vrage

You know what’s sad? This is my first despite the fact that I’ve been a loyal reader since the days of Dune II and WarCroft II: Tides of Darkness (heck. I’ve even looked up the magazine’s Wikipedia entry). So, why now? I’ve got so many things that I’d like to say, but after playing Counter-Strike: Source recently, I concluded that the CS Beta 4 was far superior. The graphics got better, but now the game is 1.5GB instead of 40MB, and it’s not worth wasting your time. The million-plus CS.’ Source players would probably disagree with me, but here’s what I’ve been wondering: Here I am, a professional “adult” in the work force for about four years now. Maybe games haven’t changed so much. Maybe its me that’s changed.

Maybe a marriage, a mortgage, a long commute, a government cubicle, and the process of becoming a soulless adult have al! conspired to take away that childish wonder I had when I first made it to the Xen level in Half-Life. Or when I sat in church designing WarCroft II maps on the back of the bulletin or dreamed up the ultimate weapon-versusheatsink configuration in MechWarrior 2 or got my first knife kill in CS.

But I’m not giving up on computer games yet. For the past decade, I’ve read about how PC games are dying…and they haven’t died yet. Crysis is at the top of my Christmas list this year and I dropped the cash for a DXlO-ready card despite the fact that the $400 could’ve been worth millions in my 401(k) someday, had I invested it. I guess I’m not a soulless cubicle dweller after all. Maybe my priorities are still in the right place.