Gaming by GlossGreen

I said a while back that in commemoration of the release of Halo Wars I was going to go back and play the previous three games in the series. Well, I finally have that damn power transformer so I started this not un-momentous task last night. I'm not going to rush. I'm not going to prejudge (again). I'm going to go through and just try to enjoy the games. After all, millions of people couldn't be wrong, could they? Don't answer that. Moving on.

First impressions (the second time) are good for the first Halo. I'm only a couple of hours in, but I have realized it's a pretty fun game. Kinda ugly looking in parts, but fun none the less. Now before you get all angry at me for calling it ugly, go back and play the ship level. OK, done yet? I don't agree with the level design, it is a bit on the sterile side, and tell me why all the corridors are two rights, two lefts, then repeat? I shouldn't get all fixated on the ship levels anyway. It was only one big tutorial level after all. But, once the action hits the ground on the Halo, things start looking much, much better. Anyway, I am not trying to hate on the game, I still like it and I'm having fun playing it. Again. Now, I have to get back to the game or I'll never finish all four. More useless impressions to come.

OK, so anyone that's read this blog here knows that I picked up my very own Xbox 360 a few months ago. Having said that I decided to select a newer game for the system when I made my purchase. I was lucky that day and I happily added Mass Effect to my Elite purchase. Why not Halo? The store I purchase my gaming goods from has a very limited selection of games, so I got the best of what they did have at the time. Several months have past now, so what's on the plate today? Like I have for every system I've purchased, I decided to bone up a little on the Xbox gaming history with a few original Xbox titles. Two problems. One, due to my location, I can't download any Xbox Originals from Live. Two, I can only connect to Live once or twice a week due to my internet situation. My solution? Amazon.com.

I love buying used games. Why? Because I can pick up great titles (if a little dated) for a usually low price. Does that make me a cheap bastard? I don't think so, because for the $60 cost of a new game I can get 3 or 4 older titles shipped to me instead. With my non-existent budget here at Gaming by GlossGreen (I'll have to talk to my CFO about that) I have to picky about what I get. Simply put, by purchasing older titles I get to buy more of them. Granted, everyone else has played the game before me, but it's still a great opportunity to play good games. I still get the occasional new game, but there are plenty of excellent older ones to try also.

A couple of days ago I received my first shipment of older titles, the first two being Panzer Dragoon Orta and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Both, I understand to be, excellent games. I don't plan to stop there with the original games either. I plan to pick up Fable (in preparation of the release of Fable II) and Conker (a game that was release for the N64 after I had already given up on the platform) in the near future. Unfortunately for me, with my hectic work schedule as of late, I haven't actually had much time to play games, not to say that I've had no time to play. I currently have one of last years 360 games in my tray, Crackdown. Again, as an older title I picked it up pretty inexpensively and still had money left over for another game. Now, when I finish playing through that one KOTOR is next on my list.

What I'm trying to say with this is not to forget about the older systems. Every console has had at least a few must own games with it. Don't be afraid to buy a last gen game. Both the 360 and PS3 (most of them at least) support backwards compatability for a reason. Play an Xbox original. Play a PS2, or even, a PS1 game. But, don't get stuck on a game's graphics quality. Just because a game looks last gen doesn't mean it's not worthy of playing. Get them for the gameplay.

I know the old saying about ignorance and bliss. I get the meaning behind it, too. The logic is that if you don't know about something then it can't effect you. For normal everyday events that may be OK. As far as gaming goes, happiness doesn't come from not knowing about games. Happiness comes from playing the games**.

Here's the reason why I say gaming bliss comes from knowledge. As you all know I recently purchased an Xbox 360. That alone opens a whole world of gaming that I just can't get with a PS3. Now I get the opportunity to play games like Mass Effect, the Halo series, the Gears series, the upcoming Too Human, and many other interesting games. There's one other side to Xbox gaming that I never actually considered before. As I looked back through some of the original Xbox titles a few of them caught my eye. Sure, Halo and Fable were up there on my radar, but then I noticed Doom 3 and Serious Sam II. For typical console gamers those games may not mean much, but for PC gamers, they are well known. And that's what caught my attention.

