Today, ladies and nerds, we’re going to tlak about gaming…mostly 2007, but the state of gaming in general. Why? Because god dammit, we can. And we love to hear ourselves talk. So lets jump right in.
First and foremost, wow. No, not WoW, but wow, the word. That’s what you should be thinking if you’re gamer. Last year alone was stellar. We’ve seen some of the best games ever released on any platform ever. We saw Team Fortress 2 become a reality, and not just a reality, but a damn good one. And it a little Portal thing with that lots of people seemed to love. We had Supreme Commander and an expansion released. We also had, in no particular order, Oblivion, Crackdown, Mass Effect, Rockband, Lord of the Rings MMO, the first WoW expansion, Halo 3, The Witcher, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Bioshock, Zelda:Phantom Hourglass, and Call of Duty 4. What a fucking year.
That’s alone ought to convince we’re living the golden years of gaming. We’re literally seeing the best games ever created and each year they seem to be out done. It’s outrageous, amazing and stunning.
Now that’s not to say it’s all love and gummy bears. We’ve had all kinds of problems too. Like Fox News calling out Mass Effect for what it really is, simulated porn. I for one am glad Fox is watching out for all of us. Game forums, MMO forums in particular, as still something not to be viewed by your average person, but thankfully enough, your average person has no idea they exist and the rest of work hard to avoid them. We’ve still got Jack Thompson, developers having hissy fits, Silicon Knights claiming any all profits Epic made (and boy howdy, they made some profits from Gears) are belong to them and PC Gaming is STILL dying.
But none of those things can put a damper on the level of gaming we’re seeing now. Last week alone I played some Team Fortress 2, The Witcher, Forged Alliance (SC expansion) and Mass Effect. It’s like I’m living in some glorious world where every game I play is just too damn good.
And that’s really the point of this article. Games are no longer better in the past. Yeah, there isn’t an X-Com or Masters of Magic replacement, but what could really replace them anyway? Gaming has officially passed into a new era. Call it the golden age, the new age or just call it gaming as it was meant to be.
Me, I’m going to call it Bliss and continue to be amazed.
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What Would Matt Do: You can’t hear it, but right now I’m making the Homer donut sound. And it’s good.