I’ve been gaming since I was really young, about three years old or so. My earliest memories are playing Mortal Kombat with my older brother on the SNES, and getting annoyed that I couldn’t do all of those “cool finishing moves,” that my brother could (I can do my own fatalities these days, I feel like adding). That same love of gaming expanded to the Nintendo 64 and the Playstation One with games like Super Mario, Golden Eye, Crash Bandicoot, The Legend of Zelda and Spyro, and beyond to where I am now, a 21 year old university student.
My tastes were varied when I was young, and I played just about anything. I took a break from gaming for a couple of years but my passion for it came back with a vengeance in early 2010 after playing Dragon Age Origins. Bioware really helped me open my eyes to how immersive and amazing games really could be; they’re entertainment yes, but they’re also an art form that has bonded people together from all over the world and have helped some individuals through hard times in their lives. It’s pure escapism at its finest. What I like: Huge fan of rich RPGs and old school survival horror. I love anything with a good story, that leaves me on the edge of my seat from excitement/fear and wanting more when the credits roll.
What I Don’t Like: Not a fan of FPS. Not knocking anybody who is a fan, it’s just not my cup of gaming tea. At all.
My Top 6 Favourite Games (in no particular order):
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Everybody loves Ocarina of Time. It feels like one of those rite of passage games that everyone loved playing as a kid on the N64. My excitement level when I found out it was being remade for the 3DS was through the roof. Three semi-sleepless nights later, I had beaten it and found myself appreciating it far, far more than I ever did as a kid. The transition between child and adult Link in the Temple of Time remains one of my fondest gaming memories ever.
The Last of Us: I admit I had my reservations about this one. I didn’t follow much of its development apart from seeing a few cool trailers here and there. It really surprised me with its depth and emotion, and I ended up loving it and being brought to tears, caring far more about Joel and Ellie’s unending struggle than I initially expected to.
Silent Hill 2: I can’t remember exactly how I had heard about the Silent Hill franchise, but I knew the first three games were supposed to be terrifying. Lucky for me, when I was fifteen years old and working in a video shop, I noticed they had an old rental copy for dark for around $20. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I bought it and haven’t looked back. Silent Hill 2 remains my favourite of the franchise after finally playing the rest of the series over the last six years. From the moment I stepped out of that bathroom, looked out at the lake and began the winding descent to Silent Hill, accompanied by distorted, creepy noises and foggy imagery, I was in love.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines: I will never not be sad about Troika shutting down. Bloodlines was such a unique, albeit buggy game. Fan patches have fixed most of the issues over a decade later, and it’s become something of a cult classic, with new fan made content still being made for it. I haven’t come across a fanbase equal to Bloodlines in its fervent, well-deserved dedication; and I doubt I ever will.
Conker’s Bad Fur Day: An oldie but a goodie, one from the N64 days. Naturally the various movie references and sexual innuendo didn’t catch up to me until I was much older, but I adored this game for its whacky humour and over the top shenanigans. Joining a war effort, becoming a vampire, coming face to face with a xenomorph and battling a giant stool monster… Conker really did have an awful, awful day.
Resident Evil 4: The perfect blend between the old and the new for this franchise, in my opinion. Genuinely scary but not clunky and totally powerless against your enemies, exciting and action-packed, but not a run and gun snooze fest. To me, this was easily Resident Evil at its finest.
Article by Karly Taylor
