Meditative State

Opening my web browser, I was greeted with the customary "how to of the day" RSS feed. The two latest ones are really fabulous; How to Get Your Girlfriend to Play Video Games and How to Make Polymer Clay Cats. I would rather like to find all that polymer clay I have somewhere in the closet (yes really) and make some cats. The last time I fiddled with it was five years ago or so, and I made loads of mushrooms in various shapes and colours.

However, back to the matter at hand - the video games! During the last year, I have actually spent some time playing games, after a hiatus of almost a decade, save for some Xbox and Gamecube now and then. Ever since I realized that I could enter a sort of meditative state while playing Road Rash on my old Sega Megadrive (that is Sega Genesis for you yankees), I have always preferred the games which crave minute control and quick reactions, but can be played with little or no conscious thought. Dawn of War turned out to be such a game, and I played it to such an extent that I actually had to wipe it from disk just because it took to much of my time. Supreme Commander was pretty nice, too, but was marred by just being really ugly. Its retro design did take me back to the days of my youth and games like Sub Battle Simulator, 688 Attack Sub and all the other really nice strategy games which did or did not include subs.

What impressed me the most during the last year, however, was Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Simply because it looked pretty damn good and had such a huge environment to play around with. Shame about the fact that the number of voice actors was so small, and the so called "oblivion gate" missions being almost exactly the same. Still, it was about the only single-player game I have ever felt immersed in in any way. Quite simply/eerily, I did not feel entirely alone playing it.

Right now, however, the only game on my computer is the Polish indie game Soldat, which is like a mix of Counter-Strike and Worms, but more fun. Really, it is hysterically funny, and free/shareware, too. If you for some reason have free time in which you cannot or will not do something worthwhile, you might as well play it. If you prefer non-violence, the (also free) Flash games by Ferry Halim at the Orisinal webpage are fab.