My Life of Videogames

Warning: Gratuitous amounts of nerd content. You have been warned!

I've decided to take this evening off from revision, for not very much reason other than the fact that I'm tired and "The Fear" hasn't really worked itself into me enough to motivate me to work.

This was good, because well, I didn't have to do any work. On the other hand, I've spent a lot of my time pining for my PS3, which unfortunately is locked up in an inaccessible store cupboard.

Seeing as how that avenue of entertainment was unavailable to me, and also as I am ridiculously excited by the impending release of Portal 2, I spent some time playing the flash version, which is still pretty good fun!

I then got a bit contemplative, as you do, because when you spend your downtime solving death traps by jumping through inter-dimensional portals, you get contemplative. Maybe.

Anyway, I got musing on the subject of why I have such a soft spot for video games. I know this is nothing special, and is in fact pretty common nowadays, but still amongst most of the people I know (with the exception of a few friends from home), I appear to be the biggest aficianado.

I can't even remember when I started gaming or who introduced me to it, as some of my earliest memories revolve around an old SNES that my parents had in China. They would let me play once a week on Saturday nights. I can only ever remember playing two games - Contra, which I could never get past the first level of, and another game which I don't know the name of, which I could never get past the first level of.

Believe me, I tried my best, but at 4 years of age there is only so much hand eye co-ordination one can muster.

Then I came to England. Videogames went out of my life for a little while - if I remember correctly, which I probably don't.

Anyway, I remember when I was maybe 8 or 9, getting my first Playstation - good day of my life right there. It came with two games, V-Rally and Gran Turismo. I remember being overawed at how a product could fuse the two fascinations of my life - cars and gaming, into one seamless, playable package. God I played those two games to death. None of my friends could touch me at either of them, although I suspect that was because they were more interested in football (I still can't fathom why).

One particularly vivid memory sticks out when I couldn't sleep one night, and woke at 3am. With the flawless reasoning of my 10 year old self, I decided that if I couldn't sleep then I may as well complete a race on GT. I crept over to the TV and turned it on, aware that if I woke my parents all hell would break loose. Then I raced 5 laps around Autumn Ring - the tensest laps of my life. My ears were standing on stalks, listening for the slight creak of floorboards. 10 minutes later, I won it, my hackles were up the whole time. Just as I saved my progress, I heard footsteps on the landing. I shut off the console and the TV and pretty much flew back into bed. My mum checked in on me several seconds later and was none the wiser. Huge result.

Anyway, time passed and I grew, nursing this addiction. When my mum took me shopping, I would just go to the magazine section for the 40 minutes it would take her to do the weekly shop and read the latest Playstation Magazine from cover to cover - I was never allowed to buy it, of course.

Secondary school rolled around, and soon I had graduated from Playstation onto PC Gaming, and I played everything I could get my hands on, particular favourites included Starcraft, Warcraft and Counterstrike.

Back in the day, I think the reasons for my addiction to jeux vidéo were pretty clear - pure and simple escapism; from restrictive parents, from the awkward / geeky existence that comprised most of my school life, escape from the mundanity of the real world into something interactive and engrossing and fantastical.

I never really got into puzzle games or things like that, I always preferred the more complicated and complex RPGs, and games with a long longevity and replayability (this was probably also because my parents would only buy me two games a year, once for my birthday and once for Christmas; I had to make sure they lasted!).

Fond memories exist from those times - late night multiplayer HoMM3 sessions lasting hours, multiplayer Worms - in the end I got bored of the normal game and would just do rope races.

And then, I discovered MMORPGs...boy, did that nearly screw me up educationally for life! But, I think I'll talk about my adventures in World of Warcraft in a separate post; it deserves that much.

Fast forward to today - why am I still so into gaming? Well, the truth is, the desire isn't the same as it used to be, however, when I can play without feeling guilty, I can still happily sink days into a game and feel pleased about it afterwards. I guess there's just something intrinsically satisfying about understanding, mastering and then beating a system, but more and more I find that gaming is a fantastic way to consume a gripping and engaging story, and many publishers and developers are exploring the medium and delivering great offerings.

At first glance, you would probably say the medium is more film than book, but actually, I think it may well be more like the latter. By having direct control, there is a link established between the player and his/her character that cinema just can't replicate, but anyway, exploring video gaming as an art form is a whole different topic in itself, and not something I can do justice to in this post.

Back to the point! Err...yes. Video games - good. Football - boring.

