This is a very awkward section for myself where I have decided to describe who I am, my gaming history and why you may find my content at least mildly interesting. Quite frankly I have the bullet points in my notes outlining the things I want to write here but I still do not know how to begin this article, so I am winging it. Perhaps you will find it cringe or maybe you will find it endearing and transparent. I hope the latter of course but naturally, I would understand the former.
My name is Aky, and I am a proud British Pakistani Muslim and an extremely keen gamer. I have been gaming since I was a child. Some of my earliest memories include the Sega Mega Drive playing Sonic, Streets of Rage, Mortal Kombat and Golden Axe games amongst others on that lovely machine. Some of those games have aged well, some less so. From there, I progressed to the original PlayStation and the Game Boy Colour. As I got older, I mainly played on PlayStation machines for a home console and whichever Nintendo handheld machine was available at the time. This was until I started working and was fortunate enough to have the ability to branch out to other consoles and the PC.
The idea behind this blog is to do more in-depth opinion pieces focusing on specific things in a game such as a particular mechanic or a cutscene. I did not want this to become another news or review website. There are plenty of people out there who do that so well and I do not believe I would be able to offer something different from them. Furthermore, I have a full-time job on top of this so I knew I would have struggled to find the time to write many articles a day commenting on all the news going on.
Below is just a high-level summary of my favourite things in gaming at the time I wrote this:
· Game series – For me, there is no contender for this, Final Fantasy sits right at the top due to their continual willingness to keep reinventing themselves with each numbered entry. Usually, there is a cast of colourful characters and amazingly deep stories in the series, and it is something that continually impresses me.
· Game of all time – Based on the above, it probably is not surprising that this is naturally a Final Fantasy game. It may surprise people to learn that it is Final Fantasy VII Remake though. I understand the eventual sequels of this game may vary in quality, but the first game is amazing for me. The story they told was stunning and their willingness to reinvent the game that much makes me crave other franchises to also do the same thing. I suppose that would arguably make Final Fantasy VII Remake less special over time. Without going into specifics, the ending clearly shows things are changing going forward, which excites me. I think it also tries to answer what a remake should be in the modern age too. Remake knocked my previous favourite game of all time off the top spot which was Final Fantasy X. A story I deeply loved too. Yes, there is a pattern here.
· Genres – I am fairly open so I will play most things, but I do have a preference for JRPGs and 3rd person action-adventure games due to their ability to tell great stories. I love story based; single-player games so even visual novels will make me very happy.
· Console – For this, I am not deciding this based on what had the best games, I am basing this purely on the look and feel of the console and for me the winner is the Nintendo Switch OLED. It’s incredibly lightweight, the screen is gorgeous, and the speakers are decent. It’s incredibly versatile so I can prop it up against a pillow or a table at the perfect angle, detach the joy cons and play until I am about ready to fall asleep. Despite loving the form factor of the joy cons, it’s such a shame so many people have experienced joy con drift.
· Controller – It undoubtedly has to be the Dual Sense controller on the PlayStation 5. I love the long palm rests making it feel really comfortable in my hands. The haptic feedback, triggers, and speaker in the controller, made me initially think it would be a gimmick, but I have found it to be extremely immersive.
· Console generation – For me, this has to be the PS3/Xbox 360/Wii generation. It was when I think gaming went up a humongous level, sort of like going from 16-bit games to 3d. This was in part because of the visuals and the ability to have bigger worlds and levels but I also thought it was the generation that finally started to understand the value of story in gaming. All you have to do is look at the Mass Effect Trilogy as an example of this. It was however the generation where predatory practices were being experimented with such as DLC and microtransactions however I feel like it was still early days yet, so the games had managed to avoid being tainted for the most part and it was the next generation where the practices became much more prevalent.
· Game series – There are just far too many to list. Final Fantasy, of course, Persona and Danganronpa are definitely amongst my favourites. Others I enjoy a lot include Resident Evil, Kingdom Hearts, Mortal Kombat and a lot of first-party games from console manufacturers. Hopefully, that gives you a flavour of the things I enjoy.
Outside of gaming, I watch some TV or Anime or read a book but not loads. I like to keep up with fitness sometimes too, I used to be much better at it but then covid happened.
Just like the start of this article, I also am unsure of how to end it. I hope you now have a picture of my tastes so please check out my work and share it if you find anything interesting. I will just say bye for now and happy reading.
