Hello again Bloggers and Bloggettes! Hope all is well with you! Things are getting ready to get really hectic in my little corner of the world. Baby Ila will be here in two weeks, if not sooner, and I'll have to shift gears back into baby mode again after eight years. This should prove to be interesting. Anyone that has infants or has had an infant knows what I mean.
I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it is definitely a job for the first few months. I'm sure it will really be now, eight years after my last baby. Lucky for me I married Super Mom, but I always do try to help as much as I can and give her the breaks she needs. Maybe I'll lose some of the 20+ pounds I put on during her pregnancy! It happens every time she gets pregnant, I put on more weight than she does. It never fails!
We were very fortunate with our first two children as far as the sleep part, both of them slept almost all through the night. I'm afraid that this baby is going to be different, I mean what are the chances of three babies that sleep through the night, I'm guessing not that great.
With my first, my son, I would get up and help in the middle of the night if she needed me to, some times we would alternate who got up. With my second, she pretty much let me snooze and she did almost all the getting up. I'm curious what kind of system we'll have for Ila now that I'm on night shifts.
If the pregnancy is any indication of how the baby is going to be, we need to get all the rest we can now! This baby has been so much more active than our last two during her pregnancy. I hope that's not a sign that she's going to be wide open all night when she gets here! Truthfully though, as long as she gets here safe and sound, with no problems and all of her little fingers and toes, I will be overjoyed.
I was chatting with a friend earlier and he asked if I was excited about the impending arrival and I told him that I was more nervous than anything. I was that way with both my other babies too. I just thought that this being the third, I'd be a little less nervous and anxious, but I was wrong. I guess my mind will only be at ease when the bring her back from the little examination room after delivery and they've done their initial inspection of our new baby girl.
I have to admit, that initially I wasn't as "into" the whole pregnancy this time like I was the other two, and it bothered me and I actually felt guilty about it like maybe I was a bad person because I wasn't feeling the excitement I had experienced the other two times. I remember when I found out we were having our second I worried about being able to love her as much as I did our first born, but found that to be no problem at all. I began having that feeling again with this one and couldn't shake it. I think part of it is that I haven't been able to go to as many appointments like I did with the others because of my night shift work schedule.
I think what helped me the most was when we went for the ultra-sound and they told us that every thing looked normal, that it was definitely a little girl, and getting to see her all balled up in her cozy little fetal position. The second thing that got me back in the baby frame of mind is when we named her. Now this tiny little being had a name, Ila, after my Grandma who used to spoil the crap out of me as a child.
I still wonder sometimes how in the world I will be able to love this baby as much as the other two, but as the day to delivery has gotten nearer, I know that I am capable of loving Ila with all my heart, just like I do her brother Andrew and her sister Cara. I am once again looking forward to holding the new born baby and experiencing the feelings of pride, joy and overwhelming love when I get to meet the newest edition to our little clan for the first time.
There is a scene in the movie "Where the Heart Is", (yeah, I know, it's a chick-flick-sue me!), where Natalie Portman is holding her new baby and says something to the effect of "how can it be possible to love someone so much that you just met", but that is exactly what it's like, or at least it was for me. They stole my heart from the first moment that I laid eyes on them and held their tiny little hospital blanket covered bodies in my arms. Guess what? Now I get to relive that feeling all over again! Love at first sight!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Lucky # 13
Welcome back friends and neighbors! Running on very little sleep and a mild case of the "writers block", or rather "writers indecision", because I can think of several things to rant about, but sadly most of them would probably only make sense in my warped little mind.
I will mention that we are on week 5 until the baby arrives! (If she holds out that long!) Also, this coming Sunday will mark thirteen years that I've been happily married to my wonderful wife, Leslie. I'm feeling pretty psyched about thirteen years, I can tell you that! By today's standards that's like forty years, of course I would have to attribute a great deal of our success to Leslie's incredible patience and understanding. Heaven knows I'm not the easiest person to live with at times!
