Personal Gaming History: Part Two! 2003-2011

 A.K.A. The dark days of my “Academic” schooling ;)

I’ll just talk about the clear winners for me in each category and when I first played them. My first and all time favourite PC game or (CRPG) was “Baldur’s Gate.” Got given it for the family Windows 95 pc in 2002. This game profoundly influenced my choice of games in the future. Although it took a couple of failed attempts to get into it, once I got the hang of it there was no greater CRPG personally. It was developed by Bioware and released by Interplay Entertainment in 1998.

The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) 2nd edition rules. That’s part of the reason it was a challenging game for me to enter the PC games genre with. After Baldur’s gate, years later I bought and played its sequel and subsequent spin offs “Icewind dale I & II”, using the same Infinity Engine. Since then I’ve been comparing every RPG back to it and hoping for another sequel from Bioware. 

My next transition weirdly some might say was from PS1, to Xbox original. I had seen a friend playing Halo Combat Evolved and when he let me have a go on it, I was totally sold. That was all I wanted for Christmas that year, and with the gods luck I bagged one under the tree. “Turok Evolution” was one of the first games I owned on it that I really liked. Mainly because you could use poison arrow bows and kill all manner of Dino’s. It also had great couch multiplayer with friends and the simple fact you could kill each other as Raptors meant it was WIN. 

After “Turok” I managed to bag a copy of eventually “Halo: Combat Evolved”, developed by “Bungie © 2001.” Now that was really the first Sci-fi shooter I obsessed over. To this day it is probably one of the best shooters I’ve ever played and that rank will stay for sure. It was so good for a few simple reasons. It was fresh, it had a great story to it, great graphics for the time and it was oh so fun. “Halo 2” took over when it arrived because of the new expansive multiplayer and incredible graphics but even with that, I still revisit Halo one and not two.

Just after Halo 2 came out, and once I’d played it to death with my friends. I wanted to get back into RPG’s remembering the days playing Baldur’s Gate. Mum had just got a new family Pc and I had the Xbox, so I started to search around and began to collect the gems that I’d missed over the years.
That was when I discovered “The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Game of The Year Edition.” Developed by “Bethesda Game Studios”, and published by “Bethesda Softworks and Ubisoft © 2003.” I decided to get it on Xbox because that was what I was most familiar with but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The game was a beast. Mammoth in size and so detailed that it mind boggled me at first. Overwhelmed, I abandoned it for a while, initially put off by the seemingly dated visuals.

But not wanting to feel like I’d wasted my money, I returned to it and really sunk my teeth in. 450 hours or more later I think I pulled them out. I had discovered the mesmerising depth and beauty of the “Elder scrolls” world and from that time onwards, I had a new favourite game above all others. The sheer quantity and variety of Items had me trekking for hours and hours across the entire map scouring every inch of fogged map, and the difficulty lead to countless reloads which only hooked me more. That was the game that really highlighted my personality in RPG’s as an obsessive explorer and compulsive hoarder. Lol

Another RPG that I was massively into at the time was “Champions of Norrath: Relms of Everquest” on PS2 produced by “snowblind  Studios ©2004”. It is a hack and slash action RPG designed to be played single player or up to 4 player with friends as I mostly did. It was great because we could all meet up at a house and bring our memory cards to import our single player characters then go questing together. Simple but addictive fun, and was made more addictive by the limitless variety of randomly generated items and unique rare items to collect. It had a sequel in 2005 which was essentially the same but bigger game and more characters. It was so much fun and probably the best PS2 game I ever played.

Along came the Xbox 360 in 2005, though I didn’t get mine till 2006. There are many titles that I like on the 360 platform, and I have quite a collection, but there are a few that stand out. “Gears of war” being one big sore thumb. I got gears of war a month after its release on November 17^th 2006 along with my Xbox 360 for Christmas. And that had to be the best Christmas I had had in a long time.

