A few of the things that have us hooked this week.
21st June 2024
Hello!
What have you been playing?
Downwell, Switch
Downwell’s one of those games that seems so simple.
But it’s a bit of a university course in making the basic stuff work.
The foot-guns feel incredible, powerful and metallic and capable of sending ripples upwards through your body.
And the sense of connection when you hit a floor or a lurking baddie is magnificently kinetic.
I feel Downwell in every part of my arms and legs as I play.
Downwell’s about one thing: impact.
And it aces it.
It’s not a complete rule-change but therearesignificant changes to every aspect of the game.
And it struck me while gobbling this information how alike it felt to reading patch notes.
Because it is, I suppose - it’s the world’s largest set of patch notes.
Patch notes have always fascinated me, particularly in games you ‘live’ in, like MMOs.
I was reminded of all of this this week.
But something I’d forgotten was how exciting it can be.
Possibility: that’s what flooded my mind.
I thought of the new ways my characters might do things and excitement ripped around inside of me.
I thought of new characters I’d like to make and new fantasies I wanted to try and realise.
I could do it for hours.
Whisper it: maybe it’s the part of games I like most.
Sometimes, it’s hard to make sense of what an image is at first.
Where am I in the next image?
I’m high above an alleyway, looking down.
I’d say it’s disorienting, but I don’t think that’s right.
Wong’s best pictures are a lesson in orientation.
You find out where you are and what you’re looking at.
It’s a bit like being Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap.
Some seem to have rubble floating in them.
Or strange crumpled pieces of metal.
Magical, transporting stuff.
Make sense of this.
Make, perhaps, your own private sense of it too.
