Gaming's free associations

[Kelvin]

Thought this might be fun. Just think of a game, ideally one you have strong feelings about, and describe the first thing that comes to your mind; either an image, feeling or memory.

Wind Waker: It's the bright blue of the sky, and the red of the boat; those two blocks of colour. Link sailing towards the horizon, combined with a feeling of optimism. It's such a bright, happy world, and those two colours perfectly encapsulate that for me. Second image is Link doing the cat's "Miaow" in the night-time stealth sequence:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cad971KHQfY

Half Life 2: The hovercraft bit where the tower collapses. I can't even say what type of tower it was (an industrial chimney?), but that's what always comes to my mind when i think of that game. Also a general feeling of being quite enclosed; walls clearly guiding you down a linear path. Might be because I first played it years after it came out, and it clearly was much more linear than other, more modern FPS games I had been playing.


Feel free to do a whole bunch, and to use games other people have already done.

[Kelvin]

Actually, it might be good to give the first couple of images/memories, because in my experience, the very first image is often just a promotional shot or early level you've seen over and over again, and it's the next thing you think of that feels more idiosyncratic. For example:

Breath of The Wild: First thing I think of is just that trailer shot of Link jumping off the plateau with his glider, but the second is me creeping through a woody area trying to hunt wild animals, with a clear blue sky behind them, and no sense of urgency whatsoever.   

[Shay Chaise]

Dark Souls 2: The twinkling Majula theme plays as I cast my eye across the inhabitants of the jaundiced hub area, this bunch of misfits in search of purpose. The rolling oily black sea. The weather-beaten plinth. The sickly light. "Lowly times these are!". It's the first Souls game I fell in love with and returning home to Majula still feels like respite, a moment of blessed tranquility and comfort.

[madhair60]

Link's Awakening: Ballad of the Wind Fish playing as Link raises one of the instruments after beating a boss.

[brat-sampson]

Ocarina of Time
Ba da da DAAAAHHHHH

[Kelvin]

Ocarina of Time
Ba da da DAAAAHHHHH

Heh, reading that immediately made me think of the very first chest you open in Kokiri Forest. Holding up the sword.

[bgmnts]

Vice City: Tommy Vercetti's hawaiian shirt, aimlessly shooting enough people to get a 5 star wanted level and escaping from tanks on a pizza delivery moped. Of course the soundtrack on the radios (to the point where that probably influenced my musical direction to this day).

Metal Gear Solid: that intro scenes where snake is talking to the colonel while underwater then going up the cargo lift.
"A Hind D... Colonel, what's a Russian gun ship doing here?"
"I have no idea..."

Metal Gear Solid 2: The entire section where the AI is infected, Raiden is bollock naked doing cartwheels with one hand cupped over his member and the Colonel is codec calling you with gibberish. The game gets all screwy it freaked me out as a kid when i played it.

KOTOR: HK-47. One of my favourite Star Wars characters in any media.

Splinter Cell: the firefight with Grinko and the mission in Langley.

Ocarina of Time: throwing a chicken.

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy: the first section. I played it as the demo and fuck it was sooooooo good.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Rollercoaster Tycoon: "217 people have died on Give A Fuck Like"

[Kelvin]

Toejam and Earl: Sat next to best mate in his gaming room, watching him play, and thinking, "I hope I get picked up soon. This game looks like shit."

[Shay Chaise]

Cannon Fodder: Throwing a grenade at a snow-covered hut, blowing the door straight out, removing Jops from the earthly plane. I'm instantly raging at the misfortune. The roof lands on the rest of my boys, flattening them. Boot Hill.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Theme Park: "56 people are on AIDS VIRUS"

[Z]

Metal Gear Solid: Dual Shock

Metal Gear Solid 2: "I grew up on the battlefield, conflict and victory were my parents"

Ape Escape: How drastically different parts of it seemed to the demo

Pokemon: The eerieness of a bunch of level 150 Pokemon appearing off Cinnebar Island followed by a feeling of absolute dread as the game stalled and then a level 142 Missingno appeared

Burnout 3: Tiger Woods Pro Golf

Smackdown 2: Holding off on starting a match until my mam leaves the room in case it the loading screen (which took ages) was one of several really slutty looking ones

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Me playing Bloodborne: "FUCK OOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!"

[Kelvin]

Super Monkey Ball: A monkey twitching on a target

Time Splitters 2: The Snake minigame, and that music. Also wierdly, despite loving that game at the time, especially the multiplayer, my other over-riding memory is of getting bored with the single player.

[Mantle Retractor]

Breath of The Wild - Hestu's inventory-expanding dance which concludes with glitter shooting from his maracas (for those not familiar with the game, that's not some elaborate wanking euphemism):



always reminds me of the glitter from Patridge's Dante Fires presentation:



"Two grand that cost."

[Bhazor]

Spawn on the Super Nintendo

The only thing I remember of the game is if you stand still at the start on the first level you get to watch an endless of gangbangers jumping to their deaths. I don't know why but this made me giggle for a full ten minutes first time I saw it.

[Phil_A]

In the Thief games: the sheer joy of antagonising a load of guards then legging it to a safe spot where they can't follow, listening to their frustrated taunts as they impotently stamp their feet in rage.

"DON'T THINK YOU CAN HIDE FOR LONG!" "I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, AND I'LL BE THERE IN JUST A MINUTE!"

One of the things that annoyed me about Dishonored, the supposed successor to the Thief series, was that those kind of daring escapes are pretty much impossible as the guards are basically omniscient and can target you from a distance no matter where you are. So if you get caught you've got no choice but to either reload or try and murder them all.

[Bhazor]

Xcom 2

I've never been one for getting attached to rando soldiers. Never bother naming or customising them. There's no personality or story arc so why would I care? But I've made an exception for my top bitch. Lauren "Tiny" Harris.



From my first ever successful campaign in any Xcom game (dating back to micropose days). She was there on my first mission and she was there on my last mission. That scar is not cosmetic she earned that. She survive the entire campaign to the last mission with some 200 confirmed kills only to die the most heroic death. Holding back the entire alien army while the rest of the team fled. Finally killed two steps from the exit by a 1 in a 100 overwatch crit. It didn't even let me reload, her death triggering the end cinematic. But my free association is not with her or her death. No what I think about is the moment 3 months later when I started a new game and I saw her sitting on the drop ship for the first mission. I actually teared up a little.