custard doughnuts

I've been playing Batman Arkham Knight in an effort to discover if I'm getting too old for games (read part one here and part two here). Join me for part three, where I ask some simple questions.

Like, did Batman just get shot in the stomach? Oops, er... spoilers.

Seriously, it really looked like Batman just got shot in the stomach, but apart from injecting himself with something (Bat-anti-bullet-wound spray anyone?) there's been no further mention of it. He's been in a lot of fights since then too, so it'll be annoying if they return to it later.

I'd previously scrawled some hasty thoughts about Batman Arkham Knight in a vague effort to document whether I'm getting too old for this sort of thing. Join me for part two, after I've played the game for another few hours.

All right, I'll admit it. It's getting better.

Music in pubs and restaurants is too loud and apparently all my childhood toys are being made into terrible movies. I guess I must be getting old. To test what effect this has had on my appetite for serious gaming, I'm throwing myself into new gaming experiences. This time around: Batman, Arkham Knight, on PC.

So... yeah. Hmm. Really not sure so far.

I'd previously played an hour of Skyrim to see whether I'm getting too old and too cynical to enjoy gaming anymore. Join me for part three, in which I give up on hiking aimlessly through nature and blunder haplessly into the game proper (you can find part one and part two here).

One of the things that appealed to me about Skyrim in the first place was the setting. Not the mystical fantasy land full of trolls and dragons and magic and whatnot, no - the fact that it was all set in a mountainous, snowy wasteland. I like snow. I particularly like it in games when the developers remember to put in the sound effect of walking through snow, that wonderful soft crunching/creaking sound. I'd pictured myself exploring midnight, snow-covered forests, my soft footfalls the only sound as I crept through the gloom with my sword drawn, frost glittering on the blade. But so far all I'd done was wander through lush green fields and been attacked by wolves.

So I resolved to climb a mountain.

I'd previously played an hour of Skyrim to see whether I'm getting too old and too cynical to enjoy gaming anymore. Join me for part two, in which I continue my confused amble through the wilderness, question the hydrology of the game and get repeatedly attacked by nature (you can find part one here).

As predicted, it's been a while since I've found time to continue playing through Skyrim. It's been so long since I started that I've forgotten what I was doing, or even how to play. I fired up my save game from six months ago and found myself standing on a hillside overlooking a river, with no clear objective in sight.

Friends and colleagues have recently been pointing out how old I'm getting. I think. I can't hear them very well most of the time. Regardless, one of the things I've noticed recently is that the amount of time I devote to gaming has dropped considerably in recent years, particularly the kind of good solid adventure game that I could get properly immersed in. Have I grown too old for games? Has my concentration wavered, my mind turned to more important things?

With this in mind I thought I'd give this gaming thing one last shot, in the form of Skyrim.