At the recent i33 event, someone asked me what sort of games I enjoy. Just as I was about to answer, Dan responded with “he’s an FPS man”, whilst I was initially shocked, I now realise he’s quite right.

Even a cursory look over my gaming history will show I have somewhat eclectic taste in games: Forza Motorsport, Viva Piñata, Rockstar’s Table Tennis and Shrek the Third to name but a few. Look at the games I’ve been playing recently however and they’re all first/third person shooters – Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (I finished the incredibly short single player campaign yesterday). So why have I so obviously shifted my focus?

The fact is, I enjoy playing co-operatively online with friends far more than I do single player. These days, the only co-operative or team based games that have well developed online play are shooters. If there were different genres of good quality games available that supported co-operative or team based play, I’d be first in the queue at the check out.

I genuinely believe that gaming is reaching a point where online play is more important than the quality of the single player experience. Whilst I hope there will always be room in the market for the Assassin’s Creeds and the Bioshocks, I’m hoping that game publishers will find a way to successfully integrate rich co-operative multiplayer gameplay into more genres so that I can work together with friends without holding an MP5. After all, how good would co-operative Portal be?

When I spoke with Dan about joining Ready-Up he said it would be ok to post every ten days or so.  up until a few weeks ago that wasn’t a problem, I was really into gaming and I felt i could spout forth vast pages of gaming related wisdom.  My gaming time was just that-mine-after the family had went to bed the 360 whirred into life and a few pleasurable hours were spent playing into the wee small hours, but a cloud was on the horizon and I didn’t see it coming.

Just over a month ago my then girlfriend now fiance announced that she was feeling a bit more down than usual and was firing off accusations left right and centre as to what may be causing this.  Just for the record it was nothing to do with my gaming habits so…. Anyway a lot of the reasons were aimed at me and I must confess i was knocked for six by some of them, nothing I will trouble you good folk with.  The knock on effect was that at night when the 360 trundled to life I was merely holding the pad staring into the beyond, wondering, what I had done that was so bad, after all, to anyone who knows me I am one of the nicest people you could meet.  Games weren’t helping me!

Fast forward a few weeks and the doctor confirmed what we had already known, that fiance is suffering from depression, not deep suicidal depression, but depression none the less.  Having this confirmed led me to curtailing my gaming activities into the wee small hours just so that if she needed someone to hold in bed I would be there.  However fiance is seeking solace in a forum online and disappears to it for hours on end so now I play my 360 when she is doing that, which is usually for a damn long time, everyone’s happy?

You may be asking why I have written this blog after all it’s not really about games but here’s the thing.  It seems that if you have depression everyone is willing to give you good advice of be very gentle and kind with you or in fiances case pep her up via her forums.  But if you are the person living with the person affected there is nothing, you are just meant to understand and keep a brave face on which is getting increasingly harder to do.  I just needed to know that if even on person reads this that I have managed to get something out that is burning inside me.  Apologies if this goes against the Ready-Up tenet but in this case the phrase a friend in need…. really is true.  By the way you may have guessed that I wasn’t the reason for the depression, just the easiest target and that is why we are now getting married, we do still love each other.

Thanks for listening

Haggis

They say the future is digital. I don’t know who they are but I wonder if they have a point.

Until maybe two years ago, I never dreamt I’d play a game that could have it’s life extended through the likes of extra maps or missions being made available via download. Now I can’t imagine playing a game without that, at least on the 360. And I’ve recently become aware of entire games being made with this means of distribution in mind – Tomb Raider Anniversary being the first example of this, to my knowledge. This is a development I’m wary of for a few reasons.

First, I hear of games in traditional disc format being shipped with bugs and glitches or simply  deliberately incomplete – updates are patches, some DLC is a means of unlocking content that already exists within the game such as Beautiful Katamari as Kirsten mentioned in her last blog. This could all take place even with digitally distributed games.

Second, there’s the fact that you simply don’t own the game you’re playing – no manual, no added goodies, nada. It’s comparable to the division in the music industry when it comes to consumers. Will you be a purist seeking out vinyl LPs or will you store music on your PC? I can imagine a gamer – a tech savvy, tech hungry person – choosing the latter option. Maybe. I can see the benefit of that – no scratched discs!

 Third, the matter of space. I hear of games taking up huge amounts of it plus, with the advances in all aspects of a game, free space will be at a premium. When you also consider that you can now download films and TV shows on top of that… So, even with the strong possibility of more space being available in the future, there is zero gain.

Me, I like having the disc, the manual, all of that. It’s mine to trade or to keep as I wish. I needn’t worry about having the space to keep it or being forced to delete it for a new game.

They say the future is digital but they also say the future is orange. I say the future is not set.