I’m not going to make excuses about my long absence from posting here, it’s been… what? 5 months? Even VGCats is updating more than me (HAR HAR). It’s probably inexcusable to the majority of you but many things have been going on in my life, as well as the coming of exams. But the main thing is probably the dying of my passion to post. More likely than not, you saw that in the last few posts that I did. It was new and exciting at first, but eventually it become a chore.
Anyway, I digress. The blog is probably going to become a place to output my creativity whenever I want to so posting will not be frequent.
I spent a night over at my uncle’s the other day. And some of you may or may not know this, but my uncle was probably the reason I’m such a gamer now. I recall nights when we would be huddled round a screen together playing some new fantastical game that he had bought. We would stay up until very late (and I mean very late, especially considering how old I was).
But now, he’s in his mid-30s (I think), married and has 3 kids. He doesn’t really have time to game anymore and it’s sort of depressing to see, he’s reduced to playing only in the wee hours of the morning. And even then, it’s only every other day at most. Not to mention the mid-range rig he sports is in his children’s room, so he has to play quietly. Quite unlike the days of yore, when we would scream and shout at our epic wins.
He’s also been reduced to buy only from bargain bins, for obvious reasons, so the majority of the games he plays aren’t particularly great and I don’t really have the heart to tell him. It’s upsetting to see someone who use to be at the forefront of gaming to lag behind so much. The latest game he bought was “The Spiderwick Chronicles” for the PC. And no, I’m not joking. Luckily for him (and me), it didn’t work on his computer and neither on my laptop. But he looked genuinely sad that the latest game he bought didn’t work, and it felt like someone tore out my heart and replaced it with a cold hard stone.
Don’t think that it’s all bad though. His gaming collection is still massive, he has tons of games from yesteryear, and quite a few are real gems. I decided to browse through his gargantuan collection and here are a few of the games I found:
>Colonization
>Sim Ant
>Sim City
>Theme Hospital
>Theme Park
>Rome Total War
>Shogun Total War (two of them in fact)
>Civilisation 1,2, 3 & 4
>Morrowind
>Balder’s Gate
>Neverwinter Nights
>Quake 1 & 2
>Halo 1
>Starcraft
>Dune 1,2 & 3
>Star Wars: KOTOR
>Quite a few old-skool Lucas Arts click & point adventures
>Games from the Thief series
>Typing of the Dead – no, I’m not kidding
>Wolfenstein
>Age of Empires 1 & 2
>Games from the Alone in the Dark series
>Clive Barker’s Undying
And the list goes on. I could probably sit here until the end of time just listing his games but I have better things to do (like revising for the 2 exams I have on Monday), there’s still some duds in his collection but that just makes it all the better. Currently I think he’s playing a game called: “Imperial Glory” as well as some other games.
Anyway, this post was mainly to show you one reason that I’m such a big gamer now (although it’s one of the primary reasons, it’s not the only one). Seeing as how my uncle is now, it seems like somewhere along the lines I deviated from him as I only really play console games now – I occasionally play PC games. A far cry from way back when, where I would only play exclusively on the PC. I guess part of the reason is the cost necessary to keep up with the latest specs to play the newest games but also console exclusivity – like Nintendo games etc.
I’m just wondering what I’d be like at his age. Would I still be gaming? Would I only get to game after in the early hours of the morning? Would I only be playing on the PC?
There’s so many questions that I could ask. But I won’t know the answers to until I actually get there. At least I should have a good time getting there. If all goes well, I’ll be gaming through university and after that. I don’t see me dropping my gaming obsession hobby anytime soon. Simply because of the intriguing new ideas the game industry keeps bringing in and the escapism factor, as well as entertainment factor.
Maybe when I’m my uncle’s age I could be gaming with my children, who knows what tomorrow will bring? That’s what makes life so exciting.
Currently playing: Left 4 Dead
Looking forward to: Prototype
As I said, I have no idea when my next post will come. It may come tomorrow, next week or another 5 months later. It’ll come when I feel the urge to write again. Until then: ciao.
[EDIT] As a note, I don’t mind if any of you guys add me on XBL. Maybe we could play some L4D/GTA IV/Halo 3 together. Just make sure you state that you know me through the blog.
