Games I Play

I realized something this afternoon. It’s been a long time since I’ve played any video games. The last ‘game’ I think I played was Diner Dash a few days ago, and for me, that doesn’t even count as a ‘real’ game- it’s more of a coffee-break distraction. A game for me is something you can spend a lot of time on and get immersed in.

It’s not that I’m too busy to play – I am busy, but there was a time that I still could find the time to put in a few hours of gameplay. I don’t even have a game installed in my PC now that I am currently enjoying, which is pretty sad.

What games do I play? I’m down to PC games right now since my PS2 broke down ages ago. I guess I’m too cheap to fork over P3,000 for a new mod chip and whatever else needs to be done, and too lazy to bring the old machine to Greenhills or Alabang. I’m not really that choosy when buying games although I usually check Gamespot for reviews before I head out to buy some – it’s not uncommon for me to spend about 500+ pesos for 3 or 4 games at one time. (tip: In some stores, you can buy a whole pile of games, get them burnt at home – I usually burn my recently bought games when I get home, this is how I check if the cd’s are not defective – then you can go back to the store the next day and tell whoever’s at the store that one of the games you bought won’t work in your machine – probably because the game needs more RAM, or your video card is too old, just throw in some techno mumbo jumbo the salesladies won’t understand – and get another game in return. A lot of people I know do this, and I’m quite surprised that some people are amazed at what I do. This works best if 1. you’re a regular customer, 2. you don’t do this every time you buy games, 3. you don’t try to return all 4 games you bought. I usually just return the most expensive game or the game with the most cd’s, for obvious reasons. However, if the cd’s really ARE defective, I always return them and try to get a clean copy of the same game. Fortunately, the stores where I buy my (pirated) games usually have good copies – unlike a few years back when I had to return the same game THREE friggin’ times. - yeah, I know, I'm not the perfect role model)

Even if I do buy a lot of games, I don’t usually get immersed in all of them. Usually, some of the games I have were only installed once, then uninstalled the next day, mainly because 1. the game sucks, and 2. I need to free up more disk space for the other games I bought.

The last game I was really addicted to was Call of Duty which I bought the past month. I don’t usually play FPS games, and I’m not that good at most of them. But COD is pretty cool. I’m a sucker for WW2 games, and this has got to be one of the best I’ve played so far. The sounds are great, one really does get excited, you even feel affected after a long and vicious battle where more than half of your buddies died. A funny thing was, once I had my dad watching me playing over my shoulder – he made some comments like it was like an action movie, and “Hindi naman totoo ‘yan eh, bakit hindi ka namamatay?” and “Andami ng kalaban mo, buhay ka pa? Hindi ka ba nauubusan ng bala?”

The graphics of COD are good, gameplay is great. One gripe: it’s too damn short. I finished the game in one weekend. I replayed and finished the game a few days later. I bought the expansion. I finished the expansion twice in a span of a couple of days. I uninstalled the game because the missions get boring after doing them few times.

Another FPS I liked were Battlefield 1942 and Star Wars: Battlegrounds. The good things about these games is that there are no long stories to follow. You just get on the ground, then just go on a killing spree. Mindless fun. A great stress reliever – at times back then, I usually played 30 minutes of the game in between work. Just the kinds of game I like – low maintenance types. Counterstrike was also pretty fun.

I like RPG’s. A problem I have though is the lack of time. And the lack of patience. I play Final Fantasy games – but what I hate about them is the long story. You see, I usually play in spurts – I play the game continuously, then stop. When I try to get back into the game weeks later, either I forgot what the hell was happening or I’ve just lost the interest in continuing. A bad thing about FF games is that playing can take so long. I sometimes use a walkthrough because I don’t like to miss out on things – my mindset is: this game will get boring, I’d never replay the whole thing, so I in my first try at the game, I want to do everything I’m supposed to do. I never finished FFX. Or Suikoden 3. I liked those games, but I just lost interest after some time. There are a lot of RPG’s that I’ve played through, only to get bored right before the last map/dungeon/boss. I hate leveling up. It’s fun at first, then you get to a point where everything’s just too repetitive. I also didn’t like the GTA games. Too long, too many things to do. The idea’s great, hey, I like pulling people out of cars, throwing them into the streets, then driving away in their cool sportscar/bus/motorcycle/truck. I just didn’t like doing the same things over and over again.

Must be my lack of patience or need for variety.

Some of the games I like come from the same genre. I’m a WW2 buff, so I like WW2 games – may it be a FPS, RTS, or whatever. My interests usually come from games I get addicted to. For example, I got into WW2 out of playing Panzer General II and reading the manual of Aces Over Europe. I’ve once been into Chinese History because of Emperor of the Middle Kingdom (is the title right?). Recently, I got interested in Roman history because of Rome: Total War (my interest in medieval history is a constant though). You may have noticed that I like history. And because of this, I’m a stickler for realism, even in my games.

