Millennial PC Gaming Aesthetics

It's an earnest attempt at a Telltale style adventure game, but mixed with a genuine documentary explaining to unfamiliar audiences what happened during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. A flawed game, but one you should probably play anyway.

Probably the right time to play this one if you haven't already, given global events. A pretty approachable interactive dramatisation of historical events.

'1979 Revolution: Black Friday' - 2016

'The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings' - 2011

Yeah, this was a dumb mistake on my part.

'Race Driver: Grid' - 2008

That's the thing, you can get away with a lot so long as you look cool while you're doing it...

a man and a woman are standing next to each other with fx written on the bottom ALT: a man and a woman are standing next to each other with fx written on the bottom

I mean the gameplay is still powerfully mid, but at least you're doing it on a fucking hovercraft!

Yeah, this is sick actually. Totally fucking insane. I love it. They should have made the whole game like this.

Just when I thought I was out entirely they bring out the "Ekranoplan vs Hovercraft" action sequence and I'M BACK ON BOARD!!!

And why on Earth would you make your big action sequence this visually illegible? Like, what is even going on here? It's just noise!

This is 'James Bond 007: Blood Stone', the game that killed 'Blur' studio Bizarre Creations. It might be in the running for being the most bland 7th gen game I have ever played.

Oh dear Lord! I'm sorry 'Quantum of Solace', I take it all back! You're fine! You did fine!

As an aside, playing this level to get capture it was surprising how fresh it feels 18 years later. At the time it felt astonishingly different to anything that had come before it, and even today there's still something there that no other game has quite captured the feeling of...

(CW: strobing)

It's particularly frustrating because CoD4 pretty consistently feels very Bond-y, so to see the concept mangled like this is a little frustrating. A Bond game built on the tech and gameplay of Call of Duty should have been a slam dunk, but Treyarch fumbled hard (I suspect it was a deadline issue).

I had never finished this game previously, because it's actually a pretty dismal time, but I decided I may as well this weekend and, oh boy, it really is just 'Call of Duty 4' with all of the life sucked out of it. Really poor moment to moment gameplay punctuated with pointless mechanics.

'007: Quantum of Solace' - 2008

I mean, apart from the hair, and maybe a slightly sharper chin, it's virtually identical to Ian Fleming's own sketch of Bond...

It's Paris, but with a fairly significant re-dressing.

Also, if you're a 'Hitman 3' owner and you haven't yet played the new, incredibly elaborate 'Casino Royale' homage they just released (with Mads Mikkelsen!), it's really great.

Yeah, early on they made a point of saying it won't play like Hitman. From the brief snippets of gameplay in the trailer it looks interesting at least.

It was an interesting technology, but there are clear reasons for why it was a dead end.

Shame they didn't really show any gameplay though...

Io Interactive gave Bond his scar. I'm 100% on board.

Niche. I love it.

'L.A. Noire' - 2011

Just a tiny little addition to the list today, on why 'Half-Life' made the modern videogames industry...

#11. 'The Sims' - 2000