Posted in My Geeky Life
How To Kill A Video Game
I decided recently that a lot of my life had to be re-prioritized. I wanted to read more. I think my writing has suffered from not feeling my creative pumps with other people’s wonderful words. I wanted to get my own novel going in the right direction again, which I have. I also wanted to make sure I was freeing up a little more time for video games.
I know that might seem weird but without basketball, video games is one of the main ways I relax. Part of the problem is there is so little time in my day. Something had to give and for me it has been TV. I have cut way back on the brainless wonder. I am probably watching less TV right now than any other time in my life and I don’t miss it.
The first video game I decided to sink my teeth into was Mafia II. I never played the first one but this one seemed to be getting some good reviews. I dove in and was immediately impressed with how gorgeous the game was. A huge beautiful city. I start salivating thinking about all the nooks and crannies I was going to get to explore.
The game was a little slow in the beginning as they tried to set up the story. I like video game stories when they don’t interfere or slow down the story too much (the two games that did this the best recently were Bioshock and Fallout). I didn’t mind the slowness because I was really looking forward to running some missions in the giant city.
I began to get worried as the cut scenes started to get longer and longer. I really started to get worried when I realized there didn’t seem to be anything to do in the big gorgeous city. The game is very linear with no side quests. The worry went full bore when I realized for every fast pace exciting mission there was some stupid mission driving someone somewhere.
I didn’t hit the panic button when I did a mission which entailed driving all the way across the map (and it is a large map) to bury a body in the woods. After burying the body I then had to drive all the way across town to drop off my drunk buddies. Then I had to drive home and go to sleep before I could make the next cut scene and mission happen.
No, I hit the panic button after I did a mission which started only after I drove myself completely across town to go to bed. Then I had to drive all the way across town to pick up my drunk buddy. Who I then drove all the way across town to his house. He, unfortunately, killed someone which meant I was driving back across town to get rid of the body. I bet you can guess what happened next, I had to drive all the way across town to my home where I promptly went to bed only to be awakened by a cut scene where I was told to drive all the way across town to start my next mission.
That right there people is how to kill a promising video game dead. It was almost 45 minutes of absolute pointless nonsense. It took me no time at all to decide I was done. It’s too bad really because some of the missions were great. The city was great but the game was boring as hell. Somewhere buried deep inside this paint by numbers game was a brilliant game waiting to get out. Luckily, I only rented it. Even luckier Fallout: New Vegas arrived in the mail today. I had more fun setting up my character in Fallout than I did the entire game of Mafia II.
