An excerpt fromGaming And You: The Ephemeral Line Between Being A Huge Nerd And Scoring Mad Tail, by Beverly Cleary, published by Scholastic Books, 1994, all rights reserved:
” … and then it was over. With a sudden thump, the rocket impacted my chest, sending gibs flying across the entire level, and with them, my dreams of professional gaming stardom. Jeanne would never look at me again, not even with that freaky lazy eye of hers.
Leaving the auditorium that day was like walking through World 1-2 ofSuper Mario Bros.It was cold, lonely, and every time I thought it couldn’t get any worse, a white squid landed on my head. That was the loneliest day of my life.”
—————————————————————————————————————-Nex isa guywho finds these sort of post-article informational blurbs to be incredibly pretentious. Considering he once spent the better part of a weekend drawing penises on the dust jackets of every copy ofAtlas Shruggedin the cavernous halls ofPowell’s Books, the man knows a lil’ somethin’ about pretension.
We play games!We knit socks!Here’s what we’ve been playing!Also cocks!
Colette Bennett:BioShock, Taiko Drum Masters, Final Fantasy 1, andRhythm Tengoku. Also, I’m playingI’m on Eternal Vacation in Miamiwhich is really a blast.
Dick McVengeance:I’ve been splitting my time between blasting throughCastlevania: Harmony of Dissonance(90% on both castles in a few days), andMercenariesfor the PS2. I’m enjoying the fact that the game is likeGTAin that I can go and blow shit up, but with less needless stereotypes. It’s just fun, and I actually accomplish something if I just sit down for 20 minutes and play. Also, I’ve started to sink my teeth intoDoki Doki Majo Shinpan. Fun times await!
Nick Chester:Metroid Prime 3(Wii),Two Worlds(360),SSX Blur(Wii),Carnival Games(Wii),Super Puzzle Fighter HD(360), and isn’t that enough? God.
Grim:Super Puzzle Fighter II HDand theCall of Duty 4beta. Based on what I’ve seen in the beta,CoD4will most likely be the best FPS (for multiplayer) to come out this year.
Rev Anthony:Making my way throughThe Pandora Directiveand trying not to open a major vein over the amount of disk-swapping involved. When not doing that, I’m going to replayBioShockfor a third time.
Tristero:I’m wading knee-deep through the waters ofMetroid Prime 3: Corruption. I’ve been one of the biggest evangelizers for the game since I first played it at E3 2006. It’s the reason I bought a Wii, so I’m nervously tip-toeing through it, seeing if it stacks up to the unrealistic expectations I set for it. I’m also sneaking in a few quick matches ofBomberman Livehere and there. My wife and I played against my brother and his wife yesterday. Family bonding.
Aaron Linde:Hungary has no games. No arcades, no nothing. I think I’m the only person in this goddamn country that has a DS, and that frightens and disturbs me.I’m not playingMetroid Prime 3orSuper Puzzle Fighter II HD Remix, and that blows. But I am playingJeanne D’Arcon my PSP, which as it turns out is probably the best title yet on Sony’s little paperweight.
Leigh Alexander:Taking my time withBioShock. I find that I’m approaching it like a survival horror game and not like an FPS, probably because I have played way way more of the former and hardly any of the latter; I dig into every corner and look at EVERYTHING. And I am makingPOKEMANBABIES.
Also,Knytt Stories, which is one of those cases where if you never heard of it you don’t know what you’re missing. Nifflas’ work is so rad.
Nex:Aside from taking Leigh’s advice and masturbating furiously all over everything Nifflas has ever done, most of my gaming this week actually occurred during last weekend’s PAX.
I playedRock Band, passed out from how utterly amazing it was, then woke up drunk as a stone, playingTime Crisis 3in Seattle’s Gameworks. Thankfully, the next day, I awoke sober as a stone and spent the day splitting my time between smoking like a race horse with a nicotine monkey for a jockey and the shockingly goodJohn Deere: Harvest in the Heartland. None of you are actually going to buy it, but I’ve always assumed you were all idiots anyway.
BlindsideDork:Surprisingly I haven’t been able to speed throughMetroid Prime 3: Corruptionas I did withBioShock. Since I am about 15 hours in and 86% done (collected?), it will be completed this weekend. There is no other game but this one to me right now.
Gameboi:Thanks toMetroid Prime: Corruption, I finally have a good reason to fire up the Wii again. Sadly, it has been unplugged and living a lonely existence next to my Xbox 360 and Xbox for far too long. In other news, I’ve been doing theBioShockthing as well, which by the way, has brought me joy on a level that I haven’t felt since first playingResident Evilseveral years ago. If you were to drop me off on a deserted island (with electricity?) with a 360 and but five games to keep me busy,BioShockwould be one of them.
Dale North:As my Xbox 360 was just sent out in its coffin, I found myself picking upSuper Puzzle Fighter II HDfor the PS3. At first I was worried that there would be less competition, but I was wrong. There’s always a match waiting, and everyone is damned good! One of my rounds lasted 26 minutes last night, and when I finally dominated with a brilliant 4-chain, I let out a victory cry that could be heard for miles. It still doesn’t take away the sting of missingBioShock, though.
Jim Sterling:As most of the regular readers know by now, I’m in Mississippi right now (renamed Monoclesippi while I’m here, naturally), far away from my games. A Destructoid editor is never beat, however, and I’ve managed to get in some play withSilent Hill 2, my favorite game of all time. I also watched two genuine Americans playing co-opDynasty Warriors Gundamin a Gamestop. Your Gamestops are not as good as our Gamestations, unfortunately. I love your biscuits, though.
Chad Concelmo:I know I almost overuse this saying more than “I love dolphins,” but this really has been the BEST WEEK EVER! I am showering myself inBioShock, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Super Metroid, andThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Seriously, it doesn’t get any better than this.
Faith:Well, since I went to X’07 I’ve playedThe Simpsons, Stranglehold, Black Site: Area 51, Crash Bandicoot: Crash of the Titans, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Rock Band, ThrillvilleandLEGO Star Wars. I’ve also been playingFinal Fantasy I, Heroes of Mana, Brain Age, andCarcassonne. I think that is the most videogame titles I’ve ever played in one week.
Orcist:This week, I’m playing throughShadow of the Colossusand finally realizing what all the hubub was about. Believe the hype.
.tiff, sister of .harr:A dash ofMega Man Xhere and there. Re-enactingCastle Crasherswith my greenCastle Crashertoy and my pet cat. Revisiting my golden years of adventure gaming by way ofDay of the TentacleandSam and Max Hit the Road. And finally, making elaborate costume plans to be Laverne fromDOTTin the American flag tentacle outfit for Halloween. Win.
Wasn’t that inspiring? What have you been playing kids? The first one to tell me he/she has been reading all week gets a derisive sneer for mimicking back to me what I just mentioned in an effort to be clever.
