Confessions of a lapsed gamer
On my last birthday I was fortunate enough to receive a Sony PlayStation 3, my first home console gaming system in several years. How several? My last system was the first PlayStation! I entirely skipped ownership of the PlayStation 2, which enjoyed a long and healthy run dominating the console wars now being waged by Sony, Nintendo (with its Wii) and Microsoft (with their Xbox 360). So it had been a good while since I was regularly playing video games. Which is a bit strange for me because prior to this gap I had been an avid video gamer since my first console, the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), the more popular local version of which was the Famicom (or Family Computer). This was when they still measured the power of these game systems in bits! I went through the Super NES and then the PlayStation, Sony’s powerful game-changer of an entry into the home gaming arena, which was so successful it even took Sony by surprise when it became their number one selling home appliance. The PlayStation 2 just came at a time when I felt I was too busy for video games (read: college); that, and it was pricey.
The PlayStation 3 was also a bit uneasy on the wallet, but at the time I finally acquired one the Slim edition had been released: a smaller, leaner, less heavy version, and at a lower price, yet still retaining that extra factor that seemed to provide the PS3 with a leg up on its nearest competitor, the Xbox 360: a built-in Blu-ray player. And according to some reviews, a pretty good Blu-ray player at that. Blu-ray is the new home video format, which can play media at high definition provided your TV is HD-capable and you have the right cables. I didn’t, at first, and getting the PS3 was the impetus to learn about these new-generation cables when I had been so used to the three-pronged RCA cables of the last several years.
Though my initial attraction to the PS3 was the Blu-ray player, and indeed I was wowed by the crisp clarity and new life it seemed to lend some of my favorite films, I was just as blown away, if not more so, by the games I could now play. The level of sophistication I was used to was two generations behind the current standards, and certainly in that time game developers had improved not just the technology of the games in terms of graphics, sound, and gameplay but in narrative storytelling, world building, and character development as well. Role-playing games that involved character immersion had more complex characters and histories to wade through, adventure games had more options available to players in terms of moves, weaponry and world exploration.
It was a First Person Shooter (or FPS), however, that became my first addictive game on the PS3. Though I was late to the game, Modern Warfare 2, an entry in the war-themed Call of Duty series, took a while to get the hang of, but once I was comfortable I almost couldn’t stop playing. Its combination of real-world weaponry combined with thrilling gameplay and bombastic clip scenes made for a visceral thrill-ride that Hollywood would kill to get its hands. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve finished every facet of the game and won every “trophy” there is to win.
So while I’ve been away for a couple of years, it really only took one game to bring me back to the fold. Provided it’s the right game, the same might be true of you.
