I've got a middle-of-the-line gaming PC and a respectable Steam library, but inevitably I spend about 90% of my gaming time with my consoles. I see the benefits of PC gaming. Specifically, improved graphics and performance attract me, as well as the generally lower cost of the software.

Still, several things stop me from converting. Usually my train of thought goes like this:

Quote: Gaming is supposed to be a relaxing hobby. Sitting at a desk isn't relaxing. I sit at a desk at work. If I'm playing something at home, I want to be on the couch. No problem. Connect your PC to your TV. OK! But using a keyboard and mouse on my lap or leaning forward to use them on my coffee table is awkward and ill-suited for a lot of the games I want to play. It's cool. Get an Xbox 360 controller for your PC. But what about the games which do work better with KBM, like MMORPGs? Or what about older games, many of which don't

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I've played quite a few JRPGs the past 15 years or so, and I appreciate the fact games of their scope may build up slowly, so I try to be patient and give them a generous trial before writing them off.

But sometimes exceptions are necessary.

Yesterday I received the original Hyperdimension Neptunia from GameFly. After enduring a 10-minutes scene in which static portraits of barely dressed generic anime girls rambled nonsense over nerve-grating background music, I was finally rewarded with a gameplay sequence which involved traversing a linear hallway and engaging in a single battle with molasses-slow pacing.

Around this time, my wife's baffled expression finally formed into a question of what the hell I was playing. I asked myself the same thing. Then I powered off the PS3, ejected the disc, and sealed it back into the envelope.

Fastest rental ever.

The first game console I owned was a Super Nintendo. I got it for my 8th birthday. It wasn't a surprise; in fact, my mom asked me whether I preferred to receive it or a Sega Genesis.

The choice was easy, but it was still a valuable experience. I would come to understand by choosing one, I was more or less permanently forsaking the other. Consoles are expensive, and by the time I could talk my mom into buying me one again, there would be something new I'd rather own than whatever I didn't choose the last time. The same principle would still apply once I was old enough to buy them myself too.

And so although I did enjoy years and years of quality gaming, I never did own a Genesis. Or a Saturn, or a Nintendo 64, or a Dreamcast, or the original Xbox (plus a number of other less mainstream consoles, but those are outside the scope of my discussion).

The perks of two incomes and no kids at home now give me the luxury of owning all the current-gen...

Yesterday I spent a couple hours with Dead or Alive 5 after deciding sort of randomly to give it a shot. The last DOA game I played was actually the original, so I've missed a cool 14 years of the series and was completely unfamiliar with how to play.

As I commented to my wife while getting my ass handed to me, thank goodness there is a difficulty setting lower than "easy."

Although I've still got a really poor understanding of the fighting mechanics (and there doesn't seem to be anything within the game itself to explain them), I was still having enough fun mashing the buttons and occasionally damaging my opponent. The pace of battle is faster than I remember, which is nice because I recall thinking the original game was a bit sluggish at the time.

I only played arcade mode last night, but I'm going to start the story mode tonight. There appears to be a decent amount of single-player content; certainly more than Soul Calibur V, at...

Well, that was awful.

Need for Speed: The Run hit my $20 price point at Target, so I picked it up the other day. It's a far cry from Hot Pursuit, but I'm still finding it to be pretty fun so far. I really like the concept of a continuous race from coast to coast and seeing the different locales in between.

Anyway, playing it got me thinking about how few and far between quality arcade-style racing games are, so I'm writing to ask CAG whether there are any I've missed. (To clarify, more realistic simulation-style games like Forza and Gran Turismo don't interest me.)

I'm a big fan of the whole Burnout series, especially Takedown and Paradise. Hot Pursuit is another big one, and I personally loved Split/Second too.

A bit to my surprise, I didn't really care for Blur. I tried one of the MotorStorm games and didn't like it much either, although Apocalypse still interests me because of the concept.

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

My Mass Effect 3 CE arrived from Amazon yesterday, and my excitement was somewhat diminished by a few...unusual design choices.

First, who is the genius who decided to crudely TAPE the contents into the outer sleeve? Even carefully and slowly removing the tape, there was damage to the inner cardboard box. Then I pulled the steelbook out, and the Microsoft authenticity sticker was haphazardly applied to the male Shepard side of the case (I watched a few unboxing videos and didn't see any other instances of this sticker being here, although maybe it was already removed before filming). Finally, the discs themselves were near impossible to even remove. Again being careful and slow, the struggle of trying to remove the damn things caused me to already get a couple scratches to the edge of disc 2.

So yeah, really nice CE, but I'm pretty frustrated my $80 investment is already less than mint condition before I even started playing it.

Is everyone...

Introduction

I'm calling the following list "My Favorite Games of 2011" instead of "Top 10 Games of 2011" because the second, to me, would imply I played the majority of games released during the year (obviously, an unrealistic goal considering budget and time limitations). Other games I'm either yet to play or yet to purchase are probably worth including here. Nevertheless, please enjoy!

The List



OK, you might be thinking I've already lost my credibility here. But it's my list, so zip it. I never played more than a few hours of the Parasite Eve games, so the widely decried...erm, "adjustments"...to Aya's personality didn't bug me. I'll concede to a number of other flaws (the nonsensical plot and uninspired level design would be at the top of the list), but I'm including the game for...

Until now, I never worked a job where I got paid sick leave. If I stayed home because I was sick, I simply didn't get paid for the time I missed. So I'd usually suck it up and go to work anyway, contributing to presenteeism.

Things are different now. I've got a better job and enough paid sick leave to stay home without cutting into my pay. And yet, every time I get sick, I still agonize over the decision to stay home or go to work.

Yesterday and today, for example, I woke up with common cold symptoms. My job is mostly a desk job. Although I'd be grumpy, with DayQuil, I could still perform my duties. So the idea of staying home makes me feel lazy and guilty even though I'm not faking and even though it's probably in the best interest of me and my co-workers.

And what if I'm feeling much worse a few days from now? I'd probably regret using my time at the beginning of my illness instead of using it at the peak. There's no way to tell how long a cold...

So imagine my surprise at receiving an e-mail with the subject, “Why I hate Heavy Rain,” from a friend to whom I’d recommended the game. To my knowledge, he was enjoying it until the ending.

“[The ending] was a huge kick in the balls. It was as if my balls got turned into ovaries. I hate Heavy Rain. you Quantic Dream, you SCEA, and you David Cage.”

Yikes.
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