Friday, July 23, 2010
Gaming Confessions
Most girls have memories that consist of playing with Barbies, jumping rope, dress up etc. and doing generic “girly” things as a child. I don’t have these memories…instead, mine are of killing things in various first person shooters on the computer.I’ve been playing video games for quite a long time. I’m not really sure just exactly how I got started, but I probably wandered into the room while my dad was playing Doom and immediately got interested. It most likely started with an innocent “whatcha doing?” and then it all began from there. Once I started, it was hard to stop. I was officially a gamer. Starting with Doom I moved onto Castle Wolfenstein and Navy Seals on the Game Boy. And after that I moved onto the console games.
My parents were perfectly fine with me playing these violent video games, though every once in awhile they’d sternly remind me that this was only a game and that in no way should it be applied to real life. I took it seriously and I never really had “extreme violent urges” just from playing these games. And I think I turned out all right so no worries there!
As for making my love for video games be known to my friends…that didn’t turn out too well in middle school. Only the guys really knew what I was talking about and even they thought it was strange to see a girl playing video games. They thought I was just making this stuff up and would continually quiz me to make sure I really did have this knowledge. So after awhile I just kept my gaming habits a secret, even from my closest friends. It took me awhile to allow that part of me show, but as time went on and I entered high school I started being a little more vocal about it. Now that I’m in college I am not ashamed to let people know that I’m a gamer!
DOOM
The fondest memories I have as a child include the many nights spent playing video games with my dad as soon as he got home from work. He’d switch on our ancient Mac and then we’d have at it at some monsters on DOOM. I handled the “fire” button while he manned the directional controls. I remember being absolutely captivated by the variety & creativity of the monsters. Sure, I was scared too but that didn’t stop me. One particular monster that I affectionately named the “meatball monster” freaked me out the most, with its large single eye and jaws that spewed forth balls of electric doom. We fought our way through the first two Doom games, and when Doom 3 came out rather recently, we played that as well.
Castle Wolfenstein
After Doom it was time to try another first person shooter…Castle Wolfenstein. More fun times ensued as we fought Nazis, dogs, and got stalked by strange giant men. We used the same formula in Doom: I pressed the fire button while my dad had the direction controls.
Navy Seals
Navy Seals was the very first game I played on the Game Boy. For some reason I don’t have a lot of memories of this game, besides the fact that it required shooting some horned beings, was very fun and I preferred playing it instead of the Tetris game. I also remember the theme song of this game being very catchy and I still remember it to this day (even though I haven’t played the game in awhile since it got lost in the mayhem of moving).
Pokemon
Pokemon was all the rage in elementary school. I clearly remember those Pokemon card games getting so out of hand during recess that they started banning them from school. I also remember getting Pokemon Gold in my stocking one Christmas and bringing it along to one of the field trips. This was my first Pokemon game and I was easily baffled by the puzzles in the ice cave, so I vividly recall having one of the boys in the class do the puzzle for me. Fun times! I still continue to play Pokemon and I am unashamed of it…currently I’m working my way through Pokemon SoulSilver as I still have yet to catch them all.
Tenchu
By the second grade I moved up to playing games on the console. At first I would sit back and watch my dad play Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins on our Playstation but as I got over my initial fear of getting attacked by enemies I took the controller myself. I immediately loved slicing my way through enemy ninjas. This was the first game that really introduced me to the wonderful world of console games and also to the awesomeness that are ninjas.
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts was the first taste that I had of role playing games. I rented the first one when I was, of course, too young and I got a little freaked out about the opening scene (the first Shadow Hearts was rated M for blood & gore since it was a survival horror game, then they completely turned the series around on the second game which became much more comedic and therefore teen friendly). I returned the game thinking that I’d never want to come back to it again. Then a few years later I discovered Shadow Hearts: Covenant, the second game, and after renting it and absolutely loving it, I bought it. I began to search for the first game for a second try at it but at this time copies had become difficult to find. My dad eventually found a used copy of it somewhere on the internet and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. This game remains to be my favorite RPG although I haven’t played very many others.
Silent Hill
Oh Silent Hill. What lovely memories I have of trying to buy Silent Hill 3 when I was 17 years old, but of course they wouldn’t let me because I was underage. Anyway the Silent Hill series is amazing. While I can understand how the gameplay would put off some people, it’s really one of those games that you should give a second chance to. The series excels at everything a survival horror game should, with the creepy atmosphere and disturbing storyline complete with intriguing characters, along with downright nasty looking monsters.
Resident Evil
I was a bit late to jump on the Resident Evil bandwagon, since the first game I played was Resident Evil 4. I played the game and immediately saw just exactly why it won game of the year in 2005. I loved everything about it (well…except for the timed areas. But who likes timed areas anyway?) and played it multiple times. I have Resident Evil 5 now and I’m currently working through my third playthrough. If you haven’t played it yet, you definitely should give it a try. Don’t let the somewhat wonky ammo-wasting AI partner stop you…it’s still a very fun game that has lots of
And that concludes my little stroll down gaming memory lane. I’m very thankful to my dad for introducing me to this amazing world.
