It’s been a while since I felt moved enough to publish anything on this site. I still like computer games as a way to unwind and being a ’30-something’ who has now surpassed 40, I have a bit of disposable income to throw around on the latest releases.
As always, it is my intention to write more on here and having recently completed the story mode of Days Gone and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, I have plenty to write about. The former, a game I described to my partner as ‘motorbikes and zombies’, managed to achieve something few games do these days; simplicity.
Not in the story, not in the controls or the graphics, but in just being able to play the game whenever you want. I got heavily into GTA Online for a while as a way of connecting with my brother, but we were forever stopped from playing by downloads and a ‘pay to win’ ethos. We moved on to Fallout 76 (a whole blog in its own right) and again were stopped from playing by downloads. Just today, I’ve been unable to play FIFA for three hours thanks to an ‘update’.
There was none of that with Days Gone. Yes, there were updates but they fizzed away in the background of a single-player experience making me feel in control once again. It took me back to a simpler age where a game could go into a machine and be played. Remember that? Now it is all about online, updated features and the like. As an older gamer, it astounds me that I can buy a game on day of release and it still needs updating.
Anyhow, that got me thinking about a simpler time and I concocted a plan. It was partly fuelled by me having to peruse the PlayStation store, tempted by Black Friday deals on classic games and bored as downloads took all afternoon. I spied Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on the list and added to my incessant usage of internet bandwidth by purchasing it.
Actually, that’s not strictly true, but I’ll come to that in a minute.
I recall Vice City as being a defining game of my younger years, released (rather shockingly) when I was in my early twenties and sporting less hair than I do now. Perhaps, as a young man, I didn’t realise how much of a gift hair was but now all around me are losing theirs, I avoid the hairdresser like I avoid full-price games in High Street stores. Still, when I did have a bald head as a lifestyle choice, I got rocked by Vice City.
It had the atmosphere and it developed on the relatively new 3D worlds and free-roam gameplay. It bristled with neon-tasting goodness and eighties infused violence. It didn’t just create a world for you to drop in and out of, it created a world for you to become immersed in. That’s how I remember it.
When you look back at old films and watch them now, you can still taste the essence of what made them great for you. Sure, some of the effects look a bit ropey, but on the whole the reason they had impact is retained. I don’t feel the same way about computer games. I got a Raspberry Pi packed with Amiga classics and exhausted by interest inside two weeks. I loved playing Sensible Soccer as a kid, but now it just feels so very random.
Back to me theoretically purchasing Vice City. No actual cash changed hands because I had already paid for it and, at some point, dipped my toe in the water. Had it really been that bad that I didn’t take Tommy on a single mission? Had whatever I’d been playing at the time shamed the almost 20-year-old game into instant deletion? Perhaps. I’m about to find out.
This week I shall mostly be trying to play Vice City and reporting back on here how it goes. It’s not like I don’t have enough to write elsewhere, but this is therapeutic for me; I won’t see it as work and I don’t have to think too much about what I write.
Will Tommy Vercetti have aged like a fine wine, or will he stink worse than 20-year-old milk? Was the world I became so enchanted with created by Rockstar, or simply laid out like a colouring book with my imagination filling in the blanks which, over time, developers have managed to do?
We’ll find out through the week.