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Like most gamers, I’ve got quite the stack of great games that I always intend to get around to playing. And even with a handful of games still in shrinkwrap on the shelf, when the urge hit recently to revisit some old games I downloaded, through Steam, games that I didn’t already have in my collection.

The one that I’ve actually finished is Tim Schafer’s Psychonauts (Doublefine 2005) and it is everything that critics have been talking up for the past three years. The platforming is ultimately mediocre, but you hardly realize that as you play through because the actual design aesthetic is fantastic. The basic conceit is that levels take place within the minds of different characters, which a central real-world hub of the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. You take one the role of one of the students determined to prove himself and ultimately save his fellow campers.

Each mind is extremely unique and reflects the personality of that character, whether it’s the war-torn mindscape of your drill instructor of the world bending psychosis behind the milkman conspiracy. But the true strength of the game is really just how well realized everything is. Your fellow campers, while being entirely tangential to the plot, betray a surprising amount of individual identity in their brief bits of dialogue. And not only do the various levels serve as an illustration of the host character’s psyche, they are also used to tell various stories, whether it’s someone’s redemption and return from sanity or another’s dark, buried secret that belies their cool, party-girl persona. Psychonauts really demonstrates how an average game can be elevated by exemplary design.. Tim Shafer gave a talk at GDC in 2004 entitled ‘Adventures in Character Design’, where he talks about just how much effort he and his team put into character design and how he accomplished it. It’s a great talk, but I’d suggest playing the game before listening to it.

After a positive experience revisiting an older critical favourite, I actually decided to hop into another classic right away, but I’ll write that up next time or these things will never get posted.

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On a non-gaming related note, I came across a touching photo essay earlier this week and I’ve been debating whether it’s something I want to put in this blog.  As this man’s tale of his 97-year father was both elegant and moving and ultimately I was glad that I came across the link, I thought I would provide the the link for others to experience.