Comfort in Familiarity

As I’m growing older, I’m finding less and less time to play games. I love them just as much, but it’s almost as though my brain has packed in to a zero-processing dead state when I decide to play a game for some sort of break or leisure time, from what has become a very hectic lifestyle with a temporarily heavy workload.

I can’t lift my eyes from the computer screen I’ve been sat working at, pick a game and, say, turn my attention back to my computer screen for more “thinking”. And I have so many games to choose from right now – there’s more Borderlands DLC that I’ll no doubt succumb to buying regardless, Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare (it gave me 10 minutes of joy, after which I had to curl up in a ball and shut my eyes for some sleepy time because I couldn’t be bothered pressing any more buttons or holding a controller), Enslaved (yes I do want to just play it over and over again), but perhaps most shockingly of all, I have four titles to reveal to you below, none of which I have found the combination of time and concentration to finish.

It’s shocking, isn’t it? Outright dreadful. Peace Walker is an absolutely amazing game, but I can’t comprehend how long it is, and how the game just keeps getting bigger and bigger the further I get. I feel as though I’m sinking in a hole and no matter how much I play, I’ll never actually get to the end of the game (which to be honest is great value for money).

But here’s the deal, there is one game I’ve managed to play a bit of almost every day. By now, it’s a no-brainer to me, and I don’t mean in terms of skill, just knowledge by repetition. For every nugget of gameplay there’s a lush filling of story that I can genuinely relax to. I’ve been busier with the codec than ever before, and actually stumbled across a conversation with one of the characters I’d never actually heard.

It’s Game Design: How To Do It Right. Security cards are an extremely simple and effective way to segment Shadow Moses, revealing it section by section – yet keeping the whole thing tightly cemented together and completely within context, rewarding the thorough, punishing the careless, allowing those interested in its universe to jump in, feel around and find so much more. In 1998 I never imagined I’d be playing the same game 12 years later, and still find something new inside it.