Happenings Only To Be Found In Gaming

Wisdom comes with experience. Whether it be good or bad experiences; it’s still experience, one way or another. We’ve experienced happenings that truly did not want to be experienced and no matter how hard we try, it just won’t fade from memory. It’s reality and there is nothing we can do about it. On the other end of the experience bar we may find the more noteworthy and yay-infused experiences that can be told to your mates alongside marshmallows coupled with a campfire. Perhaps of you being chased by one big-ass chicken or maybe your first kiss.

We, as gamers, have experienced more than just a few situations where not even the slightest would be possible in real life. Think Mass Effect. Think Assassin’s Creed. Think Spec Ops: The Line. The list goes from here to Timbuktu. In other forms of media or entertainment we’re merely spectators and have no control of what is happening on the page or screen. I know that our paths in a game are fairly predetermined, but you’re controlling the pace and if you want to whack the nearest lamppost with a rainbow-coloured chainsaw just because you can, you may do so.

In games, we have worlds stretched out before us, ready to be explored. Many for the sole purpose of being destroyed. Titles such as Just Cause 2 and Red Faction: Guerilla springs to mind.

Let’s look at a bunch of incidents we may or may not have partaken in the world of gaming: (If you have not partaken in these events; please make haste to do so.)

 

Save The World

If you have not saved the world multiple times during your time of playing games, I don’t know what you’ve been doing. Whether it is you preventing war or travelling across galaxies to help out or keep the peace between a various array of alien species; you’ve played your part in giving the universe of gaming a better and brighter tomorrow. (Read that last part in a voice found in the Starship Troopers recruitment adverts.)

If it’s not the continent or entire world you’re saving; it’s definitely someone. Be it a kidnapped president or princess needing the help of an Italian plumber, there will always be someone who can’t help themselves. Not in a way where you cannot put down the five litre tub of ice-cream, but rather someone who cannot undo a pair of handcuffs with a hidden needle they carry with them underneath their fingernail and beat up a squad of highly trained mercenaries with nothing but a teacup. I mean, seriously, think in advance people. (In other words; be as neurotic as possible.)

 

Survive Insurmountable Odds

This is not something new or rare. Almost all games concerning a story about conflict between party A and party B will have players facing odds that they cannot even dare to think of taking on in real life. Not insulting anyone or anything of the sort, but I don’t think we’re all cut out to take on a plague-ridden society or survive the Vietnam War while being totally brainwashed with numbers dripping out of our Sam Worthington-voiced ears.

A prime example of surviving unconquerable odds can be witnessed in the Gears of War series. The screen filled with more Locust than you can count. You’re running low on ammunition with one or more of your squad mates being down. Charge the enemy with your Retro Lancer, shoot the few remaining bullets at the next enemy’s noggin, club the Grenadier with your pistol while hoping your Lancer’s chainsaw is still sharp enough for the dozens of enemies that will follow.

Catherine occasionally had me feeling hopeless in reaching the top of the nightmarish tower that stood before me. All while I have my pillow ready to slam the next sheep in my way.

 

Variety In Foes

One thing we cannot moan or groan about is not having enough variety when it comes to battling our umpteenth enemy for the year.

We have a whole buffet table filled to the brim with the Combine, orcs, Templars, corrupt governments, demons, zombies and psychic controlled soldiers all waiting for us to push a bullet into their physiognomies.

 

Taken On The Personae Of Mythological Beings

The heading explains it all. Where else, besides gaming, do you have the chance to play as a demigod or even a Horsemen of the Apocalypse?

 

Zombies

Battling zombies during World War II while playing as a mentally disturbed German. Using a rainbow-patterned chainsaw to decapitate zombies. Stabbing zombies in the neck with a tomahawk. Hitting a zombie so hard with Chris Redfield’s fist that his head pops; thanks to his steroid-addled biceps, which I’m not ashamed of admitting being jealous of.

We have a smorgasbord to subdue the zombie-killing itch. Which one is your favorite?

 

Experiencing A Different Reality

Games like Dishonored, Deus Ex, BioShock and Assassin’s Creed enable us to enter a world with similarities and differences in equal measure. Walking down a plague-ridden street, scaling the highest possible tower to find your way and using powers from within our bodies to shock the pair of freaks searching the pool of water for any form of loot. Any game out there represents a different reality. At least according to me. If you want to do any of the above or walk around the street while carrying a soda machine just because you can, make sure you have your controller at the ready!

 

Conclusion

Gaming has helped me a great way. For real.

Entering another mind state and living through scenarios you couldn’t even dream of is everyday life for a gamer and I love that fact.

What was something you experienced in gaming and can only be found in gaming that made you go: “Hell, yeah!”?