Confessions of a gamer

I´m not suprised if you´ve never heard of this game, it wasn´t a very populair game on the Playstation 2 about ten years ago. But for me it was a fun game to play, it´s also one of the first squad based games I´ve played. Sure I´ve played games where you´re in teams but I don´t think I´ve ever played a game before where you´re a part of a squad and you can assign orders to your other squad members. Of course in X-Squad that was quite simple and not that impressive if you compare it to modern games but it still left a good memory in my gaming years! You play as the leader of X-Squad and you have three other members in your team. They all have their own speciality and also favourite weapon. You have your infiltrator that likes to use a sniper rifle, a hacker with a smg and the heavy weapons specialist that prefers some serious fire power! You play as the leader of the squad and you can use whatever weapon you prefer. You often split up during missions and that makes it a bit more tough...

I could pretend to be a good teamplayer, but to be honest I´m not. I´m more of a lone wolf, I like to make my own decisions and my own choices in the game. This usually means not following others or working with others, but I do think that when it´s important that I´m there, I do try to be a part of the team but just in my own way. But what about you? Are you a good teamplayer? When I look at games like Left for Dead (and of course L4D 2) and Assassin´s Creed IV wolfpack then I can´t help but notice how some people are more eager to work against the team than with the team. Which is weird because you´re supposed to work together to get further, but maybe that´s why some people enjoy working against the team so nobody gets anywhere. I know that there are plenty of scumbags that have made an art of ruining other peoples experience in games, but that´s nothing to be proud of! Still some of these people that post videos of their retarded behaviour get a lot of attention, which says proba...

The Predator, you´re probably familiar with this creature that appeared in several movies. Unfortunately he (or maybe even she?) has never found true justice in a game, at least I don´t think games ever showed the fun it was to be the Predator. But there might be hope, there was a teaser in a CoD clip where you heard the noise the Predator makes and saw the type of camo he uses to mask himself appear on a CoD Ghosts map. Apparently he might be a part of the new dlc pack called Devastation. After getting Michael Myers I´m really hoping that this is true, because the Predator is one of my favourite alien creatures I´ve seen in a movie. A Predator is like the ultimate hunter and will keep going until he (or she?) wins or at least tries to take the other with him (or her?) when he (or she?) loses. What´s kind of creepy is that they can copy the voices they hear, which they use to confuse or intimidate their prey. Sometimes they even use it to lure someone into a trap, which is usually fa...

When you play in a team then it´s always a good idea to have a healer or at least someone that looks after the others. I know it´s not the most exciting job in a team but it´s often the most important, maybe that´s why a lot of people don´t want to be the healer because he or she will often get the blame for defeat. Which kind of makes you wonder, what´s so bad about being a healer? In a team full of damage dealers and tanks there is always a need for a healer, someone that keeps the others alive even when hell itself seems to be raining down on them. To stand there in the middle of a battle with the risk of his or her own life looking after others. That sounds very brave and interesting and yet a lot of people don´t want that because they think healing is boring. But is it boring? I´d say you´ll see plenty of action and by keeping your team alive you´ll probably get praise along with it, just remember that people will blame you if you fail to save them or if the team dies. It´s alwa...

Last week I talked about the collector, but do you know what works well with a collector? That´s right, a hunter! A hunter likes to earn achievements/trophies, you could say the full name would be achievement/trophy hunter. It´s not a suprise that a hunter and a collector are more often than not one and the same person but it doesn´t always have to be that way. Sometimes a hunter just likes to earn as many achievements/trophies as he or she can, but doesn´t really collect them. It´s more about trying to get as many as he or she can, not actually completing games or getting specific achievements/trophies like a collector most likely would. How do you recognize a hunter? * A hunter usually has a lot of games on his or her profile, not always completed though. * Most hunters have a high gamerscore compared to the years of gold membership. * If it purely for getting achievements then don´t be suprised to find a lot of single player games on their profile. * The same can be said...

