Such an enjoyable lifestyle

Posted under Gaming, Personal Experiences, Random by Pojut

A couple of months ago on his blog, Wil Wheaton mentioned something that really got my attention: being a geek is fantastic.  We get the coolest shirts, some of the best narrative experiences (geek-leaning books, games, etc.), and some of the most diverse folks around.

This got me thinking…it seems that our culture comes in waves.  The summer has been pretty much devoid of any fun gaming material.  Yes, there have been some amazing movies that have been released, but there haven’t been any gaming releases that I’ve been excited about.  There has been such a dearth of new games that I actually started to question the point of gaming.  Last winter was the winter of Mass Effect for me.  Yes, Mass Effect has its problems, but the act of playing through Mass Effect twice, back to back, likely ranks among my favourite gaming experiences of my entire life.   Will I ever get a chance to have more?  Would there ever be another game that got to join the exclusive ranks in my mind as not just being memorable, but legendary?  I actually got slightly depressed about this.  It worried me that I might be losing the first love of my life: gaming.

Overall, the summer was actually somewhat entertaining from a gaming perspective.  I’ve been investing a fair amount of time into playing my PSP.  I had a decent time playing Chains of Olympus (even though I beat it on Hard Mode in only 6 hours, it reminded me why God of War is one of my favourite series.)  I played through Loco Roco, flOw, Killzone Liberation (which was fantastic) and a few others.  I’m still in the middle of Final Fantasy Tactics; My save game has just under 20 hours logged, and I’m somewhere in the third act.  I’m also going through Lost Planet for the first time on my 360, and Assassin’s Creed waits for my first go at it as well.  Still, even with these games providing me new experiences (since I never played through them when they were new), I couldn’t help but feel…bored. I took it upon myself to check out wikipedia’s game release schedule, and suddenly I was re-energized.

The next few months are going to be INSANE.  In fact, I daresay that the remaining four months of 2008 just might be the most exciting four months in gaming history.  We have Spore, Fable 2, and Fallout 3, amongst a TON of other super exciting stuff.  Games that we have been looking forward to for literally years are almost upon us…and they will be descending upon us within a very short period of time.

Think about it.  Spore is going to be released in a matter of a couple of weeks.  WEEKS.  This is madness (and Sparta!)…I mean, we all knew that Spore was going to eventually come out…but to actually know that it is so close is crazy.  Same thing for Fallout 3.  Fallout 2 feels like it came out an eternity ago.  You bet your ass I’m going to be taking the tin Fallout 3 lunchbox from the Special Edition to work.  And finally, after a long long wait, Fable II will be unleashed upon the masses.  Fable II looks to provide everything that Fable I should have been. 

While Spore, Fallout 3, and Fable II represent the games I am most excited about, there are plenty of others.  Gears of War 2, Legendary, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Infinite Undiscovery, Warhammer: Battle March, Pure, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Just Cause 2, Guilty Gear 2, Rise of the Argonauts, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Rock Band 2, Fracture, Dead Space, Far Cry 2, Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon, Sacred 2, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, Last Remnant, Left 4 Dead, Brutal Legend (god willing), Velvet Assassin, Damnation, and Borderlands. 

Early 2009 sees Afro Samurai and Resident Evil 5.

One thing is for sure: this is going to be one hell of a fun winter.