Newfangled Computing, Oldschool Gaming

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

That's the only thing I can think to say, because Murphy's Law hit me just as I thought I would be clever and rip off a quick blog post while my new game was installing.

Except, due to a tussle with the dumbass wireless router, and necessitating full dad call-up and router resetting resuscitation, my game has long finished installation before I even got wireless internet access up.

Pah.

Well, here's the ideal. I was -supposed- to be sitting at my dining room table, with my laptop open (biometric password!), installing my new game DarkStar One, and I was going to be this high-tech geek, typing out a speedy blog post while waiting.

(By the by, my desktop computer is doing a 150 gig backup transfer to my newly procured external HDD (300gb! expansion room! muhahaha!) in preparation for an eventual sometime-this-month (yay, civil servant xmas bonus) comp upgrade. Hence, this banishment to the dining room.)

Of course, this pretty vision got ruined because of a cheapass router (my dad bought it) who couldn't figure out to give my laptop wireless access with the ease we're SUPPOSED to have, living in such a high-tech century. Ok, on to the real blog post:

I also got myself a 1gb SD card for my PDA, so that I could install Palm games with real oomph (60mb or more). And it was while fiddling with one of those games - an oldschool arcade beat 'em up called Beats of Rage (Streets of Rage was the arcade version, I believe) and running a Castlevania variant that I suddenly received a dose of enlightenment.

My lil avatar was this vampire hunter called Alucard, and he was running around bashing up umpteen zombies, bats, and other monsters with one single repeated button press. That's it. No squishiness. No turn-taking. No need to aim, headshot or otherwise. Just serious butt-kicking with three lives and a hp bar. No classes. No spells. No leveling up. No statistics.

No worries about balance. No sweat about min-maxing or being the most efficient you can be. You already are.

The joys of single player. And the joys of arcade gaming.

A FPS complicates matters by making you have to aim.
An RPG complicates matters by giving you classes, stats and levels.
An RTS complicates matters by providing you a heap of sprites, with classes, stats and sometimes even levels.
An MMORPG? Hah. Add multiplayer and worries about "He's STRONGER than me. *WHINE*" into the mix.

Little confession. I went to Tec-Drome (can't go to Sim Lim and NOT go to Tec-Drome, I don't have that kind of willpower) and saw Guild Wars: Factions and Nightfall. I got offered both for $120. I said, "Nah. Another time." and picked up three singleplayer games instead for the same price. :P

I think it has to do with the way I get bored. Like when I got bored with RoD, I couldn't play another SMAUG MUD because the underlying game system was the same. Couldn't understand how come others HAD to keep playing SMAUG only. I'm mildly bored with CoX, and still super-tired of the whole MMO loot machine idea, so alas, GW must wait for another time.

(I'm also eyeing Neverwinter Nights 2 and the Battle for Middle Earth 2, but I kept them for later. My comp needs upgrading first, then these games will be better with more eye candy. Oh, and Company of Heroes, but I didn't see that there today. Maybe not out yet.)

I'm getting nostalgic for other games. Singleplayer ones.

Games I haven't played yet. Games I'm halfway through. Games that I've played before but feel like replaying.

I also finally forced myself to get off my ass and open a million and one boxes looking for my USB gamepad so that I could plug it in and play through some games that work better with one.

I have this wild and crazy idea. Instead of obsessing about writing, maybe I should make December the month to try and complete as many singleplayer games as possible. (And clean up my HD at the same time.)

I might just do that. :)

Anyhow, I've been putting off my pretty space adventure/sim/trader game. Gonna end off here and try it out. *boing*