I think there is a saying that it´s sometimes better to steal something good than to come up with something bad yourself, well I probably say it wrong in English but this is what it comes down to in Dutch. Of course I´m not a fan of stealing, but when you look at games then it´s indeed sometimes better to steal (maybe a better word is borrow?) a good idea from another game, then use that for your own game to make it better. When I look at Star Wars games I can´t say that it was all bad, I mean just look at Knights of the Old Republic which is one of my favourite games. But maybe the good thing about that game is that it has nothing to do with the movies, so the developers had a lot of freedom to create their own game. I seriously hope they´re going to do that as well with any new Star Wars games. Instead of just making some bad movie game, I´ve seen that happen so many times and nine out of ten times it´s not good! But originality isn´t always a key to succes, when I look at the Forc...

I´ve played for quite some years on my Xbox 360, I´m originally a Nintendo player that made the switch to Sony and then eventually found myself in the Microsoft ranks. My Xbox 360 is about seven and a half years old, it´s a good console and I don´t regret that I´ve never bought a Playstation 3. But now this new console, the Xbox One seems to undo all the good things the Xbox 360 stood for. I´m not being dramatic about some technical bullshit, I´m talking about something quite simple really. I would like to know when the console will launch here, the Netherlands, so I can buy one without having to import one and not getting a warranty on it. Something Microsoft first said that they would do but then suddenly they said they wouldn´t do it, which really makes me wonder. Microsoft, what are you doing? Ok I´m not going to pretend like I have all the answers and if I would be in charge of the whole Microsoft business then I´d probably suck even more but I take it the people there in char...

What can I say about Fable? Well a lot! But let me first start with how I actually moved from the Playstation to the Xbox, because that was thanks to Fable. I saw some screenshots of Fable and I just knew that I´d love this game, I was so upset that it didn´t launch on the Playstation and it really made me think about buying the Xbox. But should you buy a console just for one game? Probably not but I did it! Just so you know, I didn´t regret a thing! Fable let´s you play as a young boy that loses almost everything, he´s then invited to join the guild of heroes and you start your training as a hero. When you graduate you set out in the world and then you can decide if you want to do good or bad. I also love that your character will change into an angel or devil type depending on the choices you make. Instead of naming your character you can choose a title, you can buy these at vendors and then people will call you that. At first I didn´t know that and people kept calling me chicken ch...

I think most of us know that stealing is bad, of course that won´t stop some of us to do it anyway. As bad as it is in real life I say it´s not as bad in a game, but that doesn´t mean that it´s not a douchebag move. Stealing someone elses kill isn´t nice, especially if you stole it from someone that doesn´t have many kills in the game. Which makes me wonder, do you really need to steal someone elses kill? We all make mistakes, I mean sometimes you kill an enemy and didn´t realize that someone else was trying to do the same thing. I don´t see any reason to get mad over that, of course if that happens a lot then you might be a bit upset. Especially if you´re having trouble with a game, I´d say every succes you have is a small victory for you. But when people take that away from you then it´s not a suprise to me that you get annoyed by that. The worst part is when people do that on purpose, now you might think that people wouldn´t do that on purpose but unfortunately some people actuall...

Sony and Microsoft have consoles that attract people to them, usually people choose on of the two but sometimes there are people that buy both consoles. But is it really a good thing to have multiple consoles available? Wouldn´t it be better if there would just be one console and that all games are available on that console? Do you really need competition? I think that competition does bring some good things to the table. For example you have better prices for consoles and games, because thanks to the price of the Playstation 4 the Xbox One is kind of forced to become cheaper if they want to compete. Without the Playstation 4 the price of the Xbox One will probably stay the same for quite some time. The same counts for games, which also has something to do with certain shops where they want to offer games as cheap as possible to make certain you buy your games at a certain store. So in the perspective of money it´s a good thing, because competition usually brings prices down to make ...

