Hi Giant Bomb,

I'm not one for writing blogs. However, over the past week I've used Giant Bomb in a different way and wanted to express gratitude toward this site. I'll be honest, I don't post too often, besides the yearly Santa Hat post that I try to create. I've been using Giant Bomb since the year I graduated college back in 2009. I love it. It's my go to place for pretty much anything gaming related. I've listened to countless podcasts, watched hours of quick looks, and engaged in tons of premium content.

Anyway, I wanted to offer a sincere thank you to this site over the past week. A week ago my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter who sadly passed away hours later. The past week has been a living nightmare to say the least. We've been trying to keep busy as best we can, but obviously there is always going to be downtime. Giant Bomb has helped in a tremendous way when dealing with that downtime. It's been great to rely on this website over the past week in order to keep my thoughts at bay. I will openly admit that after my wife fell asleep in the hospital, I actually put a Bombcast on just to focus on something so that I didn't break down anymore than I already had.

I don't know what else really to say, but it felt right to say thank you to any of the Giant Bomb staff who might read this, or simply to any members whose forum topics/posts I've read to keep busy.

...and if you do have a child of your own, please hug them tight. Losing your own is the worst feeling I've ever experienced.

This morning I decided to watch a bit of the TNT from last night with the Battlefield 3 DLC. Seeing the game made me think that I should give BF3 another go. I had not played the game since late Winter/Early Spring. Anyway, I popped the game in the ol' PS3 and realized I needed to download a 2000 MB patch. I'm assuming that was the recent update to allow the new DLC to work. I did not have that available on my hard drive, and didn't feel like waiting to download it so I decided to give Black Ops another go.

I played a decent amount of Black Ops last year when it had come out and still the occasional match of Zombies with friends. I wouldn't say I'm a huge COD fan, while I did enjoy the original Modern Warfare. After playing a few matches I was hooked again. I really did miss the fast paced multiplayer. Getting back into Black Ops has sort of renewed my interest in the COD Series as a whole. I would typically be the first to tell you that the series has run it's course and I'm tired of hearing about it. I never got around to trying out MW3 so perhaps that has kept me from being burnt out.

Obviously games like Battlefield and Black Ops are sort of two different entities. BF3 tends to focus on the large scale battles, besides the recent DLC (from what I've heard) and COD focuses on the extremely frantic close quarters game play. Large scale battles are good in my book as well. I absolutely loved MAG and played it to a great degree.

Too be honest, I was a bit surprised that I was excited to jump back into the COD series. I can honestly say that I'm psyched for Blacks Ops 2 and curious to see what Activision/Treyarch bring to the table with the latest version. This is something I never thought I would say.

Has anybody else sort of caught that COD itch again lately after an extended period away from it? Maybe it's just me.

Being in my mid 20's, I feel like I've been able to see how far "gaming" has come in the past 20 odd years or so.   Obviously, I wasn't there for Atari, Colecovision, and the like, but I've seen my share.  It also doesn't help that I one of the most nostalgic guys around which is the main reason of this blog.  So, without further adieu...
 

Over the past 6 months or so, my fiance and I have begun the long journey of house hunting for our first home.  We've looked pretty much everywhere we can afford in the Chicagoland suburbs.  Houses, townhomes, and condos...you name it we saw it.  Closing costs, T.I. (no not the rapper), appraisals, inspections are just a few of the terms that have become mainstays in my current vocabulary.  However, now...finally, this long "journey" is over and we are finally under contract and ready to move into our

first home.  Now that the hard part is over, I've begun packing up my things, little by little...piece by piece.  This weekend I came across all of the old video game systems, games, and peripherals that I've owned.  Needless to say, after that experience, I felt like I had to put it all together in a somewhat sensible (read - rambling) blog post in order to catalog just how far gaming has come since I've been a youngin'.

The first system I came across was my very original NES.  My parents had bought the NES prior to me even being born.  Mario was a hot commodity in the household.  My dad was always partial to Excitebike and Duck Hunt as well.  I have early images of being 3 or 4 years old and playing the NES with the folks.  Overtime, the Ninja Turtles and Batman were also a must for the console.  Obviously, there are many other classics that I'm sure people can rattle off, however being in pre-school at the time, I wasn't privy to them.  I also came across our old light gun for the previously mentioned Duck Hunt. 

There were countless times I remember getting so frustrated with using the damn thing that I would stand right in front of the TV and hover the gun over the screen in order to show that dog just who was boss!

After I finished boxing up the NES and games I came across my Genesis.  I definitely remember getting this during the Christmas of...92? 93? I was in kindergarten and it was an awesome Christmas.  Seeing Sonic for the first time was turly an awesome experience.  I remember plugging headphones into the Genesis and playing the game that way.  Obviously, in retrospect...not that big of a deal.  However, back then, whoa!  That was a whole new experience.  I also came across a variety of old sports games that, back in the day, just required some skill and fun to enjoy.  I'm still a sucker for sports games, however the fun factor isn't as high as it used to be.  NHL 95, RBI 94, NBA Jam were all games that I probably logged many, many hours into.  Too be honest, those games also are what got me into sports.  NHL 95 is what got me to get into Ice Hockey, and to this day I still play in a men's league for fun.  RBI got me into baseball, and NBA Jam the same with basketball.  As I look back, it's awesome that a video game is what got me to go out and find other hobbies that I would enjoy.  Of course, at the time I was still rockin' the Ninja Turtles and Hyperstone Heist was an awesome game to go along with it.  I still remember playing the game over and over again with a neighbor in order to finally bring down Shredder.  Is it sad that I still remember that?  Haha, don't answer that...I realize it is.

With the Sonic and his buddies finally put away in a box, I came across my Playstation 1.  If any of you can remember the video of the kid going berserk over his N64 on Christmas, then you can imagine how I was when I finally got my PS1.  32 bits!  32 bits!  I had no idea what a bit was as a kid, but I knew the games were pretty snazzy looking!  Crash Bandicoot and MLB Pennant Race were the first two games I ever played.  Over time I added many other classics... Jet Moto, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter, Final Fantasy VII and many others.  I remember friends coming over to see Resident Evil and just how scary it was.  The game is still a classic that I go back and play at least once a year.  Not only did I find the games...but Dualshocks!  Oh Dualshocks, a blue one, a black one, and grey one, a clear one ,and a multi-tap no less!  I can't forgot how many times friends and family would all get together to play You Don't Know Jack with the multitap.  I remember even bringing the console and game on a family vacation specifically for that reason.  I can safely say, the recent YDKJ captures that same attitude!  The playstation 1 could very well be my favorite system of "gaming career."   Let's not forget that it was also a CD player!  At the time, this was another feature I thought was awesome.  I remember discovering the tones of Rage Against the Machine as a 5th grader while pumping their music out of the ps1.  It's silly, but again, something I remember.  
 
  

 
Anyway, thanks for reading this blog!  While I know I will move them to the new house, I'm unsure whether I'll ever actually un-box them and play them.  It's almost like when a game company or movie company try to remake a classic.  It never can live up to the amount of build up that you have put into it in your head. 

When you've moved, what have you done with your old consoles and games?  Do you reflect on the good times and put them away or keep on playing them?  Regardless, boxing up these old systems made me realize of how much fun gaming can be.  While I don't get as much time to play video games as much as I did as a kid, I can still look back fondly on all the time wasted (read - enjoyed) playing these games!