Recently I have discovered how much I missed playing co-op video games. In days past, I usually played this way. But then at some point around the days of the Xbox and PlayStation, single player games were more of the norm for me. When online gaming was available, World of Warcraft offered a way to play both kinds. But then co-op games for me kind of ended at some point...then I started to play Diablo III: Reaper of Souls on local co-op. It's not the online kind that I'm writing about, although I would imagine that would be a lot of fun with friends. Enjoying the game with another person in the same house was something I really missed doing. I can see myself enjoying playing other games on co-op as well, maybe something from the Gears of War franchise, or the Streets of Rage collection. Whatever it is, the idea of playing local co-op has excited me once again.

When I first got the Xbox 360 back in 2007, I looked for co-op games to play. It was Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Earth Defense Force 2017, and also handing the controller back and forth for Call of Duty 2 (creating a co-op experience). I think it might be that I got caught up in many single player adventures over the years and as a result I forgot what it was like to play co-op locally. When I learned that Gears of War 4 would have two-player co-op locally, I got excited again, like I did back in 2007. Playing a game online with friends is pretty common to do now, but the local play, just people in a room enjoying a game...there's still something pretty great about that kind of experience.

Over the past couple of days, I have had great pleasure of finding music to buy as a gift for birthday presents. I didn't buy a gift card to the Apple Store or Amazon to have it shipped later. I went to the store, picked out the CDs, and purchased. It felt great. I almost forgot what that felt like, and to be honest, I don't want to miss that feeling anymore. It feels good, just in general, to buy gifts for other people that we think they'll like, but my idea is that it feels even better when it's music that we're buying.

Perhaps other people have felt this way recently. I went down to my local Best Buy today and picked out the new Santana record and then as I was browsing for ideas, I saw Eric Clapton had a 2016 record, so I bought that too. I remember when the music section at Best Buy was much larger and not all concentrated but rather divided out into the different genres. I am not surprised that the company has cut down on supply because of the digital turnover. At the same time, the CD section still existed, and it felt great to browse and shop.

Has anybody seen that documentary about Tower Records? I've seen bits and pieces of it, and it got me thinking about when I was younger, walking into my local music stores, looking to buy a new record. Streaming music has its advantages, but man, it felt so good buying physical CDs as gifts. I really don't know how else to describe it.