The End of a Generation - My Favourite Games of the 7th Gen: 7-6
I'm writing a series of posts about the games and consoles of the seventh generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP and DS). It includes a Top 20 countdown, thoughts on the industry, silly pictures and lots more.
20. DJ Hero
19. Wii Sports
18. Journey
17. No More Heroes
11. Mass Effect 3
7. Burnout
Paradise (The Ultimate Box)
6. The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim
Burnout Paradise
(2008) wasn’t just about cars. It was about freedom, exploration and hanging
out with friends, things you can appreciate even if you don’t watch Top Gear.
Sega Rally aside, I never really enjoyed racing games
before Burnout Paradise came along. My racing experience came via Gran Turismo
and Ridge Racer, linear games that sent you round and round in circles and
assumed you'd be excited by suspension upgrades, which I was not. The
non-linearity of Burnout Paradise was an eye-opener. Granted, it was confusing
at first, but ultimately it was liberating. It showed me that I could have fun
with virtual cars, and I've enjoyed a number of other sandbox racers since,
most notably Criterion's Need for Speed Most Wanted.
Burnout Paradise also weaned me onto online multiplayer,
being one of the first games I played extensively online. There was plenty to
do on your lonesome, but Paradise City was so much better experienced with
others. My favourite memories are of attempting intricate stunt routines with
friends, laughing at our own ineptitude as we collided mid-air, over and over
again. The in-game transition from single player to online was quick and painless,
and Paradise constantly fed you high scores and fastest times from people on
your Friends List, giving you something to aim for even when you weren't
directly competing in an event.
The layout of the city and events meant that a challenge
was always close by, with every road and set of traffic lights offering
something new. Even the alleyways of Paradise City were enticing, full of
smashable barriers and run-ups to billboards, the breaking of which became a
compulsive obsession. Events were of the race, stunt or destruction variety,
with cars grouped into Speed, Aggression or Stunt categories, making it easy
for an autophobe like myself to choose the right tool for the job. Every event
was accompanied by my custom soundtrack, a simple addition that personalised my
experience. A race wasn't a race if it didn’t come with a dose of The Prodigy!
I didn't play Burnout Paradise until the arrival of the
Ultimate Box in early 2009, which came with countless additions and tweaks to
the original game. Criterion supported their title with worthwhile DLC for
quite some time, including some of the best additional content I've ever
purchased. Big Surf Island, for example,
was even more of a playground than the main city and provided yet more impetus
to keep coming back for more. And keep coming back I did, finally unlocking the
Platinum more than a year after my first trophy. Not bad for a game full of
cars.
Oh Skyrim, you beautiful, buggy bastard. How can a game
so broken be so wonderful? Like the fool I am, I opted for the more technically
challenged, PS3 version of The Elder
Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), but that didn’t stop it from becoming one of my
most beloved games of the 7th Generation. I poured over 120 hours into one
playthrough of Skyrim, spread across three different years. I started in late
2011, fell in love with it in early 2012 and then picked it up again earlier
this year for the long delayed DLC. It was a rarity in an era where I preferred
to plough through games and not look back.
For a game of its size, Skyrim was relatively light on
narrative. Something about a man with a beard shouting at a dragon until it got
so upset that it went home, if I remember correctly. However, it was not short
on context, offering centuries of back story via the countless tomes and volumes
scattered throughout the world. From horticulture to the histories of long dead
kings, there was so much to consume and the world was all the better for it.
Skyrim was a realm of towering peaks, waterfalls, snow
drifts, glaciers, mist and fog. It was teeming with wildlife, dragons and at
least one talking dog. Every acre felt like it was handcrafted and most of it
served a purpose, rewarding those who chose to shun fast travel and go
exploring. The wonder of discovery was at the core of Skyrim's appeal. Trudge
your way to some remote location and you were likely to find a natural feature
to admire or NPC to interact with. Each town or hold was slightly different,
and the varying cultures easy to recognise. Men worked even the remotest of
mines, bandits held ruined forts, witches lurked in caves and Eorlund manned
the forge. Everyone and everything seemed to have a place and purpose, as Skyrim
avoided the cut-and-paste feel that scuppers so many open worlds.
It wasn't just about walking around with my mouth agape,
like some hulking, Viking tourist. There were many things to do, far too many
to fit into a reasonable playthrough. I joined the Dark Brotherhood, cured
myself of werewolfism, murdered the evil proprietor of a local orphanage and
searched high and low for a magical elixir. There was no end to the minor
activities I pursued, including filling my shelves with ancient volumes,
becoming the finest blacksmith that ever lived, building a house fit for a
king, and seeing how many deer I could shout off a mountain, while dressed as a
jester. In Skyrim, the smallest ventures were often the most rewarding.
The arrival of PS3 DLC earlier this year gave me another
excuse to jump back in. Dawnguard was uninspired, with its tale of vampires and
slayers, but Dragonborn was the expansion I was hoping for, opening up a brand
new and distinct island, complete with its own unique missions and
distractions. Hearthfire was the Dragonborn home-making sim I'd always wanted, allowing
me to live the Dovahkiin dream. I gave my beautiful wife Lydia the home she
deserved, filled it with pine furniture, orphans and books about pine
furniture. We were so very happy.
No other game this generation held my attention for quite
as long and as completely as Skyrim. When I was playing it, I had no interest
in other games; everything else felt shallow in comparison. Its performance
issues were frustrating, but I could never stay mad at a game this ambitious.
I don't think either of these would make my top list. I prefer Fallout a lot more to Elder Scrolls and Revenge a lot more than Paradise. I can see why other people prefer these ones, they just didn't have that spark I played with the other ones. Though I should probably get back to Skyrim.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get into Fallout 3. I might be a bit more receptive to it now though, but can't see myself ever going back. Too many new games to play!
DeleteCheers
Some of my best online memories happened playing Burnout Paradise. I loved how with my group we ended up always finishing with the big full city lap race. And they really showed how to do DLC right. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteWe seemed to spend most of our time doing stunt missions. So much fun, even if we were a bit shit at it!
DeleteCheers