Video Games

Fallout 3 acolyte here. I can't emphasise enough how good that game is. Properly got sucked in, like Neverending Story. The world is SO rich, and so uncompromisingly grim. After a few hours in the Wasteland I actually felt jaded, but a big new event, like discovering another Vault, or meeting a friendly face, inspired genuine joy, the likes of which I'd not experienced since Ocarina of Time 10 years ago. I'd spend an hour just tabbing across the terrain, sniping slavers and looting buildings, stocking up safehouses for emergencies.

This sense of immersion is the precise reason why I wouldn't touch games like Fallout 3 with a very long bargepole. I want to be immersed in the world around me.

My favourite computer games these days are short DOS games like Railroad Tycoon, The Sentinel, or my all-time favourite, Snipes. Games that look really blocky like computer games should, with no sense of immersion. Or, better still, I like playing boardgames with friends around a table.

I know it sounds like mere nostalgia, but it's a conscious decision irrespective of nostalgia. I don't think that creating immersion is a very desirable or admirable quality in a game. I think it masks the absence of a key high-quality idea for a game--all those complex FPS or role-playing games like Oblivion are just very large databases with a GUI, and that's not enough for me.