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“Well, that worked” – Killzone 3

After a deflating twist away from the possibility of a new outlook, what follows is pretty much Killzone 2 again…

“Traffic violation” – Test Drive Unlimited 2

Perhaps Eden Games were right to suspect that great driving on a big map wasn’t enough on its own to stand out. That’s about where the right decisions there end…

“Get well soon!!” – Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2 is not actually the most blood-flecked #1 game of early 2011, but makes up for it with a whole line in stomping on corpses

“The Cakeinator” – Littlebigplanet 2

The closer I move towards the present day, the more out of reach much of the history gets. Online elements became a central feature of more games, and barely more than a decade later the servers are shut down and they’re gone.

“Don’t stop, make it pop” – Just Dance 2

At least one primary school class ended a day this week by dancing along to a video of Just Dance 4’s version of “Gangnam Style”

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

See World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

“The car is heavy” – Gran Turismo 5

Back in 1998, Gran Turismo arrived close to fully formed as a deep racing game with impressive handling and an upgrade loop that made playing it an experience…

“Hold X for Death Machine” – Call of Duty: Black Ops

In Who Hunts the Whale, Laura Kate Dale and Jane Aerith Magnet’s tremendously angry novel about game development, there is a bit where the executives are deciding on…

“Walk the ball into the back of the net” – Football Manager 2011

Playing successive yearly updates can be a bit of a tough ask when you don’t have a year in between. For FIFA I have a system, and more…

“Sometimes I make up little stories in my head about what the numbers mean” – Fallout: New Vegas

The provision of player choice comes with an associated player responsibility to suspend disbelief of all of the bits which inevitably don’t make sense. It mostly feels like a worthwhile trade, and that’s not just down to the strength of the narrative philosophy but that of its execution.