About
I’ve been a gamer for a long time. A looong time (in gamer years).
During the mid to late 80s and early 90s I spent a reasonable amount of time in the local arcade. I could complete a number of games on a handful of quarters and perform a few fatalities in Mortal Kombat, all-in-all, not a bad player. But inevitably, some kid half my age would buy in as the other player in in MK and trounce me, only to leave me waiting for him to go home, so I could continue single player again. Likewise with the group of 40-50 year old men who huddle around the Robotron machine. They would have put in a single quarter in the machine each, and racked up so many extra lives that they must have played for hours long after I’d exhausted my funds.
The other night playing Guitar Hero III, I was repeatedly failing to 5 Star “Raining Blood”, sigh, on EASY. It dawned on me, something that I never really picked up on 20 years ago, I suck. Well, not really, but I don’t have whatever it is that makes people great. If I can continually reload a checkpoint, I’ll get it done, and if it’s a puzzle, I’ll figure out eventually, but it’s something to do with the Hand-Eye thing that I lack.
Still, I love gaming. I just have to take a different approach. So I tend to get different levels of playtime, and perhaps thus enjoyment out of your average title. So that’s what I’m writing about.
I’m all over the map on platforms. Historically, Nintendo’s the platform to which I’ve had the most loyalty (I’ve owned all of ‘em since the NES). Lately that’s shifted to Xbox 360. I’m making my PlayStation foray with the PSP which I like a lot.
