I'll have a fuller post up about the first year of blogging under the 'Badinage' title over at the new home for the blog. Yes, I'm back using the Wordpress platform for blogging!
If you want to follow what I'm up to blogging-wise in the future, please direct your browsers and feed readers to:
davidmosbon.wordpress.com
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Cheers
DM.
There was a time when I'd have three books on the go at once. I'd flirt with each until one really took hold and my attention would stay with that title until I turned over the final page. I may or may not finish the other books that I had started. I may even restart reading just one and yet not finish it.
My videogaming has taken a similar turn to that of my friend mbp over at Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle. He recently asked, Am I too fickle about gaming? His concerns are that he buys too many games that he doesn't finish:
I admitted to having bought 42 games last year and only played 13 of them thoroughly.
Although I did have similar concerns to mbp, I don't let the number of games I have yet to complete bother me. What does interest me is why one game that I'm playing lose out to another? To give you an example, I have three new videogame titles - Fable 3, Fallout New Vegas and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West - I began Fallout NV(a pre-order), picked up Enslaved(from trading in titles) and then received Fable(pre-order) all in a very short space of time. Each had a lasting first impression and I'm still flirting with each of the titles(just like I use to with my books). I do know one of these three will win out my full attention and I may not get to finish the other two titles for some time. This doesn't worry me.
A good question to ask at this point is; does a strong first impression(be it bad or good) lead to longevity?
If you take note of my initial impressions of the three, do they really indicate which I might go on to complete first?
Enslaved has to be the shortest length in terms of single-player campaign, Fable 3 the most entertaining and Fallout has that open-world experience. All have positives and all are rather different from one another. Maybe I should be more concerned with what end impressions these videogames allow me as a player and how they compare with those first impressions?
Back from Rome which was my first visit to the city but not to Italy itself. I have now seen Venice, Siena, Florence and Sicily with Venice being my favourite destination. Rome was a great break away but am now creeping back into the swing of things, even after the nice one-two of Fallout New Vegas and Fable 3.
FNV was one of the few titles that I had played at the recent Eurogamer Expo that got me excited. After a few hours play into the retail version of Fallout New Vegas, I seem to have placed my excitement at the right title - even with the bugs.
I didn't experience the same intro bug as shown in the above video, as it looks to have been removed pre-release. But that's not to say that I haven't experienced a fair bit of floating bodies and clipping.
I do hope Fable 3 doesn't experience the same release experience but it doesn't look good if you cast your mind back to Fable 2 development cycle.
I hate 3-D.
From movies to videogames, the 3-D 'experience' is just another in a long line of gimmicks to get the consumer to part with more money for very little in the way of real innovation.
The following video(from The Box Office Junkie site) may highlight the movie industry BUT those of you that think 3-D is the next big thing for gaming should take heed.
I have to agree with Spinks's summary of her own experiences of this years Eurogamer Expo. It was lacking in any real variety with 90% of what was on show being shooters or their half-breeds(see Infamous 2).
The press queue, on Saturday, looked to be part of the youngest age demographic at the show and I'm sure many were under the legal drinking age! Not sure if this is a worrying sign or not.
Once inside I must have spent a good four hours of my life looking over what most of the gaming youth at the expo had come to expect - big titles and not so big, released and the soon-to-be. Medal of Honor did sucker me in - I had very little interest in the title before attending the expo - and Fallout New Vegas may also surprise me. Fable 3 looks smart without, I’m glad to inform you, containing the menu wheel that was seen in Fable 2. The 'holding hand' game mechanic was there for all to see in the playable demo and I can imagine it will grab the imagination of players in co-op gameplay more than in the singleplayer.
Other than those titles the expo seem a very 'dry' experience. To much reliance on the AAA titles with little else to do but queue up or stand idly watching doesn't make for a very proactive or engaging experience for the majority of the time. I even queued up in a line of 'fans' of LBP that were handing over pictures their kids had drawn etc in returning for t-shirts and other freebies. Of course being empty handed I was offered an uneasy smile but very little else.
2011 forecast? More of the same? I'm not ready for that...
