Gaming Update (or me acting like a big nerd)

Let's talk about where I am with my gaming and why my simple little world has turned into chaos.

It was simple.  We had one system - the original XBox.  There were some very good co-op games that we could play together and when we moved in with each other, that became our bonding tactic.  We didn't have Live, we didn't have it hooked up to the Internet.  It was just us, two controllers, and a shiny new disc with a new world awaiting us.

Then we got the XBox 360.  And we spent weekends scouring the stores for the different parts we needed.  I could bore you with our plan to buy the core system and use my brother's discount from working at a well-known yellow and gold electronics giant to build the rest of it (hard drive, extra controller) but it moves me to tears everytime I think about the fact that they were out of those accessories and we ended up paying full price.

And at first it was simple.  The initial weekend, we played Gears of War together for ours straight until we beat it.  Nothing had changed.  Everything was just fancier, bigger, cooler and prettier. 

We got the game pass from Blockbuster, which was the best investment for owning a brand new system because we could try the games we wanted before we bought them and figure out what was good and what we were going to pass on.  I rented Oblivion on the advice of it winning Game of the Year at the Video Game awards and was hooked immediately.  Then Rainbow Six came out and while the co-op was no where near as smooth as Gears, we were still able to work through the missions together and I became extremely comfortable with something I never thought I would: a first person military shooter.  Matter of fact, I became addicted.  I couldn't get enough.  I wanted to play it all the time.  (It was the same with Gears, but I compared that game to Halo, a more fantastical first person shooter rather than a real person shooter).

Then Steve went Live.  Which mean another trip to the store for an Ethernet cable long enough to stretch from our router to the XBox (through two rooms, mind you - I know, I know, there's a wireless adapter but it's a $100 were not ready to shell out yet, particularly when I paid $6 for my CAT5 cable).  Then there was the five or six hours for two nights straight trying to get the XBox to connect to my network.  Then there was the realization that not only did our profiles not transfer online properly (thus causing all the acheivement points we'd racked up to not migrate) but that we couldn't play Rainbow Six online in co-op.

Still, I stayed.  We explored new games.  Viva Pinata.  Def Jam Icon.  Earth Defense Force 2017.  Fear. Prey. Condemned.  Steve began to play online with Rainbow Six.  He got addicted to that.  We continued to work through the missions in co-op offline.

Then I got a Live account.  And I started playing Rainbow online.  And I got addicted.  And all I wanted to do was go home and blow shit up at night.  Because it was a rousing good time, particularly because I found a good group of people to play with.

Then the problems came. 

We ran out of good co-op games.  

We had only one XBox.

Both of us wanted to play.

Our local Blockbuster, despite charging $22 a month for the game pass, has the shittiest selection of games.  They stock probably only 10% of the games offered for XBox and once you've played all the good games, you work your way through the shitty ones and then you wait for the new games to come out, only to walk in and see that the eight copies of Spiderman 3 have remained empty since the day the game was released.

So what do we do?  We go out and buy a Wii.

Ok, we didn't specifically go out looking for a Wii.  We had been looking for one but couldn't find them.  We just happened to be in Wal-Mart one Friday night and stopped by Electronics only to find they had three left.  And, well, they were there, they were a hot item that no one could get, but they were there, right at that moment.  So we bought them.  And so we started the new system process all over again.

Set up the Wii.  Played around with it.  Decided we needed another controller.  Hit two stores before we found the Wii Play we wanted (because why not spend $20extra and get the game and the controller?).  Spent the first week or so playing the sports game.  Then, the game pass came in handy again.  Tried out the surgeon game.  Zelda.  Spiderman 3 (not so good on the Wii).  Super Paper Mario.

More trips to the store to buy sleeves for the Wiimotes and the classic controller so we could play Super Mario World and other games that we had downloaded (one of the best features of the Wii, by the way, is the ability to get the retro games)

Then we ran into the same thing again.  Blockbuster's selection of Wii games sucks.  Granted, the selection of Wii games overall is slim but Blockbuster's is worst.  On a side note, the crappy customer service they give doesn't help things either.   

BUT! We still have Guitar Hero II, which is like XBox crack.  The overacheiver in me really shines as I rack up the acheivements and try to get five stars on the songs.  I swear, I'm like the nerdy kid who isn't satisfied unless they get all A's when it comes to GHII.  And it sure does foster some gnarly competition between Steve and I.  Just last night, he was busting on my for not being able to play Cherry Pie that well and trying to distract me and he says "I'm only messing with you because that's the only song in which I can kick YOUR ass."

An hour later, I play the song again, pull up the leaderboards and grin at him because I just kicked his ass by about 40,000 points.  He threw a pillow at my head.

So what's the point?

1.)  If you think you're addicted to one system, try two.  There's just not enough time in the day to split between the Wii and the XBox 360 to feed the gaming addiction.

2.)  XBox 360 is sorely lacking in offline co-op games.  They need to fix that.

3.)  Good XBox games are in a lull right now.  Patience is not a virtue of mine and I don't know how much longer I can take waiting for games like Halo 3 and the next GTA.

4.)  The Wii is completely fun to play and totally worth the purchase, but it needs more games.

5.)  The Blockbuster game pass is a good idea, particularly if your new to a system, but unless Blockbuster steps it up and begins improving their selection, it becomes completely worthless after a few months.

And finally, yes, I'm rambling, but so much of life has been about video games and accessories and visiting stores to find things that are out or unavailable (just last night we hit no less than six stores in the Charleston area looking for an extra Guitar Hero controller and no one had one, despite having them six weeks ago, when we were looking for the full game pack - game & controller - which they were all sold out of at the time.  Of course, they had tons of the game packs now).

Overall, is it bad that I wish I could sit in front of my TV all day and play video games, instead of coming to work?  Because that would be so much more fun and I'd have more time to devote to the two systems.

Life was so much simpler with one console.  But I wouldn't trade the new stuff for the world.