Hey fellow video games fans! I’ve been walking around town lately and noticed that Rockstar has two new series of GTA coming out soon (by the time I’m writting this, they’re probably already out, eh?). Naturally, I’ve got a massive rush of excitement seeing the shiny new billboard ads, and relished in my old memories of ‘tearing shit up’ on the PS2s, PS3s, and Segas.
Metal Gear Solid 4
The storyline for MGS is a reeaaallllyyyy long one and my tiny pre-teen brain couldn’t handle most of it. The success of MSG came on the fact that they played on every child’s fantasy of being a spy. And since Americans hate the Russians, I mean Commies, they made Snake a spy again Soviets. The graphics in MSG were well played out, super detailed and very realistic. If you wore headphones playing this, you totally got lost in it. One of my favourite things was snipping bad guys from the back of their head, you could even zoom in and see the little specks of blood pop out of their heads. Snake was the best though, too bad Raiven took his place.
Need For Speed Underground 2
Even if you hate cars, even if you don’t have one, or stolen one and crashed it, any animosity you have against them is negated in Need for Speed. Granted, it is the only game of this bunch that doesn’t give you the ability to kill people, or at the very least run over them, but it’s a trip nonetheless. A good way to play NFS2 is to a) Go full-on geek and get the steering wheel controller b) Put a wager on laps, everything gets more interesting when money or dignity is put on the line, people might end up getting punched, which is never a bad deal if it isn’t you.
Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas
To be honest, all the other three games mentioned on here have nothing on GTA because Grand Theft Auto is the mother of pearl in great video games. The people behind Rockstar have been achieveing every prospective fellon’s dreams ever since they started upgrading the series with bigger and better things. Why GTA is the quintessential videogame, relies on its attention to details. Everything is tought of, radio shows, music, gun barrels and calibers, clothing, how much of a fatass you become if you eat too many burgers, and your character’s need to systematically ‘get some‘. Besides, any game featuring Snoop Dogg, Eazy E, Dr.Dre and Ice Cube as central characters, with voiceovers by David Cross, Ice T and Charlie Murphy gets my vote anyday.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider
I’ve got some bitter memories attached to this game. But I’ve also got some amazing ones. I didn’t really like the whole getting mauled by a tiger part, that sort of scared the shit out of me as a kid, and the whole falling into a 200ft deep hole and hearing the crack of Lara’s neck breaking. Bad times. But I loved jumping backwards! And the joy of handling guns comes naturally I suppose. But to be honest, the only time I remember playing Lara Croft was when I was switching it back and forth from Channel 9 News on 9/11 at about 9 in the morning. I was so lost in the game, I thought the Twin towers burning were part of a movie. That is a true story, which is completely unrelated to the fact that Lara Craft was a total dimepiece.
Video games will forever be your best friends, I probably would not be into them if I didn’t grow up with two older brothers. They’re like a virtual short-circuit to achieving everything you’ve ever dreamt of in life, ever i.e. kill off already extinct White tigers, pick up prostitutes, joyride and logically run over pedestrians, fly, be an astronaut, have a SWAT team trail blaze your car through 45 miles of virtual panorama, beat up the elderly, basically everything that is repressed, deep deep inside of you.
p.s: If anyone has GTA IV cheats, send them in, I’m having troubles getting to the 15th mission.