It was like nothing anyone had ever seen before, or at least no-one I knew in terms of the fast tactical squad based combat, dark macabre colour pallet and level designs and the insane gore. I loved every ounce of that game and must have racked up hundreds of hours online play with friends. This was around the end of my GCSE’s… I think it may have made an impact, I know it did on my Art! My sculpture went from facial studies to, to Full blown demon skulls!  To this day it is the 5^th most selling Xbox 360 title.

“The Elder scrolls4: Oblivion” was the next most memorable game I played on the Xbox 360. I didn’t get it when it was released in March 2006, but got the Game of the year edition in 2007 which included both major DLC expansions, the same as Morrowind’s game of the year edition did. Like its predecessor I fell in love with it, not at first but soon after adjusting to the changes from Morrowind. And it commenced the easy task of devouring hundreds of hours of my life until I had played it to absolute completion. I have to say; I think as a game, Morrowind was more in depth, believable and creative than Oblivion. So I prefer it, but Oblivion sure was perdy!

well sometimes... o.0

That about brings me to Present day. Over the last couple of years ive focused more on my art and thats only increasing. So I have amassed many more games than I have time to play sadly, and become more of a collector. But names like "The Witcher" and "The Witcher 2: Assassin of kings" stand out, along with another favorite older CRPG I forgot to mention "Neverwinter Nights". And now, most recently Skyrim...  I wont talk about that one now, save it for another blog! SO where would I like to see games heading in the future? e.g. what would I like to be working on I guess? Well, I'd love love to see more thought put into the simple aspects of a game that made the old classics like Crash and spiro so fun. It would be an interesting blend with next generation graphics I'm sure, but perhaps now that technology is heading towards the immersion experience of free control and ditching the control pad, we could see those fun aspects being re applied with a whole new feel. 

But really I just want to see Morrowind remade even bigger with next generation graphics and online capability! XD that's the game I wanna work on. Thanks for reading, I hope it was interesting in some way at least.

Personal Gaming History 1996- 2002 : “The Early Day’s” :D

My ever growing history with games goes way back. It takes me across the north Atlantic as far west as the States will allow, to a place called Lebanon. A small town in the state of Oregon, that’s where my childhood began and where I discovered a loyal and lasting partnership with good old games. The first game I ever played was “Street Fighter II”! It was “Capcom’s” second installment in the series originally released for arcade in 1991 then later ported to the hand held Gameboy. 

Pure chance landed that Gameboy and Street Fighter II in my possession. I remember a girl offering it to me for one buck at my primary school (kindergarten) and I took it gobsmacked.  Anyway it was a clunky old thing and killed batteries in minutes but the game was still cool.

After Street fighter II, I didn’t really experience games for a couple of years. I was all about sports, climbing trees, making Bows and swords, and general outdoorsy stuff.  My extra-curricular outside activities were about to take a substantial hit. In 1999 Low and behold a friend of the family lands a Sony PlayStation in our lap, yet another second hand games console but this thing rocked. The first game I picked up and played on the PlayStation was “Spider: The Video Game”.

Everything you need to know about the game is basically in that cover image. It was awesomely difficult but crazy cool game. Yes you are a spider; Gun on one leg, bowie knife on the other and your task, escape the lab killing every other machine crossed, genetically enhanced insects you come across. I never finished it, just too hard. But what a wacky/ cool concept! :P

Then that’s when I discovered “Crash Bandicoot”. If you didn’t play it when you were a kid, you must have played it at some point? If not, you haven’t lived. “A Sony Computer Entertainment, Universal Studios production, developed by Naughty Dog ©1996”. This theme tune was the theme tune of my childhood.

I’d pick it up today, play it and still love it. It is just that fun.  It is probably one of the best plat former’s of the last 2 decades in my opinion, and known as one of the best-selling PlayStation games ever. Having said that, another 2.5D platformer I loved was Pandemonium; Published in 1996 by “Crystal Dynamics”. Similar gameplay but you could shoot magic and collect treasure! Epic.

