Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Video games that I play

I've spent quite a bit of time watching Ian play video games on the PS3. Right now he's playing the game I got him for Christmas: God of War Collection. I always thought that I didn't really want to play video games because I'm not all that good at the controls and most of the storylines are more for boys than girls. I like watching them, though.

I guess Ian's always wanted me to play video games, too, so that I can enjoy them as much as he does. He's finally found two games made by ThatGameCompany that I like: Flower and fl0wFlower, in fact, was rated the highest-rated download for the PS3 this year, so I'm not the only one who likes this game :)

The visuals and music for both of these games are very beautiful and are a lot of what appeals to me. I also like that there's no real winning or losing. You can do a bit better, or a bit worse, but you don't really win or lose. I find playing these games quite peaceful because I'm creating these things in this beautifully-rendered environment with music that enhances the visuals. Playing these games is a wonderful experience. Checking the game company's site, they seem to have a third game - Cloud - for the PC that I'll try tomorrow.

In Flower, you are the wind that guides a flower petal and petals from all the flowers you've opened (like a ginormous tail) to bring life and light to the scene. You can go rushing through the grass or up high, high, high above the land. There are wind marks to show you where you need to end up but you can explore and meander around other areas, too. Not all of the scenes are light and pleasant; some are dark and scary, but you're still doing something beautiful there.

fl0w is a game where you move a sea-creature thingy up and down levels and eat and battle with other sea-creature thingies. Each time you eat one, your creature gets bigger. Each time another creature eats you, you fade a bit. Some creatures are easier to beat than others in each form which adds interest to the game. I like this game because it has these beautiful, surreal backgrounds with music to match. I find it easy to sit and play this game for a long time (even though I don't have perfect control over my creatures yet) because it's so low-key.

So there you have it - video games that I play. Ian's very happy to hear that I'm actually playing my own video games and enjoying a hobby he loves so much. Plus I get to try something different and fun during vacation :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you like Flower and fl0w. My son is the lead programmer for thatgamecompany (which made those games)so, as a proud mother monitoring references to his games, I found your blog. You have a great attitude and I wish you well. I hope 2010 is a good year for you.

Chantelle said...

Your son is amazingly talented! His artistic and programming skills are remarkable - so much of the appeal to the games is how beautiful they are and how intuitive the controls are (although I must admit that I had a hard time not using the controller as a steering wheel, at first).

He's found a great company in thatgamecompany, I think. I love how the company's goal is to create games that are decidedly not like the mainstream.

I hope that 2010 brings happiness and good health to your family.