For me, the first two Tomb Raider games remain very special to me. The first games that I played which genuinely felt ‘big’ and felt open ended for you to explore. Some of the caves and the music in the first game were absolutely tremendous for their time. You felt as though you really were entering a lost world or underground space where lots of things happened many years ago and you were rediscovering what was left. Nothing has hit me quite the same in gaming before or since.
The new/latest ‘Tomb Raider’ was also pretty good but didn't leave the same level as impact for me as the island was already inhabited. No truly huge open cave spaces either. I don’t want to take anything away from it – it’s certainly one of the better efforts from Crystal Dynamics generation of Tomb Raider’s, but it didn’t feel particularly special. It’s probably my age…!
Sticking on the theme of early games in a series, the first few Silent Hill’s were also superb. The second game was only toppled off it’s mantle of being my favourite game of all time last year when ‘The Last of Us’ took it’s place. I still regard Silent Hill 2 as being a genuine masterpiece. Few games for me even to this day can match the overall level of enjoyment this gave me. For it’s time the cutscenes were absolutely first class (still wouldn’t look that out of place today some what, 14 years on?), the background music was perfect for it and some of the settings filled you with genuine horror.
On reflection, Silent Hill Shattered Memories remains one of the very worst games I’ve experienced. It was clearly designed for a much younger audience. Too bold, too bright, a bizarre sound track that would have suited a comedy and a storyline that contradicted everything that made the original brilliant. What an absolute mess that game was… A real low point in the series. Thankfully, Downpour was vastly better. No, not as good as the earliest games but by god much better than the declining mediocrity Silent Hill fans have endured for six/seven years, plus…
I enjoy most GTA games but I particularly enjoyed Vice City with it’s 80’s settings. The beach, the neon lighting and of course the period vehicles. It’s also about the only GTA game where I can say I could listen to more than half the radio stations quite happily.
I don’t enjoy most FPS’s that I play and it’s got to the point I now actively avoid them as I’m bored of this vastly over-saturated genre. I’m not particularly good at them either as I find the controls to just about all of them either too numb or over-sensitive. Every single one of them plays and feels the same to me – they all blur into one. All involve some sort of deserted urban environment with strategically placed lumps of rubbish (tables, counters, cars, concrete boulders e.t.c...) to hide behind. There’s usually some sort of mission in a helicopter that involves high on impossible pin-point precision shooting that takes around 23 attempts to eventually stumble your way over the finish line… Every character wants to act the 'hard case' with lots of shouting and I struggle to understand what actually goes on in any of them. There’s no let up – you go from one ‘arena’ of gun fire to another.
The saddest thing about all of this is that now I find just about every game out there on the market, baring racing games, seem to replicate this same basic, very saturated platform in one way or another. Look at Resident Evil 7. Once a survival horror in which you used to have to dodge enemies and solve puzzles. You only had to shoot to clear a path or survive. Today it's become, yes you’ve guessed it, yet another FPS… Replace solders with Zombies and you’re pretty much there… "Bang, bang, bang" in well-masked linear combat environments, with a few familiar faces thrown in to try and pass it off as a Resident Evil title. That's all it is…!
Red Dead Redemption is a bit of a funny one with me. It’s one game that the vast majority of people I know have hugely enjoyed. However, I just couldn’t get into it for some reason… I got about four/five hours into the game and pretty much gave up. I really can’t lay my finger on why but I just couldn’t get into it or really understand it.
