Well you’ve got your birthday in November, and Christmas is coming, so you can make some very obvious suggestions… What’s the genre that’s closest to your heart?
Real Time Strategy. From the start really.
I used to play a city building game called Pharaoh, which I re-downloaded recently. That had an element of RTS to it, controlling troops to defend your city. The first real RTS I played was Age of Empires I think, and Shogun: Total War. The Total War series totally stole my heart, really. I love those games.
It’s interesting that you’re choosing a genre that ages very well.
Yeah, I can go back and very easily play those older games. Whereas, probably in 10 years or so, I wouldn’t be able to go back and play Call of Duty: Black Ops, as I don’t think it would age very well.
The FPS genre and maybe driving games as well. You do feel as though they’ve been superseded. With RTS, if they’ve got the strategy and technicalities right in that game, no matter what generation it’s from you should be able to have a lot of fun with it. Talking of RTS stuff, what have you been playing recently?
Mainly Empire: Total War, but also Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Company of Heroes, I’ve been playing a little bit. Hopefully I can get Total Annihilation working soon.
Something you’ve been talking to me about the last couple of days is Hydrophobia on the PC. How did that go? Tell me a little bit about it.
Well, I bought it in the Steam sales, about four months ago, but I didn’t get round to playing it three or four days ago. I just randomly loaded it up.
Basically you’re on this big ship, and terrorists take over the ship and start blowing it up. You start in the lower sections of the ship, and nearly every area you feel like you’re going to drown if you don’t get through it quickly. The water is really good, the way it sloshes about everywhere, and how it fills up rooms. It’s so good!
That was one of the unique selling points when we first saw it. Everybody just looked at the water and was very impressed.
It’s got some very obvious flaws, like the jumping sometimes wouldn’t stick and you’d fall. It’s also very short, and you’d only get special abilities towards the end, which you got to use about twice. So they should’ve lengthened it a bit, but I still thoroughly enjoyed myself on that.
That’s an interesting thing you mentioned there. I think everybody discovers a game where you gain a power, or level up, or gained a weapon, and next thing you know the game’s finished without letting that power or weapon a chance to shine. It’s a bit of a shame that.
Yeah, you get the ability to… You don’t mind me saying, do you?
It doesn’t spoil it, does it?
[***YOU MIGHT CONSIDER THIS TO BE A SPOILER*** – Tef]
Not really. You get to manipulate the water around you to a limited degree, and you use it to solve one or two little puzzles. The potential was there to make a really really good game out of it, and it’s still good, but could’ve been better.
Well, fingers crossed the sales have been strong enough that they can revisit it and maybe improve in a sequel. I can see myself picking that up soon. We’ve got a lot of new hardware coming up these days, is there anything you’re interested in? Notice any gaming fads? We’ve got the Wii U for example.
Oh, I’m not interested in that. We’ve got a Wii here, and it’s just a dust magnet. I used to play Mario Kart on it, and completed Resident Evil 4 too, which I thought was actually better than it had been on the PS2. Besides that I’ve never really used it.
The Playstation Vita, that interests me a lot, but whether I’ll be buying it is a different matter. Just money and stuff.
Of course. There’s some cracking stuff coming out for the Vita, and looking at TSA today, there’s a lot of people reading about and interested in it. All it takes is just one or two strong titles, and suddenly they’re wanting one.
I’ll probably be getting one eventually, but probably not in the first year or so.
Fair enough, matey. Let the price come down a bit. It’s an expensive bit of hardware, and awesome bit of kit.
They’re making an Uncharted game for it, aren’t they?
Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
Then you’ve got Assassin’s Creed and lots more, so it will have a very strong line up eventually.
For a gamer like yourself it’s tempting, but like you say be patient, and pick it up when the price comes down. Are they any TSA features that you really like in particular, or do you end up enjoying them all?
I enjoy them all, because I read pretty much everything! It’s very rare that I miss anything on TSA.
Right, so you’re there regularly enough so that makes perfect sense. You’re also such a keen gamer that you’ve almost always got a good opinion on things. I might not always agree with you, and that’s just taste and subjective opinion, but you’ve always got some well informed opinions.
I mainly read the articles for the comments really. Most of the people on TSA are straight up guys, and it’s nice to read another person’s view on that subject. Main reason why I’m on TSA.
Yes, from the posts that wind you up, or those you agree with, and everything in between, you’ve got all kinds of people with maturity that lets us all muck around.
TSA is the only site I feel part of the community on. I don’t feel that on any other sites.
Sympozium Pawa
Nice to meet you Yogdog!
gideon1451
Hehe, good interview! I didn’t think I was older than Yogdog, mind, t’is only a month’s difference.
Moakesice
Nice read Yogdog, the TSA king of Bad Company!
gideon1451
Haha, yes, that is true!
The Lone Steven
Nice to meet you again Yogdog. I rember playing BF:BC2 with you once. I think we were the only people who worked as a team.
I’m disappointed that there are no poo jokes. :p
What is your all time favorite retro console?
yogdog
I don’t really do retro consoles much, I played on the PS1 a little but that’s about it for me, I was always a PC guy which has only changed recently, when I got a 250gb PS3 slim in my bedroom. It also helped that my PC broke around the same time I got it.
Poo jokes are gone now, as I don’t work there anymore :P
The Lone Steven
Oh, then would you kindly follow me on twitter? ;)
I think Kevin Butler may have broken in and broke your PC when you got your slim. :p
yogdog
Nice to meet you all too guys :)
Also, Tef. How bloody old is that photo of Uncharted 2?! Bastard! I still won the first Uncharted treasure bearer competition on here though ;)
teflon
The one where I quit after the 4th round to avoid a 30 minute argument and let the competition continue?
We all know who would’ve really won that… :P
yogdog
Hahaha! You’re never gonna let that go, are you? :P
teflon
Would you? Of course not ;)
yogdog
True, true…. :)
goodgoa
Defending treasure bearer champ over here :P
yogdog
Hey, Goa, not for long! :D
Jakster123x
I really like this feature. Nice interview, good doggy ;)
TSBonyman
An entertaining read as always guys, nice to meet you yogdog and that’s a cool Tshirt.
YOURMUMANDME
Jon, you’re a legend, far too good at games mind…..
If your birthday is on Skyrims release date does that make you Dovahkiin ?
yogdog
That blue thing behind me in the photo, btw, is a blow up dolphin, which I rode down some pretty big stairs… I’d drunk a fair amount of tequila mixed with vodka and anything alcoholic in the vicinity.
My head was fine the next day, but the day after that? Not so good, didn’t know hangovers could skip a day!
BIGAL-1992
You had a hangover that was delayed by a day? How can that happen? Also, nice to meet you too yogdog.
TSBonyman
Aha, i thought your eyes looked a bit glazed. I think your hangover was delayed because you were probably still drunk the next day ;)
yogdog
Good point, I probably was. I certiantly had a headache for a long time afterwards…
bunimomike
That was great fun, Jon. We even managed to keep the chat to a respectable length so teflon didn’t hang himself from the joy of transcribing our ramblings.
As it happens, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to tef. Adding the option of a vocal interview is great but it can take teflon around two hours to transcribe the damned thing into word form. Truly, fella, thank you for scribbling down the voice interviews.