My gaming experience over the last couple of months has been mostly limited to the PC. And why shouldn’t it. I know a lot of people love to scream how the PC is dead for gaming, how all we get are crappy ports and how piracy is killing the platform, but honestly, I cannot disagree more.
The complainers are making one common mistake – they are looking in the wrong direction. Sure, a lot of the big dinosaur publishers and developers seem to be having a hard time. That’s because they are short sighted and narrow-minded. On the other hand, If you look at the indie scene, it was never this big. We get small and innovative games, we get big quality games, we get a return to the old, forgotten genres as well as the creation of completely new genres. There is literally something for most people.
This should in no way be a surprise. It’s just how the market works. If it looks like things are bad, it’s only a matter of time before a revolution happens. If people want a product, there will eventually come someone who can supply that product. So, don’t worry about the future of gaming on PC or on any platform. People love games and they will get them, the good ones as well as the bad ones.
And now for some concrete info…
Skyrim
Thanks to an extremely generous person on /r/favors, I got a brand new copy of Skyrim. Bethesda did not disappoint with this game. Sure, it’s a bit simplified compared to Oblivion, but so was Oblivion compared to some of the elements in Morrowind. There are other areas, however, where the games have greatly improved over their predecessors. The graphics shouldn’t even be mentioned. The Elder Scrolls series was always at the peak when it comes to that. The music, oh the music… Nothing needs to be said about that. Again, we have an upgrade of the traditional Morrowind theme. I never thought they could make it better than Oblivion, but they sure did. The Norse theme really adds to it, in the same way it adds to the story. Norse culture always intrigued me and while this is in no way the real thing, the elements it shares with it are more than enough to keep me hooked.
Of course, the gameplay is the critical part and no amount of atmosphere can make up for that. Luckily, this, also, is an improvement over Oblivion. The controls are just as good, maybe slightly better, the combat is the same style, but slightly more complex, the magic is greatly improved and the stealth element actually added some nice moves like proper backstab attacks, rolls, etc. As for the story, it’s classic, but it fits nicely and takes from the lore of Elder Scrolls enough to be interesting. SIDENOTE: If you’re not familiar with the Elder Scrolls lore, but love to read about a fantasy universe, go read up on it now – it’s one of the best and most complex I know of.
Two More Games
One of the games I should also mention is Sonic Generations. It’s been a long time since I played a platformer as awesome as this, so I won’t write much about it here. It, like Skyrim, definitely deserves more than a few paragraphs. This one, I also still actively play, or I would, if my gamepad wasn’t acting up. As for the PSP, It wasn’t used a lot, but I did play some Final Fantasy VII on it, simply for the sake of nostalgia. In short, the game is still as good as it ever was.
In any case, there will be more to follow on all of this. For now, you got a short recap.
