Gaming and how it still moves me...

I still remember back in 1991 when I first enthusiastically tore off the shrink wrap and fired this bad boy into the Atari ST, (god I feel old saying that). What struck me first with the game was that yes, the controls were a bit unresponsive and you had to time it to almost the microsecond when to jump, dodge or start running. Yes, it was a frustrating game, but as with any endeavour worth pursuing it demanded practice and commitment and rewarded you with an engaging storyline and for characters that said little or that weren't even very animated, you still end up caring and rooting for them.

Who can forget the cage -

And I still remember my utter incomprehension as to what to do next!

It’s a hard game, but it had me hooked, right up to the last second, will he make it, wont he, and why am I so emotionally invested?

Right up to the last second.

Eric Chahi, thank you for a stunning and emotional thrill ride.

Another World was a game of its day but for a one man show it was an awesome game of its day. I still remember the end sequence. It felt like someone had taken Prince of Persia and taken it to the next level. Another game programmed by one person, Jordan Mechner.

It was one man and his dog games like this that opened the door for games like shadow of the colossus on the PS2 for me.

I have always liked slightly different games, don't get me wrong i dont mind an FPS session, but sometimes you need something a little different, a somewhat richer and more satisfying experience

Shadow of the collussus is a game I defy you to say that it doesn’t have a special place in your game library (well at least i hope so because you are missing out), so popular it was then ported to the PS3 and now there is talk of an HD PS4 port as well, oh happy days!

It was another of those games that came out with little fanfare and for me anyway much adulation, an extended boss battle over 16 bosses, but for me it was the cut scenes, they were astounding, nothing was said, but so much sadness and loss was conveyed throughout the game.

The bosses were jaw dropping in both their scale and design, here are a few.

It wasn’t just the scale of the game, or how much was conveyed to me with the video cut scenes, the colossi themselves, it was everything, it was one of those games that I pushed on through desperate to see what happens.

And that brings me to the last game I want to talk about, but again, is one rich in character and story and each location you go to is so evocative. Last of Us from Naughty Dog studios, it tells the story of Joel and Ellie, played out as third person almost survival horror game. The game is set against a post-apocalyptic landscape, we have the last surviving members of the human race pitted against various mutated humans affected by a viral outbreak.

I could talk about the graphics, which are amazing, I could talk about the mechanics of the stealth based combat, which given time, are satisfying, I could talk about the crafting system, which has been pitched just right and does affect how you play the game. I could talk about the backdrops, which were lush on the PS3 but looks gorgeous on the PS4.

No for me it’s the interplay between Joel and Ellie that amazes me most, these two feel like real people with real lives. I've always thought that the best storytelling should feel like you are actually witnessing a part of someone's life, not a contrived situation where events just begin, we are the deus ex machina, the god in the machine, but only there to observe, and here we observe two people thrown together by circumstance setting out across a genuinely terrifying, but achingly beautiful, landscape.

It’s a landscape that nature is slowly erasing all signs of humanity

Where giraffes and other wildlife wander down boulevards

And around any corner something lethal waits for you

It’s as the characters open up and talk to each other their experiences are brought to colourful life, the way that by the end of the game they care for each other as much as we care for them, and how this stopped seeming like a game a long time back and feels more like you might be that third character trudging along behind ever watchful and eternally grateful for the time you got to spend with these people.

That's why for me, games, when done right, can be as affecting as art, because in my humble opinion that's what they are.