Guilty little pleasures

When online console games first appeared, I believed the concept of going around someone else’s house to play games was dead and buried. Not even the awful experiences of SOCOM on the PS2 with the ill fated network adapter deterred me from seeing the writing on the wall.

However even with the slick, modern experiences of games like Gears of War 2 there are still games that I only play around friends’ houses. For instance, after spending the weekend with Tony, Dan and Kirsten we ended up playing Need For Speed: Underground.

I think it’s a case of guilty little pleasures hidden by the fact that I don’t own the game but I’m more than happy to try someone else’s copy. Now don’t get me wrong, looking at my recent achievements list will show the fact we also played a Guitar Hero: World Tour track with a full band – guitar, bass, drums and mic. Although the same achievement is possible over live, I would argue it’s more fun with everyone in the same room.

Playing games like Need For Speed: Underground and passing the controller around for someone else to have a go harks back to days of old with my brother and sister. I passed many an hour watching Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda being played waiting to be the next sibling in line to have a go.

Playing around a friend’s house when everyone is thirty-something could be considered immature but not to me – it’s still a great way to spend time with good friends.