Tipping of the hat and a “Hey!” to everyone out there for June’s editorial… soooo… are we all looking forward to Fallout 76? At time of writing all we’ve seen of Bethesda’s guaranteed wagon-of-money is a brief teaser showing the occupants of vault 76 preparing to resurface, but unofficially there are rumours of MMO style gameplay, survival & crafting, and inspirations including DayZ and Rust. For me that would be a sharp turn away from what originally drew me to the series at Fallout 3 and I suspect that I’m not alone in those thoughts. Fallout has excelled in the past with its immersive worlds, with focused plots, factions, and overall story which are just not elements that you can really capture in a multi-player experience when (I’m going out on a limb here based on my experiences of Rust) 75% of the players will just be in it to mess with you. Fallout 4 lost a barrel worth of points with me for introducing the building and crafting elements so to hear… even a rumour… that they’re moving in this direction doesn’t fill me with hope. Having said that, a series needs to evolve with the time and hopefully I’ll be proven wrong. 

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Real Neat Blog Award

I’ve been honoured once more by the blogging community with a nomination for a community award, this time from Neko Jonez. Ol’ Jonzey is not only an excellent blogger providing commentary and insight on a vast number of gaming topics, he’s also just passed his 5-year blog-aversary. As a top notch member of the community it is a real privilege to be nominated by him so here’s my stab at answering some questions!

What is your earliest gaming memory?

I’m pretty sure it was playing a golf game with my Dad on his ZX Spectrum; it was a pretty basic game where you had a blocky map view of the course and had to enter numbers to determine the direction and strength of your shot… after you’d waited for half an hour for the tape to load off course!

When did you start blogging and why?

I began blogging about 2 and a half years ago and as I’ve often stated it was an effort just to put in to words thoughts I had about my favourite form of entertainment in a way that didn’t bore everyone around me. Knowing that some people seem to enjoy these ramblings is just a huge huge bonus!

What feature do you wish any of your consoles had that they currently don’t?

I wish my PC made coffee… that scuttle off to the kitchen to make hot drinks whilst I’m gaming is an annoying necessity. Imagine if there was just a coffee pot sat there on the front of the tower.

Name a movie that you wish had a video game made after it and what developer would you want to make it and why?

This is actually a tricky question as many of my favourite movies do have games made after them. I think a really cool game would be a Groundhog Day game. First person exploration style where each day is the same, but depending on who and how you interact with it there are many many different sub-stories to be unlocked.

Do you have a Games Room or Corner? If so let us see it and show your favourite thing in there?

I don’t really have a dedicated gaming room.corner. I guess the closest is the corner where my PC is as it’s where I game most of the time, but the gaming paraphernalia is scattered throughout the house.

Do you have a Child or a Pet? Which character do you name it after?

My wife and I have two ferrets who are called “Lockpick” and “Hacker” which is a sort of reference to the Hacker and the Locksmith characters in Monaco.

What keeps you going when Gaming?

Enjoyment… if you’re not enjoying it then stop playing…

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May’s Wrap-Up

Once again May had been a mixed bag when it’s come to gaming. I’ve been spending a good amount of time playing “Spy Party” now that it’s been released on Steam. This one-on-one battle of wits is a strangely intimate game with a top-notch community. Hopefully I’ll write more about my experiences in the coming weeks.

I kicked May off with a retrospective of “Men in Black” for PS1 it was one of the first PS1 games I owned and all things considered is a game that really doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Having never completed it as a teenager it was kinda nice to finally check that one off, but I don’t think I could recommend it to anyone! … Platforming with a fixed camera view and per-rendered backgrounds… really?!?…

Next up was my answer to this months QotM posed by Pix1001 over at Shoot the Rookie. For this is got carried away about my imaginary life as an Umbrella employee in Raccoon City, but had a lot off fun writing it! It was pretty self-indulgent (and if you’re not familiar with Resident Evil 2 then much of it might not really make too much sense) but I just got into a real flow when typing it so it takes its place amongst the bizarre fan-fiction-esque posts that I sometimes blurt out.

For whatever reason I then had a hankering for some good old-fashioned PC sim style gameplay and picked up Bullfrog’s Theme Hospital one idle weekend. Despite sucking pretty hard at containing epidemics, it is a fun & silly game that highlights why Bullfrog was such a big name in PC game development during the 90’s. Having said that, for me it just didn’t quite match quite predecessor Theme Park in terms of gameplay, despite being a more polished experience overall.

Finally I tackled “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter,” a game that’s been in my backlog for some time. It really does epitomise the walking simulator genre (regardless of whether or not you like that particular moniker). It has been a wile since I played that type of game and I was fully in the mood to be absorbed by it although I also fully understand why this type of game is not everyone’s mini-marshmallow of enjoyment.

Looking Forward to June

NEW Jurassic Park Movie!… or World… or whatever… still, Jeff Goldblum. Of course with that is the announcement of a brand new park builder style Jurassic Park game “Jurassic World Evolution, ” and we all know how much I enjoy a Jurassic Park game… or at least I’m trying to enjoy as many as I can, but failing to make much progress on this side of things. Sadly I don’t think I’ll be able to afford the huge price-tag that its being released with.

… I guess there’s always the backlog to tackle… but undoubtedly I’ll go off script anyway! Happy June All!