// View: The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (PC)

‘Good luck. You’re on your own. ‘

It’s not lying. After the basic RPG-staples of character-creation, aligment choice and movement/menu control pop-ups, you’re given this one last tip – a tip that will either send shivers of excitement tingling down your back, or, more likely, leave you bemused and bewildered.

Morrowind, Bethesda Softworks follow-up to the hugely-ambitious but deeply-flawed Daggerfall, just lets you get on with the job at hand. What job that may be is entirely up to you. You, much like your avatar, are dumped without explanation into the region of Morrowind (specifically, the island province of Vvardenfell) as a newly freed prisoner. This proves a suprisingly appropriate methaphor for your experience in Morrowind when taken in the context of gaming experiences thus far – unlike games before it, there is no path forced upon you – no big bad boss you’re forced to destroy, no Princess In Another Castle to save; there is only the choice to take on such challenges.

// View: Command and Destroy (NintendoDS)

The Red Alert/Command and Conquer series of strategy games, are, to this writers mind, the finest examples of the ‘old-school’ RTS. Build base, collect resource, build tanks, STOMP ENEMY. Tank rushes be damned; when it comes to strategy gaming only Advance Wars comes close to sucking up the sort of hours the C&C games occupied in my youth – so you’ll have to forgive me when I admit I was bouncing off the walls like a drug-spazzed toddler at the prospect of a DS RTS so clearly ‘inspired by’ Westwood’s legacy.

Between anticipation for this and fond memories of games gone by, I should be on a blissful high.

// View: Lost in Blue 3 (NintendoDS)

I’ve had a massively one-sided love/hate relationship with the Lost In Blue (formerly Survival Kids) series. I love them, they hate me. /Really/ hate me. I picked up the first instalment with huge anticipation – the idea of being stranded, apparently alone, on a desert island, with nothing to aid me but my own wits. Man against the elements. It appealed to the romantic in me – the idea that I /could/make a fist of survival if I had to, that I, as Man, could rise up as lord of my destiny and tame the unknown wilds of this mysterious island.

But it broke my heart. Turns out I would utterly hopeless at survival, primarily because I would be unable to stay awake for more than 5 hours at a time without eating and drinking constantly, but also because this constant need for nourishment of any kind would force me to feast on poisonous fungus. As you would.

// Now Playing: Easter Bank Holiday

Ah, the Easter Bank Holiday.  4 days of scorching sunshine, melted ice-creams and merry skipping along the seafront.  Alternatively, and realistically, 4 days of miserable weather, lukewarm tea and lonely hangovers.  What better way to power through than with an extended getting session of getting-to-know-you with a few decent games? Here’s what we enjoyed over everyone’s earliereveryyeardontyouknow? holiday.

// MirrorMode

We’ve all had moments like it.  Whether they make you whoop delightedly or reflect sombrely, we’ve all got a moment stored in our gaming memory that we flick back to occasionally.  It could be anything – a phenomenal headshot from your Quake Deathmatch days, a 100-turn long-con in Civilisation, or the first time you held Yorda’s hand in Ico.  All are valid in this occasional series of recountings.  We’re going to start with a recent example of such a moment, from a game most readers will have a tale of their own from, but expect DYBS to delve deeper into it’s murky past in future editions.  Let’s look forward to looking back.  Or something

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HALO 3 – Master Chief vs. Team Scarab

Your first encounter with the vast walking tank the Covenant call ‘The Scarab’ was of course featured in Halo 2, but the multi-limbed behemoth really came into it’s own during the third part of the Spartan trilogy.  During the course of the game their appearances have been marked by the relative security of your position, generally serving as paticularly epic and deadly punctuation to various skirmishes.  But not this time.

This time, things are different.

//View: Dragon Quest Heroes – Rocket Slime

So, let’s paint a picture.  A cold, sterile office, too cold to open the windows but too stuffy without the windows open, a monitor with retina-scorching glare, an uncomfortable chair and /what is that/ digging into my back?

Ah, the sweet respite of lunch hour. You retire with your limp sandwiches (apparently ‘healthy option’ means ’something wet and brown’) and tuck into a quickly curdling yoghurt.  You flip open the DS and boot up Rocket Slime – anything, /anything/ for relief.

What’s this?  Fireworks? Smiling faces? COLOURS? The grey world around you fades, the yoghurt explodes with flavour on your tongue, the wet brown healthiness invigorates your very being with all the power of a nutritious atom bomb being detonated in your gullet. The world comes to life!  Praise be to the slimes!