One of the most worn out phrases in games journalism has to be “If you’re a fan.”
And why not? With the way game development works and the fact that sequels are far more likely to get the green light from a publisher than an untested property, it’s in the best interest of those companies to release things that they know will hit their consumer’s sweet spot.
Fallout 4 falls into this pit, for better and worse.
The stiff permafrost of the ice planet Hoth glistens as my squad of rebels ascend the forward hill. We breach the horizon and I ready my blaster pistol, ready to defe–
Crap. A sniper put me down with a head shot. Let’s try that again.
My allies scramble through the narrow corridors of Echo Base, attempting to reach the uplinks before Imperial troops can halt our progress. I step outside and am met with blinding daylight reflecting off miles of ice a–
Dead again. A snow trooper lobbed a thermal detonator into the doorway. Alright, one more time.
The AT-AT approaches as my team scurries through the trenches th–
Darth Vader choked me to death. Maybe I should reassess my strategy. Continue reading
Fear me, Rebel scum.
A pain begins to throb within me once new World of Warcraft content is announced.
A dull feeling, like longing for a forgotten love or memory of better times, lost to the wind and never fully grasped again. This ache grows into a crescendo of urge and want until, eventually, I give in to this carnal need to launch myself back into the world of Azeroth.
Then…nothing. I play, and as quickly as that drug is shot into my veins, that want phases into a gaming fugue state. I come out on the other end of that tunnel thinking “Oh, right. I just remembered why I stopped playing.”
By their nature, fighting games have a high barrier of entry. This changes depending on the different type of fighting game, but for the most part the coordination and reflexes required to play tend to cause many players to check out. A select few fighters have attempted to alleviate this issue, such as Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s ‘Simple Mode’ that assigned special moves and super attacks to specific buttons. But, modes like this are often considered a special mode and not the main game.
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