What I did on my holidays

I've not been blogging much of late for a variety of reasons - work, illness, school holidays, actually playing games - but hopefully I can get back into the routine of (semi) regularly blogging again, as it has been something that I've enjoyed over the last 18 months. The interval has certainly not been caused by a lack of things to write about - I start drafting articles in my head  once or twice a week  and have even got as far as half-writing a few.

One of the things that I've done over the last few weeks is have a gaming weekend. One or two times a year over the past few years I've been meeting up with a friend, away from our wives and children, to play videogames and watch or  talk about  (and, recently, to sob over) the fortunes of West Ham United and he latest instalment of these manchild escapades was  a couple of weeks ago.  In all, in a two-day period, we played 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (in co-op, from start to finish), Dead Rising 2, FIFA10, FIFA11, Castle Crashers, Super Mario Kart, Ghost Squad, DefJam Rapstar, Beatles Rock Band and AC/DC Rock Band (and some single player on Halo Reach, Pure, Rockstar Table Tennis, Snoopy Flying Ace and Amped 3).   On a similar theme, we watched the gaming documentary King of Kong while eating junk food. What we learnt, in no particular order, was -

• 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is funny in co-op
• middle-aged, middle-class, men shouldn't rap
• I cannot play drums, bass or guitar (even on easy)
• FIFA 10 is better than FIFA 11
• Billy Mitchell (not the one in EastEnders) is a complete tool
• Super Mario Kart is the best version of the game for local co-op
• should there ever be a zombie apocalypse, our skills are tight

There is some effort involved in meeting up these days (aeroplane flights for a start) and, with the advent of Xbox Live, this type of event is no longer necessary for either co-op or head-to-head gaming.  Or slagging off Avram Grant, for that matter.  We've been gaming together for nearly 18 years - the distance  from today to the start of this period, is the same as from then (the start of our undergraduate studies) to starting pre-school. We are now at the onset of middle age - my friend is already in his forties and that particular tombstone is being erected over my life in a few weeks' time.  On this occasion, we had both wondered independently whether we were now too old for this expense of effort, 'just' to play games and kvetch about West Ham and (possibly unsurprisingly) when we discussed the matter, reasoned that it was.  

It might be an odd thing to say but gaming isn't just about the games, it can also be about (*pseud alert*)  social interactions, both those that are based wholly online and those where the player knows his/her opponent/colleague in the 'real world' (of my XBL friends, I've only met 4 of those in person and one of those is the UPS driver who has twice picked up my RRoD'd 360).  Age only becomes an issue in relation to gaming (and, probably, everything else) if the individual makes it one and as soon as you do that, I think, you are destined to 'act your age', with all that that entails.  Consequently, I reckon  my gaming weekends will continue for a while yet (until game-induced arthritis turns my hands into gamepad-shaped claws, anyway).

This has got a bit heavy for my first post back in the saddle - not to worry, my next post will be on the usual old bollocks :)