Tea And Video Games
There was a moment when I realised my life revolved around two things: Video Games and cups of tea. This blog is concerned with the former. My oesophagus is concerned with the latter.
Currently updating whenever the stars align.
The Teacup Awards B-Side (2018)
Not every game fits neatly into an awards category. Think of these B-sides as the participation awards. They are something worth talking about but only when all of the hard hitters are out of the way. I played a real mixed bag of games last year and didn’t play too many of my usual sort. Very light on survival games, for one, and there weren’t as many stand-out indie games as the year before.
Still, some interesting stuff did come out of the year so I don’t just want to disregard ninety percent of it. It was a year of catch-up really, playing through some of 2017’s biggest hits. So now let’s make up a bunch of different awards and give to games from last year that I think are worth a mention.
Two Point Hospital
The ‘Fly in the Cup’ Award for Killer Problem
I liked Two Point Hospital quite a lot when I first started playing it. It felt like a return to form; back to Theme Hospital, which I enjoyed a lot. It was refreshingly similar but with new diseases and additions that kept me excited. I recorded myself playing it and then created a different save to play in the downtime, something I didn’t do often. So I was obviously enjoying myself. Yet as I got through the game, something started to nag at me. It took me quite a while to find out what it was.
Nintendo Switch - Hardware Review
After covering the 3DS a few weeks ago, I thought I’d round out the year by covering the console that is rapidly cementing itself as one of my favourites. Everything from the controller to the portability is winning massive points for me. It’s not going to go down as the most powerful console in the world but it already has a growing library of decent games, if rather bogged down the abundance of ports. It’s in the gimmicks, the thing that usually slows down Nintendo consoles, where the Switch shines.
I’ve been using it a lot over the last few weeks, so I want to take a quick look at it. Maybe it’ll drum up some excitement for christmas, eh?
Design and Build
I remember when I first saw a Switch, I was convinced that this little screen couldn’t be all of it. There had to be a little box somewhere. The Wii-U was still ringing in my mind and I assumed the Switch would be something similar. Portable, but not really. Thankfully I was dead wrong. When you open your box and and you see a shiny rectangle - that’s it. That’s the Switch. News and impressive only to me, maybe, but it really does feel like the perfect size. It looks shiny and sleek, and comes with two controllers either side,
Super Mario Odyssey Review (2017)
There’s something strangely cathartic about seeing Mario losing a battle. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s so damn good at everything. This is a man who has mastered everything from tennis to mixed martial arts and yet somehow still has time to keep his moustache trimmed and brushed. Maybe it’s about time someone took him down a peg. And that’s what Bowser does in the intro to Super Mario Odyssey. The old dog has captured Peach again and they stand aboard Bowser’s airship. Mario goes in for the save but Bowser deftly knocks him aside. He plummets off the airship and into the fog below.
It also seems a lot darker than it is. As Mario goes sailing through the clouds, his hat drifts into the airship’s engine and is torn to shreds, the tattered remains floating to the ground as sad music begins to play. I thought for one moment that I’d gotten a cracked copy and Mario was genuinely dead. But no, it’s only a thousand foot fall onto solid ground. It’s nothing. So with his body not mangled, Mario sets off on another adventure to collect powerful maguffins called Power Moons in order to save Peach. Only this time, Nintendo has tried to change the formula in places and the result is a fresh, fun Mario game. The best, perhaps, since Mario Galaxy.
