I think I'm cheating on my girlfriend with video games..

Ok, so this post is not as creepy as the title suggests. It’s a little deeper than that. I mentioned in an earlier post that I've been playing Modern Warfare on "Veteran". Anyone who's played any of the Call of Duty’s on Veteran knows that it is extremely difficult and highly frustrating. I know when I finish this game on "Veteran", I'll try not to remember how childish the experience was, when people ask me...

"Hey! Have you ever beaten Modern Warfare on 'Veteran'"?
"O yeah... did it a couple years back... psh... got the acheivements to prove it...”
"Wasn’t it hard??"
"Eh... it was a little tough... But no challenge for the best gamer in the world... me."
"Wow, Anthony! You're so amazing, can we be friends!??!"


Yeah... works that way for real... kinda... not really... that’s never happened... it won’t happen. I will purposely leave out the details of the process of earning those POINTLESS achievements. It takes you half a second to read the achievements that say that I've beaten every level on "Veteran". Half a second or less! But, for the achiever... for me... those little pictures with points next to them represent hours upon hours of the most frusterating, imature and painful experience of my life. I did things from...


-cursing
-flipping off the TV
-punching the ground
-throwing the controller
-kicking my entertainment center
-checking my bank account to see if I have enough money to buy another TV so I can throw my controller at my TV (I didn’t)
-Turn off the system, take a breath and turn it back on
-slap myself

So, slapping myself I think is the more retarded one. But the point is, is that this game made me do things I don’t do when I'm at a calm and rational state of mind. It makes me truly ANGERY. But here’s where things sound way more irrational... I keep playing. I keep playing until I beat it. My goal? 40pts gamerscore and bragging rights to like 3 people that really might be impressed...... Seriously? 4 hours of ripping my hair out for that? Is that even worth it!?!? The answer.. Yes. To me, it is way worth it. My goal is the ultimate goal to me. Completion and the right to say that I LOVE this game. Now, you must be asking yourself, "How does this relate to cheating on your girlfriend with this medium?” Let me tell you. To me, there is NO OTHER thing in life that makes me as frustrated and angry and STILL has me willingly coming back to it as much as a relationship. Specifically my girlfriend now. That I'm assuming will be my girlfriend forever. She frustrates me. Makes me angry. Makes me pull out my hair... And yet, I keep coming back to her. The goal for MW is 40pts and bragging rights. The goal for my girlfriend? Her happiness and a kiss... Seriously? 4 YEARS of ripping my hair out for that? Is that even worth it?!?!? The answer... yes. To me, it is way worth it. My goal is the ultimate goal to me. To see her smile and be happy is golden to me. She is the achievement.

So as of now, I have two loves in my life. Kareen and Video games. They frustrate me and for some reason I keep coming back. Is that a ME thing or a MAN thing? I hope it’s a man thing... Should be. It'll explain the reason why we are always the ones to say sorry and crawl back to her feet/controller.

Whats a game without a gun??

I’m getting a very unique experience from CATHERINE that I hardly get from playing video games. Its weird when you try to pitch it to other game kids..

“So, what’s CATHERINE about?”
“O, man! It’s so awesome! You play a character that accidently cheats on his girlfriend and doesn’t know what to do!”
“…?... Sounds stupid..”

I don’t blame them. I might as well say that the game is about a teenager who gets an “F” in English and has to keep it from his parents before they ground him from the big dance coming up at school. The fact of the matter is is that dealing with REAL life situations sounds boring. I’m no different. If you ask me..

“Would you rather have a western shootout in “El Chuparosa” with a bunch of crazy outlaw Mexicans with the ability to slow down time to give effect to the awesome nature of action and precision… or deal with your inner feelings?”
“Can I shoot my feelings in the face in slow-mo?”
“No”
“Bring on the outlaws!!!”

All that, and yet, I’m talking to EVERYONE in the bar that Vincent gets to walk around in when he’s not dealing with his crazy puzzle nightmares. Getting more back story and advice on what he should do about his situation. And that’s optional! Ask any of my friends who know the way I play a game and they’ll tell you that I don’t go out of my way to collect ANYTHING. If it’s not on the path of the main campaign storyline, I don’t want anything to do with it. I didn’t collect the INTEL, FEATHERS, COG TAGS, PLAYBOY MAGS, RIDDLER’S RIDDLES, AUDIO DIARIES, COFFEE MUGS, MANUSCRIPTS, HIDDEN TRESURE, GOLDEN BOLTS, GORGON EYES, NEWSPAPERS or even the FLYING RATS. What I tell myself is that when I don’t collect that stuff, I give the game replay value. I’ll just come back to it. Yeah… I don’t. But for some reason, I’m talking to everyone and interacting with anything interact-able. And I think the reason is because, I CARE!! DUN DUN DUN!!! *scary music*
Another thing that I’ve noticed about CATHERINE besides the developers making me care about Vincent’s dilemma is that there is no villain. Every time you play a game, you know who your villain is pretty quickly. Take BIOSHOCK, for example: Right when you get into Rapture, you know the villain is Andrew Ryan. You will spend the next 10 hours hunting him down because he is your target. And that’s the way it is with all games with a story campaign. Its as if we are all trained to be bounty hunters or something. But CATHERINE is not clear on who I’m supposed to be hunting down. Its because it doesn’t seem like anyone is “the bad guy” in this game. You’d figure that Catherine is the bad guy.. er.. girl?.. whatever.. because she is the one that gets Vincent to cheat on his girlfriend. But she didn’t know he was taken! So it seems that Vincent would be the bad guy!...?... So, I’m playing as the villain? Or is his mind the villain? And if this is the case through the whole game (having no real villain), then this game is something I’ve never played before. And that’s a great thing! In a world where like more than 60 percent is a shooter based game, a different game all together sounds good. We can’t let new ideas be flushed away because we’re so used to the ones we already have. We can’t let the video game medium become what films have, which is a huge bulk of remakes and sequels. We can’t be afraid to try new things. I need to listen to my own advice. My top three favorite games are sequels. Bottom line, is that CATHERINE is a great game so far. I doubt it’ll be game of the year or anything, but I’m sure it’ll be a risky success.