I love games like Assassin´s Creed, they tell you a bit about the history of the world but then in a different way with their characters running through them. Which might seem stupid to some but it´s interesting to anyone with an open mind. I mean haven´t you ever wondered about what would have happened if George Washington did turn into a tyrant? In Assassin´s Creed III dlc you can find out! Something I also like in Assassin´s Creed games is that you meet historical figures, sometimes exactly as you might expect them to be and sometimes they´re a complete suprise. Some will become your friend and others will be your enemy. I do wish you had a bit more options with this, for example choose your side instead of being forced to walk a linear path. I mean wouldn´t it be nice to be on the side of the templars? I really liked playing as Haytham in Assassin´s Creed III, that was actually a pleasant suprise and I hope you´ll get another chance to play as a templar in the next Assassin´s Cre...

Of course I´m not talking about just any type of collector, I´m talking about a game collector. I have over sixty games for the Xbox 360 and about fifty for the Playstation 2, but does that make me a collector? No I don´t think so, when I´m talking about a game collector then this is someone that has hundreds of games! That seems unlikely to some but then again not everyone is a collector... How do you recognize a collector? * The large number of played games should give it away, they don´t have to be completed though. * Often a high gamer score points towards a large collection of games. * A collector plays more often single player games, so you can find those on his or her profile. * A collector isn´t just tied to one console or one generation of consoles, they have multiple consoles from different types of generations in game history! Things you might not know about a collector: - A collector likes to collect games, but some of them also love to increase their game...

Do you already know about which game I´m talking? Yes Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Don´t get me wrong, I´m very excited about this game and I´d love to play MGS V: the Phantom Pain but it´s not about how excited I am about this game. It´s about the price you have to pay for just one mission. Ok in a way a lot of MGS games are usually just one mission that goes wrong and then you take much longer than expected, but I get the feeling that MGS V: Ground Zeroes is about the size of the part you play as Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. As you know this isn´t that much, actually you played almost the entire mission on the demo, which probably says a lot about that. Some of you might think that thirty Euros isn´t that much for a game, no it´s not much for a game but for a glorified demo I think it´s a bit much, because there are plenty of games out there that you buy for thirty Euros and that will keep you busy a lot longer than MGS V: Ground Zeroes. Why couldn´t MG...

In all the games you´ve played which weapon would you consider to be the best? I doubt that you´ll get one weapon that will rise above all others but maybe thanks to some popularity of certain characters I wouldn´t be suprised if it´s going to be a Final Fantasy weapon, to be more specific probably a Final Fantasy VII weapon. Wether you´re a Cloud fan with his buster sword or a Sephiroth fan with his katana (Masamune), I think both swords look quite awesome. But is that all you can think of when you think of the ultimate weapon? Guns are weapons, why aren´t they more populair in games? I guess the problem with guns is that they seem to be everywhere and usually when you hear about a gun in the news then it´s nothing good, I know that there are some gun nuts out there and if it´s pure for a collection then I have no problems with that. Unfortunately there are also people that like to use guns, which doesn´t have to be a problem but sometimes they use guns on people and that´s quite un...

Was GTA III also your first GTA game? A friend of mine gave this game to me and I couldn´t help but like this game a lot from the moment I started playing it. As a prisoner on the run from the police on a rainy night, talk about a perfect setting for a cool game! At this moment I didn´t realize that the main character would never speak but that didn´t make it less awesome, this 3D world was perfect and I love that you can make your own choice which missions you want to play first. It might not seem so special now but back then it was something different, I think a lot of people played GTA III and loved it because it gave them so much freedom to do (bad) things. What´s up with the main character? Apparently his name is Claude, I don´t think I´ve ever heard anyone say his name in the game and he definately doesn´t say a thing in the entire game. Back then I didn´t care that much about that, I mean I played so many games where the main character wouldn´t say much or not anything at all ...

