I’ve now picked up the 3rd piece of the next-generation puzzle with the Xbox One. It’s undeniably exciting to watch these virtual worlds get upgraded with slick new coats of paint and I’m thrilled at advances in motion and voice control as we enter a new era for the home console. But, at the same time there’s a sadness that comes with one generation passing into the new and as excited as I to see what developers churn out with this new generation of hardware, I had some amazing times in the last generation. So, before I lay my old consoles to rest for a while, let’s take a look at some of my favorite videogame moments from that timeframe.
Call of Duty 2′s Smoke Grenades
I’ll never forget popping in Call of Duty 2 for the first time. I was initially skeptical that 360 games would look too much different from the previous generation and despite the clarity of the presentation I wasn’t yet convinced I was seeing the next big thing. That is, until I saw the smoke grenades in action. Something about the animation and how much more realistic it looked than anything I’d seen in the PS2 or Xbox era let me know that this launch title was just an appetizer of the kinds of visual wonder that would be coming later on.
Even back in 2005 Call of Duty 2 wasn’t the prettiest game around but on a console it did have a certain clarity to it that hadn’t been seen yet on the platform. Little touches here and there like rising smoke or the glare on an eyepiece let you know that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Those tiny details proved immense though in getting me excited for the possibilities and the gameplay in Call of Duty 2 was no slouch either.
Conquering Plastic Instruments
While the rhythm game fad has long faded here in the states (or at least lost a considerable amount of steam) Guitar Hero and Rock Band were dominating in the early part of the generation. Before the series devlolved into a bland routine of releases, Guitar Hero was an utter sensation for a short while.
Learning to move up to expert was one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The orange button was a beast to get used to. Making the transition from awkwardly straining to reach it with your pinky for fear of losing your fingering to building the speed that would allow you to simply shift your hand the extra two inches was a blast. The second it clicked you could move confidently down the list to some of those more difficult songs and forever be bored to tears at the prospect of playing on medium or even hard in many cases.
It wasn’t just the grind against the machine, but the fun I had with so many of my friends. Dueling in Guitar Hero World Tour was fun enough on its own but then Rock Band upped the ante with 4-player options that took living room rockstars to a whole new level. I wasn’t quite as fond of the interface as Guitar Hero but nonetheless enjoyed my fair amount of drunken Saturday nights with friends all hammering away at their faux-instruments while slurring out off-key renditions of Radar Love.
Of course like the console generation itself the Guitar Hero craze would eventually come to its end but it was a great run. So great, in fact that I can’t even listen to songs like Reptilia or When You Were Young without getting nostalgic for some of those times. I actually played a round of Bulls on Parade at a Dave and Buster’s recently out of pure curiosity and even with the added weight of the arcade machine’s heftier guitar I was still able to pound out over 90% on expert. Good times.
Borderlands with Dad
It’s rare that our gaming habits sync up but when they do the result is fantastic. Don’t get me wrong- My Dad and I have exceedingly similar tastest in the games we play but we just approach them differently. I’ll bounce from one new release to the next without (usually) much hunger to beat a game in its entirety as my sense of delight stems from the experience each game offers. Gaming’s very much a buffet for me where I’ll sample nearly everything but return to staples of my palate only on occasion.
My Dad on the other hand enjoys a kind of razor-sharp focus when it comes to games. The second he finds one he likes it’s as if no other video game existed in the history of man. He’ll play it inside and out on each difficulty until his skill at the thing is nothing short of mastery. When I picked up a copy of Fallout: New Vegas for him on a whim pre-owned for eleven dollars I had no idea that it would keep him obsessed for nearly 6 months straight.
Borderlands was one of those rare crossover moments though where night after night we’d jump on Xbox Live and play a few hours with each other in our lust for new loot and their most coveted green colored numbers. I loved it for the humor and cel-shaded graphics and Dad was obsessed with each and every new firearm, carefully examining its stats and properties to ensure he was as dangerous as possible to as many foes as possible at any point in time.
It’s pretty lame I can’t just hit up my folks any given day to go grab dinner or see a movie and Xbox Live has been a fantastic avenue for us to stay connected even though we’re geographically so spread out. Here’s hoping the next Borderlands for Dad and I won’t be far off.
Camping out for the Wii
Say what you will about Nintendo’s last two consoles in terms of graphical horsepower but the wii was an undeniable hit. Surprisingly the weird name was only a bad joke for a second.
I picked mine up at launch thanks to an early pre-order, but a good friend of mine wasn’t so forward thinking. Curiously there wasn’t a midnight launch at our local Best Buy so what were we to do? Set up a tent outside of our local Best Buy, get toasty on Goldschlager (it was college-ish, ok?) and brave the cold November night all the way until an 8:00AM store opening.
While 3 dudes holing up in a tent on the sidewalk with a line full of hopeful parents hoping to get the hot Christmas item this year wasn’t strange enough, laughter erupted in the line when we all fired up our Nintendo DSes for some Elite Beat Agent action only to have the first song, YMCA start blaring through the nylon.
The first time all of us fired up my Wii it was magical. 1:1 motion tracking wasn’t there yet but it showed a ton of potential and was a sound indicator that Nintendo still knew how to cut to the inner-child of the portion of its fanbase that was growing up.
The Halls of Rapture
I’m sure I’ve chronicled my first experience with Bioshock before but I’ll tell it again in case it was too far back.
Driving home one day from work I decided it was time to pick up a new game. It’d been a busy week and I wasn’t sure what new releases were out. I called my local Gamestop and they told me ‘that Bioshock game’ had just come out. I asked if they had any left and they said they had an extra collector’s edition if I wanted it for a few dollars more. I said sure and picked it up.
As soon as I got it home I wasn’t overly impressed with the collector’s edition. A strange little diver man didn’t seem all that amazing. But I put the game in with absolutely zero knowledge of what it was about and would end up experiencing one of the greatest video game narratives ever completed. It dripped with atmosphere, had a host of compelling characters, and gameplay that stayed fun throughout. Rapture was a place I’d visit over and over again and the series continued to get (mostly) better and better.
Bring on the New
I’m sure if I set my mind to it I could name dozens of moments from that 2005-2013 period. Afterall there were a LOT of great games these past 8 years or so and it’s insane to think that console generations last that long now. But, these were five I held especially dear and I’m looking forward to even more in this generation.
What were some of your best gaming memories on the 360, PS3, and Wii?