Firewatch

I got my PS3 at Christmas 2011 having been fairly late to that party, and the same happened with the PS4. I'd been eyeing it up since it was released but couldn't justify spending £300 on one, especially since I had to save up for a wedding, fiancee visa fees, moving out etc etc.. However, come Black Friday I took the plunge, got a great deal at Tesco and abandoned Yakuza 5 on the PS3 (definitely hoping to return to it eventually)..

One of my favourite things about the PS4 is the ability to take screenshots. Had the PS3 been capable of that, I'd be able to look back at the good times had playing the likes of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the Mass Effect trilogy and Red Dead Redemption.

One of the games I wanted to play first was Firewatch. Winner of Best Indie Game at the Golden Joystick Awards and currently nominated for six British Academy awards, it was heralded for its innovative storytelling. It was easy to see why from the very beginning. A hard-hitting prologue reveals that your character, Henry, sees his wife suffer from the early on-set of dementia and subsequently takes a job at a National Forest in Wyoming.

Laura was cross-stitching when I loaded up the game and that put an end to her progress. As soon as she started reading the prologue with me she put her needle down and only picked it up again 3 hours later when the credits rolled. Armed with a map and a compass, Henry traverses Shoshone National Park with a walkie-talkie taking orders from his supervisor, Delilah. The dynamic weather present in the game enhances the atmosphere and sense of place, and it's easy for minutes to pass by before realising you've just been watching a sunset or absorbing the view of trees and mountains before darkness falls.

The highlight of the game is the conversations between Henry and Delilah, as her voice permeates Henry's otherwise solitary marauding. The voice acting of the two characters is one of the game's strengths and over the course of the game the conversations are infused with humour but as Delilah delves deeper into Henry's past they become full of unspoken tension and empathy. After a forest fire breaks out the game's tension escalates as Henry and Delilah try, from their separate lookouts, to navigate their escape. While the ending felt somewhat anti-climatic, it was nonetheless poignant to see Henry confront his fears as he, and the player too, feel their stay in the Wyoming wilderness ends too soon.

Delilah calls Henry in his lookout