When I push it, it falls over!

Anyone who's met me will be aware that my life basically revolves around five things:

1. Books and comics
2. Music
3. Computer games
4. Films
5. All of the above
   

I'm on a particularly virulent gaming kick at the moment, and have been thinking about realism in games, fuelled by this article and a piece in this month's NGamer magazine.

My five favourite games of all time are NiGHTS Into Dreams..., Christmas NiGHTS, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Which is to say, games involving flying androgynous harlequins, dragons, bird-men, rock-men, centaurs, fairies, monsters, wendigos and a goblin in this really nifty steam-powered armour-robot-suit thing. (Admittedly if you didn't allow Christmas NiGHTS to the party because it's essentially a glorified demo disc my fifth game would be ultra-realistic talk-to-people-and-feed-a-kitten-'em-up Shenmue, but bear with me.) I tend toward the fantastical, the weird, the stuff that you can't actually do in the real world.

I enjoy realistic games - hello, Shenmue - but the thing is, quite apart from the fact they look a lot older a lot quicker than games that have no grounding in reality (boot up a Mega Drive and Sonic 1 has dated a hell of a lot better than Desert Strike), realistic games are almost always po-faced games. And that's rubbish.

I'm a firm supporter of UK Resistance's "Blue Skies in Games" campaign. I'll play Ultra-Gritty Super-Real Angry Marines Shoot People Or Maybe Some Aliens In The Face And/Or Proboscis 7 if it's any good, but given the choice between that and this:

...I know which looks more fun. They're called video "games" for a reason.

Words and maybe observation

Actually, I kind of wish I'd called my blog that now.

I'm back, and I have made some links. For your information - Scott Pilgrim: website for the second-best comic ever made (after Calvin and Hobbes); Mellenhead's Weblog: Mary's blog that I am digitally pimping in the hopes that she will return the favour; Homestar Runner - essential viewing for young and old; Dinosaur Comics - a comic about dinosaurs.

I caught a bit of a BBC London news report on this, and couldn't help but notice that the guy selling the stuff and saying "g'head, use it" did not use it himself.

On a totally unrelated note (I'm basically browsing BBC News because I can't think of anything to write about), I've just discovered that the South African version of Sesame Street has an HIV-positive Muppet to encourage kids not to shun people with the virus. I think that's several kinds of brilliant.

Yeah, I'm really drawing a blank here. Superdickery to the rescue!