This is nothing new, at least I´ve heard about this before. But do you know that this also happens in the world of games? People that claim that they´ve earned certain achievement or did something amazing while it was someone else that got it for them. It seems weird but it happens, but you might wonder why someone would do that. I guess the answer isn´t that difficult, because someone people are just that type of person to take credit for someone elses work! I like achievements, it´s like a checklist in a game to see the things I´ve done and also other people can see that I´ve done that. So whenever someone doesn´t believe you that you completed a game on the hardest difficulty then they can see the achievement on your profile. But then there are people that don´t believe that you got that achievement, they say that someone else must have gotten it for you. Ah there is never a lack of distrust in the world, it seems it´s easier to not believe someone than to believe someone. To be h...

In a lot of games your character talks for you, in some games you select what your character says and then you have games where your character doesn´t say anything at all. It seems this is what we have to deal with, because the input you can have with your own voice is quite limited. But what if that would be different? In this modern time with technology that seems to be able to do so much already, why isn´t there a game that works with your voice? For example you choose what you say against your companions or anyone else in the game, your voice is the voice of the character and it would be even more fun if you can actually decide what you say. Of course that would be quite difficult to make such a game, so it´s not weird that you´d have to say the options you get. At the same time people who don´t speak English that well can learn from this, which at the same time can pose a problem to those who have trouble speaking English and the game might have trouble understanding what you sa...

When you play games with others then cheating is usually not the first thing on your mind, because as much as you want to win you probably want to win fair and square! Usually between friends there is enough trust, so nobody really suspects the other of cheating. Of course if someone keeps winning in an unbelievable way then that does raise some suspicion. But what about playing against strangers? Then you have no idea what they do or use, I guess we all just trust that we all play fair but unfortunately that´s not always true. But what makes you a cheater? I think it´s obvious that when you use certain codes that make you kill faster, invulnerable or invisible that you´re cheating. There is no doubt or question when it comes to that. But what if you use something else that gives you an advantage? For example a scuf controller or kontrol freek sticks on your controller? A lot of people seem to be eager to get that hardware to get an advantage on other players, but isn´t that cheating...

I think most of us know what a troll is, if not then I´m not talking about a mythological creature but people that seem to enjoy annoying other people. A troll doesn´t always introduce himself or herself as a troll, often they pretend to be a bit dumb and sometimes act like they´re someone else. Which means that people aren´t always aware that they´re dealing with a troll, which can be quite amusing for a troll. But why does a troll do these things? Who knows? Maybe a troll is someone that is bored and sees this as something to pass the time, but it could also be that they´re just doing this for fun. I don´t think you always need a reason to behave the way you do, I do know that a troll is hated with a passion (at least by some people, others actually find it funny to see a troll in action). How do you recognize a troll? * An obvious troll is obvious, do I need to say more? * When someone does his or her best to get you upset, then it´s often safe to say that...

I can´t help but think that whenever a famous youtuber enters a multiplayer match that all guns are aimed at him or her, even his or her team mates will probably try to be around that person hoping to be in a video or perhaps just to annoy the crap out of that person. Just watch the videos of a popular youtuber where he or she plays with random people in a multiplayer match, there is almost a guarantee that this person isn´t left alone. It can be quite annoying but the real question is why do people behave like this? When you see a famous movie star do you go to that person and ask for an autograph and/or maybe even a picture? It´s nothing new really, thousands of years ago people behaved like this towards certain people and they´ll probably keep doing that long after we´re gone. Heroes in the old times like Achilles were living legends, but later the people that worshipped them (for example Alexander the Great) became living legends themselves, of course that´s quite rare but it...

This might seem odd to you, especially if you know that I don´t have a Xbox One (yet) and the Xbox 360 version of Titanfall launches about two weeks from now, but I´d like to talk a bit about Titanfall. How can you talk about a game you haven´t played? Well I´ve seen videos and of course I have my own personal opinion from what I see, none of that is actually worth much as long as I haven´t actually played it but I do want to put another spotlight on Titanfall because the game looks awesome! What´s so special about Titanfall? I think people give this game so many different descriptions but I think the combo of CoD and Halo comes pretty close, of course it´s more than that but it kind of gives you an idea what type of game this is. What I like about Titanfall is that it´s fast, ok you also die fast but I think CoD Ghosts made me get used to that so it doesn´t trouble me that much anymore. In Halo 4 you could sometimes enter a Mantis (a type of robot you could sit in and destroy enemie...