Now here's where ignorance, my ignorance, really kicks in. I had no idea that there were so many PC titles available for the Xbox. Now, I've never been much of a PC gamer, I got my first computer in 2006, but that never stopped me from having an interest in all types of games. As a kid I used to go into the neighborhood bookstore (that's where they sold PC games when I was a kid) and see the games they had there. I don't remember a lot of the titles of the games they sold back then, but I do remember that they looked a hell of a lot better then my Atari 2600 and NES games did. My family never had enough money to get me a computer back in those days, even though they wanted to, I still kept abreast of advances in computers.

As time went by, I became less and less interested in PC gaming. Console systems were becoming more and more advanced, and were cheaper than buying a PC. I eventually bought an N64, PS1, PS2, a Game Gear, Game Boy, and even an Atari Jaguar, all before I bought my first PC. In picking up a computer I bought a laptop that was decent enough to play games on. I did get a couple of games for it, but trying to keep up with PC hardware was something I didn't want to follow through with. So, I stuck with console games. In doing so I thought I was missing out on some great titles that would never see console form. Well, I was wrong. In my ignorance I was unaware of how many PC games were actually available for the Xbox. I initially dismissed the console, due to reasons I don't even remember now, and missed the whole thing.

After picking my 360 I decided to check out all the titles I've missed, and I was surprised. See, for me, a title's age won't effect my enjoyment of it. A great story and compelling gameplay are all that I require. Heck, even the story is optional in some cases. Needless to say, I've got some catching up to do.

**Disclaimer: Happiness also comes from having a family, such as a wonderful wife that allows me to buy all sorts of gaming stuff and continue with this time consuming and costly hobby. Thanks dear, I love you.

Part 3

This generation of gaming brought many exciting changes to us that are just now being fully realized. Many of the innovations introduced here will be with us for many continuing generations.

The next, sixth, generation (1998-2006) brought a new kind of innovation to the forefront. The Sega Dreamcast was released in late 1999. What made this console innovative was the inclusion in the box of a modem for online operations. Online capabilities had been included with previous generations of consoles before, but previous generations did not have this capability immediately able for use like the Dreamcast did (minus the time actually setting up the service). The Dreamcast started out strong with a good line-up of games and a lack of next generation competition, but what started as a very promising future for Sega ended up being a bitter disappointment and the end of their involvement in consoles.

The sixth generation of gaming was dominated by the PlayStation 2 which was released about one year after the Dreamcast. The launch of the PlayStation 2, and in fact, the announcement of its impending release was one factor that had an influence in Sega leaving the console market. Also with the scheduled launches of both the Nintendo Gamecube and the Microsoft Xbox, Sega decided to leave the console business and focus on software. Now, Sega may have been the first to have included internet capability, but the release of the Xbox in late 2001 brought it to the gaming forefront. Live was launched in 2002 to immediate success and with it a new era for console gaming commenced.

This generation also brought many handheld systems to the market. While these new handhelds (most notably the Neo Geo Pocket Color, N-Gage, and the redesigned N-Gage QD) were unsuccessful against the entrenched competition, Nintendo did release three new variants of its popular Game Boy hardware during the 2001-2005 time frame. The successor to the Game Boy Color was released in 2001 and was called the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo never was one to get too risky with the naming of its consoles. Moniker aside, the Game Boy Advance ended up being very profitable for Nintendo. This version of the venerable system had a horizontal orientation, surprisingly similar to its competitor's consoles more so than any earlier version of Game Boy. But issues of comfort and a dark screen while playing games led to an updated version of the hardware, the Game Boy Advance SP.

The SP was released 2 years later in 2003 and added significant upgrades to the original. A front lit screen (and later backlit), rechargeable battery, and a new clamshell design to reduce the overall size (when closed) and protect the screen. Orientation also went from horizontal to the classic Game Boy vertical. The next iteration was not an improvement but a style change for the SP. The Game Boy Micro was released in 2005. This version of the Game Boy was compatible with all SP games, but was not backwards compatible with other previous generations. With a smaller screen and interchangeable faceplates, sales of the Micro started out strong but eventually only ended up selling about 2.4 million consoles worldwide, Nintendo's most significant failure. In the scheme of things though, the Micro had a very small part in Nintendo's strategy, and Nintendo could definitely afford to take a loss on it.