This web log (read: sludge bucket of bombastic blatherings) comes to you courtesy of an original gamer who's old enough to remember playing Pong when it first came out at the local arcade and actually being impressed. (Yes, I'm that stinking old.)
And although during my formative years, I developed a brief but intense love affair with various gaming consoles (which shall remain unnamed to protect the innocent), the main focus here will be PC video games. And just so everyone plays nice together, I'll be breaking that down into two specific categories: new PC games and classic PC games both of which I am a huge enthusiast. And by 'enthusiast', I mean that writing this blog is actually taking away from my precious gaming time (oh the sacrifices we make..)..
Okay so enough with my credentials and the introductions. Now let's make with some definitions starting with...
New PC Games
Okay so when I think of "new pc games", I'm reminded of another 49-going-on-14 geezer gamer buddy of mine who expressed concern the other day that I was consuming video games at a voluminous rate as of late and wasn't taking enough time to really savour them as any true gaming enthusiast should. And yes well... I think maybe he's right. Lately I have indeed been gobbling down games like a five year old rifling through a box of M&M's.
But with all the fabulous new PC game releases out these days, I just can't help myself. I look at astounding photorealistic game titles like Crysis or Far Cry 2 and I am simply blown away. My, how things have progressed since the pixelated, 16-color, 2 polygon-per-second stuff we used to play back in the 90's. But then I keep wondering if, ten years from now, some will be looking back on Crysis and Far Cry 2 bitching about how bad the graphics look. Who knows?
All this to say that things are moving at breakneck speed in the world of video gaming and with the average gamer reportedly purchasing between 2-3 new titles a year, one could easily fall behind. So keeping true to my name, I'm going to cut everyone some major slack and say that new PC games means basically anything that didn't come out last century. (*chuckle*... "last century..."... Sounds weird, eh?) So to clarify, on this site, any game released year 2000 and beyond will be considered a new PC game.
Alright? No arguments? Oh you do have arguments? Alright go to my feedback page and tell me about it. By the way, all who disagree can BITE ME. (Heh heh... just kidding, just kidding... Say what you will. I won't squawk. But keep in mind, this is a flame-proof site so keep it civil, please.)
Moving on, let's touch briefly on...
Classic PC Games
Alrighty then, so I'm not trying to brag but I have a fairly decent rig. It's not top of the line but it does get me by. I can play all the latest games on pretty high graphics settings so there are no issues there.
So there are definitely no sour grapes here (i.e., I'm not an oldie-moldies fanboy because I can't run the new stuff) which is why I find it hard to understand how some gamers can look at old games like Diablo II or Red Alert and say the graphics look like crap. I personally still get a ton of enjoyment out of revisiting these classic PC games and even when it comes to something as pixelated as X-Com UFO Defense, I still don't have any issues. They were all great games then and they're still great games now. I guess the bottom line is that back in the day, video games were more about gameplay than they were about graphics.
So I'm speculating that either these gamers never actually played these classics when they first came out and/or they're some kind of holier-than-thou hardware enthusiasts who are more into benchmarking their bazillion dollar rigs than just sitting down and actually having fun playing a video game (and see this web comic for more on that noise).
If you, however, can appreciate classic PC games then you are in good company here. And you'll be glad to know that some of these are now being officially licensed as freeware and are now available to download (e.g., Red Alert) which is good news especially in these tough economic times.
By the way, two immensely useful programs that you can install to help you run old games on new high-end computers are DOSbox and Mo' Slo, the former of which is also freeware.
And finally... How about some...
Free Online Games
Tired of video games with a learning curve steeper than Mount Everest? For a bit of mindless entertainment, you can always play some free online games. They will all play right in your browser and no installation is required. I've personally tried each and every one of these Flash games and they are all, at the very least, amusing and some are quite addictive.
Okely-dokely... That's about all for now...
To proceed into the wild interior of this site, just check the menu on the left at the top.
Happy gaming!.. :o)
~ Major Slack