In Third Person

For the last few months, PGR 4 has been my go-to "bored game". When I don't feel like playing any other video game in my collection, I pop PGR 4 into my 360. Not to say that PGR 4 is a bad game, but racing games aren't really my scene. I get bored quickly of any arcade racing game that isn't Mario Kart and realistic racing games such as Gran Turismo and Forza frustrate me to no end due to their demand of precision driving control skills that I just don't have. The only reason I even have this game is because it came free, along with a chat pad and headset when I bought last year's subscription to XBOX Live.

I am not one to be trusted for a definitive judgement on PGR 4 if you haven't already played it. I just wanted to write down a few impressions I have on the game after playing it for a few hours.

While not as demanding control-wise as the GT or Forza series, PGR 4 does demand the precise use of the gas pedal, brakes and emergency brake for drifting. There are a number of different cars and motorcycles for you to choose and unlock, which allows you to try and find the car that best fits your driving style. I much preferred to drive the motorcycles, though I still don't think I'm playing this game properly. I don't think it's so much a fault with the game as it is a fault in my ability. When I drive through corners, I almost never make a smooth turn, which usually ends in me either going too slow and having to smash the gas half way into the turn, or crashing into the wall because I approached it too quickly. I know that I suck at this style of gameplay and have accepted that. However, on easy difficulty, I have been doing at least well enough to make progress in the arcade and career modes.


Speaking of modes, the game comes with an arcade mode, a fairly extensive career mode and a number of online modes, which I haven't dared to attempt. I'm sure they're fun for driving fans, but I know that I'm not good enough to do any better than last place in any given race. With that said, I've spent most of my time in arcade and career modes.

Regardless of which way you go, you will encounter a number of different race types and cars the game rewards you with when you score enough "Kudos". Maybe I would get into it more if I had more of a vested interest in these cars, but unlocking cars isn't all that fun to me. It's just a mechanic I do in order to keep up with everyone else.

I've been having enough fun with the game to come back to it in short doses every now and then, but beyond my lack of driving skills, the biggest hurdle I'm running into is that the game lacks "soul". Everything about the game just feels so stock and standard that I couldn't pick PGR 4 out of a group of other major driving games. The presentation of everything is very bland and I just feel like I'm being shuffled along from one race to the other with no real excitement behind it. It's hard for me to personally invest in a game that isn't really doing much to grab me.

Once again, I am by no means an expert in this entire genre, so my opinion may be useless to you. I still think that PGR 4 is a good game to check out if you're into this genre thanks to its great graphics and relatively solid gameplay. For driving newbies like me, I don't think PGR 4 does anything to convert you into the next racing sensation. As a game I got for free, I'm glad to have it as a go-to "bored game", but it won't ever make my main rotation.

As far as I know, I am currently not a father. I'm not done living the "free" adult life at this point in time. However, at some point I would totally love to be a father. I don't really think that much about it, but when I do, I often think about how I would introduce video games into the life (or lives) of my future little ones.

When I first started thinking about it way back when, my initial stance was almost anti-video game. I had this idea in my head that I can somehow shelter my children from video games long enough for them to value such things as human interaction and playing outside. Realistically, that's not going to happen, considering that 99% of boys and 94% of girls nowadays play video games. If my kid is in the minority that doesn't play video games, I won't force them down their throat.

Realistically, I'm still going to be a gamer when I'm a dad, and I won't be able to hide everything I have. If my kid gets curious, how do I introduce this medium to them?


The "nerd-romantic" answer is, "Start them from the beginning." I'm just old enough that the first video game system I ever owned was a hand-me-down Atari 2600. For the most part, I've been able to experience this medium in its entirety. I love the idea of starting my child at the beginning and having them see where this medium came from and where it's going. That in itself is probably too much to ask from a child ages 3-4. The other advantage of starting out with the old stuff is that (to an extent), old games were simpler back then.

There are a number of holes in this logic though. For one, you wouldn't introduce your kids to film and music with early Charlie Chaplin works or Gone With the Wind. Why do that with video games? Also, the moment your kids see other children playing "Hot Game Y", it doesn't matter how old or new it is. They'll just want whatever everyone else is playing.


For me, the true magic for me happened when I first played Super Mario. Over the years, I have seen a number of kids begin their life-long journeys with later Super Mario games, such as Mario World, Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros Wii. While the Mario games weren't always the easiest to pick-up-and-play, millions of kids around the world made the effort to figure it out because the games were that appealing. I wouldn't mind at all starting my child off on Mario, but more what I'm trying to get to is the idea of starting them off on games that they find interesting. Mario is very much kid-friendly. I just cringe at the day when my child wants me to buy them "Disney Movie Tie-In Shovelware Game X".

Not to meander too much, but that last sentence brings up the idea of gaming taste. Part of the appeal of being the one to introduce your kids to video games is that you can (to a point) control what your kids play. I would like to think that my future child would have awesome gaming taste, but there's no stopping a determined child from playing "Shovelware Game X" at some point. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.


Or how about going in a completely different direction? Nowadays, there are more kid-friendly educational options than ever. Maybe something like a Leapster would be the best way to go. In my day, I wouldn't touch the obviously kiddie stuff with a 10-foot pole, but if you get it in early enough, my future child could have a blast with it and ease their way into a medium I love.

