Ooooh - it's still here!

Two years ago I was just starting an exciting new role - I was enthusiastic and gung-ho.
I said at the time I didn't expect to keep the blog up for long, but I thought it would be more than 6 posts.
You can tell from the dates of the posts how quickly I became disillusioned with the job, when the enthusiasm began to feed as I realised exactly what I'd walked into...

Anyway, less than year later I'd left the company to go do something completely different - and since then I've been kinda busy!

Anyway - I've been feeling the need to blog again. Sometimes Twitter and Facebook updates are just too short for what I want to say. On top of that, most of what I want to post is more personal-diary and not really of interest to anyone else :-)

So I've changed the strap-line (a bit) and I doubt I'll be talking much about the Software Development Life-Cycle or Agile processes... At the very least I'm planning to keep track of the video games I play this year... :-)

Update: I've now get a short review of all the games I've finished recently. These are really just for me so don't expect great writing or incisive criticism :-)

Far Cry 3

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed every second of Far Cry 3.
Yes, there are issues with the plot, particularly in the second half and the very end.
Yes, most of the characters (including the player character) are obnoxious morons.
But I just found it to be so much fun!

The graphics are outstanding - playing at "Ultra" on my laptop (at around 35 FPS) you could see every blade of grass and every palm frond; Rook Island is a truly beautiful place.
While there are a few too many "fetch the items" quests, I genuinely enjoyed hunting down all the relics and (in particular) lost WWII letters - it's very rare for me to bother 100%-ing a game, but with Far Cry 3 it was a pleasure.
I also enjoyed capturing the enemy bases - whether sniping from the hills, sneaking in with a silenced SMG or storming in guns a-blazing.

There were one or two frustrations:

• Limited weapon capacity early on feels a bit forced and frustrating - although it does encourage you to go hunting for upgrades, which I might not have bothered to do otherwise.
• Some of the watch-towers seem unnecessarily frustrating to climb
• It can occasionally be difficult to find the cave entrances when you know a relic is hiding nearby.

Oh and I didn't really like the ending.

Last sentence has to go to Vaas Montenegro, who started off looking very much like he was going to be the annoying standard gangster character, but turned out to be a genuinely entertaining and memorable psycho!

From Dust

I really wanted to like From Dust, I very much wanted it to be a modern Populous.
Sadly, there's just not enough to it; the first couple of levels introduce your divine powers - the ability to shape the land to help your tribe repopulate the ancient islands - thennnnnn, that's it.
A couple of minor variations on the same theme (e.g. building rock from lava) but nothing that really adds any depth or complexity.

In fact, therein lies the biggest problem with From Dust. There isn't really much room for interpretation, style or doing things your own way. As far as I could tell, there's one right way to do each level (certainly the later ones) and if you don't get off to the correct start, you're essentially fighting a doomed rearguard action. There's no scope for valiant recovery with imaginative use of your powers and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Which is a shame.

The unlocked "challenge" levels don't add much more, just shorted timed challenges along the same themes - these are more honest in the fact that they're just puzzles.

All in all, it's just too shallow and too short - more of an experimental puzzle game than a true god/strategy.

Dear Esther

Dear Esther was a very, very interesting game. If game is the right word, which it probably isn't.
I do like games that try to do something different, something imaginative or unusual - anything leading away from Call of Duty XVII... and Dear Esther certainly does that.

Dear Esther tells the story of someone exploring a Hebridean island while reciting from a letter to the eponymous Esther. As you explore the island (mostly just by walking forwards and looking at the pretty scenery) the back story is gradually revealed through the semi-random snippets of monologue.

So there's no real game-play, as such, and it takes maybe 2 hours to get to the end - in some respects it's not much more than a glorified engine demo.
On those grounds, I couldn't really recommend spending £6.99 on it, but it is intriguing and strangely compelling for the short time it lasts. While I couldn't recommend buying it at full price it's certainly worth spending a couple of hours on someone else's copy!

Dishonored

One of the best games I've played on a long time, I thought Dishonored was a truly outstanding game.
While the plot was fairly predictable, the fantastic setting and outstanding voice acting made the whole game feel truly big-budget.
Similarly, the open-world approach to the missions and the imaginative range of special powers made for an atmospheric blend of tension and sudden violence that was great fun from start to finish.

One criticism that I've seen levelled at Dishonored is that it's too short. I find that a bit strange - maybe if you blitzed through it with crossbows blazing you could finish pretty quickly, but that would be missing the point.
I played with a mostly-stealth approach, but without going for the extreme pacifist achievements and I clocked around 24 hours over a week - collecting most items without being a completionist.
I guess I'm lucky that I can afford to buy new games fairly regularly - but I would much rather play a short, perfectly formed, game than something padded out just to make it longer (looking at you, Skyrim)
And 24 hours isn't exactly short.

So if you're worried about value for money, don't be. If you're not a fan of stealth games, neither am I - Dishonored is definitely worth playing (although it might be worth waiting for the next Steam sale as it was 50% off at Christmas...)