I think it´s safe to say that this game is one of my favourite online multiplayer games, because it´s so much fun! It´s easy to play and usually annoying people seem to avoid this game, I´m talking about the wannabe MLG crowd. Most games I´ve played were a lot of fun and even when you lose you can have a great time! What makes this game so special? I think it´s the different types of classes and of course the humour in this game that makes it so much fun. This game isn´t serious, so I doubt that the people that play this game are that serious either. Which means more fun and less drama, I think that´s always a good thing for a game! Because there are so many different classes, a total of nine, there is always a class for you. If you suck at being a sniper then you can be a soldier and just blow enemies to pieces, if you prefer to defend instead of attacking you can be an engineer and if you like healing instead of killing you can be a doctor. Whatever works for you this game probably...

When you play a game then there is always a good chance that you lose, so if you don´t want to lose then perhaps you shouldn´t play games! I think even when you´re a bad loser you still like to play games, but you´ll probably do your best not to lose. Even if you do your best then there is always a chance that you lose and that´s when that bad side of yours well come into action. I´m a terrible loser, I hate it and I´ll probably be the most annoying and biggest scumbag you can imagine when I lose. Which can be hilarious for other players to see and hear but it can also be quite unpleasant to see someone go mad over nothing. Of course I know deep inside that it doesn´t matter if you win or lose, it´s just a game and games are meant to be fun. It´s just the moment that I lose or when something goes wrong there is this chemical in my mind that fills me with rage and I often show this is the most ugly way (which means both vocal and physical abuse to myself and others). It´s nothing new ...

If you played games since the late 80´s and early 90´s then you´re probably not unfamiliar with being accused of being a nerd because you play video games. Back then it wasn´t cool to play video games, which usually meant a lot of kids wouldn´t talk about it openly and often keep their game adventures to themselves. I don´t want to make it sound as if it was horrible to be a gamer in that time but things are completely different now. Because now you´re a loser if you don´t play video games, there are console wars and people attack eachother online over the most stupid things. It seems some things change and some things will never change! To answer the question if video games are for nerds then you first have to determine what a nerd is, because I think we all know the revenge of the nerds movies and I don´t think that those movies represent nerds (at least not all of them). The visual representation of a nerd has changed, at least for some of us. At first a nerd would be someone who ...

If you have friends that play games just like you then it´s not weird that they influence you, because you probably want to play with your friends and that means that sometimes you´d buy games you normally wouldn´t buy. For example a game that has a co-op or that only has a multiplayer mode. If you don´t have any friends that play games then you´ll feel less likely to buy one of these games, because playing solo in multiplayer isn´t always that much fun. It´s not a suprise that you often see friends playing together in co-op or multiplayer games. Sometimes friends can even influence you to try a whole new genre, for me that happened with survival horror games. I first played Nintendo games on the NES and SNES so I didn´t had much experience with survival horror games. But when I bought a Playstation a friend of mine told me about Resident Evil and Silent Hill, I borrowed both games from him and I loved playing those games. It´s thanks to that friend that I actually started playing su...

I think we´ve all seen fan boys/girls in youtube comments, often they furiously defend a game or console when someone else is talking shit about it. But more often than not they also appear in the comments of a video that is from a rival console or another game, but they try to promote their console or game to be assholes or just because they have nothing better to do. Which makes you wonder, are fan boys/girls idiots? I don´t think you can all call them that, because there is nothing wrong with being a fan of something but when you have to harass other people with that then you´re behaving as an idiot! How do you recognize a fan boy/girl? * Usually in the name or gamertag you can recognize them, but there are also a lot of trolls that pretend to be a fan boy/girl! * You find a lot of fan boys/girls in the comment section of CoD or BF videos, somehow they´re drawn to that. * A lot of fan boys/girls often play only a certain type of genre or a certain group of games. * A...