I suspect that I won't have to make a choice on this for at least a few more years. Until then, I'll mull over all of the potential options and keep my Atari working in case I actually want to start my future child from the very beginning. Good luck with my copy of E.T., future kid.

*The post title may be exaggerating, a bit.

Rambo on the original Nintendo is a game I fondly remember for all the wrong reasons. Back when I was no more than 8 years old, I rented this at my local video store. It was the worst video game I've ever rented.

The problem with the game is that it starts out with the most obtuse and confusing hub world I've ever experienced in a video game. I found myself walking left and right across the screen, going into every door and I couldn't find a way out to actually play the game. Never before had I been so stumped as to how to actually start the game. Without the help of the Internet available to me, I never figured out how to get out of that hub world. What a waste of a two-day rental.

Many years later, I tried to play it again using an emulator. I said to myself I wouldn't use a guide to get through that hub world, just to see if I was a dumb kid that didn't know any better. Nope. I played it for a good 20 minutes and still couldn't figure it out.

If I wanted to go back now and actually play through it, I probably could. However, from all accounts I've heard about NES Rambo, they all say it's terrible. For all the things I've said about bad game design, in my heart I still think the Rambo hub world is the absolute worst thing I've ever encountered.

To most people, Air Fortress is a game they've never heard of. According to the Wikipedia page for the game (so the validity of this fact is questionable), only 385 copies of the game came out in the US. In any case, this is not a game anyone will mention, ever. This is a shame to me, because I think it's a pretty awesome 8-bit action game. The game also has a strong sentimental value with me, but first, let me explain what the game was about if you've never heard of it. I've included a video below as well to further explain.



The game was half side-scrolling space shooter, and the other half of the game was action-adventure. Each level started with you flying towards the fortress entrance, shootings enemies and dodging environmental obstacles. Once you were inside the fortress, you would travel around the environment in your jet-pack, looking to blow up the core of the fortress and escape on your ship before the whole place blows up.

At the time, I thought the mash-up of gameplay styles made sense and was highly inventive. In particular, I thought the fortress gameplay was really good. With the exception of the first level, you couldn't play a level straight through. In order to beat a level, you had to blow up the core of the fortress, then find your ship before it blows up. However, you don't want to start looking for your ship after you blow up the core, which forced you to find your ship first, then blow up the core, then try and memorize how to get back to your ship before its too late. It was a unique gameplay mechanic that added a lot to the depth of Air Fortress.

I discovered this game through my cousin. It was a game that grabbed the entire family based on its premise and fun gameplay. Not everybody wanted to save the galaxy, but everyone from my cousins to the parents would crowd around the television and watch whoever was playing. The only other game I think to ever capture my entire family like that was Wii Sports. We would keep a master list of all the passwords and even act as navigators to whoever was playing. Keep in mind that this game had no in-game map whatsoever, which made navigating through the levels pretty difficult.


Besides being a great, under-appreciated game and a family favourite, Air Fortress holds a special spot in my heart as arguably my very first video game achievement. I vividly remember the moment I beat the first level in that game, which was the first time I beat any level in any game on my own. I was so excited by my accomplishment, that I ran around the room uncontrollably and actually broke my cousin's Nintendo in the process. Oops. That moment might also actually be the reason my cousin isn't into video games today. I'm sorry.

The Metroid series of games have carved out a weird niche in my memories. I've always felt that the games were really cool and I've always wanted to play them through to completion, but I never do. In many cases, I never get far at all.

When the original came out, I rented it just because I thought the box art was cool. Keep in mind I was probably in Kindergarten at the time I first played it. Back then, I thought that being able to travel left, right, up and down was cool, and the ability to roll up into a ball was neat, but I never got the point of it. I was too young to comprehend how to actually play the game and navigate the world. To me, I ran around and shot monsters until I got bored.

It wasn't till I got older and tried Super Metroid when I finally understood what the game was about. I played through the opening sequence at some event with Super Nintendo systems set up and thought it was awesome. Having world maps also helped me out greatly. I still find it amazing that kids navigated through the entirety of the original Metroid without a map. I've even heard personal stories of people who would draw their own maps on graph paper in order to get through. I only got to play the game for a few minutes at that event, but I really liked what I tried.


I wouldn't buy my first Metroid game until Metroid Prime came out on the Gamecube. The reviews for the game were sky-high. I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to jump into the series at the same time as everyone else. From what I played of it, I thought it was spectacular. I loved how expansive the world was and how air-tight the controls were. I really felt like I was a lone bounty hunter exploring the galaxy. What ultimately killed the game for me though was the same thing that stopped me from playing the first Metroid: navigating the world. Even with the map and the assists, I got to a weird point very late in the game where I had no idea how to actually get to the marker on the map. I would go on to buy the second Metroid Prime game, which I never even opened.

Since then, I have tried to go back to both the original and Super Metroid with no such luck. I still suffer the same problem that I do in every other Metroid game, even with maps and assists. I get lost to the point that I can't play these games anymore. Not to condemn the games, because I know many gamers who have loved and beaten these and other Metroid style games. Maybe I just suck at this style of gameplay that features back-tracking and requires a stronger sense of direction. However, I've beaten both Bioshock and Batman: Arkham Asylum, which do feature Metroid-style elements to it when it comes to navigating the world. Maybe Samus Aran and I just weren't made for each other.