She does have one major flaw though, that I cannot seem to get her to change. I always tell her if anything ever happens to us it will be because of this terrible stain on her otherwise perfect character. The unfortunate blemish I'm referring to is the fact that she can never go anywhere with me without harassing me about my driving!
I know that this may seem trivial to most, but it is something that has caused us many an argument on road trips, vacations, or just coming home from the grocery store. "You're riding the white line", "You're gonna' miss the exit", "You're too close to the yellow line", "Slow down and set your cruise control!", and my personal favorite "I'm just going to go to sleep, I can't watch"(while covering her eyes with her hand).
I was born and raised in Wilkes County, North Carolina, as I've mentioned before, the home of Nascar. Driving fast is in our blood, it can't be helped. "Set the cruise control", I bet Junior Johnson never set his cruise control! I have had a few minor speeding tickets, but they're off my record by now, (I think). I'm an exemplary driver, never mind that I've only had two cars in roughly twenty-five years of driving that I HAVEN'T wrecked, but they weren't ALL my fault! All of those tickets and accidents served as building blocks to create the Master Driver that I have become today.
I am not alone in this plight, I can remember my poor Grandpa Hanks literally being screamed at by my Grandma Hanks when they were driving to town on Fridays. She used to be on him from the time we left the house until we arrived back from our trek to town. Sure he ran a car through the wall of the old First Union Bank when he was trying to park, but hey we all make mistakes. Who puts a building so close to the sidewalk anyway?
On the comment "You're gonna' miss the exit", well maybe if you knew your rights from lefts and didn't wait until I was right at the exit, three lanes over before you reminded me, maybe we wouldn't be lost in the roughest neighborhood in the city. It never fails, if I get lost, it's always in the shadiest part of whatever city or town I happen to be in. I can't be responsible for driving and being the navigator, I have to focus on the traffic, the co-pilot is supposed to keep me on course. (You know I can't blame MYSELF for missing a turn, that's just foolishness!)
Pray for us, so that we may work through this area of our relationship!
Of course I'm MOSTLY kidding. We do tend to work on one another's nerves when we're on the open road, but like the old folks used to say "if that's the worst thing that happens to me, I'll live to be an old man". I have always loved that quote, and use it frequently. I honestly couldn't ask for a better marriage, at least from my perspective it's pretty darn sweet!
I have a wife who is an awesome mom to our kids, a loving spouse to an often times undeserving husband, and the rock that the foundation of our happy home is built on! I'm not going to get all mushy and sentimental today, I've waxed poetic on the wonders of Leslie many times, but I will leave this weeks blog with a song that I really love and makes me reflect on how good I really have it. "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam, pretty much says it all!
"...Did I say that I need you?
Did I say that I want you?
Oh if I didn't I'm a fool you see,
No one knows this more than me,
as I come clean.."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0mhrqfeFjQ
Enjoy, and until next time, love one another and every thing else will work itself out!
I will mention that we are on week 5 until the baby arrives! (If she holds out that long!) Also, this coming Sunday will mark thirteen years that I've been happily married to my wonderful wife, Leslie. I'm feeling pretty psyched about thirteen years, I can tell you that! By today's standards that's like forty years, of course I would have to attribute a great deal of our success to Leslie's incredible patience and understanding. Heaven knows I'm not the easiest person to live with at times!
She does have one major flaw though, that I cannot seem to get her to change. I always tell her if anything ever happens to us it will be because of this terrible stain on her otherwise perfect character. The unfortunate blemish I'm referring to is the fact that she can never go anywhere with me without harassing me about my driving!
I know that this may seem trivial to most, but it is something that has caused us many an argument on road trips, vacations, or just coming home from the grocery store. "You're riding the white line", "You're gonna' miss the exit", "You're too close to the yellow line", "Slow down and set your cruise control!", and my personal favorite "I'm just going to go to sleep, I can't watch"(while covering her eyes with her hand).
