Wednesday 14 November 2018

Gamer Christmas Gift Guide

   Writer I may be, but games are my favourite form of entertainment. Good games can be better than books. They can require hours of game play to reach the end of the story (we've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for over 100 hours and we're still not at the end of the story), throughout which you're doing additional and optional side-quests that provide a greater depth and understanding of the world and the characters by allowing you to do things that would never be a part of movies, TV shows or books because they would be too slow or irrelevant. Games are not what they were fifteen years ago. The graphics have become mind-blowing. The writing is taken very seriously - much more seriously than most films and TV shows these days - and the characters are alive, so much so that you begin to build a bond with them. Decisions you make can impact the world and other characters' responses to you, making the world more lively and dynamic and giving you a real position of power within the story itself. Rather than being led, you're doing the leading. Voice actors are worthy of fame, and, these days, a lot of games are made with motion capture technology (think Gollum), making character movements much more natural, facial expressions recognisable, and employ the subtle little things like reflex-reactions that betray our own moods and thoughts.
   The depth of books, the sound and visuals of movies, and the length of whole box sets, it's the best of all forms of media. Even the soundtracks are becoming something to covet. They make up a large proportion of my playlist.
   So, gamers are not to be mocked. Unless they play Call of Duty. But knowing what to get them can be tricky - so here are a few suggestions:





5 - Gaming convention/board game cafe (Chance & Counters, Bristol, £5 pp)
12 - Northgard, £24


For gamer stocking fillers, check out Merchoid, Gamerabilia & developer websites (Bioware, Bethesda, Blizzard etc).



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