Former GameSpot freelancer and founder of SmashPad, Anthony Perez, talks about being laid off, struggling through 20-hour days, and the long road back to gaming.
Here are some quotes:
"Thank f***** Christ.'
That's about all I can remember from last Wednesday. I said it right after walking out of Johnny Rockets, leaving a shift at the 1950's themed diner which, when combined with a couple of internships, served as the tail-end of what had become the routine 19-hour days I had endured from August 2009 until then...
But what was most significant about last week wasn't that my rollercoaster ride of career discovery had come to an end, but that I had almost completely missed the release of Mass Effect 2...
It was then that I realized how much I missed gaming. I was so involved in the rat race, that I had missed out on half a year's worth of gaming goodness...
Unless you've been in a similar situation as me – and I realize that with unemployment at 10%+, that's highly probable – then you have been given a gift. A true gift that's worth can only be measured and known if you've been as far removed from it as I have for the past 7 months."
GB: "We take a look at 15 amazing games that had the perfect length."
Pretty good list. Botany Manor would be the newest addition that encapsulates that title.
Talal writes: "I'm talking about having that rush of excitement - that feeling you get when you know you've just made a memory for a lifetime."
There are different games. Some have gamplay at it highest priority, some have the story, some have the replay value and choices... There are a lot of different game experiences.
It is laughable that just now graphics does not have anything to do with that experiene. We have had many games of that type over time. This is just the one that have come closest to feel like playing an actual movie. Just look the the Digital foundry walkthrough it is a masterpiece in that perspective and hence wrth trying. But yes do not do it for the gameplay - but that was never the goal of this experience.
They don't make games like this anymore.
Too dated in my book. The AI is way too unpredictable to be acceptable today. It's definitely a game of its time.
I had a good time with the game. It is a product of its time. But when it came out it was a must have game for a lot of people. I wish Ubisoft would make another game in the series or at least a reboot.
Due to the lack of modern stealth games, and me constantly playing the MGS series, I've been looking for alternative stealth games to play, and went back and re-played the SC series recently. I wouldn't call SC1 or SC:PT masterpieces, there are AI issues, they're very much trial-and-error games, and that can lead to a lot of frustration. I also found the stories in this series to be boring, uninteresting, and just sloppily told. Cinematics are also of poor quality for both in-game scenes and CG cut-scenes, the soundtrack didn't leave any impression on me either.
Chaos Theory is better, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, and Double Agent (old gen ver.) was a sloppy mess that ended up a regression from CT. But still, at least they tried back then, these days Ubi-junk doesn't even try to make good games!
This reminds me of how petty the arguments are on here between people comparing the 360 and PS3. I mean come on people, this is what it's all about. This guy busted his ass for months, day and night, and at the end of the day it's all about the gift of games:
"And, more than anything else, be appreciative. Unless you’ve been in a similar situation as me – and I realize that with unemployment at 10%+, that’s highly probable – then you have been given a gift. A true gift that’s worth can only be measured and known if you’ve been as far removed from it as I have for the past 7 months. A gift that I had intended to articulate beautifully at the start of this post, but at this time, has only inspired sentences that lack the power necessary, not because of my prowess as a writer, but because of the poverty of language to communicate such an incommunicable feeling."
I had a similar thing happen for a while. It was for school though. I was so focused on finishing my degree, and the program was intense so I didn't have much time to play games. I was only out of the loop during finals for a little over a month, but I remember picking up Bioshock and going "Woah. I've been missing out."