I was born and raised in Wilkes County, North Carolina, as I've mentioned before, the home of Nascar. Driving fast is in our blood, it can't be helped. "Set the cruise control", I bet Junior Johnson never set his cruise control! I have had a few minor speeding tickets, but they're off my record by now, (I think). I'm an exemplary driver, never mind that I've only had two cars in roughly twenty-five years of driving that I HAVEN'T wrecked, but they weren't ALL my fault! All of those tickets and accidents served as building blocks to create the Master Driver that I have become today.
I am not alone in this plight, I can remember my poor Grandpa Hanks literally being screamed at by my Grandma Hanks when they were driving to town on Fridays. She used to be on him from the time we left the house until we arrived back from our trek to town. Sure he ran a car through the wall of the old First Union Bank when he was trying to park, but hey we all make mistakes. Who puts a building so close to the sidewalk anyway?
On the comment "You're gonna' miss the exit", well maybe if you knew your rights from lefts and didn't wait until I was right at the exit, three lanes over before you reminded me, maybe we wouldn't be lost in the roughest neighborhood in the city. It never fails, if I get lost, it's always in the shadiest part of whatever city or town I happen to be in. I can't be responsible for driving and being the navigator, I have to focus on the traffic, the co-pilot is supposed to keep me on course. (You know I can't blame MYSELF for missing a turn, that's just foolishness!)
Pray for us, so that we may work through this area of our relationship!
Of course I'm MOSTLY kidding. We do tend to work on one another's nerves when we're on the open road, but like the old folks used to say "if that's the worst thing that happens to me, I'll live to be an old man". I have always loved that quote, and use it frequently. I honestly couldn't ask for a better marriage, at least from my perspective it's pretty darn sweet!
I have a wife who is an awesome mom to our kids, a loving spouse to an often times undeserving husband, and the rock that the foundation of our happy home is built on! I'm not going to get all mushy and sentimental today, I've waxed poetic on the wonders of Leslie many times, but I will leave this weeks blog with a song that I really love and makes me reflect on how good I really have it. "Just Breathe" by Pearl Jam, pretty much says it all!
"...Did I say that I need you?
Did I say that I want you?
Oh if I didn't I'm a fool you see,
No one knows this more than me,
as I come clean.."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0mhrqfeFjQ
Enjoy, and until next time, love one another and every thing else will work itself out!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Let the Games Begin!!
Welcome back fellow Bloggonians! All is well in my little corner of the world and I hope the same can be said for you. Six more weeks until my new edition to our family arrives, so we're all pumped about that around our house!
I don't know if I've ever mentioned the fact that I consider myself a "gamer", not on a professional level but a really intense amateur. I am also the proud father of a son who is one heck of a gamer and an eight year old daughter who is an aspiring gamer herself.
I can hear the criticism now..."those kids need to be more active", "those games will rot their brains", and my favorite, "all the violence in video games will make your kids violent adults".
First of all, my kids do other things too, although I will say my sons favorite form of entertainment is easily video games. In general kids do need to be more active, this is true, but that's why it's our jobs as parents to make sure they unglue themselves from the games occasionally and do something physical. My kids are partial to the trampoline, going to the park to shoot basketball, swing, (which I still enjoy immensely also), or just walk the walking trail. Honestly I think my kids probably get a healthy amount of excercise just running through the house being insane from time to time.
Secondly, the idea that video games are detrimental to the mental growth of children is just not true. Again, if kids or people in general are just sitting for days on end in front of the game it may have some effects on their social lives and ability to focus on what's going on in the real world, but with some realistic limits and moderation, video games have been proven to actually boost kids self confidence and improve things like reaction time and hand/eye coordination. It also gives kids who don't have the greatest physical abilities to be athletes or whatever to have a niche they fit into, something they can brag about being good at with their friends which helps build their self esteem and self confidence. I know my son has all kinds of swagger when he tells of his latest conquest, milestone, or accomplishment. Video games aren't just for kids and "nerds" anymore. Literally all ages play. I played World of Warcraft for a couple of years and I was in a group with a 68 year old woman one day, and she was the toughest one in the crowd!