At around the same time, I was lovingly playing “Spiro 2: Gateway to Glimmer © 1999”. That game was one to love. I didn’t play the first instalment until finishing the last with “Spiro 3: Year of the Dragon”, then revisiting the first game because I loved them so much. It is a great action adventure style game, with a simple but enthralling storyline that both I and my 3 siblings played to death. Just something about collecting those Jems… I think that was when I first became a hoarder in games. The collection of PS1 games began to grow, and the ps1 became a great and friend console. Damn I loved those years.

Right PlayStation done. Those were the titles that stood out for me personally as all-time fav’s and it was important to list them as they really acclimatised me for what was to come and sowed the seed for my “addiction?” to games for the next ten years. So that leaves the PlayStation 2, Xbox Original, Xbox 360 and PC… Bring on part two in my next blog!

A History of computer games: 2000's

The 2000’s saw a great leap in gaming technology. Shifts were seen among the contender’s as to who lead the race and the speed at which gaming graphics advanced, steadily increased to what we have now in modern day.

At the very end of the 1990’a ‘Sega’s Dreamcast’ marked the start of sixth Generation gaming consoles. It was closely followed by Sony’s PlayStation 2, Microsoft’s Xbox, and Nintendo’s Game Cube. The ‘Dreamcast’ was released in 1999 in America and Europe and had strong sales at the start of its life but due to PlayStation 2’s close release a year later it struggled to compete and wasn’t as popular. Dreamcast having a brand new 128-bit gaming system marked a new generation of gaming, with better graphics and a better quality of gaming experience. Dreamcast started off the world of gaming internet with ‘SegaNet’ allowing you to play games online, this service was the pathway for future features like it such as Xbox Live, which uses the same features allowing gamers to connect online and play together. Dreamcast brought out some memorable games leading to its success in the first couple of years, games such as ‘Soul Calibur’, ‘Sonic Adventure’ and The House of Dead 2’. Sega sports titles help to shadow the lack of electronic arts. 
 Soon Dreamcast was ahead of Nintendo 64 allowing it to be the most popular gaming system; however the rise of the Playstation 2 marked the end of the Dreamcast for Sega. Dreamcast sales decreased, and Sega finally discontinued the Dreamcast in March 2001 and withdrew entirely from the console hardware business, making it the company's final console.

The PlayStation 2 showed a real upgrade in the world of gaming, not only using CD-ROM but also being compatible with DVD-ROM and CD’s. This marked the beginning of a whole new gaming experience. The PS2 allowed you to use the online gaming experience enabling you to play multiplayer using a PlayStation 2 network adapter. PlayStation 2 had the most sales worldwide for a console ever and is seen as the best selling gaming system of all time. PlayStation released accessories that would enable a better and more up to date gaming experience, for example the ‘Eye Toy’, ‘Headset’, ‘Guitar’ which was used for either Band Hero or Guitar Hero which was also sold alongside a drum kit and microphone. Playstation 2 technology has allowed it to be able to emulate other older gaming systems, such as Atari 2600, Game Boy, Mega Drive/ Genesis and the Nintendo Entertainment System. 

PlayStation 2 was closely followed by Nintendo’s GameCube which was released in 2001. Nintendo decided to use Mini-DVD to store games on meaning that it wasn’t compatible with DVD’s so didn’t have the appeal that the PlayStation 2 or Dreamcast had. It had advantages that it was smaller and more portable friendly than the other two, but it was just a bit too weak and a bit too limited in terms of what it could do to be a serious contender to next gen games. The most memorable games that were played on the GameCube were ‘Mario’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda’. My personal favourites were ‘Soul Calibur 2’ and Super smash bro’s. 

Quick to join the GameCube was Microsoft’s ‘Xbox’ which was released in 2001, much like the PlayStation 2 and the GameCube the Xbox allowed you to experience games online using Xbox Live. Xbox launched with the game ‘Halo Combat Evolved’ developed by ‘Bungie’, which was its most successful launch game by far and sparked a huge following in many countries. It was then followed by Halo 2 released in 2004 which turned out to be the best selling Xbox game worldwide. Other games like Bethesda's 'The Elderscrolls 3: Morrowind' and 'Tom Clancy's: Splinter cell' were big hits on this platform.

