The Weekly Nuke: My Dirty Little Secret – Wrap Up

It seems, unfortunately, that whatever I’d imagined for this week’s topic – My Dirty Little Secret – did not pan out. I’d hoped for sordid confessions of love for Robot Unicorn Attack or the awful console Leisure Suit Larry games. I suppose I couldn’t expect much in keeping a topic alive and kicking when I was too busy to provide my own answer.

For the record: Mine was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for PS2. A little digging shows that it actually garnered more positive reviews than I’d initially thought, though I wonder how those reviews would hold up were the game to be played today. It’s a secret, quite honestly, because everyone knows that licensed video games suck, and as far as I remember, Prisoner of Azkaban is no different. It’s mindless and provides no challenge whatsoever, but it’s the perfect game to pop in when I want to shut off my mind for an hour or two.

The Forums

We had a few confessions in the forums. After several inactive days, during which Adushan laid down the gauntlet for me to reveal my own dirty secret – and I just did, so challenge met, sir – things picked up a bit.

Adushan did have a few of his own to list:

I could throw in Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights because those games were the epitome of TLDR gaming. I just wanted a Diablo clone, smash face, collect loot, repeat. Like Quest 64.

Don’t worry, Adushan. You’re not alone.

Faye also brought a few secrets into the fray:

Sailor Moon, Rise of the Robots, Megadrive.
Style Boutique, NDS.
Oneechanbara, X-Blades, Xbox 360.
The Wii.

Faye, my dear, I have a background in psychology. Perhaps I can help you cope with your shame at playing an entire gaming system – believe it or not, it does actually have a few good games; even ones that aren’t Mario-related! We should talk.

Pete brought up an interesting point:

I’m not sure I consider it a dirty secret but it’s definitely the game I have to apologise the most for enjoying.

If you play WoW, even at all, people assume you’re wasting months of your life on this pointless thing. That doesn’t apply to someone like me, who might revisit the game every couple of years when an expansion comes out, subscribe for a month, get my fill of exploration and then jump into the lava pools of Ironforge screaming ‘Goodbye, cruel world!’ So I find myself having to explain that I play it like a regular single player game, one which I quite easily end as soon as I get bored. It’s easier just not to mention that I ever play it, I suppose, so in that sense it qualifies.

Personally, I’m not certain I have any games like that, but it’s certainly something that’s gotten me thinking. I’ll get back to you on that, Pete.

And The Staff?

Sean revealed his obsession with solitaire. Like Pete, Sean took the idea of the topic and spun off on it, lamenting that his solitaire addiction was more wasteful than a dirty secret:

[...]around 70 hours worth of Solitaire. I completed Fallout: New Vegas, including the majority of the side quests, in less time than that. Five minutes here and there adds up to quite a lot of time wasted sorting virtual cards. I’m not particularly ashamed of playing Solitaire, but I can’t help but think of how that time could have gone into something more useful.

There may, however, be some psychological compulsion to blame, one that drove him to play three games of solitaire while writing a 300 word post; Sean, perhaps you could join my counseling group with Faye?

I’m a fairly tidy and organised person (most of the time anyway), so somewhere deep down sorting cards into nice neat piles must appeal to my nature.

Hans also confessed a secret love for Quest 64 (see, Adushan?):

I just love the game because it’s a relic of a bygone era. Walk to town, discover big bad guy, beat him, get magic trinket. Lather, rinse, repeat. This is what the RPG genre was founded on. Kill wildlife and rummage through people’s houses for fun and profit, somehow saving the world in the process.

We should talk old-school RPGs, Hans. I don’t think I knew this side of you before.

Is the game in my top 10? No. Heck, it’s not even in my top 10 best N64 games. But it is in my top 10 favorite N64 games.

I didn’t have an N64, but my closest friend at the time did, and we played a lot of the games. I’m not certain if I could name ten for my own personal list.

That’s going to do it for this week – oops; last week’s – Weekly Nuke. Check back soon for the exciting announcement of the newest topic – will it inspire you to write thousands of words of flowing prose? Or will you simply shrug and move on, awaiting next week’s topic?