Anyway, a spiel about a love for videogames wouldn't really be complete unless I included my favourites, so here it is, my Top 10 Favourite Games of All Time (to date!).

10) Warzone 2100 - I will always remember this being the game that introduced me to Real Time Strategy gaming. I played through the campaign of this maybe four times by the time I traded it in, exploring all the different modes of difficulty. Shame they never made a sequel. It was a groundbreaking RTS effort at the time, with base continuity, a first for 3D on the Playstation, combined with great graphics for it's time and a story and scenario which I found quite appealing. It also had a custom tank designer, which as you can imagine I spent hours fiddling with.



9) House of the Dead series - Right, an arcade rail shooter. This game used to draw me to it at the arcades with morbid fascination when I was around ten or so, however, I would never dare play. Too scary. It was only years later that I plucked up the courage to put in some coins and have a go, only to get my ass kicked time after time. There have been 4 iterations of it now, but the first one is the one I'll always remember.

8) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - I guess you could say it was the spiritual successor to Crash Bandicoot in a way. A balls to the wall adrenaline rush from start to finish, packed with humorous touches and unbelievable polish. This is the Hollywood blockbuster of video games and a massive rollercoaster ride that grabs you and doesn't let go. It pushes the boundaries of the action genre for sure, with massive set pieces and such well defined characters. Although the plot is rather standard action fare, it's in the telling of it that this game really shines.



7) Starcraft/Starcraft II - An iconic classic. There's not a whole lot to say about this game which hasn't already been said by many thousands upon millions of people. It's just really good, and if you want to play competitively online - really hard, think Chess on steroids against an overclocked Deep Thought.



6) Warcraft III: Frozen Throne - The Warcraft universe is possibly one of the most fleshed out fantasy worlds in existence, and Blizzard offered a polished and compelling RTS set within it with a great character focused story and a new hero mechanic which was almost RPG esque. Not to mention the map editor, responsible for such addictive things like Hero Siege and DoTA.



5) Mass Effect series - Whilst the trilogy isn't yet complete, the first two parts were more than enough to get it up to 5th on this list. I am a huge sci-fi fan, and having the chance to take part in my very own space opera was like a dream come true. The first game has possibly one of the most epic climaxes of any game on this list, and it was just so moving.



4) World of Warcraft - This game took out 2 intense years of my life. I don't regret it and I would do it all over again. Although, perhaps it wasn't the game though, so much the amazing people I met whilst playing this game that made it so good, but then, without Blizzard putting those compelling raiding challenges together, who knows whether I would have even met them in the first place.



3) Gran Turismo - What's there to explain? I love cars, Polyphony Digital obviously love cars too. A match made in heaven.



2) Metal Gear Solid series - Konami's signature series of Tactical Espionage Action essentially redefined a whole genre, but let's put that aside. At the time of playing, I found it hard to appreciate the subtler aspects of this game - the social commentary, the philosophising, which now, after completing MGS4 I'm finding quite fascinating. When I first played, I rememer being engrossed with the sneaking around, the stealth and figuring out the guard and camera patterns so I could sneak by. Alerts were high adrenaline and an unbelievable rush. I will also never forget some of the boss battles - Mantis of course, for screwing with the controller, but also Sniper Wolf, partly because her character was memorable, but also because duelling across a frozen wasteland with sniper rifles, whilst the wolves howled and the snow tore around the screen was something quite special indeed. And of course, the infamous torture scene, responsible for friction burned knuckles the world over.

Subsequent games have not been without their high points - most notably the microwave duct crawl in MGS4 and the final battle - damn, that was heroism defined, but, for me, nothing in the series can quite match up to that first title on the PSX.

Oh, and the main theme.



1) Final Fantasy VIII - This was the game which showed me the possibility that video games could have as a storytelling format. It was also the game which introduced me to the Final Fantasy series, and to role playing games in general. Even looking back on it today; whilst the gameplay lacks the refinement of today's offerings, the core of it still holds up excellently, and the story, essentially boiling down to the character study of a traumatised young adult, following in his footsteps as he tries to reconcile the fear of being hurt with the human need to not be alone, is one that is timeless and one I hold close to my heart. Wrap this up in a universe dripping with a mixture of fantasy and sci-fi detailing and a world shattering plot, combine with a fantastic soundtrack - the orchestral mixes of which I still listen to today and you get a game that's as good as it comes. Others come close, but none equal.