 The Xbox was discontinued in late 2006 and its successor the Xbox 360 released by Microsoft in 2005 took over the lime light becoming the seventh generation games console alongside the slightly later arrivals PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. The Xbox 360 allowed for a whole new Xbox live gaming experience, meaning you were able to compete online, download arcade games, games demo’s, trailers, and movies for a moderate monthly fee. This console brought gaming into the 21^st century. When I bought my Xbox 360 I remember getting ‘Call of Duty 3’ Bundled with it and at the same time bought ‘Gears of war’, which is an awesome shooter, revolutionizing combat in the shooter genre aimed at adults. It was pure mayhem and incredible fun. As a result, it was a smash hit, helping the 360 as an Xbox only title, to take a huge head start in the market. 
 When Sony and Nintendo finally joined in with their current generation consoles, they had lost a lot of time to win over the crowds, and Xbox had bagged many fans in the solid year it lucratively held the market. With little competition from PC game sales.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 was launched 11^th November 2006 and was packing a few hardware advantages over the Xbox 360, such as the built in BlueRay player, free online gaming network and access to the world wide web through browsers. Along with a stronger GPU and built in hard drive. All this came with a pretty steep price tag however and was simply out of the reach of many members of the consumer market who would have wanted one. Also the PS3’s launch games were a relative disaster and there were arguably few good games on the PS3 platform for a while compared to the established and popular Xbox 360, which already had several successful titles at this point. As the years progressed, the PS3’s shaky start eventually evened out and the playing field leveled out as far as games are concerned. Sucessful titles to hit the PS3 are, the ‘Uncharted: Drake’s fortune’ series, and the ‘God of War’ series.

A History of computer games: 1990's

The next console to follow the 'NES' and kick start the 90's console race, was the ‘Sega Mega Drive’ released by Nintendo into the Japanese market in 1988. Due to its late arrival in Japan the 16-bit computer system had already established a strong foot hold and the Genesis was largely over looked, leading to underestimated sales. The second reimagining of the console was in 1990 when it was released as the Sega Genesis in Northern America and the Mega Drive in Europe. The new bundled game Sonic the hedgehog saw the consol rise in popularity and a fan base quickly emerged around the country. 

Its popularity was on the rise in Japan also as the now slightly outdated NES was on the decline, and the variety of games for the Sega Mega Drive showcased its new and improved graphics capabilities. Popular games to emerge at the start of the decade were titles like ‘Mortal Kombat’, ‘Golden Axe’ and the hugely iconic ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ series. By 1995 the Mega Drive was supporting five different consoles and two add-ons showing an evolution of the console from 16-bit through to the new 32-bit, supported by the Sega Satturn.

Sega Satturn marked the beginning of the 32-bit console and paved the way for Sony's ' PlatStation' released in 1994 which turned out to be a huge success, although sporting the soon to be dated 32bit system, it did use new CD ROMS for game storage which could hold a lot more memory than cartridges. two years later, the 64-bit system was show cased in the Nintendo’s brand new ‘Nintendo 64’ released in September 1996. This signified the rise in the fifth generation consoles and between 1996 and 2000 the two competed head to head for the market. for Sony's PlayStation, which although wasn’t a 64-bit system it still provided Nintendo with a strong competitor supporting successful game titles. Both becoming very successful, Sony’s newcomer Playstation did very well up against Nintendo as an established console producer. The 'N64' marked the end of cartridge gaming on consoles being the last to use this form of game storage.

  

Although Nintendo weren’t as up to date with their technology they did release some now legendary games such as ‘Super Mario 64’as a launch game that revolutionized 3D adventure games, ‘Golden Eye 007’ which introduced first person shooter into the gaming world and has been named the greatest in its genre and ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’, this set the standard for future 3D action and adventure gaming and has been named by many as one of the best games of all time.