DOOM
The fondest memories I have as a child include the many nights spent playing video games with my dad as soon as he got home from work. He’d switch on our ancient Mac and then we’d have at it at some monsters on DOOM. I handled the “fire” button while he manned the directional controls. I remember being absolutely captivated by the variety & creativity of the monsters. Sure, I was scared too but that didn’t stop me. One particular monster that I affectionately named the “meatball monster” freaked me out the most, with its large single eye and jaws that spewed forth balls of electric doom. We fought our way through the first two Doom games, and when Doom 3 came out rather recently, we played that as well.
Castle Wolfenstein
After Doom it was time to try another first person shooter…Castle Wolfenstein. More fun times ensued as we fought Nazis, dogs, and got stalked by strange giant men. We used the same formula in Doom: I pressed the fire button while my dad had the direction controls.
Navy Seals
Navy Seals was the very first game I played on the Game Boy. For some reason I don’t have a lot of memories of this game, besides the fact that it required shooting some horned beings, was very fun and I preferred playing it instead of the Tetris game. I also remember the theme song of this game being very catchy and I still remember it to this day (even though I haven’t played the game in awhile since it got lost in the mayhem of moving).
Pokemon
Pokemon was all the rage in elementary school. I clearly remember those Pokemon card games getting so out of hand during recess that they started banning them from school. I also remember getting Pokemon Gold in my stocking one Christmas and bringing it along to one of the field trips. This was my first Pokemon game and I was easily baffled by the puzzles in the ice cave, so I vividly recall having one of the boys in the class do the puzzle for me. Fun times! I still continue to play Pokemon and I am unashamed of it…currently I’m working my way through Pokemon SoulSilver as I still have yet to catch them all.
Tenchu
By the second grade I moved up to playing games on the console. At first I would sit back and watch my dad play Tenchu 2: Birth of the Stealth Assassins on our Playstation but as I got over my initial fear of getting attacked by enemies I took the controller myself. I immediately loved slicing my way through enemy ninjas. This was the first game that really introduced me to the wonderful world of console games and also to the awesomeness that are ninjas.
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts was the first taste that I had of role playing games. I rented the first one when I was, of course, too young and I got a little freaked out about the opening scene (the first Shadow Hearts was rated M for blood & gore since it was a survival horror game, then they completely turned the series around on the second game which became much more comedic and therefore teen friendly). I returned the game thinking that I’d never want to come back to it again. Then a few years later I discovered Shadow Hearts: Covenant, the second game, and after renting it and absolutely loving it, I bought it. I began to search for the first game for a second try at it but at this time copies had become difficult to find. My dad eventually found a used copy of it somewhere on the internet and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. This game remains to be my favorite RPG although I haven’t played very many others.
Silent Hill
Oh Silent Hill. What lovely memories I have of trying to buy Silent Hill 3 when I was 17 years old, but of course they wouldn’t let me because I was underage. Anyway the Silent Hill series is amazing. While I can understand how the gameplay would put off some people, it’s really one of those games that you should give a second chance to. The series excels at everything a survival horror game should, with the creepy atmosphere and disturbing storyline complete with intriguing characters, along with downright nasty looking monsters.
Resident Evil
I was a bit late to jump on the Resident Evil bandwagon, since the first game I played was Resident Evil 4. I played the game and immediately saw just exactly why it won game of the year in 2005. I loved everything about it (well…except for the timed areas. But who likes timed areas anyway?) and played it multiple times. I have Resident Evil 5 now and I’m currently working through my third playthrough. If you haven’t played it yet, you definitely should give it a try. Don’t let the somewhat wonky ammo-wasting AI partner stop you…it’s still a very fun game that has lots of
And that concludes my little stroll down gaming memory lane. I’m very thankful to my dad for introducing me to this amazing world.
Posts
July 23, 2010 at 10:02 PM
Hey there! You should really go back and play Resident Evil 2 and 3, they're GREAT games. I'm pretty sure youcan get them on the Playstation network, but if I was you I'd try track down copies of the GameCube release's as well as REmake and RE Zero. Code Veronica is ok... but I wouldn't stress too much if you never played it.
July 24, 2010 at 6:44 AM
Hello! I really would like to go back and play them (even though I've seen many walkthroughs on Youtube for it), it would be nice to experience them myself. I've tried playing old games on the old Playstation but I've been so spoiled with the nice graphics on the new consoles these days. I know, that shouldn't stop me, so maybe I'll try to hunt down some copies of it! I did get Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii, which is essentially like a remake I believe, but I never got too far because it pretty much comprised of me shaking my controller for like 20 minutes and that got tiring XD
Thank you for your comment and suggestions though! =)