Video Games Inside: Solutions to Rainy Days?

As of the time of writing, I have only been at home for about an hour or so after an intense 7 hour marathon in front of the telly playing multiplayer Champions Of Norrath: Realms of Everquest on the PS2 at Jo's apartment. Having woken up early today (since I was tasked with delivering a PC to the owner in the morning) I met up with Jo and Lia, had brunch and proceeded to spend the rest of the muggy day adventuring in videogame land (and Lia took part, this time as the Dark Elf warrior).

By this time a lot of you will have realised that I love my video/computer games. No matter how much I try to set myself against being biased towards a particular platform, as of late I'm finding myself drawn more and more towards console gaming. And before the flames start pouring in, I'd just like to tell all those PC gamers out there that yes, PC gaming (especially multiplayer) is probably the wave of the future, and that the crop of games that are starting to ship this quarter are truly what the until-now ailing platform needs to revive itself. I've personally tested Far Cry and Unreal Tournament 2004, both what could be THE most anticipated releases of the year (although their minimum requirements far exceeds what my brontosaurus of a PC could possibly achieve) and found that they have the promise and expandability to make PC gaming universally cool again.

That being said, personally I just think that for face to face human interaction in gaming, nothing can quite beat the multiplayer capabilities of a game console. Any gamer worth his salt would remember that intense feeling of exultation when he/she beat that pesky lil kid at Street Fighter/Tekken/Mortal Kombat/(insert game franchise here) in the arcades, that shocked look of defeat on your opponent's face, and the knowledge that you owned that person in one of the most intimate ways ever. Heck, about 12 years ago one of my first memories of multiplayer gaming on the PC was of my brother sitting next to me pressing the space bar as I maneouvered the ship in Xenon 2: Megablast. That trend continued when we got our first consoles, him and me blasting God knows what to who knows where in too many coop games to remember. As PC games evolved, he would still be sitting next to me as I played Doom, Wolfenstein, Rise of The Triads etc as my navigator, marking powerup spots and locked doors. Same thing happened on the consoles, as the hours upon hours of time spent trying to beat Super Contra and Silkworm could attest to.

So what's the point? The point is that like it or not, for face to face human interaction, nothing beats a multiplayer session on a console system. Whether it's beating the crap out of each other in Tekken or watching each others' backs in Baldur's Gate or Halo, the console experience gives you something no voice chat technology can: actually see your opponents'/partners' faces and reactions. Sure it's fun trash talking some guy all the way in the Ukraine or giving out orders to your teammates halfway around the world but sometimes it's just the best to simply be able to say " You Suck!" or "Good shot, man!" to a buddy next to you (with online capabilities built into consoles these days, there's always an option). Even developers have taken notice. Peripherals for consoles seem to be geared more towards a shared gaming experience than those for the PC. Look at the options: the maracas for Samba de Amigo, DDR's dance mats, Taiko no Tatsujin's drum controller and most recently Sony's Eye Toy and mic combo for Karaoke Revolution. There's a multitap for connecting more than 2 controllers to the PS2 and the Xbox ships with FOUR controller ports. More and more games are starting to ship with multiplayer coop or similar features available straight out of the box. I don't know what the pros say, but it looks to this gamer that spending a night in with the games console is not a long way from being accepted as normal.

Which brings me to today. As Agent_Smith the barbarian warrior, Liarr the Elf and Leglolas the Ranger retired for the day, the human players realised it'd been some time since we'd had so much fun. There were shrieks and screams (especially during the fight with the Big Spider Momma) and the haggling over items, but we all conceded that it was bloody fun.

Bloody fun indeed.