Slow Times at Paradise City

So, my weekly post is up at Nightmare Mode. It was suppose to go up Thursday and alack it is Monday. One of these days I’ll publish on the target day. One of these days.

Part of the reason it is late is that this needed far more editing than anything else I’ve published there to date. But what should I have expected. My target post deadline is Thursday and the only game I’ve played all week is Burnout: Paradise, a game in a genre I’ve literally have no experience in other than demos. And all those demos did was reinforce that I cannot play these games. Plus, racing games aren’t known for their deep thematic material, or their statements about much of anything. Searching for a grappling point was a challenge in of itself.

I did this before back in college during the PS2 era. I looked at my collection and noticed a homogeneous of genre. Mostly action, fighty, shooty, platformy type with a handful of RPGs games. No FPS, no fighting games, no racing games, you get the idea. So I researched around the found a good FPS (Medal of Honor: Frontline) and a fighting game (Soul Calibur 3). Basically I wanted to broaden my horizons and my understanding and maybe my tastes. Suffice to say I’ve bought quite a number of FPSs since then, though it would be pretty hard not to in the current market. Fighting games, I have the one I still can go back to. But one game genre I never got into, no matter how I tried was the racer. So I’m spending some time now to play a number of them and get a feel for the genre. I can’t wait to hear from Mr. Raptured Reality himself, Steven O’Dell, about how off the mark I am. Burnout was a series I could get my hands on and actually be able to control without too much trouble at other people’s houses back in the day, so I figure the latest and greatest entry would be an ample place to start. It is an arcade racer so it will undoubtedly be easier to control than a driving sim like GT5. (I will get there eventually.) As far as I’m concerned I stuck gold on my first try.

I do my best to explain what I feel was so positive about the game. I think it’s that it has a positive outlook. Nowadays with all our grim and gritty shooters, and the real world not being a much brighter place, something so positive acts like a beacon. I’d like to think that I’m not heaping accolades onto it for just that reason, but that it’s a good games with a positive outlook. Take a gander at my new Nightmare Mode post and see what you think. Thank you to Fern again for the title.