Benny

HOTPICK #1

Elite

(voted for by: Ste Pickford)

When I think back to all of the entire medium defining games of the early 80s, there is one game that stands above all the rest.

I remember being quite transfixed by it, one of my earliest memories is peering into that whole other world inside the CRT, with the rendition of The Blue Danube beeping out, over and over until it was burned into the cells of my still developing brain.

I wasn’t old enough to understand how important it was or what was really going on in the game until much later, but I would grow up with that game, watching my brother play, then learning to dock the ship with his help when I had still barely learned to form coherent sentences (something I still struggle with to be honest). And finally “mastering” the game when I got older.

There were the simple and fun 8-bit Micro games that I literally cut my teeth on like Chuckie Egg, but Elite was something for the grown ups, and would always be something fascinating, complex and wonderous. Something aspirational.

The sheer scope, ambition and influence of Elite cannot be overstated. So soon after the Star Wars trilogy first captured imaginations and sparked dreams of travelling the stars like Han Solo, smuggling spice and being a legend, Elite was maybe the first game that made you feel like living that fantasy was possible. Not in some hypothetical sense, but in an already fully realised universe, where the stars were all there, and you could just reach out, take the stick, and launch.

It’s a game that set out the real potential that games have for letting you live your best virtual life, going wherever you want, when you want, and playing a role in another universe with what feels like limitless possibilities.

Elite Dangerous now carries the torch for space sims, and while it may not be as revolutionary as the original was back then, the same spirit of just setting off into the twinkling darkness, to make you fortune, or just simply explore, remains. The joy of just existing in these kinds of games is something that you wish you could easily explain to those who haven’t experienced it themselves. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe” is a tough sell… But sometimes, just sometimes, oh how true it often is.

Right on, Commander!

I know people might be tempted to spoil the surprise for themselves by going back over voting threads sometimes and seeing how many votes certain games got, but I would ask that people do keep that info to themselves, no matter how obvious some results might be. It's more fun that way.