Okay, even I admit that my first few articles on the Digital Crack Network have been downers, angst –ridden bile spewed by what many current gamers would call an old dude. I don’t want you guys to think that all I do is bitch about all the problems in gaming. Or movies. Or comics. Or…ok, I bitch a lot! But I do love a lot of things in gaming. So maybe I should spend an article waxing about the things I love about my favorite media. This is a general, not-complete list of the things I love about media in general.
I love old-school video games. I mean, that much should be obvious. But I love them for different reasons. I love the memories games gave me in my early years, like playing Missile Command and Yar’s Revenge on my 2600, or playing Donkey Kong on my friend’s ColecoVision. I love the memories games gave me when I was considered well past the age I should be playing games, like getting Golgo 13 laid in Top Secret Episode for the NES, or working towards my Megalopolis in SimCity on the SNES. Most especially, I cherish the memories I developed with gaming and my children. Like when my son was 4 years old and wanted to see me play Resident Evil: Code Veronica on the Dreamcast…but wanted to watch from the doorsill.
Video games still me great moments now. My 14-year old daughter and I play games together. Her favorite game to play with me is Left 4 Dead on the Xbox 360. Number 2 on the list? Wii Sports bowling. And she kicks my ass in it! Gaming always has and always will bring me and my children much joy. Hopefully I will share some more memories with my grandchildren. Just…not anytime soon, ok?
I game a lot on my PC, and I love playing some of my older favorites there, too. I have Zeus, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, Diablo II, and SimCity 4 installed on it, all thanks to gog.com. My daughter, of course, must have Left 4 Dead 2 and The Sims 4 on there. I used to love World of Warcraft, but after 7 years of game time logged in, it got stale. Maybe I’ll go back to it, but I’m not sure about that.
Oh, and I love love LOVE One-Finger Death Punch on the Xbox 360! It’s such a simple concept: using only 2 buttons, you beat up everyone. But it it such an adrenaline rush to mow through waves of stick-figure enemies using precise timing, and the rush you get when you splatter them all over the screen is indescribable!
I love newer games, too, but I have noticed that I have a different mindset now. Sure, Fallout 4 and Witcher 3 are great, but I got more enjoyment playing Undertale, Party Hard, and Downfall on PC. I appreciate smaller games that give me new, quirky experiences, or take old gaming concepts and turn them on their head.
I love movies. I love LOTS of movies! I love action, horror, comedy, drama, even quite a few musicals and supposed chick flicks! If there’s a genre of movies, I have at least one favorite movie. The criteria are simple: it has to either engage me or pull me into its fun or madness. A quick-and-dirty listing of my favorite movies will include Airplane!, The Princess Bride, 12 Monkeys, The Martian, and Halloween (the John Carpenter original, not the Rob Zombie abortion!)
I especially love when movies surprise me. I wasn’t expecting much from Ant-Man, but I love that movie! (And can we just finally admit that Paul Rudd is kinda a more than decent actor? I can’t be the only moron who just figured this shit out!) The same is true of movies like Sweeney Todd, The Karate Kid (Jackie Chan’s version), The Conjuring, and Creed. I love discovering new movies that I end up loving despite not thinking I would.
I used to love comics. I still do in a way, but I just can’t get into them as much as I used to. There are a lotta painful memories there. But when I collected, I was fully invested in the books, the characters, and the stories. Whenever I see a trailer for a new superhero movie, I spend entirely too much time arguing about the continuity errors or weird character choices. “Civil War wasn’t about Bucky!” “Why does Doomsday look like a lava Ninja Turtle?” “APOCALYPSE LOOKS LIKE IVAN FUCKING OOZE!!!!!” Still, I’m passionate about it now because I used to be so in love with it back then.
I love books. Remember books? Those things that are in a library? Space does not permit me now, but I would love to have a huge bookshelf filled with books. There’s nothing better than taking a couple of hours in a day and immersing yourself in a good book. It’s where I learned about the mythology of Middle-Earth, where I found out what the first and second rules of Fight Club are, and what drinking drencrom at the Korova milk bar even means!
I’d like to hear what you have to say about this. Life can’t just be about hating what EA does wrong in gaming, or what Fox does wrong in movies. What are the things you love the most about the games, comics, music, movies or books you enjoy. What do you think about the things I love? Let me know down below.