Usually it doesn’t matter what kind of games I play – I play all kinds, but I prefer strategies, simulations, and tycoon type games. I’ve tried to get into flight sims – I remember when I was in high school, my brother and I would play F-15 for the PC. The graphics are bad compared to today’s standards, but I really enjoyed that game. When I grew older, I’ve tried to recreate the experiences I had back then and get back into similar pilot-this-plane games. But I just can’t seem to. It’s either because I’m not so good at them, or today’s flight sims are just too complicated and too hard – you usually have to use the whole keyboard to control everything in a plane. I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve gotten into WW2 after reading the manual of Aces Over Europe. I sucked at the game, so I got my enjoyment out of the manual instead.

I’ve been into the Sim___ series ever since I got an original copy of the original SimCity back in grade school. I remember that our copy was from a 5 ¼” (I forget if it’s 5 ¼ or 5 3/4), and we unfortunately got a virus into the original copy. I’ve played and enjoyed a lot of these Sim___ games – SimCity 2000, SimFarm, SimTower, SimAnt, etc. When The Sims came, I was quite ecstatic. I enjoy building things, so I really enjoyed building and designing houses (I also played around with Total3D Home – a more realistic home design tool which is very flexible and quite powerful - this is not a game but an architectural tool I recommend for amateur home builders). However, controlling the lives of your Sims got boring after a while (I hate repetitiveness remember?). I guess there are just so many things you can do with the game: make a bachelor and have every girl in the neighborhood fall in love with you, make a grumpy old man and fight everyone else, make a normal couple with or without a bunch of children, make a house with a single guy and eight pretty women… Sims2, although admittedly better, was déjà vu.

Another game I liked was Medieval: Total War. In this strategy game you control one country in the middle ages, build up your army and economy, then try to conquer the world. Typical story line? Yeah, but the gameplay was one of the best types I’ve played. I was once so into it, that I usually dreamed about it (if I dream about a game, then that means I enjoyed it). You also get affected emotionally. I once had a single unit of a hundred Swiss Armored Pikemen heroically defend a bridge against 500 enemy troops almost singlehandedly. Of course, my troops were almost decimated, but I won. You could almost cheer. Unfortunately, I recall that I lost that unit a few turns later when an enemy bribed them into fighting against me. Assholes. Rome: Total War, although having better gameplay, I enjoyed less (although not much less) – probably because I’m more of a fan of the medieval period than the ancient roman period.

What I don’t like though are action games and 3^rd person platformers. Or those games with lots of puzzles. I guess Lufia 2 left a bad taste in my mouth. Legacy of Kain? For me, it’s all bull. I play to relax my mind, not put more pressure into it. Sports games? Sure. I’m an NBA and NFL fan so I play basketball and american football games. Soccer I still hate though – what’s with the ball going back and forth across a field for two hours and the score ending in a 0 – 0 tie? Pointless. Racing games I also enjoy, I like cars. NFSU and NFSU2 helped fufill some of my fantasies of owning and driving all those fancy and expensive sportscars.

Some more games I’ve loved: Serf City and Settlers 3, Stronghold – three more games set in a medieval setting (my undergraduate special problem by the way was a game set – somehow – in a medieval period), Neverwinter Nights, Baldur’s Gate, and Icewind Dale (I’m also a D&D fan – these are some of the best RPG’s I’ve played – although I think I haven’t finished any of them – yet), Knights of the Old Republic (I finished this one, KOTOR 2 for me remains unfinished as it is just not that exciting), Super Robot Wars – any of them (woooh! These are some of the best games I’ve ever played – I remember getting hooked after trying out one SRW game for the PS1 back in first year high school – I’ve tried playing and finishing any SRW game I could get my hands on. No, I can’t read all those Japanese characters, but I know enough katakana and some kanji to understand some of it – plus I recognize the shapes of Japanese characters in the menus – I like Gundams you see, not only those wimpy robots from Gundam Wing and Gundam Seed everyone is familiar with – I much prefer the original Gundams – Gundam, Gundam Z, Nu Gundam, etc.), Caesar III and its predecessors (I also like city building), and just recently, before I had to give back my P4 office computer which had 1GB RAM, Battle for Middle Earth (I also like LOTR, and that was before and after the trilogy became popular because of the movies).

I know I’m forgetting some more games, but I’m too tired right now. You see how bad things are with my game-playing-habits if I’d rather write a lengthy essay on games than play them.