Starting Up

Who am I?

I am Nathan Hibbert, a 22 year old Game Design student at JMC Academy. I’ve been an avid consumer of Video Games since a very young age, often using it as an escape from my day to day life. I mostly play RPGs, Tactical FPS’ and Story driven Games.

As young as 3 I was playing Video Games, I would often play the Fighting Game Tekken on my old Playstation 1. This eventually led to me being gifted a Playstation 2 at age 9 and being immersed in the worlds of the Action Platformers in the Jak and Daxter Series, the Ratchet and Clank Series, the Tekken Series and even the Racing Games of the Need for Speed Series.

I would eventually go out to own a Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch and playing extensively on PC.

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What in Game Design Interests Me?

As young as the age of 8 or 9 I would always take time to write out my own stories and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed creating worlds with their own lore and characters with their own backstories and creating an attachment to them. This interest stemmed from the Video Games I played, such as the Jak and Daxter series, as well as the Films, such as Star Wars, and Books, such as Skulduggery Pleasant, that I exposed myself to.

I would write stories involving many different genres and many different characters. I dabbled in Fantasy, Horror and even Romance stories, always taking inspiration from some form of media that I was currently invested in.

I would love to create my own worlds and characters so that many other people can get the same enjoyment I do in getting lost in a world and story. To me, there is almost nothing more satisfying.

What do I Care for in a Game?

When I’m looking to purchase a game I look for both an interesting Game Play Loop (GPL) as well as a story I can get well invested in. Depending on what I’m craving at the time I can even be looking for something that lets me play with other people, I have always loved playing multiplayer games with both people I know and people I don’t. In the last few years games that have ticked all, or some of, the aforementioned boxes include:

– The Dark Souls Series
– Rainbow Six: Siege
– Overwatch
– Stardew Valley
– God of War PS4
– Pokemon
– The Borderlands Series

Another thing I look for in a game, specifically in Competitive Multiplayer games, is an eSports scene. After picking up Overwatch in 2016 I became invested in it’s Professional scene, even more so after the launch of the Overwatch League (OWL) in 2018. I currently follow the Los Angeles Valiant, Dallas Fuel and the Toronto Defiant in OWL. Another game I am somewhat invested in eSports wise is Rainbow Six: Siege.

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What is my Favourite Game?

Asking someone what their favourite game is is like asking someone what their favourite food or drink is, there are just so many amazing options that it’s sometimes hard to pin down an answer. Despite that I do have a clear winner as my Favourite Game. That being, Dark Souls.

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Dark Souls is a Dark Fantasy RPG game from Japanese developer, FromSoftware. It tells the story of a replaceable character somehow defeating dangerous creatures and areas, and attaining amazing feats. Dark Souls has a Game Play Loop that is reminiscent of old Playstation 1 games, minimal save points, tough enemies and rewarding progression. As the player you have immense choice in how you attack any given problem, an outstanding amount of weaponry and equipment to choose from and plenty of mechanics that allow, or disallow, certain play styles.

The Story of Dark Souls is very…Convoluted. You play as a human that has been stricken by the Curse of the Undead. This curse forces a person to come back to life at a Bonfire upon death, this will occur infinitely until said person goes insane and will attack anyone and everything it sees. As the player you must go around and defeat monstrous enemies and bosses to change the world for better, or worse, your choice. The story itself is not told through conventional methods, such as cut-scenes and dialogue dumps. It is instead told through small amounts of these things and mostly told through Item Descriptions on weapons and equipment. These descriptions develop the world in a way usual methods would not, it shows the world’s history and characters in less obvious way. You could play and finish the entire game without knowing what you did or why you did it. This is why I LOVE Dark Souls, what is explicitly told is very vague and allows for the player to come to their own conclusions on events and reasoning’s, this allows each player to possibly have their own interpretation and experience with the game.

Dark Souls also has an extensive multiplayer factor as well. The player can summon other players to help them with tough areas or drop helpful items, this, once again, gives each player a unique experience and gives struggling players the help they need to defeat strong bosses. On the other hand it also has an invasion system, where a player can invade another player’s world and hunt them down for their own spoils. This can be frustrating at times, but also very rewarding and fun at others.

If that isn’t enough to get you interested here is two reviews that may help you better understand Dark Souls and even might get you to play one of the most rewarding games I have ever played:

Game Informer Review (Oct 3rd 2011): https://www.gameinformer.com/games/dark_souls/b/ps3/archive/2011/10/03/dark-souls-review-dead-and-loving-it.aspx
IGN Review ( Oct 1st 2011):
https://au.ign.com/articles/2011/09/30/dark-souls-review

Dark Souls was released October 4th 2011 for PS3, Xbox 360 and was released for PC August 23rd 2012
A remaster named Dark Souls: Remastered was released May 24th 2018 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. It was also released for Nintendo Switch on October 19th 2018.

That’s it Folks!

Thanks for reading my first blog post and I hope you know more about me and my relationship with Video Games. I will be updating this at least weekly with plenty of other Gaming related content.

Thanks again!

– Nathan “Naff” Hibbert