A year ago, I was a gamer. And I mean I was an avid gamer, with all the systems, all the latest and greatest games, and I even played World of Warcraft on my PC. And then, things changed. My life changed and I had to sell and give up one of my beloved hobbies. It was probably for the better too because it became my escape from responsibility and from doing what needed to be done. Well, this little entry here isn’t going to be about relationships and how video games can destroy it. Instead, I just wanted to share my excitement for actually returning to the hobby.
via – NintendoYes, I find it a hobby. I’m not hardcore by any means. I had a horrible death to kill ratio on Modern Warfare 2, before they reset the stats. I’m doing okay in Black Ops, where for some reason I’m just better at that game than I was in the last Call of Duty, but I haven’t touched a controller in months. But I consider myself an intermediate player, not quite casual, not quite hardcore. My genre of choice is the RPG, but I’ve played everything and find something to love in everything, from the racer to the adventure game to the puzzler and even the sports game. I can play them well, but not to the point where I’m pwning and mercing everyone all the time. Probably why I like the RPG so much. Your only real competition is yourself. And I guess what brought me to talk about this, and its the fact that I am now the proud owner of the Nintendo 3DS.
Now, I haven’t had a lot of play time with it, and this really isn’t a review of the system, it’s just me totally sharing my excitement to get back into video games. After a year of missing out on such greats as Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, and Uncharted 2, I’m glad I’ll be able to game on the portable level with this thing. I have to admit, it feels good to capture Pokemon again, though now I have to recapture and trade to get my original line up back. I had all 1×10^10 (yes I used scientific notation!) of them minus a couple of them in my Pokedex. But it is going to be awesome to go through the story, catch and battle and all that good stuff. Then there’s the Street Fighter game. I’m mildly competitive, but how awesome it is to be able to get some of my frustrations out by beating up some virtual competition. Plus, I’ve been playing Street Fighter since its first arcade system when Ryu and Ken were the only recognizable character in the series…
I grew up with video games, I mean I owned an Atari 7200, which I think was the last in the line before they stopped making those systems. I know video games get a lot of ridicule for it’s addictive properties and its label of being for the young and you know, I think its like anything else. Its like drawing, golfing, even reading. It’s a way to escape, to have fun, and relieve the stress of the day no matter how old you are.
That brings me to the iPad btw. I won an iPad the other month and I’ve been trying to use it for gaming. So I guess, technically I haven’t been out of the video game scene for very long, but in all honesty, it’s not that fun to use as a gaming system. Maybe I’m old school and prefer the whole controller set up, but virtual buttons or touch control just feels weird. Yeah I play Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, but that’s more of a mini game than an actual game. I don’t think the industry has much to fear from the iOS juggernaut, because I don’t think there’ll ever be a day when playing games on an iPad will feel as “right” as playing video games on a dedicated system. Or maybe I’m just crazy.
So I somehow had a lot to say on this, and all it really was is that I’m glad to just be back playing video games again. Maybe I’ll add people to my friends list and challenge people and all that good stuff. So until next time. Remember to up up down down left right left right b a select start.
