Kyle Hyde, a Real Man

So I just finished up Last Window: The Secret of Cape West last night instead of studying. I think (or at least like to think) that I’m a lot like Kyle Hyde. Suave, handsome, intelligent, fixing the problems of others while letting his own life fall into complete disrepair. Definitely the last part. On one hand I wouldn’t want my life to end up like Kyle’s, bachelor at 34 performing a job beneath him, but on the other I can’t think of a video game character more worthy of being looked up to as a role model. He’s a true everyman sort of bloke, a video game hero we can relate to. Sure it’s fun being Commander Shepard and saving the galaxy but Kyle’s more earthly pursuits and achievements are admirable yet not out of reach. And I’m pretty sure Rachel will sleep with him at some point. Can anyone direct me to some slash fanfic/art please?

Oh and regarding Last Window, since now is as good a time to comment on it as ever. It’s a good game, it even won Grubdog’s prestigious ‘Game of the Minute’ award last year, but I have a few issues with it’s manner of storytelling that I might talk about in a future post comparing it to other adventure games on the DS and PC.

Game of the Year awards thoughts

I feel like these are counter productive to a gamers mind. Trying to summarise a years worth of content, all I think about are the games I left out, not the games that make it. How do you decide what was best anyway? On a given Friday night, Fragile Dreams was the greatest game of all time. Then on Sunday morning, Wario Ware DIY was. How do we compare that? What about the experiences that you didn’t have, that could’ve happened. The games of 2010 that you’ll play in 2011? I’m trying to find a way of doing this and feeling good about it but I can’t do it. I’m living in today. I never took pictures of these moments. I’ll always look at a great game and smile at the enjoyment it brought me, but it lives inside itself, free from comparisons. That’s a big reason I enjoy games, they take me into their own world. Gutting them and sending them to a battlefield only ends up with all of them getting shot with the blood on my hands. I feel the same about review scores, I can’t get my head around doing them either.

The only thing I can say for sure is what I want to play right now, so i’m declaring Last Window the GOTM (Game of the Minute) and going to bed.

Last Window

Sometimes I purposefully get the game over scenes just to see what happens. Real gamers care more about experiencing the game than their stats. Plus, if I never die in a game, it’d be just like real life. The only way to really lose is to not explore, to not experience.