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Ach, he gets to play the Elite tutorials occasionally. Kids these days. (He can have my gaming cast-offs. This could work )

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Big sale on Steam right now, so I decided to snag Gone Home and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, two indie games I've wanted to play for a couple years now. I'll probably dig into those later tonight or tomorrow. I know Gone Home is a fairly short experience.

I considered adding The Long Dark as well, especially given its tremendous replay value. But I'm not ready to fall into a bleak survival sim quite yet.

I picked up Sol Trader and Rogue System, two Elite-a-likes.

Dishonored 2 is sitting there, waiting to be played, and I don't have much enthusiasm. It's amazing what a negative effect a badly acted voiceover can have.

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I'm trying to talk myself out of purchasing realMYST: Masterpiece Edition because I can never seem to recall the tangible frustration that inevitably sets in when I attempt to play these games.

If you do buy Myst, make sure it is indeed the realMyst -- that's a free-roaming version rather than the older point-and-click version that Yoda and I played in the mid-'90s.

You think that's frustrating, then try playing Riven. That's the one that I will probably never be able to finish.

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Oh, I'm very familiar with the MYST series.

I remember playing the original point-and-click version of the game back in the early 90s. MYST was available in stores, but Broderbund also released it as shareware promos to be included in PC packages. I know this because a friend invited me over to check out his family's first home computer and the "weird game" that came with it. I'll never forget how entranced I was when he booted it up. I couldn't get it out of my head. Once I finally got my hands on a copy, though, I became well acquainted with the unforgiving difficulty. Hey, I was eleven.

I also cajoled by mom into buying Riven (the original version included a whopping five CD-ROM discs that required switching back and forth as you traveled between areas). I spent a bit more time with that game and dutifully tried to solve the puzzles by recording every development or object of interest. But I think I was still too young to really work through the game as designed.

I later bought an anniversary set, I believe, which included MYST, Riven, and Myst 3: Exile, but soon upgraded my PC and no longer had the requisite operating system. Never got to play the third entry.

All that to say, MYST has been (and remains) a bit of an Everest for me, right up there with publishing my first novel and traveling to Ireland. It's a tough game and I've never had much patience for that kind of thing, but the world is so beautiful and mysterious and captivating that it's hard to throw away the idea entirely. I know there are step-by-step guides to help you through, but that's no fun. Maybe one day I'll find the time and the fortitude to finally summit this monster.

I even find myself still wanting to read the companion novels that were published around the same time that MYST was released. I remember seeing them in department stores and you can still find them online and in used bookstores.

Ah, a kindred spirit then. I have the first three novels. Read the first one and part of the second one but never got back to them. The hardcovers are beautiful.

And yup, I have that five-disk Riven set too. I bought each of the games when they were new, and then bought that Myst anniversary DVD set later (it goes up through Myst IV: Revelation, which I'm replaying right now, though slowwwwwly).

If you want a lot of that same great game vibe, with puzzles that are much more natural extensions of the beautiful world, go with Cyan's new game, OBDUCTION (Steam or GOG), which came out in late August. It's marvelous, and I got goosebumps when I first started playing because I was IN A NEW CYAN GAME after so many years.)

I still dive back into Uru once in a while -- was part of that whole Uru Online thing a few years ago, when it was on GameTap and then when the fans took it over and kept it alive. However, without any new content, it's mostly pointless to go back in-game online unless you're meeting friends. I want Cyan to keep making new games. I love their vision.

I hate some of their puzzles, but I love their vision. Ha!

Awesome!

Yeah, I always loved the cover design on those novels; they had the same "time-worn tome" feel of the books you discover in the games.

I do remember hearing about OBDUCTION when it was first announced, and it's definitely pretty surreal that it's a new Cyan game. I think I sorta dismissed it, though, because I didn't see myself investing in a PC capable of running it anytime soon. Now that I have a gaming laptop, though, hmmm...

Similarly, I've been really interested in Jonathan Blow's new-ish game The Witness, which is pretty obviously a love letter to MYST. The puzzles also look both consistent and visually interesting, so that's encouraging, and of course the scenery is beautiful. I've heard it's actually a very difficult game, though, so maybe it'll do nothing but serve me another jolt of frustration.

It's still at the very top of my Steam wishlist, though.

I'm getting on alright with TitanFall 2 online now. It's definitely on the more frenetic end when you're up against a tight team, but having seen a few maps, and got some more kit, I'm finding I can gather myself and strategise a bit more. Have got battery theft and delivery a bit more figured out too, which is cool. (Although I always seem to deliver battery support to some poor noob like myself, who then blows up anyway. I can't help but head to the crumpled ones!)

This probably won't translate, but I mocked up a thing I'm expecting to be in Elite one day... (the background is original footage, I've just roto-ed in the arms and 'mask', and added some convincer lighting and sfx)...



I spend more time speculating about this game's future than playing its present presence

Golgot:

I have avenged you! I killed Dush the Torturer in Shadow of Mordor!

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Hah what, does it do that?

The name does sound familiar... Was he strangely British, and an utter bastard, by any chance?

Yeah, it does. I remember avenging someone's killer as well, might well have been one of yours.

Shadow of Mordor is a game I've been meaning to get back into. Once I hit the 20 hour mark and second map. I fell off.

TBH, it doesn't really change hugely, but I don't think you'd unlocked the last big game-changer...



Got all my limbs crossed that they add something similar to the Nemesis system to Elite one day. It's exactly the sort of thing that'd breath life into otherwise 'procedural' exchanges. (Even if you don't remember the bastard, it adds colour. But if it is a guy you recall, and if he were to look more messed up and augmented after each exchange, and even come back with some defences against the way you killed him last time, that could really liven things up). Add allies remembering you too, and it could be pretty ace . I reckon something like it will be in by 2019... maybe 2020

Love the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor. At first, I wasn't liking the game a whole lot, but once I started unlocking abilities and getting into the captain stuff, I was addicted! Fun to see Gollum make some appearances, and there is a decent little story attached to the proceedings that fits well into the world of LotR.

People were predicting that we'd be seeing a mechanic similar to the Nemesis system in lots of games by now, but I've not seen any. It'd be perfect for a Hitman or a Yakuza style game.

Firewatch 2, not so much.

My Game of the Year thread will start tomorrow, if I can drag myself away from Pinball Arcade long enough to write a sentence.

Despite growing up in a country with very few arcades, I love pinball. Pinball Arcade has long been held up as the pinnacle of table simulations but I'd shied away from it for a long time because their packs tend to be pricey and rarely on sale.

Some of them have been reduced in the latest Steam sale, however, so I bought a few seasons. As luck would have it, season 3 was the cheapest and that one contained my all time favourite table, Black Knight 2000 - There was a time when I'd have traded my Galaga machine (plus a few thousand quid if I'm being honest) for a BK2000 table.

Oh man.



The Pinball Arcade version isn't too shabby either:



Possibly the greatest soundtrack in any game. Possibly the greatest tune ever committed to midi.

Anyway, my top 15 games of 2016 starts tomorrow! Be there or ... don't be there.

EDIT - Oh boy, there's one on eBay, and it's cheaper than I'd figured.

Tatty, no, think of the 1080 downpayments!

(Won't somebody please think of the 1080 downpayments!)

Nah, I'm holding off until the 1280.

As long as I don't get suckered into a 4k monitor, my card's going to deliver for a few years yet.

Bought Rainbow Six: Siege.

I always find the Rainbow Six series to be a bit sluggish with the controls, hopefully I like this one.

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