Gameography

I've really missed playing video games over the past year. That's not to say that I haven't played any in a year, because I have. But the only games I've played are maybe at a friend's house on the Wii. I used to love video games. Nothing obsessive, but just a love.

Over the years there are maybe a handful of games that I've devoted more than 20 hours of my time to. The NCAA Football games probably got the most play from me as I would just play season after season with WVU. 2nd on the list has to be GTA: Vice City. I tried to get 100% on that game. I think I gave up around 95-96% because I came to my senses. I devoted some time to World of Warcraft, but it just wasn't my style. I'm a single player kind of guy unless I play with people I know. WoW is just gay in most of my friends' eyes.

I used to buy every console that came out. It all started with the Intellivision. We had one and my aunt had one. My father was laid off from the coal mines one year and he and my aunt had an epic Burger Time battle that lasted for months. I'm not sure who had the high score between the two. I didn't care for that game much, I was a Night Stalker kind of guy.

After the intellivision, my next stop was the NES. This was the first console that I bought with my own money. I saved and saved. I remember the first time I beat The Legend of Zelda. I had to call all my friends and tell them. However, I think my favorite game was Kings of the Beach. It was a 2 on 2 beach volleyball game that I loved for some damn reason.

Next up was the Sega Genesis. My neighbor got one and I just had to have one. Sonic was amazing at the time. Then came the 6 button controller and Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Whoa! The Genesis came out the same time as the SNES (same gen anyway). I could only afford one and the Genesis won. However, my cousin had a SNES and one summer we swapped. I spent that entire summer beating Zelda.

When the PS1 hit the market, I was too old for games. I skipped out on the PS1. Then the N64 hit the market and I had to have one. It was awesome and so was Mario 64 and Excitebike 64. This renewed my love for games and I bought a PS1, modded it, and had every game you could think of for the Playstation. Then I outgrew the PS1 and N64 and sold them.

The Dreamcast was my favorite system. I could play Crazy Taxi until my fingers bled. The NFL 2K games were breath-taking at the time. I remember getting into the Super Bowl with the Redskins one time against the Colts. The Colts were handing my ass to me until the 4th quarter. I staged an Elway-like comeback and tied the game. I had to hold the Colts one more time to force OT. James busted the first play for like 40 yards and I was in trouble. Then they tried to pass to get in to field goal position to put me away and Deion Sanders out of nowhere picked off the pass and ran it back for a TD. Best NFL 2K game ever against the CPU (it might have been 2K1, I can't remember).

The PS2 hit the market and was causing a scene. Everyone wanted one, but supplies were low. I scored 1 by luck after work one day. I tried to buy all the store had, but they wouldn't allow it. I didn't put the PS2 on ebay, but I did advertise it for sale. I got a lot of bites to buy the thing for double price, but nobody actually pulled the trigger. Finally I gave in and just plugged the thing up and fell in love with it. There were so many good games on the PS2....my favorite though was Vice City. 80's Rock n' Roll playing while I run over hookers with my Sanchez motorcycle.....sheeeeeeit.

I then got an Xbox for Christmas one year. It reminded me of the Dreamcast. There were several great games for it. I spent most of my time playing Tiger Woods though. I never really got a chance to give the Xbox the love it deserved.

When the next gen consoles hit, they prices got out of hand and so did the people wanting them. I was older then and could wait. I finally decided on an Xbox 360 year before last. I bought a few sports games for it, but never gave it the love it deserved. I was spending most of my time playing poker instead of video games.

I still don't have a Wii or PS3, but would like both. The only reason I want a PS3 is for the Blue Ray player and the MLB: The Show game. The Wii would be great for company, but isn't the best console for single player action. That's the reason I don't have one right now (although I've tried!).

This all brings me to yesterday when I decided to take a little vacation from poker. I coudln't ask for a better game than Bioshock. It's intense! It has refueled my video game urge too. Now, I have this long list of stuff I want to play! The good news is that they are all on the 360. The bad news is that I don't have the time nor the money to be getting all these games. I hope to finish up Bioshock this week (I'm going marathon on it's ass tonight!) and then that should do me until GTA:IV comes out. If not, I never finished GTA: San Andreas. I'll whip out that bad boy and start going on rampages.

My gaming Wish List:
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o Nintendo Wii
o PS3 w/ MLB The Show
o Mass Effect
o Oblivion
o Orange Box
o GTA:IV
o 50-60" LCD to play it all on!