Geek Syndicate
after a game play and refer to myself as Commander
Shepard. Or Batman ... Heck, when playing through Mass
Effect 2, I once woke up to my work alarm and thought the
Normandy was under attack. I managed to stop short of
yelling “MIRANDA, let’s get to the bridge!”. I don’t think
my wife (then girlfriend) would have appreciated it. Her
not being called Miranda ...”
Dean: “When I start a new game I will play through the
tutorial and then stop my session there. Not because I
need to digest the information but because I find tutorials a massive chore, frequently lazily done and text
heavy. After dealing with that info dump I need to switch
my brain back on, which means I would switch the console
off and do something else.”
Dean: “I tend to not start new games unless I have at
least finished the main story or campaign of the one(s) I
am currently playing. Even if it isn’t very good. It is why
I am still playing Assassins Creed 4, Shin Megami Tensei
and Professor Layton and the miracle mask after all these
months. I’ve been on the last game since September and
remember playing it the night before my grandfather’s
funeral cos I couldn’t sleep.”
Matt: “For computer gaming I tend to keep a hard split
between single and multi-player games. I’ve got a friend
I do a lot of co-op gaming with, and through all the games
we’ve done together I’ve never played them single player.
Always, purely, co-op, even when the gameplay modes
are quite separate. I think it’s because I don’t trust my
own attention span and want to get through the game in
one play through rather than half-way through it twice.”
Time can also be a factor in your enjoyment of a particular game. How long do you play in one session? Do you
devour a game in one mammoth sitting? Or do you eek
it out in small pieces, savouring every little micro-triumph
or plot-arc in a more considered way? Do you play as and
when you have a spare thirty minutes or do you wait until you have a large chunk of spare time to enjoy it? Does
the depth of the game matter? Sorry to quick-fire lots of
questions at you but they are all things worth considering:
Antony : “I don’t like playing more than one “big” game
at a time. When playing the latest Mass Effect or Dragon
Age for example, or Far Cry 3 or Tomb Raider, I like to really get immersed in the character. I like to play in sessions of at least an hour, maybe two and not be distracted
so I can feel the character and get much more immersed in
the story telling. The number of times I come down stairs
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Atmosphere and setting can also be just as important.
Do you play in a cluttered room? Are there non-gamers
around you interrupting all the time or noisy things playing in the background? How about considering the type of
game and the time of day? It’s amazing how many people
instinctively leave horror games to play once it is dark outside (or the daytime if they know it will freak them out). I
also personally like to have a window open when roaming
the wilds in Skyrim. It is a tiny thing to do but to see your
character strolling along and have the smell of fresh air
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