Consider the following a rant. Due to the fact that my stay on Gamespot has been sporadic at best, I highly doubt anyone will peruse my blog to read this. I imagine that this unleashing of a verbal barrage towards the state of video games will really only serve to satisfy me (I am a such a sucker for cathartic practices) and the topic on which I will now shed my opinion has been observed and commented on before, but I digress.

I am very concerned about the state of video games today. I'm not focusing on how tablets have mainstreamed gaming, or how there is the potential for this generation of consoles to be there last, or even how Nintendo (in my humble opinion) is slowly, and painfully dying. Instead, I am focusing on video game content as a whole.

Simply put, what has happened to them? I consider myself a video game connoisseur. I've grown up with video games all of my life, beginning with the humble, yet addictive NES. I have owned countless consoles, and gaming PCs. Today I am the owner of every current and previous generation console, as well as a very capable PC. And over time, I have seen a dynamic shift in the content of video games, and to some extent it disturbs me. Video games are becoming too easy, and as such, my fulfillment in them is waning. I remember as a child laboring, praying and exasperating over games such as BattleToads, MegaMan, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros. 3, etc. I remember painstakingly exploring every area of Super Metroid. The euphoria I experienced when I achieved a new plateau within these games left me feeling both satisfied and content with my video game experiences. I remember fondly when video games used to be hard, and beating them, or achieving a new level or ability meant something personal to me. Today, I find myself pining for a similar experience.

Modern video games are a shell of their former selves, and it has pained me for decades to see this transition take place. Instead of creating meaningful challenges in games, developers have shed games of their toughness in place of enhanced story and character development. Please do not misunderstand me, I love the stories of many modern games. The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and many more current games have a wonderful unique charm to them. Yet develops today have removed the difficulty of games in order to appease the fan bases that wish to rush to the end of a game in order to experience the story as a whole. If I may be so bold (and seeing as how this is my blog, I will do what I please), may I suggest that they reason why childhood games have stuck with their this whole time is due to the fact that their intensity caused me to dedicate myself more to the character I played, and endeared my closer to the story line of a game. Struggling with a certain area of a game, and then finding a way to complete the task at hand made me learn to love and respect games in ways I had never imagined. I miss those days.

The games of today seem to lack that certain charm. I find myself buying many more games than my budget would probably allow. If my wallet was a bartender, I was a customer, and games were drinks, my wallet would have told me I was too drunk, called a cab for me, and send me home. The reason I buy and play so many games is that I am finding myself searching for a challenging gaming experience that leaves me satisfied. One area that I have clung to is the achievement systems that are now in place with both Sony and Microsoft consoles. Microsoft's achievement system is especially gratifying for me. I need to feel like I have accomplished something. I miss that feeling of accomplishment.

I commend some of the games today that seek to appeal to the hardcore gamer fan base. Bioshock Infinite and Dead Space are a few games that come to mind .Whenever I buy and play a new game, I have to do it on the hardest mode, or else I feel like I'm going through the doldrums.

I miss the games of my childhood. Perhaps my age and experience has left me feeling slighted and jaded, but I still feel empty when I buy and play a new game. They aren't challenging enough, and I beg major game developers to go back to the root of gaming, much like how many indie game companies are doing now, and create a challenging game that leaves players satisfied. Is that too much to ask?

It's rare that I would post another blog so soon, but this is for a joyous occasion and we must all celebrate, for your's truly does not have a brain tumor. For those unaware of my situation, for the past couple of night, I would wake up with blood covered all over my pillow from a bloody nose. I thought nothing of it, but people here thought it might be serious. Well, I took some advice, made my room colder, and viola! the nosebleeds have gone, and now I know I'm okay. :)

Things started off badly when a really good friend of mine had to move to Vegas, then it got worse when my friend's dad died of cancer, but things got even worse when a good friend of mine died in a snow-mobiling accident. My grades started to slip at school, friends I had are now distant, and nothing was looking good for me. Some things have kinda gotten better since, but I still feel like I'm stuck in molasses. Hopefully March will be nicer to me, because I don't think I can handle another February.

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