moonatnoon.com:
Video games — collection and commentary

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I've been playing video games for the vast majority of my life, from the days when I had to stand on a milk crate to play Pac-Man right through to some time within the past 24 hours. Yes, playing video games is a daily activity for me. I don't watch television or listen to the radio; I don't read many books or magazines; I don't even spend much time chatting or surfing the Web. I prefer my entertainment to be highly interactive, fully immersive and utterly enjoyable, and video games satisfy all of these preferences.

When I was younger, I didn't have my own console or computer, and arcades factored heavily into my gaming patterns. As time went on, I acquired various consoles and computers, and arcade machines went from the mainstay of my gaming experience to an occasional treat. Eventually, as consoles became more powerful and I had more disposable income, and as arcades slowly began to disappear from my area, playing games became almost exclusively a home activity, although portable games accompanied me to work as a brief escape from the mundane world.

At present, I play games mostly on consoles. I fell away from computer games largely because of hardware issues; my PC not only had a weak graphics processor, but it had no PCI slot for a modern graphics card. I made one last desperate stab at remaining a computer gamer, buying the best AGP card I could find so that I could follow a group of acquaintances to a new online game, but my interest in that game didn't last, and I found myself turning to consoles for my gaming.

There are certain trends in my gaming preferences. Perhaps the most obvious of these are the omissions; I have very little interest in first-person shooters, war games, tactics-based games, shoot-'em-ups, fighting games, platformers and most sports (with the exception of golf). I have an insatiable and inexplicable love for golf games. I enjoy raising/breeding sims, games where you oversee the proper care and upbringing of your monster/animal/baby. I'm a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series and a few similar games, which seems odd considering my previously stated disinterest in related types of games. I totally groove out on music and rhythm games. I have a definite soft spot for RPGs, though I don't seem to have as much time to play them as I did 10 years ago. And I have a bizarre and unrequited affection for dating sims like Tokimeki Memorial.

Of course, Tokimeki Memorial is only available in Japanese, and many great games will never find their way to an English release. My tastes run heavily toward Japanese games, both those that have been translated to English and those that only exist in their native tongue. Video games are one of the biggest reasons why I'm learning Japanese.

My collection
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I've chosen to list the games in my collection on this page for several reasons, including pride, sharing information and possibly initiating dialogs with other gamers about certain games. I am NOT offering any of these games for sale, so please don't waste time asking. Likewise, I'm not offering to walk any through these games step by step; there are already wonderful resources for that, like GameFAQs. I'm also not recommending every game in my collection as something that everyone should have; there are some games I have that even I don't like much. But if you have a question about a game or want more information on it, please feel free to send an e-mail with a non-vague subject line; my address is at the bottom of this page. (Last updated 24 November 2008. Games in italics have been purchased or pre-ordered but have not yet arrived.)

Commentary
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Speed Burglary Guide for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – This has been the most popular page on my entire Web site since I started writing it, even though it hasn't been linked to from any other page on my site until now. It's a method for exploiting a weakness in the design of the Burglar R3 mission to earn significant cash without using any cheat codes.

10 Games for a Year in Isolation – On this page, I answer the following hypothetical question: If you were going to be placed in isolation for an entire year, without any human contact, no television, no radio, no Internet access, etc., and you could have any 10 games to play (along with any needed hardware), which games would you pick?

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