DinkDot Games

Well hello there, my names Dink. Thank you so much for clicking onto my blog, consider this the grand opening!

Here I wanted to be able to let loose, and speak about and dive deep into one thing and one thing only: Video games. With the world as it is at this moment, any form of escapism is A-OK with me. Whether it be speaking about games I’m playing, upcoming thoughts and feelings, or even mini studies and essays about all things gaming (yeh it’s going to be one of those blogs), I hope there’s something in here for everyone!

To kick things off, I wanted to take this as an opportunity to introduce myself! And with the immense fear of judgement looming over my head, I wanted to start off with talking about some of my favourite games. I’m going to keep it at 5, as if I didn’t put a limit on myself I fear I could waffle, and I already annoy my partner enough so I don’t want to make that list any bigger. These are in no particular order, you can’t make me rank them and I won’t.

The Walking Dead- A TellTale Games Series

Where do I begin with this series. This beauty I found back when PewDiePie played it on his channel and I was hooked. I had never played or seen a game in which something you chose at the start of the game would affect the narrative 2 episodes down the line, and to my teenage self it was something I had to experience for myself. Now, bare with me as I can’t really explain why I did it, but after finishing PewDiePie’s playthrough of the first season, I then proceeded to buy the season pass, and play the entire 1st season EXACTLY the same as what I’d watched. The best thing about it: I didn’t care. I laughed, I cried, and it was great. Lee being for me one of the best characters in a video game franchise period, and top 5 video game Father figures is not a hyperbolic statement for me. Past that, the following seasons playing as Clementine watching her character develop in this apocalyptic setting, going from the child that we pick up in season 1, to the coldest mf on the planet both excited me and broke me at the thought of this literal child adapting to the circumstances she would find herself in. Doing all she can do to just survive, which is all we can do at the end of the day. This series I always go back to, and never tire of it, whether that be as a teenager, being in my shared uni house while my flatmate who wasn’t a gamer watches and seeing them laugh, cry and scream in all the places I did. This game is so good I got Clementine’s hat tattooed on me, and I love it.

Persona 5 Royal

Let me set the scene for you. Picture me, if you could, a younger Dink, in my first flat my partner and I got together, with the mould on the walls and the severe lack of heating, scrolling through the PlayStation Store, furious at the fact I have no idea what to play. When my partner, the gem that they are, comes out with ‘Why don’t you get Persona? It looks like something you’d like, you’re a weeb’. I take the comment on the chin, and think ‘yeh why not? screw it, let’s give it a go’. The game loads up, and the opening sequence starts playing: The animation, the absolute banger of a opening theme by Lyn, the character design and the ending, Joker swinging through the Tokyo street, somersaulting and landing impeccably on the ground with the logo shining through my TV. I proceed to curse myself that I never found this game sooner. 100 hours later and I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been as blown away with a game as I was at the end of my first playthrough. What more could you want from a game? A story full of twists and turns, check. An amazing cast of characters and party members, check. The crisp, turn based gameplay and dungeon crawling with amazing design and narrative themes, check. The perfect blend of JRPG and social sim elements all wrapped up in one unforgettable piece of media. The soundtrack, ATLUS I have come to discover, they give you a 10/10 video game album, with a game as an extra bonus. I have sunk more hours into this game as I care to admit, I’ve played the game in its entirety twice and I’m currently on my third playthrough as I type this.

Final Fantasy VII (Remake and OG)

Following on Persona, it’s quick to see what my favourite genre of games are. I was first introduced to the Final Fantasy franchise from my cousin who had a PS1 in his room, and watching him play it thinking that it was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Revelling at the graphics as in my 6 year old head those circles and pixels must have been like looking at peak art right there. I got my first video game crush, putting me in the Team Aerith side of the debate that I didn’t realise would be such a controversial topic for some people. Also my first introduction to turn based gameplay! If only younger me could see me now, the bullying didn’t change a thing.

Seeing the announcement that FFVII was getting a remake, and I felt like a kid again. Seeing Cloud somersault into frame and I finally understood the hype of remakes, and the nostalgia that it gives you. Then, the delays. Worried that this game wouldn’t even come out, and stupidly, letting it leave my mind for a long time. Then, once again, scrolling the PlayStation Store, and boom, there it is, it’s actually there. And it was on PS Plus, so I convinced myself I didn’t even actually pay for it, and hit download. And I felt like I was back to being a kid again, overwhelmed by the upgrade my childhood got. Not only the graphics, but the story didn’t necessarily go in the same direction that the original did, and that being huge! Damn you Square Enix for getting my hopes up that it maybe wouldn’t have the same major plot points the original had. Walking through the town square and the flower girl with the red jacket run up to Cloud, and in clear HD my childhood crush came right back. Which sparked a massive disagreement with my partner, who was Tifa through and through, and I experienced first hand the depths people go to over Tifa or Aerith.

