My name is Adel, and I’m a video game addict.
I didn’t set out to have almost all the video game consoles on the market. It just happened. I used to have a Microsoft Xbox 360 and a Sony Playstation 3 before, and now I have them again. And I have a PS Vita and a Nintendo 3DS XL (upscaled from a 3DS).
And games. Games galore. All I need is a Wii, or better yet, a Wii U, and I’d be all set. And I’d have that if I had the slightest faith that motion-controlled gaming thing might eventually work out. I don’t. At least not yet. So none of that Xbox Kinect or PS Move nonsense for me.
I didn’t realize that I was making a small video game arcade until it was too late. Like I said, it just happened. Although most of the stuff that I got was second hand, mind you. I first got me a previously-used Nintendo 3DS over a year ago. It was selling, I didn’t realize at the time, for just slightly below the price of brand new. Well, it was fairly new in any case, so I kinda got off by the skin of my teeth. Then I got me some games. Mario Kart 7. Street Fighter IV. A bunch of others. The 3D effect was nice, but limited and limiting. The screen was too small and the handheld console was bulky. But I loved it just the same. I would later sell it and upgrade to a 3DS XL, which had much larger screens and a more attractive form factor, but that happened much, much later. (I sold the 3DS not too far off from the price I got it for, and added just a little to get a brand-new XL model.)
Then sometime later I got me a Sony Playstation Vita. Expensively, since it just came out (the one console I got brand-new—not counting the 3DS XL). Which, in retrospect, wasn’t the best decision I could have made. I guess the hype got the better of me.
I got the kit version of the Vita, with a game, memory and some accessories. The games were limited, and as of today, I still just have a couple—Uncharted: Golden Abyss, a Nathan Drake adventure, and Asphalt Injection, a racing game; I had bought Wipeout 2048 before but found it well nigh unplayable. I just couldn’t keep from banging into the corners. I sold it at a loss and bought the Asphalt thing to replace it. Better, but repetitive. Then I couldn’t find me any games I liked. Not a lot to choose from either. Right now, almost a year later, the PS Vita is gathering dust at home and is still waiting for the killer game that will make my investment worthwhile.
Then I got a slim Playstation 3 later in the year. I got it because of pleasant memories playing before …well, before my health problems intervened and I had to dispense with most of my game consoles. That, and the added attraction of having a Blu-ray player in the bargain, which the PS3 is also.
I went to a local second-hand gear site, and got a great deal for a used but serviceable PS 3. I got copies of some of my old games like Infamous, Fear, Motorstorm and Resistance 1 and 2, and then bought some of the newer ones like Battlefield 3, Journey, Need For Speed Most Wanted, Uncharted 3 and The Mass Effect Trilogy. I even bought some blu-ray movies and the PS3 remote that makes playing videos, DVDs and blu-rays bearable (using the controller was a bummer). I bumped up my flatscreen TV to a bigger model with three HDMI inputs, just for the PS3. I already had a need for one HDMI–for the Apple TV—and it was just right; my old flatscreen had just the one HDMI connection. Now the newer, bigger one’s got three! After the PS3, there was one extra HDMI connection, and that’s where the Xbox 360 comes in.
I hadn’t planned on getting an Xbox, actually. It was more of an afterthought. But I came across a good deal for a used, black Jasper unit that came with everything, including one free game—Call of Duty: Black Ops—but it didn’t have a hard disk. I weighed my options, had a little extra cash lying around, so I thought what the hell. I quickly scanned around for a hard disk and found an inexpensive new 250GB drive on the same website. Got some of the old used games I used to play and some of the newer ones like Borderlands 2, Halo 4 and COD: Black Ops 2, and lo and behold, before I realized it, I had a miniature arcade in the house.
There were some bonuses too. I can now connect my big iMac (on which I play Mac games too like Diablo III) and its sizable video, photo and music libraries to the PS3 and the Xbox via the (free) wifi Plex media server, since they’re all on the same home network. I can watch or listen to all my downloaded stuff from the big flatscreen TV on either. Movies, TV shows, music, podcasts, YouTube videos, nearly everything. (Although I tend to watch more using the PS3, since I bought the PS3 remote which makes using it as a video player much easier.) It’s much better then the restrictive Apple TV, which only allows a select number of formats and only plays them through iTunes.
Last month when the Nintendo Wii U came out, I thought about getting it too. Might as well, but honestly, there weren’t any games that appealed to me. There were some games that came out with a Wii U version, but they were also out for the other consoles, which had better graphics and gameplay (in my opinion).
I never considered getting a Nintendo Wii when it first came out—I found the appeal of motion-controlled gaming a little too tiring, so I left that alone. Video games are meant to be played in an armchair, and not standing up and swinging a racket or a club and jumping up and down and getting all sweated up. If I wanted to do that, I’d actually get out of the house and do it. That was why I hadn’t bothered with the Xbox Kinect or the PS Move. The bulk of the games that have come out for the Wii U wasn’t exactly my cup of tea either—most of them were for kids and were slightly immature.
Now that Nintendo had upped their tech to a Wii U, releasing it a month ago, I still wasn’t really attracted. The core technology was a generation below the PS3 and Xbox 360, and those were old consoles already. Splitting the action between your TV screen and a handheld console is a great idea for some, I suppose, but I was still grappling with the dual screen tech of the 3DS XL. It was a whole new ball game that didn’t seem worth it. (Besides, I was all out of HDMI inputs on the new TV. Again. I could get an HDMI switcher thingie, but a Wii U didn’t seem to deserve the effort.) Maybe I’ll give the tech a couple of generations to mature. Then we’ll see.
Meantime I’ve apparently cobbled together a small power-consuming monster in my bedroom, what with the big iMac and the three external hard drives, the home theater, the Apple TV, the PS3 and Xbox, the handheld consoles, the wifi router, the printer, various iPhone, iPad, Kindle and Android phone chargers and other stuff. (I gotta figure out an alternative way of giving them all power before I burn the house down.)
Again, my name is Adel, and I’m a video game addict.
