For the past several months, I've become a bit of a "gamer". I'm very much a beginner, though. I quit Mass Effect 2 only a few hours [if that] into the game because I happened upon a mission that I found myself struggling to beat. I had to destroy these huge robots before they destroyed all of the crates I was sent to retrieve. I clearly have advanced in my gaming skills since then (ME2 was the first game I played after getting my Xbox360) because I played that mission again last week and beat it in 1 minute. We can definitely chalk my first failure up to not paying close enough attention to the game.Video games sure have come a long way since I last played them about a decade ago. Though, admittedly I played the games I see today's gamers scoff at and do everything to avoid, sports games and whatnot. That is, unless they're exceptionally well done, because serious gamers do appreciate hard work from developers. Before picking up my Xbox360, I researched video games thoroughly, finding out what's the most critically-acclaimed and most played. The one thing that separates video games from other forms of media is that the best games end up being the best sellers. Sure, sometimes a really good tv show or film gets proper recognition, but 90% of the time they don't. 90% may be generous, actually. Anyway - I had no idea how involved I was going to have to be with the games I started picking up, particularly ME2. I read about the individual experience and all, but I guess I still didn't think much of it.
I found myself aggravated when nearing the end of the game because my character was in a state I wasn't too pleased with: I lost the loyalty of Miranda (face and voice provided by the lovely Yvonne Strahovski) after an argument was had between her and another crew member and I didn't finish 2 other teammates' loyalty missions properly. The latter was due to my being foolish. Ah well, next time! Regardless of my failures, I was still excited about the end of the game. Which was surprisingly easy. Easier than most of the levels, actually, but unfortunately more tedious as well. I won't go into detail to avoid spoiling anyone who has yet to play or even purchase the game.
On that note - there are a few amazing games coming out in the next couple months I'm very much wanting to get my hands on, namely Fable III, Medal of Honor, and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I figure I'll wait on Call of Duty: Black Ops since I still haven't played Modern Warfare 2, will be busy with the other new releases, and I certainly have plenty of other games to finish; I have started all the games I have purchased this past year, but I haven't gotten too far in most of them.
What I've found from my 8 months of gaming is that I prefer shooters/action-adventure and action role-playing games. Games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are where I fail, which is unfortunate because they are interesting gaming experiences. I think what I might do is sell my games that are pure role-players and trade for the ones I can play, then maybe in a year or two when I've excelled as a gamer, I can try them again. I mean, I beat those robots that [7 months ago] killed me just as fast as I ended up killing them last week. Metal bastards...