I blitzed through Remake, I pre ordered Rebirth, and again, damn you Square Enix for getting my hopes up, I was a fool for thinking what I didn’t want to experience again wouldn’t happen. Yes I know there’s a certain middle ground of the ‘other side’ but it still hit me the same way it did all those years ago. Best believe I’m going to be all over the eventual third part of this absolute perfect game series.

The Uncharted Series

Just going to get this out there now, I am fine with admitting, that I suck at games with shooting mechanics. Always have, probably always will. I tried to play Overwatch with my partner, and I was woeful. I never got good at Call of Duty, and inevitably gave up once it all got futuristic. I never got into, nor particularly enjoyed Fortnite or Apex Legends, it just ain’t my cup of tea, I’m sorry. However, an Indiana Jones and Lara Croft hybrid? I’ll take seconds.

Uncharted I discovered strangely from my Dad of all people, who’s never really been much of a gamer. He liked his FIFA games, your Battlefield 3’s, UFC on the PS3. It was one day I came home from school and my dad had rented a game from Love Film, if you even remember or have heard of that. If not, don’t remind me of my age. It was Uncharted 2, and he had been playing all afternoon, something I’d never seen before from him. He handed me the controller and in his gruffly, Geordie accent simply said ‘you’ve gotta give this a go man, it’s fookin insane‘. Well, little did I know I would be hit with the best opening to a video game ever. THAT train level, the desperate climbing, the surrounding creaks and breaks of the train hanging off a goddamn cliff edge, I was immediately in love. Got no work done that night, proceeded to get in big trouble at school for missing project deadlines but I just wanted to get home and get back on it. Now, I didn’t know with Love Film, you had to give the disk back after a certain time, so I was heartbroken when we had to return it, so I waited and for the next 3 Christmas’s, I got Uncharted 2, then 1, then 3. I know that’s not the order but if we’re being honest, that’s the ranking of the games best to ‘worst’. With Naughty Dog themselves coming out and basically saying ‘Yeh no.3 was just us trying out stuff in the code of the game’.

And when 4 came out, the title describes it perfectly: ‘A Thief’s End’. Encompassing everything that made the franchise what it was best at: puzzle solving, shooting and balls to the walls action mixed in with a perfect bow wrapped round the series story. This story again giving me fond memories of replaying it in my shared Uni house, with the same friend who watched TWD with me, skipping seminars and lectures to sit in with me to watch me play the story start to finish. We even went and watched the crappy movie they made at the cinema on release day, and by god what a bad decision that was. Mark Wahlberg you will never be Sully, let’s just forget it ever happened and enjoy the game series for what it was.

Stardew Valley

Sometimes, you just need to relax and lose yourself in a cosy, less than stressful farming life sim. I say less stressful, until it’s the desert mines. Real ones know. I will be the first to admit, this game was one that I avoided it like the plague, after watching my partner grind thousands of hours into this game, stating to them ‘it’s only a farming game’. How wrong I was. When I finally bit the bullet, minutes turned into hours, into tens of hours, into hundreds of hours. I’m obsessed, and I have never been so glad to be wrong about something in my life. The wonderful setting of Pelican Town, with its colourful cast of wonderful characters, and Pierre and Lewis. They know what they did. Its gorgeous soundtrack, of which I bought the vinyl for.

It’s sad to say that I plan my life better in this town than I do in real life, but the notebooks not only myself, but my partner planned out for me to try and complete the community centre in 1 year (I didn’t, I forgot to get pigs before winter, so had to chance it with the travelling merchant, who fumbled the bag for me), it is so easy to lose yourself in this world, and the recent 1.6 update added so much more ‘post game’ stuff but the beauty of this game is there’s not even really an ‘end’ to this game. It may be a wayward choice, but variety is the spice of life isn’t it?

Well I hope with this, you see something or relate to something in this little intro. I thank you for giving this a little looksy, and if you like what you see, hopefully you’ll have a read of my first ‘proper’ post. I’ll even half spoil what it may be about, aren’t I a tease? Look forward to the next post where I deep dive into the genre I know best: turn based games.

I look forward to it, I hope you do too! See you in the next one.