I don't really know how to classify what I'm about to write. I'm in a nostalgic kind of mood, am going to the army soon, and have nothing to do today, so I'll pose a question to see if other people ever feel the same way sometimes: do you ever occasionally feel nostalgic about games that you used to play that looking back are somehow already half-a-decade old, or more? The type of memory that makes you feel old when you're not even legally allowed to drink? For my money, the Splinter Cell series has been the most consistent series in my time playing video games. Zelda 64 was unequivocally the best game I ever played--but it was ephemeral, a shooting star of video games, and the sequels didn't match up, even if they were good games in their own right. Even though I played C-S and StarCraft for years on end, those were the types of games that could be enjoyed without major updates. They were so flawlessly designed that those designs still have a following today.

The Splinter Cell series, however, was something special. A modicum of hard work. Each game that came out had to have several new levels all immaculately designed to keep you occupied for, oh, twenty hours or so. After Chaos Theory, though, the game really fell off the wagon and it's never been the same since. It's time now, however, to remember what was, in my opinion, the best multiplayer mode ever created in any game, ever. With Pandora Tomorrow, you could finally go up against guards that weren't stupid A.I. bots. As realistic and intricate as the single player got, it still felt ridiculous when you would be crouched with your face in some guard's balls, but because your meter was at 0, you wouldn't get spotted. It really pushed the envelope as far as suspension of disbelief goes.

The point is, the amount of fun I had playing the multiplayer for PT was unreal. With Chaos Theory it became better but the community dwindled, and with Double Agent it just became outright stupid. With PT, it was truly a flash of innovation and maybe it only appealed to a small niche of video gamers, but the thrill of having a friend with you as you tried lull a mercenary into a corner and break his neck, or get killed literally the moment after you managed to type at those keyboards for 12 seconds, it's rare that a game can be that exciting. The thing that made it fun was the high level of team work needed. That's what makes video games fun, when it comes down to it, is just playing with friends.

I don't know why I'm posting this here. This is more of something that belongs on some nerdy video game blog, but whatever. If you are on GameFAQS or GameSpot and you are reading this, you are a nerd, or at least a closet nerd, so I'm sure you can relate to what I'm talking about. If you are young, like I was when I first started playing video games at six years old, or eight when I started using the internet, back when homework was memorizing two syllable words for spelling tests, then you are accruing the types of memories I'm talking about. Anytime between then until fourteen or fifteen or so, you are still a full-on child with no clue how the world works. You are pretty much in a perpetual daze up until about 12. I really miss being that young. Not because the world is such a terrible place, but because at that age things are so simple. You can slip into a video game, not to forget about the trifles of every day life and shut down for a few hours, but to actually enjoy yourself. You are still inexperienced enough to really be engaged by video games in a way that you can't when you're older. That's why I don't play them anymore.

And as you get older things will start to happen. You'll start doing things you're not supposed to, making new friends and losing old ones, meeting girls (or guys), having people do horrible things to you and also you will do horrible things back. You'll lose that "thing," whatever it is, that makes you a kid. It's probably some combination of innocence and inexperience. The reason there's so many retards on the internet gaming scene is because the feeling of participating in an entirely different world or environment is really appealing towards children, and, well, children will be children, especially when they think they're anonymous. I know how nerdy this all is and if you're much older or younger than me you probably won't have the first clue what I'm talking about, but if you are anything like me (or were anything like me), you will either start to lose your ability to appreciate video games or you will at the very least have to enjoy them from a different perspective.

For those who can relate to what I'm talking about, I'll end by asking a question:

What games or series have you played growing up that at the very least would earn a sentence or two in your auto-biography? Games that the characters and story line, or the clan or guild or whatever you were in, gripped you like a compelling movie or book. Talk about why. Games that you played so much that you probably can attribute a small, microscopic, aspect of your personality development to your time playing those games. This isn't a "Best Games Ever" thread. I would never argue that Twisted Metal is one of the best games or series ever, but it'd still earn a spot on my list for this thread. This for games that are meaningfulto you.Only games or series that are at least five years old.

[And also, I could write the same thing about books, movies, TV shows, teams I played for, classes I had in school, social circles, schools that I attended, and other things as well, but since we are on a video game forum, I'll focus on video games.]

If you're like me, you probably can't even remember all of them, but try to keep your list short. My (very short) list:

Pandora Tomorrow

Flight Simulator 2000: Professional Edition

Zelda 64

GoldenEye 007

StarCraft

BladeRunner

Resident Evil Series(Especially 2)

Make sure you give reasons or anecdotes, otherwise the list is just a waste of memory.