Finally the one that irks me the most is the idea that video game violence is making our kids violent. I actually let my son play games that are above his age sometimes, like "shooters", but he is the kindest, least violent kid I know, maybe have ever known, which goes to show that theory is plain old foolishness. Poor parenting and not explaining to kids the difference between a game and reality is what makes kids violent. Discipline is almost non-existent in so many homes these days. Parents are either afraid they'll be punished by the government for "abuse", or they feel like they have to be "buddies" with their kids first, then a mom or dad next. If people will get discipline back into their homes, you would see a big difference in the way young folks grow up. I'm not talking about beating the snot out of a kid, but definitely having consequences when they do something they shouldn't. But I digress, I'm getting side tracked, I get long-winded on things that I feel strongly about.
Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, I'd like to journey down the history of my gaming experience and maybe even do a top 10 list of MY personal favorites from 20+ years of gaming. The first games I remember of course were the Atari games like Pong. We were a poor family and didn't have video games, but I remember seeing Pong at my step-aunts house I believe the first time in the early to mid 80's. When I was probably 16 or so, or maybe 17 we got a Nintendo Entertainment System, (NES), in our house. We had Duck Hunt and Mario Brothers, because that's what came with it. We got to play it on a very limited basis as our dad commandeered it most of the time. After I left home I moved in with some friends and they had SO many games it just blew me away. I think my favorite at the time would have to be Mike Tysons Punch Out, though they changed the name later when he got into legal trouble to just "Punch Out". You played as Little Mac and had to work your way up to Mike Tyson.
When I was stationed in Korea, they had an area sectioned off in the recreation building and had two NESes where you had to sign in and got to play for an hour at a time if I recall correctly, the game then I remember the most was Top Gun. You were a fighter pilot and it played they theme song from the movie in digital music at the beginning. What I really remember about that was how hard it was to land the plane on the carriers.
In the year or two after I got out of the service video games just exploded and development of new systems was everywhere. Sega Genesis was up and coming and had a lot of good titles too, but I was always more of a die-hard Nintendo guy. There was one really fun fighting game on the Sega that Nintendo didn't have called Eternal Champions, and they had the Sonic franchise as well, other that though I was all about the Nintendo. In the early to mid 90's my friends and I were hard core into the first Madden games, NBA Jams, ("He's on FIRE!!"), and the one that we played the absolute most was Mortal Kombat. Specifically Mortal Kombat 3. We knew every code for every fatality and and every code for secret menus. I can still remember some of the ones for the hidden menus almost 20 years later! There would be a smokey room full of grown 20 something guys battling for the right to be the champion of the day. We had a rule that I still use with my kids today...loser passes the "stick", the stick being the controller of course.
Playstation came along somewhere along the way in the early to mid 90's when I wasn't looking and really started giving Nintendo a run for their money. I still think Playstation coming on the scene was what put Sega out of the console making business. Before Playstation everything was cartridge based and they came along with the disk based systems and shook it all up. Sega had some attempts at disk based systems, my favorite being Dreamcast. If it would've had internet capability, it could still be a player I believe, but that's just my opinion. The NFL 2k games on the Dreamcast were flawless, and the Dead or Alive fighting franchise was also very good.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Nintendo 64, (N64), which came along in 1996. I immediately bought one, because I was determined not to jump on the ever growing Playstation bandwagon. I was a hard core Nintendo man, and I wasn't going down without a fight. The N64 had a lot of really good titles, one of which I would have to say it still one of the best games EVER, Goldeneye 007. It really pioneered the shooter genre and for the first time up to four people could chase each other around and battle each other simultaneously. Super Mario 64 was the first game I ever saw with "3D" movement, and was an outstanding game itself. Another good title that comes to mind was Battle Tanx, where you drove around cities and on a split screen could play against 3 other players and blow the crap out of one another with tanks. WCWvs.NWO, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Resident Evil 2, Killer Instinct, and Duke Nukem 64 were some other good titles the N64 offered. But alas, it was cartridge based, so it was expensive to make, and had memory limitations, so a lot of developers just quit making games for the system. Many of my gaming friends, and myself also still consider the N64 to be one of the best platforms ever made.
