Back in the days when gaming was nothing more than a white dot going back and forth on the screen, which was suitable called Tennis, a new game emerged. Pacman. Everyone thought it was so cool and would play it obsessively. I honestly don’t know how the repetitive music didn’t drive us all insane.

Anyway, today Pacman turns 30 and I felt compelled to mention it here and share a playable version of the game for your gaming enjoyment.

Happy birthday, Pacman.

Originally posted on another site on 6 January 2010.

It’s the holidays and I always get into gaming during the holidays. Once I return to work (next week) I’ll probably only play games occasionally until my next holiday (hopefully in May).

So this holiday has seen me finish Shadow Man: 2econd Coming and start “Black”, an all out shoot ‘em or be killed game. From the moment the game commences it is “fight for your life” and edge of the seat gaming. It could easily be one of the hardest games I’ve played in a long time. Yet I know two people who have completed it and as I want to stand proudly beside them both and sing my own praises, I will battle through to the end (and I mean that literally).

There’s eight missions, but they are extremely long and can be exhaustingly frustrating too. It took a while for me to catch on that it’s no use running into a room filled with enemies, guns a blazing. That is the quickest way to die. Once that sunk in, I learned to move slowly and patiently through the levels, hoping that each corner I turned would present me with a checkpoint. Each level, except the first (which is the shortest level) has two or three. However, if the console is switched off then when you return to the game later you’ll find yourself back at the beginning of the level. Believe me, you don’t want that to happen. If I reach a checkpoint, I must play until I reach the end of the level or that’s what I tried to convince myself.

I’ve completed four missions. For me, the second mission was the hardest so far. Missions three and four, although difficult, weren’t that bad. Mission five, on the other hand, is trying my patience. It’s so difficult and frustrating. It’s so easy to be killed in a frenzy of oncoming enemies. It’s so easy to forget to keep an eye on the health bar and press the necessary button when needed (if there’s a health kit available, that is). It would be so easy to suddenly become a person who curses, regularly! After several hours of play, I couldn’t reach the second checkpoint and as it was beginning to get late and my arm was aching from the tension of playing, I decided to break the golden rule and give up half way through a mission. Oh how I’ve let myself down.

Tomorrow, after a good night’s rest, I’ll slaughter the ba…, er, I mean, I’ll slaughter the enemy and I’ll complete the mission. Tomorrow!

In the meantime, I’ll be checking out the Black Walkthrough at IGN to ensure I’ve got the right moves, weapons and attitude.

Originally posted on another site on 5 January 2010.

As I’m on holiday for a couple of weeks, I generally play video games on a regular basis – most days, in fact. This holiday season, I chose to play Shadow Man: 2econd Coming, which is a game I started once before but never actually finished.

On Saturday (which is when I finished the game), I discovered that I was very close to the end last time I played and it makes me wonder why I didn’t carry on. Perhaps I couldn’t find an essential item. Or maybe work resumed and time became an issue again. I don’t know what the reason was, I’m just glad to be able to report that this time I did finish it.

This game, for me, was extremely difficult in places. I sometimes spent an hour or so attempting one small manoeuvre over and over again. It was frustrating beyond words and I’m ashamed to say that my puppy may have learned that his mummy gets very cranky when she can’t do something almost instantly.

My partner sat watching me play for a while, on several occasions, and he tells me that no matter how frustrating the game might have been for me, it didn’t compare to how frustrated he felt just watching me.

“Oh, have I checked this corner,” he mimicked in a high voice that sounds nothing like me. “Oh, that’s right, I did, but I better check it again…and again…and again.” And then in his own voice, he added, “Just shoot the bastards and move on!”

How rude!

He’s exaggerating, of course, I don’t check the same corner three times…unless I’m lost and don’t realise I’ve checked the corner three times already. And I can’t help checking every corner of every room. I cut my teeth (well, now I’m exaggerating a bit) on Resident Evil and in that game you have to check every inch of every room otherwise you miss something important. That’s been breed into me and I can’t help myself.

Pushing the frustration aside, this is a brilliant game. The graphics aren’t as great as they are these days, but who cares when you’re having fun?! Besides, back in its day they were pretty impressive. Just goes to show how far we’ve come in eight years.

Yes, the game is on PS2, but don’t let a small thing like that stop you from enjoying a great game. Get yourself a console and the game and get started on it today. You won’t be disappointed. I highly recommend this game.

No one can write all the time. Everyone has to have other hobbies in their lives to ensure a heavy, happy existence. Or so I’ve been told.

Anyway, one of the things I like to do when I’m not writing…is play role playing games on the Playstation. Most people stop and gape at me when I say I’m a Resident Evil fan. How could such a prim and proper woman of my age want to kill zombies? What can I say…I love it!

Except for the first game (which I used to own but sold once I completed it as I knew I’d never play it again), I own and have finished every Resident Evil game. My two favourites are the second and third games. They were especially hard to get through (thank heavens for walkthroughs online), but I have easily played both these games a couple of dozen times each. The suspense throughout these games made my heart pound at times as I tried frantically to kill a “boss” that just wouldn’t die. They were games that took my total concentration and stole many hours each time I sat down. Having said that, I got so good at them that I could sit down and finish the entire game, without a single save, in a little over an hour in the end. And, please excuse my bragging, but none of my family could beat my times and I was the only one to unlock Tofu in RE2.

The games after Nemesis (RE3) weren’t as good, but I still enjoyed them immensely. I guess once a Resident Evil fan, always a Resident Evil fan. Having said that, the worst game (in my opinion) is Outbreak – if you took the RE name off the cover, no one would have known it was connected to the other games. It was just too ordinary and felt the same as many other games. Up ‘til then, RE games stood apart from the rest.

Anyway, earlier this year Resident Evil 5 was released. I had to get it and was lucky enough to get it at a bargain price (less than half price new) about a month ago. So Saturday night is now “kill the zombies” night and I’ll be heading off to do just that right after I’ve finished writing this post. RE5 is much better than Outbreak, but still lacks the old RE feel, which is a shame, but I’m still enjoying the game overall. As I said at the beginning of this post, I love to play role playing games on the Playstation. I have quite a few Playstation 2 games and my Playstation 3 collection is slowly growing. I have some great games, but Resident Evil is still my favourite. Closely followed by Silent Hill, which is get for creating atmosphere through fear (brilliantly done with the sound effects used).

My immediate family are used to the fact that I’m a killer on the weekends (a zombie killer that is). Other family and friends remain mind boggled over this fact, but it feels great to smash their “practical” image of me.

Everyone has an “evil” side, what’s yours?