It’s number 10 and we’re back for the weekly topical whip around. To get things started we round off a few of our gaming guilty pleasures, followed up by what we’d hope see premièred at the VGAs.
Video games don’t necessarily have to be good or recognised by the mainstream audience in order to pick up quite a following; in fact some of the best games are those hidden gems which are often overshadowed, especially at this time of year. We’ll let you in on a few of our unconventional gaming sweethearts.
Peter: I did have a quite irresponsible compulsion for playing Tiny Tower on iOS earlier this year. I even spent actual money on fake money so I could buy a new elevator… I ended up having to delete it before I wasted my entire life and spent more money. For full console games, I’ve really enjoyed a lot this year but I wouldn’t say any of them have been a guilty pleasure. You have to embrace what you enjoy and not be ashamed of it. At least, that’s what I said when I get caught playing Fruit Ninja Kinect.
Jim: Casting my net into the gaming archives this year I managed to get my hand on a copy of the original Mount & Blade, once and indie title before picked up by Paradox Interactive. It’s not the best-looking game, especially on a laptop, but that didn’t stop me pouring twenty of so hours into it. There’s just something immensely rewarding about the game’s persistent world mechanics and combat that kept me coming back night after night. At one point I thought I’d had enough only to be reeled back in with a superb Lord of the Rings mod, swapping out the existing factions and locations with material from the Tolkien classics.
Aran: Guilty pleasure? I don’t reckon I can think of something I feel guilty about playing. Maybe MW3 after I’ve criticised the series for not innovating MP enough, but damn it sometimes I want to shoot someone in the face, especially after a stressful day.
MayContainEvil
There’s a LOTR mod for Mount & Blade?
Goodbye social life *waves*
Burgess_101
can you describe to me how Mount & Blade works ? I have seen a few videos and have been tempted but I just dont get the concept ?
Jim Hargreaves
It’s essentially an action RPG with strategic elements. You start as a lone soldier and by doing quests and killing enemy warbands you earn loot and fame. It can be tedious to begin with but it’s now probably one of my all time favourites.
MayContainEvil
As Jim said, Mount & Blade is a medieval combat sim about starting with next to nothing and working your way up with RPG like progression to become the badass you were always meant to be.
Pillaging villages, capturing and defending castles and towns, training a bunch of peasantry until they progress enough to become knights… Very memorable game.
cam_manutd
Guilty pleasure for me is Alpha Protocol. Good flawed game.
bacon_nuts
I agree about the HL3 reveal. I’m still bloody waiting…