Anecdotal Evidence

I've read a lot of articles by game journalists who tell stories of their adventures in such-and-such a game, and some of my favourites come from the chaps over at Rock Paper Shotgun. Recently, they've been running a few articles about Jim Rossignols travels in DayZ, an ArmA 2 mod, which make for fascinating reading.

Personally, I've never really had many tales of my adventures in a game. That's not to say that they don't happen, just that I rarely have something I want to tell others. The closest I've ever come to that previously was in one particular playthrough of Halo 3. Having fought across Earth and the Ark, watched the death of good friends, I finally reach my end goal: the replacement to Alpha Halo, which I, as Master Chief, destroyed in the first game. But there's a problem. Between me and the control room are flood combat forms. Taking a deep breath, I charge in, aiming to sprint up as I know that no matter how many I kill, there will always be more coming. After a gruelling fight, I made it up two thirds of the tower. I've still got a rocket left in my launcher. Suddenly, Flood forms spring from the floor below, jumping up to my platform. Feeling crafty, I work out that several, including a heavy combat form will land a few metres from me. So I fired my rocket at the floor. But there's no explosion. Bewildered, I'm frozen as the Flood swarm in and take me down.

It was only after I'd finished, that I headed into the theatre to find out what had happened. Playing the video in slow motion, I watched as my rocket hurtled toward the combat form, only to be batted aside at the last moment, and go spinning away to explode harmlessy against the cliff face. It was amazing. I didn't even know the Flood was capable of doing anything like that! Really, it was just a chance combination of events and game physics. But it was still brilliant.

Except for that one event in Halo 3, the only other adventure I can think of occurred during a wander through the forest of the Rift, in Skyrim. I was minding my own business when a dragon swooped down and started attacking, only for me to hear the whoop of a troll. Knowing I can hide behind a tree as the dragon attempts to burn me, I turned and fought the troll, felling it with a few blows. That done, I turned back to continue my fight with the dragon, only to yell in surprise to find its face up in mine as its jaws snap shut on my life.

However, I think I'm about to find more tales to tell. On Friday I picked up a copy of Dragon's Dogma. I've been looking forward to this game for a few months. It had slipped under my radar, but once I learned more about it I got very excited.

I'm pleased to say that the game certainly lives up to that excitement. The world feels vast, combat is pleasingly punchy and visceral. True the story may not be up to much - after over ten hours, I've yet to even meet the king - but I don't really care. I'm having far too much fun