The Plan

So, here I am. Early Monday morning and I am not quite stable yet. I suppose this is the part where I make my intentions clear to all. Well first off, my name is "Burke" and I am an alcoholic. Also I plan to eat your babies, devour your children and consume your offspring (I am unsure if those are all the same thing. My doctor says they are).

But that is of course besides the point of this blog. No, the point of this blog is for the review of video games (or something along those lines). Let me start by explaining the name itself. "Dark Island Games" is a happy nod towards Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay formed in 1996 specifically for the creation of computer roleplaying games.

They were masters of their art and were responsible for many of my personal great gaming experiences. Were it not for games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment or Fallout I would not be the gamer I am today nor have the same appreciation for story telling, roleplaying or interactive entertainment in general. Truly they were pioneers and I salute them.

Rest well beloved creators. You shall be missed.

The actual origin of your's truly into gaming as a medium is quite simple really. As with many children born into the late 80's, before me stood a vast and wonderful world of video games far beyond the daily dullness of life's own little affairs, already strong and alive thanks to the efforts of many talented people from previous years spent making them a reality.

There was nothing quite like the first time I made a new friend playing Pong at the arcade. Or the first time I played Mario Cart or Goldeneye on the N64 with someone I barely knew from down the hall of the apartment building.

Games simply became the new window to the world just as the films and books of the past had been. Not a violent usurper or an unwanted guest, but a new player into the halls of the entertainment industry, ushering a whole generation into a bright new age of something we had long wanted: Interactive Media.

It was a brave new world. A world of fantasy, action and adventure. Where a boy might become a champion and legends manifest into reality. Where dreams became nothing but a matter of time and Empires rose and fell at our command. A world made of pixels and imagination. A world where we could meet those we had never even dreamed of meeting and finding deeper connections in those we already knew. A world where anything was possible.

We were Gods, we were children and we were Pilgrims. We were mortals with Destiny caught between our minds and hearts. We were the new treasure seekers, forging bonds with the old yet stepping forward without fear, into a completely unknown Universe where immortality was only a button click away.

On the other hand, I love the Atari for all the wrong reasons.

It has been 19 years since the first time I held a console controller in my hands. 15 years since I first logged onto a PC and felt what it was to hold the fate of an entire Civilization at my fingertips. After 23 years of experiences in both pain and happiness, there are still few things that compare to some on my experiences gained from games. Few heartaches as terrible as the death of Aerith. Few wonders as epic as my first foray into Hyrule. The simple joy of beating Super Mario. The pure frustration of a weekend of Battletoads.

All of these things and more. Video games are not just childish entertainment. At times they are lessons in emotional pain and attachment, sometimes they are a study into the very core of who we are.

The greatest of games can make us stop and hold our breath. Mourning the loss of a friend, feeling a sense of closure after a long journey through a series. Even going so far as to make us question ourselves from time to time, making us wonder if this avatar we see before us may in some way be a manifestation of who we wish to be or who we can aspire to be like.

Perhaps in the end it is all as meaningless as some may believe. Or perhaps in the end some games may speak to us so profoundly as to still capture our imagination decades later. Perhaps, the easiest way to look at it is to ask ourselves a question that Planescape: Torment asked of it's players so many years ago. "What can change the nature of a man?"

I welcome you to the new era. Welcome, to Dark Island Games.