Check out part one of this story here.
You’d think that, once I hit college, I would have replaced my insatiable lust for gaming with girls, booze, pizza, parties and the like. But my mom always said that balance in life was key, and I got fairly adept at balancing them. Sometimes, with a bit of practice, you could engage in all these activities at the same time. I even got some studying in sometimes! Now that’s balance.
My university comrades were just as much into Smash Bros. as my high school friends. The game doesn’t care where you live. It’s a universal language; a common denominator across all borders. It didn’t take long for Randy Rose, David Rathbun and Fuzz (don’t ask me his real name) to find me and brawl for hours on end. READ MORE
E3 is our Super Bowl. It’s our Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Halloween and birthday all rolled into one. Even if no games actually are released, it’s a huge spectacle that results in thousands of journalists making their pilgrimage and reporting on thousands of different games. Who is making what? What looks fun? What looks terrible? Are there any surprises? I can’t tell you how giddy I get before each major conference; whether terrible or fantastic, each requires a huge amount of unnecessary analysis. Making fun of the awful presenters. Breaking down trailers scene by scene. Making bold, inaccurate predictions that won’t have any fallout, because well, how could you possibly have known that Game X would be terrible and that System Y would sell like hotcakes?
I’m getting off track already. See, that’s what E3 does to you. It gets you impossibly excited about the sheer quantity of game updates, new games and hilarious sound bites that it makes it difficult to focus on the task at hand. READ MORE
I’m at a crossroads in life. I’ve just come out of the vault in the biggest open-world game there is. No, this isn’t a twist. I’m not pretending to be a video game character who comes across a magic cave or a haunted forest. I, Henry Skey, am stuck at an intersection looking both ways. Crossroads may not even be right word to describe it; that would indicate a choice between set paths. I have no idea what my path is, where it is or how I will choose to walk it. READ MORE
I recently wrote about how I felt cheated by Ni no Kuni’s ending. After a brilliant intro that forced you to emotionally invest in Oliver and his journey, the game’s creators failed to provide us with a satisfactory conclusion. I’m realizing now that I felt robbed of being “rewarded” for completing the game. That leads to another question: should we be rewarded for playing through a game, or should the game itself be the reward? READ MORE
I recently read that there are no more nerds anymore. It’s an antiquated description. The stereotypical male, age 18-to-35, who lives in his parents’ basement reading comic books, plays Dungeons & Dragons, wears beat-up glasses and can’t function in a normal social setting still exists. But it’s becoming derogatory and ignorant to label anybody who enjoys video games or surfs the internet or doesn’t enjoy sports as a nerd, living in a basement somewhere, as a social reject.
Go back to ’80s sex-crazed comedies and all you’ll find are jocks and nerds. Jocks enjoy sports, drinking beer and having sex, whereas nerds will never get laid, enjoy electronics and speak in a nasally twang that nobody could possibly find attractive. That image is dead and buried deep. The concept of judging somebody based on their hobbies and interests has changed dramatically; the richest man in the world is a self-described nerd. Not as many would think to make fun of a quiet, shy boy or girl who happens to excel in computers. It’s a beautiful skill to have. READ MORE
