Giving, Remembering and Missing Out.

The Good

Games for Good

It’s a dangerous world out there. Not only is it filled with snakes, spiders and Steven Seagal, it’s also got a hefty population of grandparents with a seemingly endless supply of embroidered hankies to dish out at any present-giving opportunity. Like gift-laden suicide bombers, they lay in waiting, their payload dressed up as if it were just one of the many wrapped offerings under the Christmas tree. Maybe this is where the phrase it’s much better to give than to receive came from. It may be true when it comes to receiving gifts from the elderly, but it’s not always the case. The two can be equally gratifying, as OneBigGame have shown by allowing us to purchase Chime – developed by SingStar studio Zoë Mode – on Xbox Live Arcade. Not only does ‘sixty per cent or more’ (whatever that means) of your 400 MS points go towards kid related charities, but it’s also a fantastic game which mixes music and puzzles even better than Lumines did. It’s like paying to be part of a fun run for charity, only it’s actually fun.

The Bad

Tiny Text on Old TVs

Alright, all this seemingly hyperbolic talk about Mass Effect 2’s brilliance has to cease. Now this 51cm 4:3 standard def box is not only serving as a reminder that my TV’s been in for repairs for four-and-a-half weeks. It’s also rubbing in my face the fact that, not only am I too much of a graphics whore to play through ME:2 in anything less than 720p, but that even if I could overcome my lust for graphical fidelity I wouldn’t be able to read through the game’s reams of text. Like Dead Rising and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, ME:2’s written content is near impossible to decipher on a standard definition television. I should be happy that at least I have Chime to get me through this week. But it’s kind of like sitting at home messed up on acid and making patterns with the carpet squares in your back room while all your friends are out at bars drinking and meeting new people. It’s great fun, but nobody really understands how cool it was apart from you.

The Rose-Coloured Memory

Retrogaming Is Ugly, But Sometimes Fun

A good childhood memory is an incredibly fragile thing. I can still remember how excited I was about the release of Robotech on DVD. The thought of all those deep personal stories alongside Zentraedi Warships and Veritech fighters blowing the crap out of each other with missiles that spun around for no apparent reason was, I thought, going to be great to relive. After rushing out to buy the Season 1 boxset, I slid the first disc in only to discover that what my memory told me was a space opera full of epic battles and cool technology was, in fact, a terrible mess of bad dialogue and poor animation, and those ‘personal stories’ made even my life look exciting.

Having destroyed my memory of stitched-together-anime for mid-80’s Western audiences, I’ve since been meaning to completely obliterate the fond memories of games I thought were amazing before my brain had fully formed. Gamesradar – which also lead me to Abandonia among other places – recently published a list of 30 commercial games that are now free to download. Remember the moment you once thought, “wow, this almost looks real. I don’t think graphics will ever get any better than this?” Well that statement was uttered by the same kid that believed a magical giant bunny came once a year to hide eggs made of chocolate around their house. Most have aged pretty poorly, but at least some of the gameplay is still pretty intact, unlike our crushed youthful innocence.

Related posts:

1. This is Week – Compassionate Gamers Edition
2. This is Week – Just Missed Christmas Edition
3. This is Week – Back to Reality and Away Again Edition

Tags: charity, Chime, Mass Effect 2, retro, This is Week

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 11:30 PM and is filed under Culture, Experience. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.