the background noise

As alluded to in my last post I have some thoughts about the game I have spent most of the last week playing, that game being Paradise Killer , those thoughts being well... these ones.  First up it seems like a minor miracle that I am playing a game like this in 2023 on my PS5 and not on my PS2 in the hallowed year of our lord 2001. it's a game that's quite simple and straightforward in some ways and in others it has a lot going on just beneath the surface. It feels about as removed from the generic high budget videogame as it gets these days without going into the realm of indie low-budget. There's some weird throwback energy going on here is what I am saying and over the next few hundred words I will attempt to put said thoughts in some kind of coherent order. To the commentary...

This week I have been mostly playing Paradise Killer . I have many thoughts about this game but those will comes later. Suffice to say there's an embarrassment of riches here for zany out of context screenshots, such as this snippet from a conversation between my player character and a possessed vending machine that just might be out to end the world as we know it.  No shortage of such moments in this game and I applaud its developers for going out on something of a limb here. As I say, more thoughts later but for now enjoy these visions of inter-dimensional madness from the repeatedly rebooted island of the gods, more after the break...

'I'd say we're looking up a dead horse's rectum Norm!' Presenting the first of an infrequently updated series where I pay tribute to the very best finds found upon the DVD shelves of charity shops wherever I happen to find them. Films loaded up to the gills with pure cut-price testosterone. Films where men are men and production values are low to middling at best. The great value quality aisle of the action movie world. Those humble titles that just don't get no respect or enough appreciation for their distinctive DVD box art.  Not saying this will be a showcase of quality action cinema mind you but let's see what we have here...

A moment of appreciation if you will for the humble giant robot, mecha or walking tank. Playing a lot of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries lately, a 'war-em-up' set in your standard grim future of near total conflict across, between and beyond the stars. Why it's been a good long while since last I played one of these. In fact there was no less than a nineteen year gap between this game and MechWarrior 4 . not entirely certain that was the game I played then or whether it was perhaps a budget release of MechWarrior 3. Regardless that's o ne nine years  I tell you! Sure there's been mobile and online games in that time but by and large this is a series with some serious underexposure in my humble opinion. Shame really, because when it's firing on all laser cannons, it satisfies that ever eternal need to pilot a giant bipedal tank through a future battlefield whilst wrecking all what you see. I'm having a lot of fun with this game is what I'm saying...

I've been playing Metal Wolf Chaos XD , a special kind of crazy. A game in which the US President wages war on an attempted coup d'etat against America by taking on the villainous forces of his Vice President armed in a ridiculously, implausible mech suit. He may be wearing a war machine but his true power is the love of his country. 

Presenting the first of an infrequent series where I showcase my all time favourite video game music, starting with this little gem from Deus Ex ...

Hello 2023 , it's nice to have you here! Yes I know we're a full month in, nonetheless it's a new year, a new day and a new blog post. New games as well, well not new games as such but possibly more recent games than I've been playing as of late, newer games shall we say? Newish? That's a word right? Yeah let's go with that, this is the internet after all. Tallying up my games played last year, I came to the rather startling, nay troubling conclusion that I played something like fifty games across the entirety of 2022. Nearly an inexplicable game per week by some nefarious tampering of space and time.  Not sure how I accomplished that if I'm honest, a single minded sense of purpose perhaps? A stubborn refusal to engage my time more productively? Whatever the answer, I've been left with a lot of games to reflect back upon. Lots of good times with an ample selection of the less spectacular to choose from as well. See my previous blog entries for individu...