When Online Works

I've never been a hardcore advocate of the online component of gaming. When Nintendo said the Online Strategy wasn't the way to go, I agreed with them. I have had some of my fondest memories playing N64 with three childhood friends. For me, that was always most important. Friends and childhood bonds made over four player GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Turok, and Smash Bros. Why would I ever want to leave that behind for playing online with random strangers?

It's not so much that I've left my friends behind. It's that we grow up. Life happens too fast. Friends move away. Time constraints and distance make it impossible for us to get together in such a carefree fashion like we once did. It's hard enough just to keep in touch let alone get four people together in the same room. In the last few months, I started playing online with a few friends from work and I have to admit, I've throughly enjoyed it. I picked Gears of War back up and even opened my copy of Rainbow Six: Vegas that I received for Christmas. I've never played a Rainbow Six game before last night so it was a very positive experience for me towards making online play and military shooters part of a regular video game diet.

So what's the big difference? Everything. I'm alone in my room. The controller and buttons are unfamiliar. The game doesn't play as smoothly as it should. My friends' voices are unclear and choppy. But with all things that are different, there's still one big similarity. I'm playing with my friends and I'm laughing. It's a familiar feeling that I haven't had since my high school days. It just sucks that it took me this long to find it again.