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Conan's Aaron Bleyaert Shares His Top Five Favorite Games
We recently spoke with Conan's Aaron Bleyaert about the segment he frequently appears in, Clueless Gamer, how he figured out one of the few things Conan didn't know anything about, and what it's like to be a celebrity in Korea. You can find all of that in the latest issue of the magazine and in an upcoming podcast interview. Another thing we talked about, however, was his five favorite games. Below, in alphabetical order, you will find quotes from Bleyaert about what he considers to be his favorite games and why.
Braid
I love games where it showed me something new, or affected me in some way. Braid was amazing. That was a game that just absolutely blew my mind and I was like, “Wow! I didn’t know storytelling in a game could affect me the way it did.” The end of Braid was incredibly soul-crushing and amazing. That was a moment that stands up against any movie I’ve seen or book I’ve read. That was absolutely incredible.
Enter the Matrix
Here’s why – because the Wachowskis, or the marketing team behind them, integrated the movie so well into that game. First of all, the flow combat was awesome and it pre-dated Batman, which is amazing. It was absolutely incredible. It had cutscenes that fit into the whole arc of the movies, which was amazing! I think that’s going to be seen as something that it was way ahead of its time. I’m shocked movies aren’t doing this now. It was absolutely a spark of something that I think people are going to look back on and say, “They did it first, and that was incredible.” In The Matrix 2, you get the car to the point behind where Morpheus falls onto it, and you’re doing that in game! It’s a whole parallel storyline. In terms of storytelling, in terms of weaving it into a narrative, I thought that was absolutely brilliant.
Fallout 3
I love world-building, and you could just wander the wasteland. I loved that game because it was so immersive. I use this example a lot to show why I love video games, but there is a point in Fallout 3 where you find this random building, you start going down into this basement. You find these audio logs of this guy who is slowly turning into a ghoul. It was so creepy, you have this feeling of, “Am I the only person who has discovered this? This is crazy!” It was just a beautiful, fun, immersive game that created a world that was completely separate from the one we live in, yet equally exciting in terms of the things you could discover and do and who you could interact with. I thought it was brilliant.
Red Dead Redemption
I love it as a game that created a sense of beauty. I could just wander around on my horse forever in that game. That goes along with the same reasons I love Fallout 3.
Wii Sports
Wii Tennis, because that was something that was brand new. How many hours did I play of that game? Hundreds of thousands of hours. Video games as entertainment – that was something that was new and amazing, super, super fun. The Wii itself? Nintendo? Brilliant. We’re not going to do standard controllers, we’re going to do movement. As VR is on the rise, I think the Wii and Wii Tennis, Bowling, all those things, will be looked back on as a huge, monumental achievement. It brought video games to the masses!
Look out for the full interview with Aaron Bleyaert on the April 7 edition of the Game Informer Show podcast. You can also find more on Bleyaert in the latest issue of Game Informer magazine.
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