The UK is experiencing a huge blast of Siberian air at the moment which the media is dubbing “The Beast From the East”, presumably in an effort to panic the masses and encourage sales of “essentials” (seriously, no milk at all in our local shop the other day). The upside is that this gives the perfect excuse to sit around trying to keep the house warm and playing Video Games!   

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Mystery Blogger Award:

After my awards bonanza last month, Hundstrasse has been nominated once again for a community blogger award, this time by The Gaming Diaries. It’s a great site that covers whole range of gaming related topics in a relaxed and friendly style. It’s tricky to highlight just one standout post, but I’ve just enjoyed reading this recent review (I managed to miss it somehow when it was published) of the Turing Test which is a game I hadn’t heard that much about, but being given a hearty Portal comparison is one that I think I’d like to check out.

I’m always thrilled to receive community awards (especially from great writers and bloggers), although given that I’ve only recently replied to other I’m going to forego the nomination stage and just get down to answering those questions!

1. If you could have one superpower/video game ability what would it be?

I’m never consistent with my thoughts on this topic; sometimes I think it’d be cool to be able to double jump, sometimes I think it’d be excellent to be able to Hadouken like Ryu… although I guess I’d only ever use it to impress people at parties. I think this month I’m feeling a little wanderlust so I’m going to say that I’d like to have Link’s glider from BotW. The ability to just soar from hilltops wherever I wanted is a pretty appealing idea!

2. What is your favourite film/TV programme and who is your favorite character within it?

… yet again this is one that I’m pretty changeable on… I’ve always enjoyed the films of Wes Anderson, so today I’m going to pick his imagining of “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” and the character Ash, Mr. Fox’s son, who spends his time trying find his place in the world and work out who he is… I guess he’s pretty relatable  for many of us…

3. If you could have a dinner party with 5 video game characters who would you invite?

• Chell (Portal)
• Otus (Owlboy)
• Jack (Bioshock)
• Link (BotW)
• The Doom guy

… I’m not feeling very conversational…

4. If you could only eat three foods for the rest of your life what would they be?

American style pancakes with syrup, Chicken Tikka Masala, Sunday Roast…

5. If you could forget one game and play it again for the first time, what game would you pick and why?

I think I’ve picked Resident Evil 2 previously for this, but I saw a tweet the other day that made me jealous that I couldn’t go back and play Metal Gear Solid for the first time again… so I’m going to go with that.

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Question of the Month:

Regular visitors will know that I try to participate in the ongoing “Question of the Month” (orchestrated by Later Levels). This month I managed to impress Kevin from The Mental Attic with my on-the-nose response to who from the world of gaming I would choose to be my personal trainer; So much so that he picked me to be February’s winner – an honour I hadn’t thus far managed to accomplish, so thank-you! 

… coincidentally I’m also March’s Question Master, so head on over to the MASTER POST (hosted by those chipmunks in a barrel at Later Levels) if you’d like to see what I came up with and if you’re participating then I look forward to reading your responses!

February Wrap Up:

Aside from my QotM activities, I’ve managed to stick to my normal blogging schedule despite taking a week out for a vacation with some friends down in the south of the country. We traditionally do this every year and it’s an opportunity to do very little and play board games. One of our group also brought along their PSVR which (one quiet evening) my wife and I monopolised to give me a more substantial taste of the VR experience rather than the short paddles I’d taken in the past. I’m always taken back by how immersive the experience is… yes, I know that’s the point, but it’s still impressive! I played through “Batman: Arkham VR” and a few mission in “I Expect You to Die”, the latter I was particularity fond of because the aesthetic and theming resonates well with me. Sadly not having a PS4, nor the cash to spare on a HTC Vive, I doubt I’ll be able to own anything VR compatible soon, but it was good fun (both playing and watching people flail about).

On the blog I wrote up my experiences of “Trespasser”, the latest in my Jurassic Park Quest. Looking back now, I really enjoyed the whole experience… even more so because of the streaming aspect so look out for more int he future when the right opportunity comes along.

I also mournfully looked back at some of the consoles I missed out on that I would like to have owned. I guess everyone has that feeling of having missed a “big thing”, and in gaming it’s often due to not having access to the hardware. Unfortunately writing this has sent me back to eBay several times to see if I can make up for lost time, but I think ultimately we don’t really have the space for me to begin collecting consoles…. maybe just a GameBoy Micro then…   

The big news from February was that Hundstrasse passed its 100th post! so i decided to do a self-indulgent piece looking back at the past few years that I’ve been doing this. I can’t really believe that I’ve stuck with it for so long now, but I enjoy putting each and every article together and maybe someday I’ll be so organised that it’s not a rush of finishing up articles over lunch breaks to meet my schedule.

Looking Ahead to March:

I finally faced my fears and am now playing Resident Evil 7. Being a fan of the early games, but not enjoying so much the shift in tone that the series took around number 4 (of the core series), it’s great to see how VII is in many ways a reimagining of the original concept. Sure, I have to play it in small doses, but I’ve had to do that before with games (… as I discussed with The Mental Attic…) and it doesn’t mean that I’m enjoying them any less. Hopefully I’ll be able to articulate my thoughts on that.

Other than that i still have a backlog, but it’s finding the right mood to play each game.  Our online gaming sessions have been a little variable in consistency, but we did have a particularly fun Fortnite evening this week, so hopefully some more of that… although I’ve written way too many Fortnite articles already. I’m also still trying to work out some creative outlet, but settling to doing something is a daunting prospect… how do creative types do it!?! …

Take care out there in the cold!