The best games from the beginning of 2008
I don’t know when it happened exactly, but at some point in the last 5 years, I stopped being a huge movie nut, and transferred some of that love over to video games. I used to read Premiere magazine, and Entertainment Weekly. I would surf Film Threat, and Cinematical, Rotten Tomatoes was a weekly pilgramige, and I always knew what new releases were out on video. My DVD collection was huge, and always growing.
Then a strange thing happened. About 3 years ago I kind of stopped buying DVD’s. You can almost see a line in my collection that looks like a growth line in a tree. Tons of DVD’s, then nothing.
A similar thing happened with my surf habits. I now visit Gamespot, Giant Bomb, Joystiq, PS3 Fanboy and Xbox 360 Fanboy on a daily basis.
I’ve always been a fan of video games. I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid, I got in trouble for going to the Arcade which was across Wharncliffe Ave when I was in grade school. I spent a lot of time in arcades through high school. I bought a Super Nintendo in high school (and a 13″ colour TV to play it on even). I had an Atari Lynx handheld system in high school too. I played a ton of Warcraft, Half Life, Quake, and got into modding levels for Quake and Half Life in college. After college I bought a PS2 which led to an Xbox, which eventually led to an Xbox 360, and now a PS3.
So I’ve always had games, and I’ve always read games magazines, but gaming as a lifestyle never appealed to me. I never considered it as a career, and never even thought about gaming journalism the way I thought about comics and comics journalism, or the way that I considered Movies and TV as a career choice.
What’s kind of strange is that I find myself more and more drawn to gaming, and less turned on by movies. Oh sure, I still enjoy a good flick, and I’m totally freaking out about Watchmen and the new James Bond flicks, but I’d much rather read about Little Big Workshop, or a review of Gears of War 2, or the latest on the New Xbox Experience than read about movie news anymore.
I’m totally in the same boat. I have a rack of about 300 DVDs that has only seen a handful of additions over the past couple years, most of which are Blu-ray titles.
My wife and I used to watch lots of movies – we’d rent 2 or 3 a week. But these days, our time in front of the TV is mostly spent gaming. We’re super behind in watching our favourite TV series as well. I download all of the episodes we watch, but we now have a backlog of about 3 weeks worth of episodes spanning 5 or 6 shows. With Gears of War 2 on the horizon, and at least a couple big titles every week for the next month, it doesn’t look like we’ll be catching up on our TV shows any time soon.
The funny thing, is that I couldn’t care less. I’d much rather be playing a game than watching a TV show or movie. Games are becoming more of a cinematic experience, with excellent stories that are truly engaging. So it’s almost like getting that movie vibe, except you’re controlling the action.
Hey Matt;
Great to see you here. I’ve been a long time lurker of your site for ages. Everyone who pops by here should check out Matt’s site at MattBrett.com. He’s a fellow web monkey who travels in many of the same web circles I used to…and yet somehow we’ve never met.