The History of Computer Games - Into the 2000s... My Gaming History.

For the history of computer games from the 2000's until present, I decided to do something a little different form the last two posts. I'm going to look at my gaming history!

In 2000 I was at the age of 7 and had just got past the 'I'm just wandering around aimlessly and have no conscious knowledge of what I'm doing because I'm a kid' phase whilst playing games.

My first game was OddBallz, the virtual pet game that was the alternative to 'Catz' and 'Dogz' which I also played the hell out of. In Oddballz you hatched strange alien creatures that you could, turn into farmyard animals with a ray gun, paint them with a special lollipop they ate among other things, and then hoover then up when finished. I think the idea was to learn to look after your alien pets by feeding them and playing with them but I'm pretty sure I spent most of my time seeing how much I could change them.

 I tended to stick to the PC a lot as a kid, which led me to play Toonstruck, one of my all time favourite games. A point and click side scrolling puzzle adventure game starring Christopher Lloyd, who's been transported to the world of the fluffy fluffy bun bun show with his drawn side kick flux wildly. It's a bit inappropriate for a 7 year old now I think a bout it with bondage cows and psychopathic clown screaming 'LUNG SANDWICH'  that would give most people nightmares. I didn't play normal games a child.

But I loved it to pieces, I really liked how there was real video mixed with computer hand rendered images then scanned into the game. It took me many months to finish it due to how hard I found it, occasionally hollering for my dad to help me but its crazy, difficult and I haven't seen anything like it since, so it sticks with me. Watch the trailer, no actually watch it, don't just scroll past, its insane.

 
I moved onto console games soon after, becoming a Nintendo child from inheriting a SNES and a Nintendo 64. I played Super Mario 64 and Diddy Kong racing until I passed out in my bed almost every night ensuring Wizpig and Bowser would haunt my dreams.

The moment of throwing Bowser off the  into the final bomb of the final level gave me a sense of achievement. I had completed my first game all by myself no help from dad needed. A mini power trip.

Those two games had so much to do in that I never got bored, it would take me weeks to get through them. This is something I miss about games that I rarely find in games today, a decent play through length. They were also hard to fully complete, I feel that the games I have played have definitely become easier over time, that or I must be getting better?

My PlayStation 2 phase was ruled by one game series particular, Jak and Daxter. All three main games were great, they had the right amount of difficulty, adventure and humour for my 12 year old self. I was pretty satisfied.

But on a serious note it had a really good storyline for Jak II and Jak 3, I was gripped from start to finish and it has lots of FUN mini games. And the cheats are hilarious, well I found them amazing when I was younger anyway.

*FLASHBACK*

One of my first gaming experiences was watching my dad play 'Heart of Darkness' on the PC, a side scrolling adventure puzzle game when I was 5. So a couple of years ago I bought a PS1 copy and sat down to give it a go.... it is the most rage quit initiating  game I have ever played, there are 8 HUGE levels and if you die once, you get taken back to the start of that level.

 I got to the 5th level before this.

I gave up.

*BACK TO THE GAMES*

My taste in games varied a lot from then onwards, dabbling in the Sims, Zelda, Uncharted but the one that stands out most to me is Monster Hunter. I love everything about it from the diversity of the ways you can play, to the design of the monsters and armours. Monster hunter Tri in particular.

It was a hard game, this I cherished as it finally gave me challenge, it was based on your skill. You had to learn to tell what a particular monster would do, by trying to learn its move set. You had to create armour which was strong against certain monsters and use elements in weapons that weakened the monsters. It was not a simple hack and slash, you ACTUALLY had to block, doge, run away, sneak up and trap the monsters trying to out wit them. All within 50 minutes. Defeating a monster felt like a proper victory, however missing out on a kill by minutes was infuriating.

My favourite armour and weapon set is from the Barioth, a huge Saber Tooth Cat Wyvern. The 4 Armour designs, for both male and female are so diverse in just one monster set, imagine how diverse the rest of the game is, all of these ideas come from imagining utilising and skinning the monster the player slays. They are so unique.

I tend to play games online with people now instead of by myself, I could go on more but this is been a brief history of some of the more memorable games that I have played. Have a picture of a cute Barioth chasing a hunter: