Today John and I watched the Giant Bombcast top ten game picks of 2009. I have to give Giant Bombcast credit because this year their postcast has stepped up and really filled the gap left when the GFW crew disbanded. With the economy sucking it seems that good game podcasts are loosing their staying power, so mad props to GB. I was surprised how different the top ten for each reviewer was. After watching these lists I really want to play Silent Hill and cannot believe that Flower just came out this year (nice pick Brad.)
As I look back at the year a ton happened and I realized that this year was one of the best of my life. In spite of the economy I have a career that I love. With the birth of Nathan we completed our family. Inara started pre- school and is thriving. I began regular practice of yoga again. I read over 100 books almost all about vampires. John and I came up with a plan to keep our marriage strong: playing games.
For New Years Eve we played RockBand 2. I lost my voice singing off-key vocals. It is funny how you think you know a song until you play this game and realize you only know the refrain; last night it was “so watch, watcha, watcha want?” Luckily intoxicated loved-ones were on hand to sing duets.
I have been spending a lot of time watching John play through Uncharted 2. This was a holiday purchase we thought we would play co-op but then found out there is no split screen. Luckily, Uncharted 2 is more fun to watch then some games are to play. It would take me forever to beat some of the platform elements of this game but John makes it seem effortless. It is a lot like watching a James Bond meets Indiana Jones with the main character dying ever so often. Or once you get ambushed in Shangri-La dying frequently. I find it incredibly amusing that Drake’s companions are so snide. It is like when Inara and I are sleeping John still needs sarcastic women around.
Thinking back on the last month it amazes me how many different games we have already played.
Today I naively realized that most gamers are one-trick ponies. For example, my brother Alfred can play first person shooter on the Xbox blindfolded. However, he is still working through the first Mario world on his new Wii. Alfred like most gamers is really good at one kind of game but just dabbles in other genres. This seems true for most people I know. They are die-hard WoW, Halo or FIFA fans that are all forces to be reckoned within their respective genre. I am not good at one particular kind of game. I think it is good that for these 100 days we switch between platforms and genres to find our niche. We are limited by finances but so far borrowing, replay and holidays have allowed variety.
We seem to enjoy Marvel Alliance and Little Big Planet more than other games but we still try other games in our library. This experiment is about finding more than one game we like to play together. Each game and system brings up new challenges for us to face together. Some challenges so far include waiting for me to figure out camera angles or John being an item whore. The other night we played Elite Beat Agents and had to fight to stay awake while we waited for our games to load.
Marriage can be boring and part of this experiment is keeping things fun. I could play Diablo 2 or WoW every day with John for an hour I am not sure it would have the same impact as diversifying our play?
Diversity aside this month has made me realize my own considerable limitations in regards to gaming. My gaming ambition seems to exceed my skill level. I regularly listen to gaming podcasts, read GameInformer or check out Kotaku and get excited for upcoming titles. Often I never get to play said game or if I do loose interest quickly when I suck at it.
My resolution for the year is, as Echo would say, “to be my best.” I am going to try to be the best wife, mother, teacher and gamer I can be. Maybe with daily martial play my skills will start to catch up with my interest. It will be hard to top 2009 but maybe in 2010 I will suck a little less at first person shooters.
Man do you have any idea how long it took for me to get ok at FPS's I mean on PC i'm like 20 times better but this whold dual stick console thing is crazy tricky. Even now when I played through Modern Warfare 2 I Scrubbed thagt game up, I died so many times it wasn't funny. But give me an Uncharted or Tomb Raider style adventure game and I'm all good. and don't even get me started on Box puzzles, man i love those things.
ReplyDeleteI must say I totally agree on the whole most gamers have their niche thing, like for me adventure, Action and RPG's are my bread and butter. But some "easy" games like mario I hate with a fiery passion because I am so bad at them, same with most sports games. While i think a lot of gamers like to say that they are good at every game, everyone has thier own natural bias i think.
I'm so down with diversity In our game choices I'd love for you to find a game or genre that you love as much as I love raiding Tombs and Makeing Devil's Cry. You'll find one of those games though I have faith, and I can't wait to take my turn sitting on the couch while you plow through a game like you just did for me and Uncharted 2. Speaking of which OMG that game was amazing.
Well i think that's all from this peanut gallery tonight, tomorrow is another day and time for a new game.