Game On

I must admit, i've never been much of a gamer...oh heck, I've never been a gamer period.

My gaming life started and ended with the Nintendo family computer, where I played one airplane game so much that I heard the soundeffects in my sleep.

My parents were heavily into Galaga, quietly displacing me from my perch in front of the console with orders of homework, then starting their nightly wager on who could trump who (and the bets aint low either, 1k was a lot in those days)

But when everyone moved on to the Ness, the SNess, and the Nintendo Ultra 64--which I secretly longed for, thank God I didn't get it--I was left severely behind. I wanted to play them mainly because I wanted to play Macross games (I was obsessed) but I really couldn't afford the systems, much less find the time to play them.

I moved on a bit to arcade gaming with yet another flight sim game. I didn't get Daytona, don't get it still, but one hot sumer day I poured some money into a flight sim game and actually ended up finishing it. I wasn't in the top three, but somehow this earned the respect of several gamers who ended up watching me as I passionately blew up binary planes.

Love affair ended when the mall sold the game off to make way for new ones...none of them flight sim (sigh)

When the PC revolution started, I picked up on Heretic, mainly because it was bundled free with my CDROM. The whole first person thing did somehow enthrall me, but not enough for me to pour some money into it, even in a bunch of pirated CDs.

Then Star Craft and Red Alert came out, and I was still docked in the shadows. I think I was into debate. I played Outpost though, which is a cheaper spinnof which my cousin bought in the states for--well, really cheap. Caught my attention for a little while before I moved on after a span of...gee, a month?

I think I would have picked up on a PS2 or even an Xbox if I wasn't sure that I would be seriously addicted.

Games are an ADD kids way to sanity. All that noise and fast action gore melt into this focused goo that most people would have found distracting. We're used to everything happening at once, so when you have shit coming in from all direction, we assume that everything is normal. And for kicks, we load up on caffeine, to better concentrate on our games.

And since I can neither afford, keep up, or even have time to spare for a game, I've decided to steer clear from game systems and end the affair even before it's begun.

Though I regret not getting a joystick for my PC and not playing the microsoft flight sim game...or any PC flight sim game, for that matter. It's an addiction. I think in my past life I was a fighter pilot blasting away in some biplane.

Now...well, now I am seriously looking into the Chronicles of Riddick PC game spinoff.

Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is an Xbox release now looking at a new life in PC. It's supposed to be a far cry from the film, though with Vin being a huge gamer, i'm sure he tried to make at least this right.

I didn't really like Riddick all that well. I think Pitch Black was a good movie, but I think the jump they made from PB to TCoR was just too much of an ambitious leap.

Most people complain of Vin's lack of acting skills, but fuck, who the hell watches this kind of movie for the acting? You watch it for the action, the story, and (for the women) some gratitious looks of a delectibly sweaty Vin.

(Though for the record, I sincerely believe he can act, he's just been stereotyped in these kinds of movies)

I don't think the story made that much sense. I think the setup was too...rushed. The jump from this dark sci-fi thriller to fantasy was just too extreme. It's like the Kia selling off it's blah as the new Benz.

Sure it looks like the Benz, it somehow even performs like the Benz, heck maybe it even smells like the Benz, but see, it's not a Benz. Never will be. Deep down it's still a Kia, and who the hell wants a fake Benz?

And Riddick came off as that...fake. The story was okay for the most part, but with the way it was hyped up, it just didn't live up to my expectations.

But Vin was there, and we like Vin, and come on, who the hell wouldn't watch the sequel after that cliff hanger ending? I'm sure people went out thinking "Maybe things will get better once he goes back to Furia. Maybe next time he'll get a better girlfriend...heck, maybe he'll end up with Thandie Newton"

Though for a franchise, this movie sure batted a hundred. Toys, shirts, books, comic books, animation and game spin-offs, hell bumper stickers, this film just primed it up and cooked it to a turn.

I heard TCor: Dark Fury was great, maybe because the writer for it was great (see how important the writer is, even though he's the least mentioned?) and now TCoR the game turns out to be quite the hit.

Okay, so I'm contemplating on getting it because I like Vin. But I geeked enough to at least check the reviews for this and it all went pretty well. I'm not sure i've developed enough screen-keyboard-mouse coordination for me to be any good at this, but with me holed in my room, who the hell cares?

Maybe it will get me playing again. I'm already addicted to Flash 2's Virtual Drag Racer (v's 1 and 2) and that Bounce game is just damning....Yeah, I'm a sucker for free games.

All in all, with my new life working from home and being one with my PC, I need something that will improve my motor skills besides working out, and since i'm not much for badminton--which is taking the country by storm--this looks to be a great alternative.

If not, I can at least stare at the graphics. The lead looks so much like Vin it's fucking scary.