My earliest proper memory of playing a video game is Spyro 2 on the PS1. I may have played things earlier but that is the key memory for me.

I always enjoyed gaming but it really took off probably around the age of 13 and just got more hooked from there. The jump in technology to the Xbox 360/PS3 era was amazing to me. I played on my friend’s for a while before getting my own and that’s when I started playing shooters as previously I had mainly played RPGs, Platformers and Racing games. The online play and ability to talk to my friends while playing fascinated me.

Kingdom Hearts 2 and Shadow of the Colossus.

I originally grew up on the PS2 mainly but I will have to say the Xbox 360 due to the sheer amount of amazing quality games that came out as well as the variety. Some great memories of well told stories and the fun I had playing online with friends.

I grew up loving RPGs and particularly melee combat games but when I switched to PC gaming I think I play Shooters the most now with a good dose of RPGs on the side. A genre that I absolutely respect and understand why it is so popular but isn’t for me… has to be Strategy games as I don’t have the patience to play through them properly despite my best efforts.

The original game that got me properly into Multiplayer was Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and one that I was actually good at. Since then I have played so many multiplayer games and I’ve even made friends online in the game Destiny 2 that I have travelled to meet in real life. Now we play all sorts of games together and are people that I really value.

There are absolutely single player games that I will get stuck into and proceed to ignore multiplayer. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being the current one.

Up until recently it could have been hard to pick but I think Destiny 2 is the game with the most time. I was late to play the game properly but now I have regulars I play with, take part in the contest modes for dungeons and raids as well as making really good friends from it.

I know this is a very unpopular opinion but a franchise I just cannot get into are the new Zelda games (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom). In terms of a game I have tried again and again due to friends mainly (only) playing that… has to be League of Legends. It just isn’t for me and I’ve tried enough times now.

While there has been a lot of amazing developments I think the most impressive to me is how online and social aspects just keep improving. From co-op campaigns, to MMORPGs to Battle Royales, it’s so impressive you can play with people from around the world with little latency on particular games. You can organise events and help others progress with parts of games. The community aspect of video games can be a very fun and key part of the games themselves.

The increasing presence of micro-transactions and lazy DLC that often block content or feel like something that should have been part of the base game. A worrying amount of releases seem to be unfinished but released at full price and not perform as expected but companies keep getting away with it.

Anything that reminds me of the games I played as a kid. Whether it is a new entry in the franchise, a mechanic that other games adopted or similar art styles. Music is often a big trigger for nostalgia, it might not even be songs that were in the game themselves but music I listened to at the time of playing games.

Load times and crashes! A positive thing that has been introduced with new technology is the ability to patch/update games. Too many times had games repeatedly crashed on me or the hardware fail (the dreaded red ring of death and memory card saves getting corrupted). Not to say there aren’t issues now but they are often addressed or a workaround is provided.

I’ll narrow it down to the main 3 I’m currently playing:

– Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, it has an amazing story, great characters and a fun take on Turn Based combat which feels like a breath of fresh air.

– Marvel Rivals, I became quite fond of hero shooters with Overwatch so when this was released, combined with my love of Marvel it felt like the perfect game. It’s good and fun to have a competitive game to play with friends, no matter how bad the loss streak gets…

– Destiny 2, this has been an ongoing game for me for over 3 years now. The updates constantly provide new loot to chase, new activities to try out and often refresh play-styles to incentivise mixing up builds. This is my main game that I socialise on as well, the game feels and looks great and I always look forward to the next expansion.

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