I just rediscovered my love of gaming after 35 years.
Here are the games that have reignited my love of gaming for the first time since the late '80s.
The last game system that I played regularly was the SNES in the early 90s.
I LOVED gaming back then. We were obsessed with the original Zelda and Metroid.
But...as things happen, I let it go to chase my other love -- playing music.
Fast forward about 35 years later...my wife bought a Switch a couple of years ago when I was going through some pretty intense chemo. She hoped it would give us something to do together to take our minds off of things.
I tried a few games but it was all so confusing. Nothing really grabbed me.
But then about a year later, we started having big MK8 battles with our son.
It turned into some of the most fun and engaging "family time" that we had together.
But slightly less importantly, it showed me how incredibly creative the 'world building' is in current games.
As a massive sci-fi/fantasy fan (books and movies), I was just blown away be the creativity in MK8. I realized I was missing out on something pretty cool and told myself that instead of looking at social media or mindless TV for a few hours a day, maybe I should be engaged with some of these adventure games instead.
The Sniper Elite III was my next favorite game. It taught me how to use the 2 joy stick controllers to move the first person adventure games. This was huge for me and it was the perfect game to learn the controllers.
It was my 'window' into the adventure worlds.
And then I learned that the Metroid series was still alive and well and I immediately ordred Prime Beyond and started reliving some memories of being snowed-in for a week when I was 13 years old.
MPB4 isn't perfect and I understand the criticisms...but I also didn't care. I LOVED the completely different worlds that you had to navigate.
My next step was buying the Switch2 and I happhazardly found the RDR1 game in the used bin at GameStop.
Knowing that RDR2 is widely considered one of the greatest games ever made, I grabbed it.
I'm currently near the very end of that game and have loved the journey.
My latest purchases are on the bottom row -- and I can't wait to jump into these here very soon.
So that's my journey of re-discovering my love of gaming at almost 50 damn years old.
I know Elder Scrolls and Crimson Desert are in my future. I think that I'll love the AC series, too. There are so many that I want to experience.
Anybody else out there rediscover their love in middle age?? haha.
