Masters of war.

I felt that in the first few posts of this blog I should set the tone rather quickly, which is that of geeky reminiscences. The new trailer for ‘Resistance 3’ was released early this morning. Of all the things at the Awards show to have been released, this mix of live action (similar to the first trailer) and epic game play was the most exciting to me. Many people don’t know or care about the resistance franchise but there are many key reasons why it’s close to my heart.

When I was younger I played video games with an odd obsession. I didn’t own or play that many Games (maybe due the £40 price tag that upon recollection feels ridiculous) but the ones I did play I played to get the most out of them. I scoured every corner of the worlds in Spyro the dragon and beat every time trial in Crash Bandicoot. As I grew up this attitude didn’t change all that much. If a game felt fun to me I tried my hardest to accomplish all accolades within. In my Teens I went through a retro phase brought about by the game ‘Super Smash Brothers’ evoking an interest in Nintendo’s rich heritage. When I reached an appropriate age I played and loved the Rock star series ‘Grand Theft Auto’ not for its violence but for its freedom. But during these ten years of gaming I at no point considered myself a gamer. That is until the PS3 came out. I purchased it with the precognitive knowledge that one day I would need it to play the next GTA, but I did buy it at a time where the games line up was sparse. Apart from the painfully poor ‘Spider-man 3’ tie in game that was against all odds, worse then the film itself & the PSN download game ‘Flow’ (which will be discussed another time) I only had one game… ‘Resistance: Fall of man’.

I had never played a first person shooter game before and I bought this one solely because it was made by ‘Insomniac games’ who had made Spyro, the game I cherished as a child. Every aspect of this game felt right to me. The alternate history in which Aliens invaded Europe before World war two was so compelling & the English settings, While not altogether accurate felt like an original locale for a game. I was hooked instantly and strove hard to be good at this genre, which I had never controlled before. This story might be completely different if I’d bought the playstation a few months later when ‘Modern warfare’ came out but in the real world I had just left college and entered my first term of unemployment. With nothing productive to fill me time & no other quality games vying for attention, I found myself compelled to collect the online medals like the good old days. This lasted for months up until my first serious employment & Further.

The second games came in a time where I was employed but discontent. Not knowing what to do with my life in early 2009 the American setting was awesome and the online co-op gave me some structured Purpose as a top level Medic. I saved hundred of virtual lives. I didn’t care that in some people’s opinions it wasn’t the best FPS around. It’s the FPS that mean’s the most to me, & it always will be. So I look forward to getting my clan ‘The Knights of Polite’ back together in September to fight aliens across America once again.

One step removed

I questioned the best way to kick-start this blog. I decided that rather then spanning vast paragraphs with my life story, I would instead pretend to be an enigma and let that information fall in to place over the coming posts, like a bad episode of Lost.

We as a generation have it easy when it comes to finding out information about those we fancy. By logging on to Facebook we can pillage every aspect of information like Jullian Assange, then run away with knowledge that would otherwise have taken months to discover. But of course not everyone has given in to the lures of the social network and in fact, when we happen upon someone like that we should praise them for their strong will. At least that’s the principle. In practice it’s infuriating.

I’m not good with any of the stuff that comes with feeling for another person. I’ve not felt that familiar twinge of dread and fear in around three years. And in that case the end results were worse then the Hindenburg. At least in my twisted head they were. In reality it was more like a tacky car-lot balloon deflating slowly. Who’s to say which is worse. So upon meeting this girl at a party and having the ‘feelings’ again I returned home with mixed emotion knowing she was off the grid.

Not all people would see this as a horrendous thing. Learning the stuff that lets you know if you’re meant to be with someone or not is part and package of being in a relationship. Cyber-stalking is a commodity we’ve all just become complacent with. Now I’ve systematically had the confidence beaten out of me over the last few years but when I build the courage to make that step, along with the feelings of dread and fear will also be excitement for the curious joy we are deprived of.