I remember my first video game console like it was yesterday... I was probably around 6 or so when I go my cousins old game boy and his game gear. The story surrounding it is a little weird but from what I remember he sent it over seas ( he was living in Kenya, I believe at the time). But I remember my dad bringing it home and giving it to me and my little brother. I was in awe I had never seen anything like this before, I was hooked. God, thinking back the games I played... They just don't make anything like that anymore lol. Well I remember when I first got the game boy it came with about 4 games, I think they were tetris (which i hated lol, I was 6 gimme a break o_0), operation c which was a contra port, Teenage mutant ninja turtles, and some japanese wrestling game( I could not figure out the title, because it didn't have a label and was all in japanese and super mario land. When I first got it my favorite game was TMNT and operation C they were so much fun for a little kid, I remember passing the game boy between me and my little brother when we died. Then my dad took a look at the games and say that they were kinda violent so he took my two favorite games away. I was really sad about this but for some reason my mom didn't like that my dad had taken them so she let us play when he was gone. Then i got pokemon and shit got real. For some reason I got red version when my favorite color was and always had been blue. I remember playing that for hours on end and getting my party all the way to level 100, I thought I was the coolest kid ever lol. All the while do I had my game gear which I played from time to time. I don't really remember what I played to much but all I remember is how bad the battery life on it was and how mad my mom got when we asked for batteries for it. We progressed to the game boy color over time, but I didn't get a console until about 4th grade.
Then I got my first console I remember it so fondly.... It was 4th grade and the gamecube was coming out. I was so excited to get my first console. I remember my dad telling me that I should get a ps2 or an xbox but I was set on a gamecube because of my game boy. I remember wanting to go with my dad to go get it in the morning but I wasn't able to because my mom wouldn't allow it. So my dad went all by himself to go get it at like 5 in the morning. When it got home me and my brother immedialty set it up with the help of my mom on our old wood encased tv, this thing was hung I mean I still have the wood shell for some reason and Its fucking enormous. So me and my brother set out to play our first console game, Luigi's Mansion. The funny thing was that we didn't buy a memory card so we had to just play and turn it off and restart when we wanted to play again. So me and my little brother played Luigis mansion until chirstmas and then we got two new games. Pikmin and Waverace: Blue Storm. I had wanted SSX tricky but I was ok with waverace. At this time I had gotten a subscription to nintendo power, and then I saw it.... Super Smash Brothers Melee. I wanted it more than any other game ever at that time. But there was a problem and to this day it still bugs me. SSBM was rated teen and for some reason my mom had gone from the cool parent to the protective parent and would not let me get it. I can honestly say that not being able to play it depressed me. It was so hard to hear all my friends talk about it and I couldnt do anything about it and it sucked that since I read nintendo power I saw that SSBM took like every GOTY award in nintendo power. Eventually when I was about 12 I got SSBM, and I looked at my game play time about a year ago... I think it was at 1000 hours or so. My brother and I played the shit out of that game. It was just 1v1 and he was marth and I was link and we would go at it for hours upon hours. All the while we had been getting more and more games each we played a ton. Ones that really stick out in my mind right now are: James Bond Nightfire, Tales of Symphonia (where Son of Gnome comes from), Chibi Robo, Battalion Wars, SSX tricky, Wind Waker(to this day my favorite zelda game), and so many more.
At this time I remember the xbox and Halo had just come out. My parents split up shortly after and my dad decided to buy me and my brother an xbox to play at his house. The first game we got for that was Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. There was a catch however, we wanted to play Halo. My mom being the protective parent she is would not have it, so I was stuck playing it my friends house on weekends. Then I was able to convince my mom to let us work for it and we were finally able to play halo and my God did we play halo... Since it was only the two of us we would just play the campaign over and over again. We even beat it on Legendary mode lol we thought we were so cool. I never really got into xbox live on the original xbox but I had heard about it and wished I could do it but it was no much work to figure out for a 11 year old so we moved on. God the xbox was so much fun I remember playing Halo 1 and 2 a ton, and a little medal of honor. Other than that we didn't really play a ton.