For everyone with an Xbox One there is nothing to worry about, apparently if you have the new console you get everything you want exactly when you expect it. But what if you can´t afford the Xbox One or the Xbox One hasn´t launched in your country yet? Then you´re dealing with some serious bullshit because the game Titanfall will launch more than two weeks later! I know I talked about that it´s not a bad idea to buy a game for your current console if you haven´t upgraded to the newest generation of consoles, but when I see this type of behaviour from the genius that came up with this idea then I really feel like it´s a subtle way of saying that you need to buy the new console. The new console gets the priority? In a way that makes sense, but I find it ridiculous that you get treated as if your console doesn´t matter anymore. I´m familiar that sometimes the dates are a bit different between certain regions, in Europe we usually fall behind a couple of days with North America or Asia. ...

For everyone that lives in a country where the Xbox One isn´t available yet this seems like a good idea, because it´s unfair that we all have to wait so long for a console that has been launched in other countries months ago! But is it a good idea? Because I can´t help but have this feeling that it might not be a good idea to import it as it could give you problems with games you buy that are made for the Xbox One that will launch in your country. Well maybe I´m just talking stupid here, I don´t know but I can´t help but have a bad feeling about this. Why would Microsoft not launch the Xbox One in certain countries if it´s ok to just import one and play your games on that console? I mean they could´ve just launched the English version in most countries and then later you could get an update that gives you the option to put everything in your own language. It seems simple but somehow I got the feeling that it´s not, because why else do we have to wait this long for the Xbox One to lau...

Have you ever played this game on the Xbox? Yes I´m talking about the first Xbox and not the Xbox One, ah let´s just assume you know what I mean. Mercenaries is one of those games that could´ve been great but turned out to be a bit mediocre, which isn´t a bad thing but still I feel like it could´ve been so much better. Because the things you can do in that game are a lot of fun and choosing your own main character is also nice, eventhough I would prefer to create my own character. But the freedom you have in this game is in my opinion the biggest strength of this game. Do what you want whenever you want to do it? That´s one way of saying it, because you choose your own missions and there are often multiple ways of completing a mission. You can use stealth or go in guns blazing! But you can also call in support or just drop a bomb from the sky on a base to clean up some scumbags. When you´re low on health you can order a support package that will heal you and give you some ammo, which...

When I first started playing games on the NES I was always the hero, I loved being the hero and to save the day. I can´t really say what changed that but puberty made me a bit different, I didn´t feel like I wanted to be the hero anymore and it was just more fun to be the villain. It started quite subtle with me playing as 006 in Goldeneye on the N64, with my dirty tactics I beat so many of my friends which often got me a lot of hate. Don´t worry, hate among friends in a game never lasts that long. But what makes it so much fun to play as the villain? For me it´s that you don´t have rules, of course not every game gives you the chance to be a villain and do whatever you want but sometimes there are certain games that let you do some crazy things. I guess in the Saints Row games you´re not exactly a good guy but does that make you a villain? Whatever it is you think you are, you get to do some crazy things and you get away with it! Which is nice for a change, because seeing so many mo...

I´ve heard people say a lot of times that the world is a world for men, but what about the world of games? Probably at first people considered it a world for men but women have certainly found their way in this world as well. But what about the developers? How do they look at growing number of women that play games? Do games now have more kick ass female main characters or do we still have to rescue a princess from a castle? A main female character has to be sexy? Not that there is anything wrong with being sexy but I think some people might prefer just your casual or cool female character than a woman that hardly has any clothes on. Well people might have different opinions about this but some games show women in fantasy outfits and that´s not really a punishment for a guy to play such a game, but I wonder how women look at that because I don´t think they´re always that happy that someone of their gender is portrayed like that. It often makes me wonder if developers just make games ...