Jul 21
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Sundays are for getting dangerously into No Man’s Sky again. Before I go floating in a tin can, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!)
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Sundays are for getting dangerously into No Man’s Sky again. Before I go floating in a tin can, let’s read this week’s best writing about games (and game related things!)
The skies roil. The forests burn. The oceans drink themselves, then throw themselves back up, then drink themselves again. That’s gross, oceans. Don’t do that. Wait. Wait. Sorry. I misread the memo. It’s not the end times, it is simply the end of the week. That’s much nicer. Weekends bring with them solid videogame hours, and perhaps even video game hours? We shall have to see. Here’s what we’re clicking on.
Ho, wayfarer! Beware slight spoilers for Alan Wake 2 in the passages ahead.>
Deep in the Dark Place of Alan Wake 2 there is a forest that is not a forest - a zig-zag tunnel adorned with murals of a grisly woodland scene. Entering that tunnel, you find yourself sealed in at either end. But the mural suggests a way out: it changes when you turn around, following an unspoken narrative. It's a device as delicate as the graffiti elsewhere in the Dark Place is obnoxious. In hindsight, it feels like an example of "metsänpeitto", a concept from Finnish folklore about forests which, as writer Sinikka Annala explains, saturates the design of Alan Wake 2. It's a fascinating idea I'd love certain much larger, less intriguing video game worlds to learn from.
I am burning the Bishop while he sleeps. I'd say it's nothing personal, but quite a lot in medieval management sim Norland is personal. He shouldn't have slept with the Queen's sister, for example. He shouldn't have insisted his lover subsequently pay him for a confession to absolve herself of the guilt accrued from sleeping with him. He shouldn't have felt safe in a room next to the Queen, a woman described as "reckless" in her character traits, and who is perilously close to having a nervous breakdown. This, my holy friend, is how your bed chamber becomes a raging inferno.
By the end of my first game of Norland, the village of Nandos (you can name your own settlements) is covered in more blood than the back end of the bard's best work. In storytelling terms, it is a tragedy. In terms of fantasy management games? It is great fun. The failure cascade as waterslide.
When you dive into the mess of folders on your PC, what do you find? Cobweb-plastered manuscripts for those twelve fantasy novels you started? Mouldy design documents for those nine games you never actually began coding? Perhaps dozens of little motheaten thumbnails of that masterpiece you're planning to someday paint? Relax, I'm not calling you out (I have my own groaning cybercabinet of neglect). Rather, I'm here to say don't worry. Everyone does it. Even famous Final Fantasy character designer and Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura, who has a “huge number of game proposals lying dormant” in a mish mash of folders on his PC. You're just like him!
I've tried visual novel games in the past, like A Space For The Unbound and Hatoful Boyfriend. And what's frustrating is that I just don't get on with them, despite knowing that they can convey brilliant stories through all sorts of interesting cuts and shots and whatnot. I'm sorry to report that certain stories won't grab me if they're not ticking along at just the right pace or if they don't pull me in straight away. I'm a needy soul, someone who demands immediacy and a special emotional sauce.
Until Then is, without a doubt, the only visual novel-y game I've truly enjoyed. In fact, I'd say I've more than enjoyed it - I think it's superb so far. The teens that drive this story are written with an authenticity I've not encountered before, and the 3D interwoven with the 2D adds some surprising - besides the literal - depth.
Prime Day 2024 has delivered a rather good deal on a rather good budget SSD, but now Amazon’s supersale settles down into its final hours, I think we can afford ourselves a look at something…spicier. Something superlative, in fact, as the Samsung 990 Pro is the single fastest NVMe SSD I’ve ever tested for game load speeds – and it can be yours for 24% off in the UK, or 40% off in the US.
You know the drill by now. Big sale event, Logitech G502 Hero, legendary gaming mouse, yadda yadda yadda. This time it’s Prime Day 2024 making the cuts, with 64% off the G502 on Amazon UK and a lower (but still very deserving) 56% saving on Amazon US.
I don’t know if there’s a 'default' gamepad for playing controller-leaning games on PC, but if there is, it’s likely the Xbox Wireless Controller. Much in the same way that if you fancied a tin of beans, chances are you’d reach for classic Heinz, you just know that the Xbox pad will do the job. Unlike those saucy Haricots, however, I’ve always winced at how pricey the Xbox Wireless Controller is – except today, the last of Prime Day 2024, where UK-based Prime members can pick one up for a far more sensible £40. In one of five colours, too.
Assuming you’ve already furnished your Steam Deck with a microSD card, your next stop on the accessories train should probably be a docking station. As luck would have it, Ugreen’s nifty 6-in-1 hub/stand combo is currently going extra-cheap, should you take up Amazon’s offer to stack a substantial Prime Day reduction with an additional voucher.