 Nintendo’s usage of cartridges even though they were considered outdated allowed some of the games to be better quality than the Playstation and Satturn. However due to the small storage on the ROM cartridges some of the textures were limited and the graphics were blurry. Playstation much like Nintendo had some legendary games as well, but what let them down was the lack of a 64-bit system meaning that they didn’t remain as popular as Nintendo. Some of the sought after games which made Playstation iconic were ‘Crash Bandicoot’ and ‘Spyro’, Crash Bandicoot which was released in 1996, allowed the games designers to get passed the lack of texture correction that Playstation suffered from and they decided that shaded characters would look better than textured ones so used this in the game. Both Playstation and Nintendo were popular in the 1990’s but there was a clear difference in the gaming system and quality of graphics in the designs. So as the millennium decade approached, both companies would go head to head with new comer Microsoft's gaming system 'Xbox' in early 2000's and become the power of three that rule the console race today.

Omegle Game History Chat!

When talking about Computer games and their history, why not find out someone elses experience with games as they grew up or in adulthood. Who better to ask that a random stranger! could make for interesting research :D 

 I decided to try this plan out and the only other way i knew you could just randomly chat to a totally unscripted stranger is to use Omegle.com. It connects you to a random stranger anywhere in the world who is also on it. Why not aye? No harm is seeing what comes out of it. This Omegle chat log is evidence of my first attempt...

 You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

Stranger: hiya asl?
You: Hey! Lets talk about Games :D Xbox, PS3 or PC?
Stranger: xbox and ps3!
You: Awesome!
You: Have you played games for long?
Stranger: yeah since i was around 5
You: Long time!
You: What was the first game you played?
Stranger: hmmm
Stranger: it would either have to be crash or spyro
You: I loved Crash Bandicoot! And i had all the Spiro games
You: What was your favourite?
Stranger: i think i still have all of them! hmmm and thats a hard choice...
You: Mine was year of the dragon
You: I still do too xD  
You: PS1 Slim ftw
Stranger: oh man i have the orignal ps1
You: So im guessing your first console was a PS1?
Stranger: yes it was! followed by the nintendo 64 if im not mistaken
You: Sweet, I never owned one of those... :(
You: So do you have a clear fav on the N64?
Stranger: super mario 64!
You: great choice
You: I loved Golden eye
Stranger: YES!
Stranger: i was debating between golden eye and super mario
You: Would you say then that Games consols have had a profound influence on you growing up?
Stranger: uhm
Stranger: well im not sure, thinking back i think it was just something i enjoyed doing
Stranger: not really something that influenced who i am today
You: I see :D
You: So you mainly saw it as a pass time?
Stranger: yeah pretty much i would say
You: It had no influence on your aspirations growing up? What you want to / wanted to do when you grew up?
Stranger: not really, i just thought they were extremely fun to play
You: k cool I think most would say similar dont worry!
Stranger: lol im not
You: I myself saw games as an inspiration in my later childhood, They helped influence me artisticly :D
You: aswell as being just plain fun
You: So if you had never encountered computer games, do you think you'd be any different?
Stranger: so would you say youre artistically adept because of playing games?
You: they helped yes, the visual information and creativity mostly
Stranger: and im not sure, maybe it could have sparked something with computer technology
You: along side films and real life experiences of cource :D
Stranger: and i see, that makes sense
You: I see thats cool
You: Is there anything that made you decide against a career in the games industry?
You: say involving computer technology
You: that side of it
Stranger: not at all, i never put the idea of a career with games
You: Oh ok, cool then
You: So were you ever ridiculed for playing a game?
You: I know i was at times!
Stranger: no because i surrounded myself with people who enjoyed games as much as i did, and if they didnt i could always relate somehow
You: that makes sense
You: I did something similar
You: But i had friends from, different groups shall we say
You: Runescape was a big one!
You: SO you might say, you found comradeship though the help of games?
Stranger: Runescape!
Stranger: that was my game for a really long time...
Stranger: and yes, almost everyone i knew played something
You: It was great in its golden years :D
You: 3 years on and off for me to be precise
You: Do you know if any of either your parents, or adult figures in your childhood played Games?
Stranger: my parents never lol
You: Things like Arcade's ?
You: ok fair enough. Neither did mine!
Stranger: no my parents arent from this country
You: ok cool
You: So do you still follow the gaming industry? if so, where do you think its headed in the next 5 - 10 years?
You: if you have no idea, make a guess! :D
You: wild card
Stranger: yeah i still play, i was playing mw3 a couple hours ago
Stranger: and virtual reality i think
You: awesome, can you expand on that idea?
Stranger: well we'll be able to immerse ourselves in the virtual reality world and be able to interact with it,
You: So kind of like The Matrix?
You: immersion technology I definitely think is on the horizon, i dont know how soon though. I wish it was now :O
You: Full immersion that is
Stranger: yeah kinda like the matrix
Stranger: and that would just be it, the peak of it all
You: The closest thing to it right now is Kinect would you say?
Stranger: definitely
You: Me too
You: Is there anything you'd like to ask me before I go?
Stranger: idk we've discussed so much...
You: we have! And thank you for talking :D
Stranger: no problem! :D
Stranger: it was a pleasure!
You: Its been very interesting, and a pleasure also
You: Take care stranger!
Stranger: likewise! 
You: laters