Then along came the Xbox. Nintendo was pushed even further back out of the forefront of the gaming industry, and with the exception of the Wii and the handheld systems the DS, DS lite, and 3DS, haven't really had a major impact since. (Wii did revolutionize gaming in a way with the motion playing that has now been copied and improved upon by both Xbox and Playstation.) I eventually got an Xbox and went through two or three of them before I finally broke down and purchased my first and only Playstation 2 system. I say only because it's still kicking. It's in my daughters room now and works as well as it did 8-10 years ago when I bought it. I liked the controller for the original Xbox better and they did have a good library of games, but the blasted things would just quit working after 3 years or so.
We come to the present where I am all modernized with my Playstation 3, (my son has the Xbox 360), and I've seen the gaming industry and the games themselves change so dramatically over the last 20 + years of playing. I am mostly a sports gamer and first person shooter, although I did take a trek into the pc gaming of World of Warcraft, (WoW), for a while, thanks to my friend Travis who was literally addicted to the game. It was a unique gaming experience, but I wasn't able to get as serious about it as a lot of the other people on there were. I did make some friends on there I wouldn't normally have met otherwise. If you want to meet a hardcore gamer, then play WoW! Those guys take the game too seriously at times. They will kick you from a raid or a dungeon group in a second if they think your gear is too low or your skills too poor. There are people that literally live for that game. I haven't played it in a while, over a year probably, it got to be too much like a job.
In closing, since I have rambled entirely too long once again, I'll try to summarize my favorite games over several different systems over my 20 years of gaming. These are all graded by replay value, originality, and just how many hours I personally spent on them myself.
#10: Ghengis Khan:Clan of the Grey Wolf, (later led me to Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (SNES)
#9: NBA Jams-hours of good times rockin' the rims! (SNES)
#8: Shattered Union-post world war 3 strategy game (Xbox)
#7: Resident Evil-game creeped me out playing by myself(Playstation)
#6: World of Warcraft-it's just a whole other kind of experience!(pc)
#5: Any of the NFL 2k series, they were superb!!(Dreamcast)
#4: Battlefield 3-just a kick ass shooter, took me away from the Call of Duty games!(PS3)
#3: A tie between Super Mario Kart 64 and Snow Board Kids- they are a lot alike, race games where you get to throw stuff at your enemies, spent countless amounts of time on both with friends (both on N64)
#2: Goldeneye:007- Really started the first person shooter, multi-player genre, and just hours of fun on
campaign mode!(N64)
#1: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3-Still hands down the most time I've spent and the most fun fighting game
ever. Lots of characters to choose from, hidden menus to unlock one button fatalities, the run trigger
button, just too much to mention.(SNES)
I hope you've enjoyed my ranting on one of my favorite subjects and remember, these are all just my opinion, but it's my blog, so it's the only one that counts, hehehe, I kid! Until next time, I'm out!!
I don't know if I've ever mentioned the fact that I consider myself a "gamer", not on a professional level but a really intense amateur. I am also the proud father of a son who is one heck of a gamer and an eight year old daughter who is an aspiring gamer herself.
I can hear the criticism now..."those kids need to be more active", "those games will rot their brains", and my favorite, "all the violence in video games will make your kids violent adults".
First of all, my kids do other things too, although I will say my sons favorite form of entertainment is easily video games. In general kids do need to be more active, this is true, but that's why it's our jobs as parents to make sure they unglue themselves from the games occasionally and do something physical. My kids are partial to the trampoline, going to the park to shoot basketball, swing, (which I still enjoy immensely also), or just walk the walking trail. Honestly I think my kids probably get a healthy amount of excercise just running through the house being insane from time to time.
