I don’t know if I’m the only one that thinks this way but hell, I’m saying it anyway. Imagine a virtual world in an online game lobby with say, six of your pals. Nothing exciting or interesting about that though is there, well how about we say that three of these friends are playing on their Xbox 360 and the other three, on their Playstation 3. Somehow Sony and Microsoft came to an agreement that owners of either console could connect online with one another and game as if they were gaming with fellow owners of their particular console.

Unfortunately that was quite clearly, a fantasy world. When anyone I know is looking to buy a console, they like to know people that are already using it so they can be sure that they’ll have someone to game with and such. It actually tips the scales a good bit and is usually one of the main deciding factors in the purchase of one of the next-gen consoles for a gamer that takes it more seriously. I would personally say I know a lot more people at school that own a 360 rather than a PS3 – so that has already turned a few opinions on which new console they’ll be buying. I’m not in any way saying this is the only reason though, loads of other things contribute to the buying of a certain console, especially the exclusive games.

Yet with the likes of COD4 in my Xbox 360 disk-drive, I’ll be on the phone to my friend who is also on COD4. One problem though, they’re on a PS3 and don’t own a 360. So unless we go over to one another’s house and play a little split-screen, we can’t game against one another. Also with me not being such a big fan of split-screen, that’s not usually my favourite option. But anyway the whole point is, if PSN and Xbox Live conjoined into one massive game networking system, the possibilities would be endless! Clan matches could take place between both 360 clans and PS3 clans for example. Console-exclusive games clearly wouldn’t be playable by both but on games such as COD4 the idea would work well. But then we have loads of problems with this whole idea. Firstly and most recognizably being the fact that the chances of Microsoft and Sony agreeing to such a thing would be extremely unlikely and also the price differences of playing online. They’d probably have to just go free for both consoles or put a price on PSN.

It’s been a week since I was at the Leeds music festival and a few things I encountered there left a lasting impression on me. First of all, I am still absolutely knackered and worryingly, I didn’t have this problem last time I was there five years ago (note to self: I’m NOT getting old!). Second, I’m almost finished washing all my manky clothes. That it’s taken this long is absolutely ridiculous. Lastly, I was surprised at how much of a presence gaming had at this year’s event compared to when I was last there in 2003.

Rockstar was everywhere. You couldn’t avoid walls of posters for Grand Theft Auto IV, some five months after it was initially released. They were all there: Niko, Packie, Roman and my personal favourite Brucie (“YEAH BABY YEAH!”) gurning at us from posters as far as the eye could see. Even in-between bands we were treated to the game’s trailer that wowed us all the way back in April.

Rockstar’s next heavyweight release, Midnight Club: Los Angeles was similarly plastered all over the makeshift walls and cordons of the campsite and I fell for it, I thought ‘wow, that looks like it might be cool’. God forbid I could have one weekend where games aren’t staring me right in the face and my Blackberry isn’t ringing off the hook with emails and texts (probably about gaming) but no, this is the life I’ve chosen, I just have to deal with it…

Anyway…Slotted neatly between the Duracell and Relentless energy drink tents were two awesome installations for Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and Rock Band. They were both a bit quiet on the first day but by Saturday afternoon they were teeming as revellers of all ages scrambled to get the next shot. The interest generated at these showings will be well worth the cost of hiring space at the festival alone.

Those clever buggers in the marketing teams of Sony and EA made good on this decision and it got me thinking about how gaming has become parts of other ways of life. Train stations in Japan, for example, have download points where travellers can get the newest demos and expansion packsfor their Nintendo DS. It also reminded me of more social gaming  in the UK (no, not the Nintendo Wii…long before that kids) and a lecture I attended at this year’s Edinburgh Interactive Festival, focused on the revival of the arcades.

Again in Japan, it’s common for crowds to gather round and watch while a patron performs insanely well at Streetfighter IV or old classics such as 1942 and Pac-Man. I’m a big fan of arcades and believe that there is still plenty of scope for bringing them back in the UK big time and if the frenzy to play Rock Band at Leeds isn’t proof that this kind of gaming has some life left in it, I don’t know what is. I think companies just need to find new ways of making the arcades interesting again now that gaming isn’t linked to the tired ‘geeky’ stereotype. From what I saw at EIF, this could happen…but that’s a story for another post…

Three cheers for sweaty joysticks, the deafening roar of digital sound effects and a pocket full of 10ps.

(Oh and what do you guys think about arcades? Is there life for them yet?)

Tomorrow will see the release of Sims2 Apartment Life. Usually by now my pre-order would have been long placed and I’d be bouncing up and down awaiting the latest expansion. But I’m not. No pre-order, no poring over screenshots, nothing, and I have to take a moment to wonder why. After careful thought I believe that I’m all Sim-ed out. Not the game – I still love it and am still determined to turn Brandi Broke’s life around for her, determined to have the time of my (Sims) life at a cool college dorm and rise to the top of my chosen career…so it isn’t that. Just that this is the eighth expansion (I’m not even counting the myriad of stuff packs). That’s a lot to deal with. Before long, Sims 3 will be out so is it even worth it when I will have to start all over again next spring?

I lapped up the first few – I adored the Uni pack, loved Nightlife and Open for Business….wasn’t fussed about the pets until they picked up and jiggled a tiny puppy about and my heart melted. (It promptly hardened again when a stray dog destroyed a bed that cost thousands of hard earned simoleans). However, as each play with each new pack progressed, I found myself with more and more to juggle…teen years, homework, skills, then on to uni – classes, term papers, and pranks, not to mention your Sims’ needs and then their wants and then the lifetime aspiration and influence…then business…trying to juggle managing your lot, dealing with slacker staff and indecisive customers before coming home to newborns screaming, toddlers toddling, an agro nanny who made my adult Sims cry, and your sleep-deprived Sim ends up slumping in the dinner with exhaustion.

Then there were pets needs too…then holidays, and then, and this is what finally broke me…hobbies. Now I have to fulfil their hobby wants too and keep up their interests in case they wane and I realised that I was so busy managing all this and more that I was forgetting to enjoy the game. I found myself getting more and more stressed and frustrated. I became especially irate after a stupid gaming hobby woman phoned my house at 3am after a Sim’s dream had pushed them into the next hobby level. It seemed she thought it was an okay time to phone and wake up newborn twins to invite me to join her club. Well piss off love, can’t you see I’m at breaking point?! I nearly mangled my mouse and ate it.

What was happening to me? This is supposed to be the easy way – managing a life better than I can cope with my own. Gentle, sedate, making people’s aspirations come true – it made me feel good and I enjoyed every moment, advancing careers and my Sims whoo-hooing and hob-nobbing with everyone in town. Now, to add to it all, the final nail in my coffin, we have ‘Apartment Life’. I haven’t even touched the holidays yet and now I’m supposed to build some airy loft space and feed my Sims cheeky Friends-esque cups of coffee and sip Cosmos and dream of Manolo Blahniks? When will I find the time? How will I fit all this in? What are the developers trying to do to me?

And then it sinks in. In a subtle, insidious way it has transformed to this point where it beautifully shadows real life. Trying to juggle family and work and hobbies and needs with your wants and desires and your secret wishes, holidays and destructive pets. I can’t cope in the game anymore, there is not enough time. The game’s perverse juggling is simply a mirror held up to our own lives; mine at least and that is rather sobering and quite apt. So like the real world, all I can do is vaguely prioritise and hope to muddle through and somewhere in the middle, I’ll find a kind of happiness.