The gamecube and xbox had gotten us through our early years but now shit was getting really. The next gen consoles were coming out. I remember seeing Cod2 on 360 being previewed at the target where my dad worked and I was in shock about how it looked. The 360 was like 300ish bucks so there was no way I could get it first day. Then I saw that the wii was coming out and I decided to save with my brother ( mostly me) to go buy it first day. This time however I had to camp out for the thing, so I was in 9th grade at the time so I got my lawn chair a and a blanket and a 12 pack of vault and camped out in front of target. Turns out we had a record cold that night and I spent it in front of target waiting for a wii. I was able to get my wii first day with 2 games. Red Steel and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. I played the crap out of Twilight Princess but I never played it as much as I did Wind waker. Another funny thing happened when I got my wii. I had always wanted Resident Evil 4 and they remade it for wii. So i asked my mom to get it and she did the classic parent I will think about it excuse. I was able to finally get it about 2 years later on the day I got my license... Really sad I know but I got it and I loved it. It is probably one of my favorite games, as soon as I beat it the first time I played it a second time right after...
About a year after I got my xbox 360 to play halo 3. Since it was an M game I had to keep it at my dads house, but I got halo 3 and like halo 1 and 2 before It i played the crap out of it beating it on legendary getting all the skulls. I wanted hayabusa armor lol. Then magic happened... I got Call of Duty 4, I had played the other call of dutys on gamecube and wii but this was different. This was modern warfare. I got it I believe a day or 2 after it came out and OMG I had never played a game more up to that time, my brother and I would just play the story mode over and over again. We even beat it on veteran mode, which is a bitch FYI. However we would not get live until about a year later my dad and I couldnt figure it out. His friend would help us and we got live and I came up with my handle Son of Gnome. At this time I was playing so much COD4 I was able to convince my mom to let me bring the 360 home, so basically for a while it was straight cod all the time. Damn I played that game so much, and that game means so much to me... I still remember all the people I played with by gamertag and what they did best in the game. Eventually my friend and I would race to 10th persitge he would win because I switched to WAW for about a month, but we would both hit 10th eventually. But basically that was the game we played until I began pc gaming in like 2008 2009. I did play MW2 but I hated all the glitches and bull shit and it didnt have the same magic that Cod4 for me. But in terms of 360 I still play it for exclusives and such. I played a ton of GOW2, GTA4, fallout 3, and so many others. GTA4 I would just run around in multiplayer with my friends and do all kinds of shit.
Eventually I got a ps3 for the exclusives. I played the basic ps3 games, God of war and such. My favorites for ps3 however were uncharted 2 which I played in one sitting, its so good lol and heavy rain. Im going to go on a bit of a tangent for heavy rain. If you have not played it, I cant recommend it enough. Honestly I have played a ton of video games, but that is one of the few that were able to make me just cry. It is such a moving a powerful game after playing that game I kinda decided that for a job that I wanted to try and make people feel the emotion I feel when I play games and the best example of that I can give is heavy rain. It is such an underrated gem, I mean it may not be the game for the average madden or cod player but if you want to feel emotion and see art in a video game try it.
My pc gaming started completely by chance. My best friend decided that he wanted a gaming pc for some reason so he got one for his birthday. I was sad when this happened because he had played cod4 with me before and I wanted that to continue. I then browsed craiglist for a bit and I found a great deal on a gaming computer for 300 bucks so I jumped on that and put another 200 bucks into upgrades and I had my gaming computer. I began just playing random games and mostly using it for browsing. Then I got starcraft 2...
The story how I actually decided to get sc2 i think is a pretty interesting one so I going to go on another tangent. I got sc2 because my dad was bugging me about not telling him what I wanted for my birthday, he said if I didnt tell him that day I wouldnt get anything. Since I love collector's editions and things like that I decided to get sc2 solely for the collector's edition and to get my dad off my ass. Little did I know that this random present I got for the sole reason of getting something would be come an enormous part of my life. I began to play sc2, originally just the single player then I played the multiplayer. I then began watching pros play sc2, I was hooked.
Since that day, I've watched and played sc more than any video game that I know of. I love it I love the people and I love playing.
So here's my blog. I'll change it up a bit later, kinda late now lol.
TL;DR I love video games and they are a huge part of my life.