Secondly, the idea that video games are detrimental to the mental growth of children is just not true. Again, if kids or people in general are just sitting for days on end in front of the game it may have some effects on their social lives and ability to focus on what's going on in the real world, but with some realistic limits and moderation, video games have been proven to actually boost kids self confidence and improve things like reaction time and hand/eye coordination. It also gives kids who don't have the greatest physical abilities to be athletes or whatever to have a niche they fit into, something they can brag about being good at with their friends which helps build their self esteem and self confidence. I know my son has all kinds of swagger when he tells of his latest conquest, milestone, or accomplishment. Video games aren't just for kids and "nerds" anymore. Literally all ages play. I played World of Warcraft for a couple of years and I was in a group with a 68 year old woman one day, and she was the toughest one in the crowd!
Finally the one that irks me the most is the idea that video game violence is making our kids violent. I actually let my son play games that are above his age sometimes, like "shooters", but he is the kindest, least violent kid I know, maybe have ever known, which goes to show that theory is plain old foolishness. Poor parenting and not explaining to kids the difference between a game and reality is what makes kids violent. Discipline is almost non-existent in so many homes these days. Parents are either afraid they'll be punished by the government for "abuse", or they feel like they have to be "buddies" with their kids first, then a mom or dad next. If people will get discipline back into their homes, you would see a big difference in the way young folks grow up. I'm not talking about beating the snot out of a kid, but definitely having consequences when they do something they shouldn't. But I digress, I'm getting side tracked, I get long-winded on things that I feel strongly about.
Now that I've gotten all that out of the way, I'd like to journey down the history of my gaming experience and maybe even do a top 10 list of MY personal favorites from 20+ years of gaming. The first games I remember of course were the Atari games like Pong. We were a poor family and didn't have video games, but I remember seeing Pong at my step-aunts house I believe the first time in the early to mid 80's. When I was probably 16 or so, or maybe 17 we got a Nintendo Entertainment System, (NES), in our house. We had Duck Hunt and Mario Brothers, because that's what came with it. We got to play it on a very limited basis as our dad commandeered it most of the time. After I left home I moved in with some friends and they had SO many games it just blew me away. I think my favorite at the time would have to be Mike Tysons Punch Out, though they changed the name later when he got into legal trouble to just "Punch Out". You played as Little Mac and had to work your way up to Mike Tyson.
When I was stationed in Korea, they had an area sectioned off in the recreation building and had two NESes where you had to sign in and got to play for an hour at a time if I recall correctly, the game then I remember the most was Top Gun. You were a fighter pilot and it played they theme song from the movie in digital music at the beginning. What I really remember about that was how hard it was to land the plane on the carriers.
In the year or two after I got out of the service video games just exploded and development of new systems was everywhere. Sega Genesis was up and coming and had a lot of good titles too, but I was always more of a die-hard Nintendo guy. There was one really fun fighting game on the Sega that Nintendo didn't have called Eternal Champions, and they had the Sonic franchise as well, other that though I was all about the Nintendo. In the early to mid 90's my friends and I were hard core into the first Madden games, NBA Jams, ("He's on FIRE!!"), and the one that we played the absolute most was Mortal Kombat. Specifically Mortal Kombat 3. We knew every code for every fatality and and every code for secret menus. I can still remember some of the ones for the hidden menus almost 20 years later! There would be a smokey room full of grown 20 something guys battling for the right to be the champion of the day. We had a rule that I still use with my kids today...loser passes the "stick", the stick being the controller of course.
