PC Gaming

This article somehow set me on a long path of reminiscence and reflection on how I've not been particularly enjoying many new releases. I usually compose these ramblings and hit delete instead of send, but this hits close to home so please allow me to take to the stage just this once.

It started by reminding me of one of my favourite games of all time: Kid Icarus Uprising. Each level opens with a 5 minute on-rail segment before transitioning to a third person mode where you can explore a little as you make your way to the boss. Every few levels has a unique mechanic to spice things up too, overall providing a great and balanced variety of gameplay whilst you experience an entertaining story through to the end. It's repayable not because there's a ton of different outcomes to dialogue trees or a different NPC to romance, but because it's fun!

I also love to be involved in the game's story, watch the drama unfold around me in real time as characters come and go and tensions ebb and flow. I'd rather have one major choice to make or none at all than this constant deluge of meaningless multiple choice dialogue boxes and quests with outcomes boiling down to "the easy way" or "brute force".

I feel like the success of "open world" games has taken a toll on single player experiences, with it's philosophy mistakenly applied when it probably shouldn't have. I grew up with the DS+ family and since moving to PC I've seen a similar thing happen with Battle Royales and multiplayer, so I can only assume this has happened before and will happen again.

Obviously the answer is Indie games, but visibility is the key problem to solve. I love seeing people talk about their favourites, so if you have one that resonated with you please give them a shout-out! I won't keep you here any longer so I'll only briefly mention the one that gripped me the whole time: CrossCode.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.