My, what a difference a generation makes.
A console generation, in the case of Sony's
PlayStation 4. After a well-crafted press
event at E3, Sony's console has even Xbox
diehards peering over the fence - and me
too. It took Sony's bold offensive approach
to the future of gaming to make me
remember, but it all came crashing back.
(See also: PS4 vs. Xbox One: Who Will
Win The Living Room? )
I'm a PlayStation fangirl. And until this
week, I had altogether forgotten myself.
A Simpler, More Pixelated Time
Back when life was simpler and populated
by considerably fewer bits, I owned a
PlayStation.
It wasn't my first console (My
dad bought me a Nintendo for making
straight As in the first grade. Later, the
Sega Genesis and I had more than a casual
dalliance) but it became my special portal
into the sprawling fantasy worlds that
absorbed my attention in a way that then-
understimulating environment seldom did.
In 1995, Sony's new console was a cutting
edge slab of hardware. My first games were
terrible and few. I spent a disproportionate
amount of time playing kind of awful titles,
but it didn't matter - ESPN Extreme
Games and its jerky control system had me
occupied for months.
Worse, I may be the only person to have
ever played Bubsy 3D - a perennial favorite
on "worst video games ever made" lists - to
completion, which inspired in me both a
feeling of closure and a vast relief that I'd
never have to look at the jagged platforms
of its awkward 3D hellworld ever again.
But with the PlayStation's hardware chops,
3D worlds were immersive in an entirely
new way. Bubsy 3D was a particularly
cruel embodiment of the growing pains
from side-scrolling 2D gaming to 3D
gaming, but something about moving
around on that extra axis gripped me
nonetheless.
In 1999, my mind was blown again. On a
whim, I rented Final Fantasy VIII from the
gas station that I could walk to at the front
of my neighborhood. And as anyone who's
ever played a Final Fantasy title knows, it
isn't the kind of game you rent . After a
bleary-eyed 48 hours with my new
PlayStation gem, I reluctantly pushed it into
the returns slot.
That day, my love of gaming turned a new,
more mature leaf - one with more side
quests and sleepless nights. From that point
on, the PlayStation became synonymous
with the open-world gaming that made my
imagination itch .
A Gaming Dark Age - And A
Renaissance
My love of gaming flourished for a while,
but the summer before I started high school,
I quit playing cold turkey. Video games
didn't seem like a thing that girls did -
straight ones, anyway - so I tried to reinvest
my energies elsewhere, like shuffling
listlessly around the mall. That seemed
more socially acceptable than obsessing
over plain text online RPG strategy guides
and flawlessly executed boss battles.
So I did normal girl stuff, casting sidelong,
apologetic glances at my trusty PlayStation,
quietly collecting dust on the shelf it'd
rested on for years.
Fast forward to college. No longer boxed in
by the social mores of being 16-ish, my
passion for gaming was back on. I'd moved
to New York for school and started dabbling
in World of Warcraft after a few friends
introduced me to the whole online RPG
phenomenon , but my nostalgia for the
PlayStation still burned bright.
By winter break of my sophomore year,
with falling snow turning to grayish sludge,
I made my 15-block pilgrimage to the used
games store on Broadway where I bought a
slightly worse-for-wear PlayStation 2. My
then-girlfriend and I holed up in my dorm
for days on end with that thing. We never
had the newest games, but we loved
whatever we played.
By 2008, we were still dutifully playing it
in our East Village apartment, wrapping up
elaborate quests for rare items on rainy
days when we didn't have work or school.
To The Dark (Green) Side And
Back Again
By 2009, I was a full console generation
behind and suddenly faced with a choice. I
was a PlayStation person — PS games
renewed my love in vast, imaginary worlds
time and time again. But it was the seventh
generation of gaming consoles, and now
people were playing with and against each
other, all online.
In the end, I betrayed my deep PlayStation
roots and bought an Xbox 360. All of my
friends were playing on a thing called Xbox
Live, and the PlayStation was a hundred
bucks more expensive anyway. I bought a
360, but to this day, it's never felt quite
right. The console feels designed around
shooters and Kinect-era casual games
rather than the kind of epic titles, like the
Final Fantasy series, that lured me in way
back when.
Now, on the eve of the next-gen PS4 and
Xbox One, the choice seems just as clear
again. Impressed as I am the bells and
whistles of Microsoft's living room
conquistador, Sony nailed it on price
($399), DRM (none) and the meat of what
matters to its core gamer demographic
(gaming).
I may have skipped a PlayStation
generation, but from the looks of things, I
should be headed home soon.
PS4 and controller images courtesty of Sony;
Final Fantasy image courtesy of Square-Enix;
World of Warcraft image courtesy of
Blizzard; PC gaming image by Taylor
Hatmaker
Machapisho
Hakuna maoni:
Chapisha Maoni