It was just last night when me, a couple of my siblings,and some of my friends took a oft-delayed trip down to Canobie Lake pARK In Salem, NH. It was half an hour before closingtime that I came across the place's largest arcade (the Palace Arcade, or something like that). Me, my brother and a friend of his decided to go in and do soemthing I haven't done in a good three years (strangely enough, since the last time I came to the park). So we found The Simpsons arcade game and started up. Bad joysticks, but still fun and refreshing change of pace from the fancy PS2 pads...until our ride home decided he wasn't waiting around for the gates to close and for the traffic outsideto go on gridlock mode. So the three of us were pretty much pulled out on mid-quarter (on the third level, I think).
My reaction later was creepy: I knew I shouldn't be even annoyed at the fact that Iwasted **** quarter, but I was kinda pissed. It was more about the fact that I was interrupted mid-game that got to me...and that's something I hadn't experienced in a while. I've told people lately that I'm not hardcore anymore, that I haven't been since I stopped having (or making) time for Diablo II four or so years back. I don't really visit this site anymore, so that's more reason to think I'm a casual. That little incident last night, though, made me see I'm still 145% hardcore, and all the other little things I've hadn't really taken into account started showing up as evidence to that fact. The ongoing subscription to EGM, the repeated readings of Play at the mag rack, the Youtube visits to moffstarr and louischou's channels..and of course, the almost daily downloading of whatever SDA's got up. I suddenly remembered a post to some random thread a year or so ago: "I may not have the time to actually play anymore, but I keep up with the industry constantly, and that makes me hardcore enough". Funny how true that still seems now...I probably don't get more than two hours on a regular basis to pick up a controller, but I guess the kid who used to pick up a controller for five hours or more at a time is still floating around in my head somewhere.
It was Sunday last week when I was hanging out with the guys on my campus, talking about whatever. Suddenly, I mention that I never beat Diablo on single-player and that it's been roughly half a decade since I last tried. Very quickly, I find that a good chunk of the people on our res hall have both entries in the series. The nostalgia factor kicks in, and before long, four of us are simultaneously installing and registering the game. We get together once every three days or so, log into Battle.net, and start whooping demon ass (although we get whomped back about 40% of the time).Once we're through the game on all three difficulties, we're going to search out people with the Diablo II and have ourselves one big, long run through the sequel, Worcester Polytechnic students only.
When I get through this small but hellacious school week, I plan to find a spare hour or two (in between Thanksgiving, parties at other MA campuses, and my birthday) to finally conquer the Genesis version of Batman and Robin (emulated version, of course). From what I understand, a lot of people have given this game **** for its insane difficulty and cheapness. But it's not the first time a Genesis title has done that, and everything else about it seems fine to me, so I'll enjoy getting through this nice spin on the 2D shooter.
And that, my friends, is why you won't see me hopelessly scrouging up $400, fighting mob-level lines at some EB Games, or parking my ass for two days outside some Best Buy and letting the elements beat me up (and down). It's because I see that, no matter what noise the 360 makes, no matter how sick its launch titles might be, it's still going to take a whole lot of "sickness" from this upcoming generation of consoles to prove it's worth my money and time. Sure, I'll still keep up with the industry's happenings, but it won't be nearly with the zeal I had back when the PS1 and Saturn were the talk of the town.
Thank God for nostalgia...it saved me from wasting nearly half a G.
My first blog!!! Nearly two years after I first joined GS!!!Hooray! (man that sounded gay...)
