Renaissance Whore

By Holliday

So last week I got in touch with my console roots. If my computer were my wife my PS2 is most definitely my mistress. And webcomics are the swinging friend still trying to hold onto his 20’s that told me to “go for it”. Like all good affairs though I expected it to be hot and heavy from the start but then filter off. After I had my way with that katamari, and rolled it for all its worth, I would come home. However I think I’ve fallen in love, all over again.

Yeah I’m still rolling the katamari. I’ve even begun to hang out with her friends: Socom II, Virtua Fighter 4 and the one I could only call Snake. How did this happen? Well since all things pray to the god of inertia it took another outside force to glue my hands to that sleek black beauty. I got sick. No, not sick of PC gaming, just sick. Sick like =X

My viral invaders took a fancy to making my body hate being moved around. Sitting upright with my arms resting on a hard desk, forget about it. Instead I wanted to be rolled up like a holupki and cooked free of infestation in my bed. Funny thing, a console is so easy to play lying down. I could stay warm, eat my chicken soup and roll over pedestrians with ease. After a while I started to miss to social contact of playing multiplayer games though. I thought I may try to caterpillar my way over to my PC and boot up World of Warcraft, the pain would be worth it. But then I remembered that little gem I had purchased with my PS2’s online adapter, Socom II.

I grabbed my headset and jumped online for some good old terrorist slaying. Previously I had thought Socom’s multiplayer to be inferior to the likes of PC games. I couldn’t grasp how anyone would want to play in a competitive environment with such primitive controls. I even maintained that point of view in the first few sessions. However it began to grow on me. The analogue control creates a degree of human error that isn’t present with digital accuracy. Also if you surprise someone they really do get disoriented (at least I do).

I began to appreciate the game for console only features that I had never really experienced. For example, the display. The graphics are decent but nothing like a high resolution PC can pull of. However, the low resolution and limited clarity of a TV allows you to actually make use of the camouflage your character is wearing. If you stay still in some foliage or even against certain backgrounds you blend in. I have had countless enemies run right past me if I keep still (at the moment it is the only real effective tactic I have going for me since I still am not too quick with the sticks). PC games however have the resolutions that make enemy characters distinguishable from anything else. I am not sure if it was even intended in the design of Socom, but I dig it.

Anyways I am now on the recovery. This doesn’t mean the PS2 will fall by the wayside this time though. I have achieved a sort of paradise unimaginable if we were to stick with my previous metaphor. My PC and PS2 receive somewhat equal amounts of play time and I appreciate the strengths of each.

So you may hear more console tidbits from me from now on (yeah I’m looking at you CJ). Oh and if you want to match M4s with me on Socom II my player name is Ho11iday. (Those are ones, I am a victim of identity theft).