring its infinite depth and nuance. People are still making YouTube videos about how amazing the world and mechanic design of this game is – and I still haven’t played it…

There was also an element of

“this is the most amazing open world in which you can do anything – just make sure you start out doing The Right Anything from the start or you’re a loser.”

and I didn’t want to be a loser.

I’m not saying because everyone else loved it I just wanted to be a curmudgeonly contrarian and to begin my backlash early. The fact that people held the game in such high regard daunted me about playing the game for myself – it somehow raised the stakes beyond where I felt comfortable. Daft I know but there you go – I never promised you logic.

The Last of Us Remastered

Ok ok slow your roll – I have played almost all of The Last of Us and I have most certainly shown that famous first ten minutes to friends and significant others more times than is decent over the years. But what happened was that I had a game save approaching the hospital (which I’m preeeeety sure is preeeety near the end of the game) then upgraded my machine to a PS4pro and lost maybe 4 hours of progress du to an online save data mix up and never really had the heart to start again from the saw mill. 

Don’t get me wrong it’s an incredible game and the amazing relationship between Joel and Ellie is one of the most compelling partnerships I’ve seen in media – it was nice to see elements of that broken father, hopeful child dynamic echoed in God of War (my Game of the Year 2018…)  and visually it was way ahead of its time, even “unremastered” (pre-mastered?) it was and still is quite something to behold.

So why haven’t I gone back to get back through to the end? I think mostly the annoyance at the save loss and not wanting to go back through those levels again, and also other distractions have come and gone and come again as they do. I know the ending is where the game gets a good deal of its Important Game oomph and I’ll get there one day – I just haven’t yet.

Red Dead Redemption

The first Red Dead Redemption is one of the main reasons I still have my Playstation 3 – along with Spec Ops The Line, Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3  (hey I played Andromeda – take pity) and Portal 2 – although I must say it’s pretty dusty now. I had hoped to stream some SOTL and RDR1 in the build up to Red Dead Redemption 2 but of course I then ran into the HDMI splitter issue and ran out of patience.

I have probably put 10-15 hours into Red Dead Redemption – I never got to Mexico – but having played, finished and totally loved at a deep level the amazing prequel I wonder now if going back is still a viable option? I’m certainly aware that RDR1 has kind of slid down my priority list since I finished raising the beams at Beecher’s Hope outside of Blackwater, even though it should now make more chronological sense to persevere. 

If I’m brutally honest, the dualshock 3 controller now feels a bit like a tiny toy in my big manly man-paws. I know it’s possible to hard-wire a friendly familiar dualshock 4 into the console but really, playing with a wired controller just doesn’t feel like cricket in 2019.

Bioshock Infinite/Bioshock Collection

Bioshock Infinite was one of the first video games I saw criticised intelligently on youtube back in 2013 – I know, I was young, games were young, Youtube was young, Matt Lees was young too – but it suddenly reminded me that games could be taken seriously, even when they had faults – probably most especially because they had faults.

I have a record of my buying a copy of Bioshock Infinite for the PS3 back in in July 2014 and while it makes little sense to fire it up on the dusty old system when its now part of the often on sale Bioshock Collection but lets face it the platform is not what has stopped me getting much further than a couple of hours into the game.

And now that the game is wrapped up in the big beefy Bioshock Collection it seems that in order to play Bioshock Infinite in order to see modern games in deeper context, I have to play the collection in full in order to appreciate Bioshock Infinite in its proper deeper context – and that’s big hulking 50+ hours I’m not sure I really have.

How much context is really appropriate or does one really need in order to appreciate today’s games?

Also this game seemed to use the same kind of “tools for mutant women” favoured by scary Jeremy Irons twin from Dead Ringers as its melee weapons.

Super Mario Odyssey

My reasons for not getting further with Super Mario Odyssey introduce another component to the complexities of trying get gaming done in the modern ear- kids. Sure I selfishly started out this amazingly bright (both in terms of colour and conception) adventure on my own but then felt “oh the kids would love this” so kind of invited them in.

The kids enjoyed it in so far as they enjoy bright colours and love looking at screens but their dexterity isn’t great so they sort of lost interest but the damage had been done – Super Mario Odyssey was The Kids’ Game and progressing further than the wonderfully titled New Donk City felt like a betrayal of their tender trust.

In order to keep going I will ignore them and their shallow whimsy. Who’s list of games I want to finish is this anyway?

Shadow of the Colossus 

The reasons Shadow of the Colossus remains unplayed are a mystery to me – its not overly long, it doesn’t have a deeply complex control scheme, it has a celebrated gift for its grand majestic sense of scale and a progression mechanic that afflicts the player with deep pangs of guilt – it’s like this game is so far up my street it should be hurting – and yet it sits in my game library on my PS4 hard drive unplayed.

But why?

It can’t just be the drab by modern standards colour scheme can it?

Again I can only really imagine a large part of my reticence may be rooted in the sombre reverence with which this game is so ofter regarded. Its a Serious Game and I’m just not often enough in a serious enough mood to get into that vibe.

Doom

The 2016 Doom seemed to take a lot of people by surprise. It’s an unashamedly video game-ass video game that delights in its conformity to what people who don’t play video games think all video games are like.

I’ve played some but nowhere near enough. I love how the combat mechanic encourages the all-up-in-your-business very close quarters approach by basically hiding health and ammo supplies in the dismembered cavities of the punched and ripped asunder.

I appreciate that this game is so intensely confrontational but part of the reason I haven’t progressed is that Doom requires a level of aggravational player rage to connect with one’s in-game avatar that I just can’t muster with ease. Maybe one day I’ll be angry enough to play through to the end.

Undertale

A game made famous for amongst other things its Pacifist Run, Undertale is a game who’s legend looms large over the gaming landscape because of what it does with one’s expectations and preconceptions of game and how it does that. Very clever.

What scares me most is that if there’s an option to do the pacifist run, it feels like that was intended to be the higher path through the game and if there’s a preferred path through a game I’d be worried the whole time that I wasn’t on it.

Don’t get me wrong I love a game that seems to be laughing at you a bit from behind it’s hand, or one that often thinks it’s cleverer than you but what worries me is getting through a game to the end and then feeling like you should have gone a different way and then not having the time or patience to subject yourself to a whole other run.

Does this mean I’m secretly just afraid to fail? Or at least to fail first time? Usually not but when getting it “wrong” or at least sub-optimally right means another 12+ hours, that can weigh heavy on a boy.

Dark Souls

There ok I’ve said it – yes we have no Dark Souls, we’ve even owned Bloodbourne pretty much since it came out in March 2015 and got nowhere with it. Everyone knows these games are hard, inscrutable, actively discouraging but the glow on the faces of those who have pushed through is a glow I want one day to share.

The internet is rife with tales of “yay though I struggled toiled until one day something clicked and the light oh the beautiful light” – it makes it sound like yoga or meditation and I can get with that. Except that in nearly 4 years I haven’t got with it.

It may sound trite but a fair chunk of my gaming availability is during daylight hours and these games are dark. I’m not generally given to hiding behind drawn curtains when it’s nice outside so dark games present their own issues, even with a nice 4k HDR TV it can be hard to make out subtle variations of black on a well lit screen.  

Am I really sayings it’s too sunny in Australia to play Dark Souls comfortably? Maybe I am. Will I have to move to somewhere less brilliant in order to finally commit myself fully to the unique masochism that is a comprehensive Dark Souls experience?

I’d like to think not.