Take a seat and let me tell you a story. I’m going to tell you right now that it’s long winded, so take a bathroom break now if need be…or skip the 2nd and 3rd paragraph if you can’t be bothered with learning the circumstances behind my glorious main return to PC gaming. You can also skip to the end if you need an ultra-abridged version…but why would you be here reading this if that were the case?

You may or may not know that my gaming history goes as far back as the NES, yet I would have to say that it wasn’t until PC gaming that I really started getting into it. Series like Duke Nukem, Doom, early Command & Conquer and others were big influences on the gamer I am today. I’ve dialed back alot though in recent years in favor of consoles such as Xbox 360. Not to say that I haven’t been console gaming in past years since my roots (because I have…alot) but recent years have shown my gaming consumed by Xbox 360 for the most part (Wii and PS3 to a much lesser extent). I was fine with that at the time, I’d be lying if I said Xbox 360 wasn’t still my favorite console to co-op and communicate with friends and family, until circumstances started sending me packing to different means of gaming.

A little while back you might remember that I had a dreaded E-74 error (one of the many forms RROD takes) on my 360.  I was a bit pissed about it at first, but quite a bit relieved when I found out that they extended warranties for this particular error (since a boatload of people were getting them…nice job again M$). I guess I was somewhat lucky too that I had my console for a few years before any serious problems (after hearing all the other RROD horror stories out there). So I UPSed (that’s a word, right?) my console in…BANG ZOOM…got another console back a little while later and everything was jolly good again. Everything was going peachy until a couple months back I noticed random console freezing during a couple different games I was playing. It got to the point where it was frustrating to even try to play anything. I tried all sorts of troubleshooting: installing to hard drive, playing without hard drive, playing offline, etc. with no success (if anyone can shed some extra light on this I would be grateful). I’m thinking it’s a DVD drive issue, which I’ll probably try replacing once I get some extra money for a new one and I’ve already started looking into the replacement procedure. I then started seeking solace with another console until…tragedy.

Being fed up with the 360, I figured I’d fire up the PS3 and give it some lovin’. Only to find that it’s plagued with a black screen at startup (startup chime + black screen). I’ve had my PS3 for only a bit over a couple years now and though I used it no where near as much as the 360, I had taken good care of it (or so I thought atleast). So here I am, trying to conquer this problem as well. Trying to restore to default settings (only to get through the initial setup and back to black screen), restoring the file system (only to get a corrupted file system message) and others in the reset menu to no avail. Thinking I’m going to have to get that new hard drive sooner than I planned. I’ve wanted to upgrade from my 40gb…BUT I’m probably going to lose my old data now (seems to be the case the more I look into it). I’m almost afraid to even boot up my Wii now lest it succumb to some ill fate as well (and continue this seemingly cascading effect).

Now that I’ve fully explained the situation, I’ll get back into my resurgence of PC gaming (if you’re still awake). I’ve been getting back into my Steam game backlog lately. I, like many others I’m sure, have been collecting up Steam purchases for awhile now and like collecting anything it can be quite addicting. When alot of these games go on sale for $5 or less, how can you possibly pass them up? When they start piling up after many sales and what not it’s nice to actually go back and PLAY some of them (I know, crazy concept right?). Though I’m still far from playing through all my Steam titles (131 at the time of this posting), I have been dipping into a few new titles lately (some old, some new in reality).

Aquaria was one of the first ones, which I had come to acquire through the Humble Bundle a couple months ago. I had scoured it’s lands for more than 20 hours and even if it had been the only game in the bundle I’d say that I had gotten more than my money’s worth. I can’t recommend it highly enough for those that are into Metroidvania type adventure games. Ever heard of a little game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent also? If you’re truly into survival horror games then it’s not one to pass up at all. Audiosurf is always a good standby as well with endless potential. It’s the music game that keeps on giving as long as there’s music to feed it with. It’s always a good time for classics as well, isn’t it? I acquired Star Wars: Dark Forces through the Steam Star Wars pack this winter and have been loving it, having wanted to try it out for awhile. Other classics outside of Steam I have been setting up with a certain DosBox Frontend for back in the day fun (classic Apogee and ID Software titles are among my favorites). I could probably go on forever like this but this is what I’ve been up to lately in gaming. My desktop isn’t a top-of-the-line gaming rig, but it should be pretty moderate for the newest PC titles as well (having built my desktop just a little over 2 years ago).

I guess the moral of the story is this: consoles can be a harsh mistress sometimes *sigh* …and if you’re mainly a console gamer don’t completely forgo the viable world of PC gaming.

…On that note, pick up Duke Nukem Forever for PC before consoles! 😀

– DGM-payne

UPDATE (3/2/2011) : Purely coincidentally, Amnesia : The Dark Descent had just gone on sale on Steam for half price. All the more reason to pick it up now. I would recommend Braid also at $3 during the mid-week sale if you haven’t picked up that indie puzzler yet.