Playstation came along somewhere along the way in the early to mid 90's when I wasn't looking and really started giving Nintendo a run for their money. I still think Playstation coming on the scene was what put Sega out of the console making business. Before Playstation everything was cartridge based and they came along with the disk based systems and shook it all up. Sega had some attempts at disk based systems, my favorite being Dreamcast. If it would've had internet capability, it could still be a player I believe, but that's just my opinion. The NFL 2k games on the Dreamcast were flawless, and the Dead or Alive fighting franchise was also very good.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Nintendo 64, (N64), which came along in 1996. I immediately bought one, because I was determined not to jump on the ever growing Playstation bandwagon. I was a hard core Nintendo man, and I wasn't going down without a fight. The N64 had a lot of really good titles, one of which I would have to say it still one of the best games EVER, Goldeneye 007. It really pioneered the shooter genre and for the first time up to four people could chase each other around and battle each other simultaneously. Super Mario 64 was the first game I ever saw with "3D" movement, and was an outstanding game itself. Another good title that comes to mind was Battle Tanx, where you drove around cities and on a split screen could play against 3 other players and blow the crap out of one another with tanks. WCWvs.NWO, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Resident Evil 2, Killer Instinct, and Duke Nukem 64 were some other good titles the N64 offered. But alas, it was cartridge based, so it was expensive to make, and had memory limitations, so a lot of developers just quit making games for the system. Many of my gaming friends, and myself also still consider the N64 to be one of the best platforms ever made.
Then along came the Xbox. Nintendo was pushed even further back out of the forefront of the gaming industry, and with the exception of the Wii and the handheld systems the DS, DS lite, and 3DS, haven't really had a major impact since. (Wii did revolutionize gaming in a way with the motion playing that has now been copied and improved upon by both Xbox and Playstation.) I eventually got an Xbox and went through two or three of them before I finally broke down and purchased my first and only Playstation 2 system. I say only because it's still kicking. It's in my daughters room now and works as well as it did 8-10 years ago when I bought it. I liked the controller for the original Xbox better and they did have a good library of games, but the blasted things would just quit working after 3 years or so.
We come to the present where I am all modernized with my Playstation 3, (my son has the Xbox 360), and I've seen the gaming industry and the games themselves change so dramatically over the last 20 + years of playing. I am mostly a sports gamer and first person shooter, although I did take a trek into the pc gaming of World of Warcraft, (WoW), for a while, thanks to my friend Travis who was literally addicted to the game. It was a unique gaming experience, but I wasn't able to get as serious about it as a lot of the other people on there were. I did make some friends on there I wouldn't normally have met otherwise. If you want to meet a hardcore gamer, then play WoW! Those guys take the game too seriously at times. They will kick you from a raid or a dungeon group in a second if they think your gear is too low or your skills too poor. There are people that literally live for that game. I haven't played it in a while, over a year probably, it got to be too much like a job.
In closing, since I have rambled entirely too long once again, I'll try to summarize my favorite games over several different systems over my 20 years of gaming. These are all graded by replay value, originality, and just how many hours I personally spent on them myself.
#10: Ghengis Khan:Clan of the Grey Wolf, (later led me to Romance of the Three Kingdoms) (SNES)
#9: NBA Jams-hours of good times rockin' the rims! (SNES)
#8: Shattered Union-post world war 3 strategy game (Xbox)
#7: Resident Evil-game creeped me out playing by myself(Playstation)
#6: World of Warcraft-it's just a whole other kind of experience!(pc)
#5: Any of the NFL 2k series, they were superb!!(Dreamcast)
#4: Battlefield 3-just a kick ass shooter, took me away from the Call of Duty games!(PS3)
#3: A tie between Super Mario Kart 64 and Snow Board Kids- they are a lot alike, race games where you get to throw stuff at your enemies, spent countless amounts of time on both with friends (both on N64)
#2: Goldeneye:007- Really started the first person shooter, multi-player genre, and just hours of fun on
campaign mode!(N64)
#1: Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3-Still hands down the most time I've spent and the most fun fighting game
ever. Lots of characters to choose from, hidden menus to unlock one button fatalities, the run trigger
button, just too much to mention.(SNES)
I hope you've enjoyed my ranting on one of my favorite subjects and remember, these are all just my opinion, but it's my blog, so it's the only one that counts, hehehe, I kid! Until next time, I'm out!!
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