A few times I’ve had the feeling that I’ve been exactly where I should be, doing exactly the right thing. I’m going to try to avoid the word ‘destiny’ here because that sounds too much like ‘ruling the galaxy as father and son’, so let’s just call it the awareness of having made a perfect decision, however insignificant it might have seemed at the time.

The last time I felt like that was right after I took a risk and changed degree subject completely. I sat down in class to discover that I must have been mad to think I could have studied anything else. Although that might have had a little to do with the beautiful girls that filled my classes, the complete lack of any exams and the fact that I was studying science fiction rather than guiltily reading it instead of studying, it was definitely probably mostly because I loved what I was doing and I was good at it. 

It made leaving quite difficult though and for a while I’ve struggled to find some or any direction. I wasn’t at T3.com for long, but it sure beat talking rich mums into buying their spoilt kids more Xbox stuff. I was there long enough to see that I’ve got what it takes to do well as a journalist, given the right dedication and practice and I like the idea of it. Okay, so I did have to do a couple of every-day office things and I wrote some short articles about Satnav voices and life-size Stormtrooper cake, hardly life-changing stuff, I know, but even if I’m still only hitch-hiking my way somewhere, I can’t help feeling like I’m at least on the road to somewhere really great. 

I hope there’s life-size Stormtrooper cake.

As first steps go, this very small first step was a fairly giant leap for me. I was quite happy to rock about with the other London commuters on the tube, but I think it was reasonable to be feeling slightly apprehensive about my first day in the real world since graduating (I don’t count working in GAME). However, although I was quite resigned to the fact that the only chance I’d get to make an impression on the team was with my dish-washing skills and incredible tea-making, they were extremely chilled out, fun, didn’t send me on any tea runs and even gave me some small articles to write. In fact, here’s one I made earlier: my first ever published article ever. Yes, one of the guys edited it a bit, added some things and yes my name isn’t actually on it, but it’s mostly mine. I rushed it anyway, probably. I just wanted to get it done really quick because I was excited. Either way, there it is! I’m a rockstar. 

It was a good first day. 

My hard drive may need cleaning up in preparation for the thirty gigabyte install of Dragon Age 3: Dragon Harder or the next big RPG because whatever it is, it will undoubtedly push all of my PC’s components to a point where even the soothing voice of their owner cannot cool them. The grief for my disk space and CPU’s well being would be short-lived though if I could get seriously immersed in a compelling story and beautifully rendered gameworld. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I’m a Dungeons & Dragons role-player at heart with a soft spot for the boundary-pushing visuals, so I was surprised at how quickly I fell in love with the simple shadow puppet world of Playdead’s platformer, Limbo, which doesn’t have any dungeons OR dragons(!).

            Or dialogue or cut scenes or tutorials or intricate menus. It’s all very simply made, but that’s the beauty of it. All you need to survive the many gruesome pitfalls and logic puzzles is your gamer’s intuition and your hand(s). There is no need for a condescending lesson in menu screen navigation or character growth and there is no need for lengthy dialogues that interrupt the actual playing. There is nothing to prepare you for what’s coming except that you jump with up, move with left, right and down and grab things with control. Although the game is certainly tough in places, it is so perfectly intuitive, so instantly playable and so fluent in the language of video games that it almost plays itself. As soon as the boy wakes up in the woods, you know you are definitely playing (that sounds really bad out of context).

            I recently read an article that said videogames, by definition, communicate via a kind of synesthetic audiovisual expression (unfortunately the link to the article doesn’t work anymore!). In other words, videogames speak to the player in a language that is neither spoken nor written. In other other words, they should tell us what to do, without strictly telling us what to do. For example, you don’t need lots of practice or a huge briefing before you can play Super Mario, Sonic, Rez or indeed Limbo. Once you can get the hang of the hand-eye coordination thing, games like these just come naturally and that’s exactly what’s missing from A LOT of games these days.

            I remember the first time I played a football game I was about 8 and it was on a much older neighbour’s Playstation. All I was told was that I was “The Blues” and no matter how many times I asked “…yeah, but which one?” I was repeatedly told the same thing. It wasn’t a good day for The Blues. Although I am now pretty fluent in most types of videogame, I think we all know how much of a joke it is trying to explain to our Mums that X is pass AND tackle depending on who you’re controlling and whether or not they have the ball. Or how awkward it is trying to tell your girlfriend that she can’t play Nazi Zombies with you because she will probably end up running into a corner throwing grenades at the ceiling while you have to laugh off your grizzly death. All this means is that you have to be labeled a dedicated gamer to even be able to play most modern videogames, which is why Limbo and games like it are so brilliant.

            Anyone can play Limbo just like anyone can play Super Mario or Sonic or the old Prince of Persia. They’re not trying to push the boundaries of technology or acting as if they’re films. Although I will always love to pretend I’m a spaceman or a dragon slayer for eighty hours in whatever the next blockbuster RPG will be, games like Limbo remind me of a more innocent time when all you needed was a few buttons, you could easily take it in turns without having to learn all the moves and the music and graphics were rubbish, but charming nonetheless. Yet, Limbo is visually enchanting all the way through, what little music there is subtly enhances the already dark fairytale atmosphere and there is a sprinkling of a story that will leave you haunted. And you won’t have to defragment your hard drive in order to install it.

            More games like this, please!