Mrs.Bairdy

I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to games, particularly “flavour of the month” titles. Like a lot of people in the games industry, I’m hard to please & far too keen to pick holes whether in gameplay or tech. Bioshock comes along with some utterly gushing reviews across the board. It’s a game that seems to be perfectly pitched to game critics – definite story based game, but still non-linear in how the player can approach problems (”Here’s some tools & a problem, go solve it. OK, here’s the next problem” etc), with a gorgeous art direction & thematic setting. All topped off with philosophy. It’s art with a capital A.

And all of that would usually put me off, but Bioshock is a rare beast that lives up to the hype so far. It’s not a perfect game, but what is? It’s engrossing & captivating both Rose & I, keeping us glued to the couch to see what happens next, to see what new way I can find to take down a Big Daddy,  and to see what part of the story we can piece together from the audiologs. Glued to the couch is only a mild exaggeration as we’ve watched no TV or films with almost all waking hours once Emma’s in bed devoted to the game. We’re going slow, exploring methodically & trying to take as much in as we can from this finely crafted game world.

Good job, Irrational.

This is official. The new Best Thing Evar is the song “$20″ by M.I.A. Think Blue Monday meets the Pixies with the pop-dance sensibilities of M.I.A. draped all over it.