You have disconnected. 

Well that went pretty well I'd say for  first attempt! Totally unscripted questions, so i think next time i might organize it a bit.

Laters ;)

A history of Computer games! - The golden Age

In this blog I want to talk about the general advancement of gaming technology and particularly the games that defined the decade. As I’m a child of the 90's, that decade had a larger direct affect on me than the 80's, but I aim to explore the significance of the retro technology that lead to the games I grew up on!

The time period 1978-1986 is important because is signifies the golden age of the arcade game industry. Still a time period that I wasn’t around to experience but there sure was a heck of a lot that went on in terms of games. Compared to prior. It started off with the release of “space invaders” by Taito. The iconic alien fighting game we have all surely heard of.

The public went mad for it, and it was such a smash that it inspired dozens of hopeful manufacturers to enter the market and get their slice of the newly baked Arcade games industry pie. Space invaders made Arcade machines a must have feature in pretty much every consumer environment you can think of. Shopping malls, restaurants, convenience stores and traditional store fronts. They were everywhere in Europe and in the West, and this is why its called golden age.

The sales were off the roof compared to anything else that came before, and as the years went on more big hits emerged and fuelled the boom. Such as Atari “Astroids”, Namco's “Galaxian”, and “Pac Man”. The important thing to mention about this period is the revenue generated from the Arcade games industry was at an all time sky high. Huge amounts and we are talking well into the billions. By 1981, the industry was generating an annual revenue of $5 billion in North America. It reached its peak a year later at $8 billion, nearly triple that in today’s money. This lasted up until 1985 until it began to decline.

The 80's brought with them many technically innovative and genre-defining games. The list of Genre's is massive! But the ones that really helped define me as I grew up and were more significant personally were- Action adventure games, Action role playing games, Beat em ups, and Shooters. “The Legend of Zelda” which premièred in 1986 on Nintendo's (NES) Nintendo Entertainment System- is considered important in establishing the Action adventure Genre and an early example of open world non-linear gameplay. Although I have to say I was never a fan of the now lengthy series of titles but I respect its importance in the early years. NES launched just following the Video game crash on 1983 and is seen to have revived and dominated the North American and Japanese market until the rise of the next generation consoles in the early 90's. It was bundled with “Super Mario Bro's” and instantly became a huge success.

My favourite Genre has to be without a shadow of a doubt Role-playing games (RPG's). I didn’t grow up playing them but during my early teens I was introduced to the genre and still love it. Its fore founder is considered to be “Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu” and thought I haven’t ever played it myself, its arrival in 1985 set it apart from the other genres as the first fully Action role-playing game, complete with level ups, lots of quests and action based combat. Other Sub genre's are Computer and Console RPG's. I played a mix of both genre's growing up, but in more recent years Computer RPG's have taken first place personally. Interplay Entertainment released “The Bards Tale” in 1985 which was considered the first Computer RPG to appeal to a wide audience. Nothing matched it until Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo in 1996. One of my favourite classics.