League's design was the perfect blend of tease and reward - digital crack for the FPS completionist - offering Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum medals for meeting requirements and deadlines. Hours would pass as I lay out on my bed flying through the story levels for the fiftieth time, before heading into the Arcade League and Challenge modes to try and unearth new wonders. TimeSplitters 2 was in there too, but it wasn't just for its exquisite level design and shooting feel it was stuffed to bursting with delicious unlockable treats, and I couldn't ever stop digging for those treasures. There were some titles that I kept, though, either because of their emotional resonance or from the sheer enjoyment that they created - Ico, then Shadow Of The Colossus Rez, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Point Blank, Kurushi Final, Kula World, Burnout 3, God Hand, and so on. They were used as currency too stacks of them would be traded-in once I'd drained them dry, back when that actually was a reasonable course of action. I still accumulate games now, of course - albeit at a much slower rate - but the difference then was that I actually played the hell out of all of them. Having spent a few years working in Cardiff Queen Street's then-massive HMV, my CD stack was somewhere north of ridiculous, but my game collection could stand eye-to-eye with it any day. So, of course, it all went on music and video games. And I had a steady income that, once the rent had been paid, I could spend on anything without guilt or remorse. I had my own room in a nice warm house and a fat CRT that teetered tipsily on the edge of a desk that hadn't seen a pen since the end of university. It feels like a universe away, but fifteen years ago the only things that would interrupt my quality PlayStation 2 time were the twin calls of bladder and stomach.
There was a time, before marriage and babies and learning how to bake (I bake now, apparently), that I could play video games for as long as I wanted. The problem, though, is twofold: firstly, as customers with brain cells, watching DLC fragments become Season Passes, which then evolve into paywalls that lock out initial players, can often leave a sour taste.Īnd the second problem is TimeSplitters 2. And why shouldn't they? Businesses are, after all, in the habit of making money, and adaption to the target market is a vital part of this process. Many saw it coming with Oblivion's infamous horse armour with the majority of modern consoles constantly gulping down new data from our gaping broadband pipes, it was only a matter of time before publishers saw the opportunity for earning regular chunks of income. The ubiquity of Season Passes and layers of post-release DLC is a standard part of today's gaming landscape.
0 kommentar(er)
