Computer Game Geek Alert

While I consider myself to be a gamer, I'm not one of these that sit watching every single game due out, scouring the web for tid-bits and snippets. MOST games out there don't interest me, and I can count on one hand (with fingers left over) the number of games installed on my computer. There are a few games "in the pipework" that I AM waiting for though. If you're not into games, you can skip past this post if you so desire ;)

I don't have a "favorite genre" though of course, I tend to play more MMO (Massive-Multiplayer Online) games like World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot and EvE Online than regular games. The first two are fantasy-based "Kill the Dragon" sorts, while the latter, EvE, is a space-simulator - space ships, lasers, asteroids, pirates - very fun. Then I like a few "First Person Shooters" - Doom3, Half Life (and it's sequels), Unreal Tournament. Get the guns, kill everything and everyone, win. I'm also very much into an old game that has been around since the dawn of time on computers - before the days of graphics, back when critters were represented by characters on a keyboard. "d" for young dragons, "S" for giant spiders, "o" for orcs, "O" for ogres. You either loved or hated Angband, and I loved it, all part of the "Roguelike" genre.

My childhood was spent with computers - not consoles, but actual computers. Be it at school or at home, I'd be tinkering with something, or playing with it, or just using it somehow. My step-dad was the same and we used to work together, learning the in's and out's. School lunch times were spent with Stuart either at his place (on the computer), or friend Steves (on the computer) or at school in the computer lab (unsurprisingly, on a computer).

I never really got caught up in the Console Craze - I had a Playstation, but mostly used it when we had a few people over and played multiplayer stuff. Jaysen got a PS2 and loves it (but then, he loves the PC as well), and when he blew that up, we let him use our GameCube.

With all the next-gen consoles either out in the wild (Xbox 360), or due to hit shelves soon (Nintendo Wii) or not-so-soon (PS3), I look at them and think "Meh, it's not my PC". Obviously, I use my PC for more than gaming - much more - and couldn't justify spending £300-£500 on a machine that only plays games. With my PC, I can play Warcraft, then read some webpages, check my mail, chat to my friends on MSN, remove spyware, and generally keep occupied. A friend said to me yesterday "What would you do if you didn't have your computer?" and honestly, I don't know. How odd is that. It's a huge part of my - well, OUR - life. I have more friends around the world than I do "in the flesh", I can read about things as they happen, and not the following day in the newspapers, and unlike the TV, there is always something to do/watch!

So, back to the original point - it takes something really interesting to make me think "Wow, I want that game", and there are a few things coming out that I actually want:

• WoW: The Burning Crusade - MMO - The first World of Warcraft Expansion, adding new races and new places (Official Site)
• Spore - Sim Game - start as a microscopic organism, and evolve up and up to civilisation, then dominate the galaxy (Official Site)
• Portal - First Person Puzzle/Shooter - using a weapon to make portals, you have to solve puzzles to exit the area. Should be bundled with Half-Life Episode 2. (Official Site)
• Crysis - First Person Shooter - Collect guns, improve armour, use stealth and brute-force to save the day. (Official Site)

So yes, in case you didn't realise - I am a big ol' geek at heart. But you knew that.