game noob

I went and bought myself a Nintendo Game Cube yesterday. I’m pretty excited. This is about my third try at getting a gaming console in my old age, and this time I’m going to stick with it and figure it out. I haven’t been a serious console gamer since I was probably 6 years old, and back then we had an Atari, and I remember playing games like Pitfall, Missile Command and Pole Position. There’s a few more I can see in my mind’s eye, but I can’t remember the names of them anymore.

Anyway, the whole point is that I haven’t had one in a very long time, and as a result I’m not very good at these things at all. My motor and hand-eye coordination skills are almost null, so it makes even the easiest games a little frustrating for me. This time I’m determined to develop them, and have a little fun at the same time. 🙂

I already found about two dozen games on Amazon that look interesting. I decided that I’m going to try all my games before I buy them so I don’t get stuck with something I don’t like. That happens to me all too often with computer games, so fortunately I’ve got some options this time. I went to Blockbuster last night and signed up for an account, and it cost freaking $7 to rent a game. What a crock. I got Batman Begins and some Star Wars game. I spent about an hour playing the Batman one last night, and it was hard for me, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Those multi-key combo attacks are really hard for me.

I like the design of the Game Cube already. There aren’t nearly as many buttons as the Xbox or the Playstation 2, so that’s going to make things much simpler on me. Plus the discs are really tiny which is cool. I guess the system is going to get phased out pretty soon here, since the Wii just came out, so I’m in a good position to get the games for a little cheaper. The selection doesn’t seem that huge, but I don’t anticipate having more than a dozen games in my library anyway. I already bought a copy of Simpsons Road Rage, which is by itself a great reason to get any gaming system. 🙂

Today I did some googling and found out there’s a service just like Netflix for console games. It’s called Gamefly, and while it’s a little expensive ($21.95 for two games out at a time, unlimited rentals per month), it’s still going to be a lot cheaper than going into Blockbuster. I already signed up for my trial account and put a few games in there to check out. If anyone knows of any good ones I should check out, lemme know. There look to be some cool RPGs out, which I’m really interested to see what the buzz is about.

Maybe the best thing of all is I managed to get mine really cheap. I picked it up at Game Stop for only $60, refurbished. Plus they sold me a $10 warranty so if anything happens within a year I can just take it back and get it replaced. Right on. I’m all about saving money sometimes, believe it or not. The only thing that surprised me with the system was that it only comes with one controller and no memory stick (not even a teeny one), so I can’t save my games. I already bought a memory stick on Amazon so I don’t have to wait for my Batman game to always start from the last checkpoint.

That’s another thing I forgot about console games is that in some respects they are like DVDs in forcing you to sit through corporate logos and cutscenes. It’s kind of annoying but I guess I’ll just get used to it. At least the load times are reasonably fast it seems.

I’m pretty stoked about the whole thing. I actually can’t wait to go home and try out my other games. I tell you whot. 🙂