PS Plus

Never Alone is a game I downloaded free through my PS Plus subscription a couple of months ago. As with most of my capricious downloads purchased with visceral obliviousness, Never Alone rather ironically reserved permanent residency in the deserted recesses of my hard disc drive. But I finally roused this neglected Alaskan adventure for a belated evening of cooperative bonding between my girlfriend and myself. Though short, Never Alone is one of the more amiable exchanges of commerce provided by the PlayStation Plus contraction, especially considering the subsequent months of austere gaming quality and the independent ubiquity of mediocrity offered by the service. It’s rich spiritualism and the ambiguity of the ethereal beings that populate the often precarious environment is incredibly endearing and detailed. The fictitious events concerning a young Inupiaq girl travelling through the harsh atmospheric blizzard, coupled with the fabled yarns recited to the children in their communities by their ancestors as means of amusement, or the remarkable events etched onto a scrimshaw to pass down through the generations precipitates a cathartic absorption into divinity that is so much to expect from a mere 3 hour game. Besides it also features an adorable Arctic fox that acts as your loyal companion through all the persistent dangers you come across. The game also features investigative videos called “Cultural Insights” that documents the extraordinary lives of people who inspired the creation of “Never Alone”. In an attempt to stifle some debilitating boredom I decided to collate these singular videos into one comprised feature. I failed of course, as there was just too much content to squeeze into one 15 minute video. So instead I have now dispersed them into 4 singular videos. Hope you enjoy learning about this extraordinary culture as I much as I did. Cheers.

Warning; the contents of this article have been personally verified as being overly neurotic, unnecessarily protracted and deplorably pedantic. If you wish to avoid a precipitous, narcoleptic coma then you are advised to skip to paragraph 3 where I finally get to the thrust of article.

OK everyone, it’s time to gather round as I weave tale and clarify the assertive bigotry of life and the paralleled compromises that endure throughout any age restriction. I’ve enjoyed the embellishment youth, the dispensation of gaming and the monogamous freedom that accompanies it. I too have savoured the post academic facilitation that a procuring a job has, with the collaborating accolade of money granting an even more exquisite time, when attainment of new titles no longer required the peripheral, parental certification or a guardians legal tender. And to the victor, the spoils of independence, as well as a loose budgetary restraint. The bespoke resplendence of such innate revenue will forever define my embossed gaming opulence, a time in that tenuous juncture between adolescence and maturity where money truly was an expendable commodity. It taught me a valuable lesson in regards to the futility of monetary accumulation, and its temporary reprieve. It’s an adage that is similarly applicable to gaming and life in general now as I resist the urge to purchase a new super car in GTA V for example, simply for the conceited aesthetics rather than necessity. Now I’ll attest to being a little myopic with money now, with my frugality extending to other social pageantries, with my deliberate omission from gatherings becoming somewhat a fabled, thematic jest among friends. This self-imposed sobriety and discretionary retention of money is a systemically occurring residency in advanced youth, one only exacerbated by (partial) home ownership and procreation (not the latter just yet), and its down to my exerted compliance that I’m able to compile a delicate balance of necessary expenditure, and custodial isolation that allows for continued gaming activity.

Sorry, this isn’t very gaming friendly. I really am digressing! It’s OK, you’ve got time right?

“Excuse me sir. Could we discuss our new energy-efficient windows with you? Hello?!”

Life–particularly when shared with another differing individual, with their own separate intonations and eccentricities–is fraught with compromise. For instance to acquire her moderate compliance in my gaming affiliation, I had to concede any intimate preference regarding the decoration of our kitchen and bedroom. Which in her infinite and exploitive wisdom, settled on a calming neutrality of vibrant…….purple! PURPLE! That even includes utensils (for the kitchen obviously you pervert…….the ones in the bedroom are all pink and lubricated). That’s how much I love gaming if I’d allow our home to be profaned in such a deviant fashion. Of course even with the specificity of our exchanged legislations, I’m still contractually obliged to “chat” with her occasionally (Honestly, so needy). But even when obligations our sated, mutual harmony is restored and time permits the passage of extra curricular gaming, cost is a familiar etiquette that requires your enduring attention. The retention of money isn’t admirable quality, but a necessity that many reciprocal individuals will attest to. Preliminary examination of convened funds and repeated cursory visitations to my reticent disposable currency available to me, is often hesitantly affected by the anonymity of clandestine bills, with the varying allocation dispersed throughout the month diminishing the versatility of my retained, hermetic habitation, that has allowed for such numerical prosperity. Every pay check is simply an initiation of preservation, malignant supremacy over the delicate solidarity of saving and expenditure, which shockingly isn’t just for the benefit of consolidating my bloated collection of games, though I’ll admit that the acquisition of a new title is a coercive allure.

“….yes I am actually. If you wouldn’t mind, could you pass me some toilet roll please? Here’s a stick and some straw to get you started.”

But the advent of PS Plus–the subscription service I was forced to comply with after the accession of the PS4–had me concerned that this minor garnishing of my wages would send me further into fiscal destitution. But on the contrary, it has bestowed greater prosperity than I had ever imagined. Though I’m confident that Xbox conducts a similar rhetoric to Sony with the distribution of free content, I am incredibly ignorant and exceptionally latent in conducting appropriate research to verify my assumptions, so just swap “Plus” with “Gold” where applicable. I’m downloading a diverse compilation of “Free” games–contained in quotation marks because technically the “Free” part is under the duress of an annual subscription fee– many are titles that I would not have necessary paid for otherwise. Resogun, the 2D space shooter that resonates with such vibrancy and fun you almost revert back to adolescence. Whooshing the controller around as if it’s an extension of the ships steering, while administering an accompanying soundtrack of cadent laser sounds, conducted and performed by intimate oral manipulations. Outlast, which has become the basis for most of my recent bowel movements, is the first authentic horror game that legitimately terrifies. Something I haven’t witnessed since the earlier iterations of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. And Don’t Starve, despite the exerted suggestion that I hate it, I still suitably managed to invest a quantitative allocation of time exhuming as much of its degenerative terrain as possible. Fashioning rabbit cages to snare these feral mammals for sustained, nutritional sustenance and gilded armaments compiled from inanimate objects such as branches and rocks, before succumbing to the litany of aggressive wildlife and enveloping obscurity finally consumed my sanity. Most of these games, if displayed at full market value, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with. But thanks to my cultivated austerity I have broadened my gaming purview’s. Strange how gaming has influenced my obligations as a somewhat responsible adult.

Are you making good use of the respective subscription services offered by Sony, Microsoft and that other one with the plumber? Let me know about your experiences. Cheers.