Get in the game

Oof, it’s been a little while. I’ve only just started, and yet I already find myself falling out of the habit. So, there’s only one thing to do, dive right back into it!

One of the reasons I keep getting derailed with the writing is with this wonderful retail schedule that I’m on, usually I arrive home from work at 7:30 the earliest, so I only have a few hours to unwind. And with so much content out there to consume, it’s hard to decide what to do with myself. But usually, I’ll find myself playing a video game. The tough decision for me usually is choosing between the Switch and PS4.

Like many people my age, I grew up a member of the Nintendo generation. I got my original NES for my fifth birthday, to the best of my recollection. Then of course, came the Gameboy, then the Super Nintendo, and eventually the Nintendo 64. Along the lines, I dipped my toe into the Sega sea with the Genesis, but my detour ended there (oh Sega, how could you get it so wrong?).

Around the time of the N64, though, I got the first Sony PlayStation as a gift, which came with a demo disc, including the demo for Metal Gear Solid, and everything changed from there (I’ll go further into my love of the Metal Gear Solid franchise another time). The Nintendo line lost my interest with its more family-friendly fare, and was firmly sucked into the world of PlayStation. So of course, I stuck with Sony for the next few generations.

Fast forward to 2018. After hanging out with one of my friends who has a Switch, I played it for the first time and really enjoyed it — after Nintendo had made so many…unique hardware innovations over the years, and also getting hit with a wave of nostalgia (I was hurting for some Mario Kart shenanigans in particular). Fortunately, I found myself a deal on the console WITH Mario Kart for Black Friday, and I was truly sucked in. I got my Mario on big time between Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Odyssey, just to start. But then I dove into the world of indie games, like Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight (no connection), Broforce, Dead Cells, and so…SO…many more.

After a couple of years of bouncing back and forth between the two, I needed a little something to spice up my gaming experience. For many years, the idea of VR seemed really pointless and just like a gimmick. I had briefly looked into it a couple of times, but there never seemed to be many games to justify getting it. But after getting into the game called Superhot and its sequel/followup, Superhot: MindControlDelete, I needed some more. It’s an addictive game, a strategy shooter where time only moves when you do. And as it turned out, there’s also a VR version of it.

With further research, I discovered that the PSVR has a bigger library of games available than I had known, and some that were said to be really great. Combine that with a few gift cards I had wasting away, and I caved and got myself the damn thing (of course, a month or so after getting my PSVR, Sony announced that they’ll be putting out a new version of the PSVR for the PS5, but I’m not there yet, so I guess it’s all good).

So now it always comes down to which one to play each night. Such a huge dilemma! Although, by this point, I need to be turning in so I can get up early and commit to my other discipline, running.

Ugh. I hate being disciplined.