Gaming Archives - oldgamer

10th April 202010th April 2020

Assassins Creed Unity review (2020)

Unity arrived a year after the well-received AC IV: Black Flag, and was the first Assassins Creed game to be written specifically for the PS4 and Xbox One generation. Ubisoft really tried to push their technology, with some groundbreaking indoor/outdoor lighting transitions, and insane numbers of NPC’s on the screen. Back in 2014 when the game launched, reviews were lukewarm. There was a lot of talk of visual glitches and bugs, with characters suffering from distracting texture pop-in, and the player sometimes getting so completely stuck on a piece of the world that the game had to be restarted. I didn’t buy the game at the time, although at some point years later I saw it being (almost) given away for £0.99 and grabbed an Xbox One copy. Shamefully, I played it once for about 30 minutes and completely forgot about it, but I remember being quite impressed and wondering if the reviews were a bit harsh.

23rd May 201923rd May 2019

Draugen – a dark, atmospheric Norwegian adventure

Eurogamer are reporting that reporting that Draugen – a new ‘fjord noir mystery’ set in 1920’s Norway is due out next week on Steam, with consoles later in the year. It looks great from the trailer – slightly reminiscent of Firewatch but much darker. Check it out:

This looks like a must buy for me – can’t wait to give it a go. Look out for a review soon.

11th May 201913th June 2019

What’s wrong with today’s gaming industry?

In the early days of the PS4 and Xbox One, I was full of optimism for almost every new big game releases, just like I had been with the 360 and before that. But as these machines matured, my enthusiasm waned – beaten down by all the titles that over-promised and under-delivered. Nowadays, unless a release has been showered in awards and has a lot of positive sentiment around it, I ignore it. Even if the reviews are good, I will still look for reasons not to buy.

Have I really changed that much? Or are there other reasons? Firstly, it’s certain that I’ve changed. There is no doubt that I have less time available. And after decades of internet use, my attention span could be better (although it is improving – more on that in another article)! I have more non-gaming interests too, so in the short chunks of spare time I have, I’m more likely to spend it on things like watching YouTube videos about cameras, old tech and other nerdy forms of procrastination.

Even so, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling underwhelmed by modern gaming. And it’s not so much that I’m getting left behind, it’s that there’s a number of trends that have had a negative effect on the pure fun of gaming.