Never been much of a blogger. Always short on words and to the point I am. Yet here I am writing one on Giantbomb mostly to get the blog quest out of the way since I've recently been bitten by the quest bug and partly to actually voice an opinion:

I like my video games video gamey.

Over the course of my video gaming career (hobby,) video games have gotten progressively more movie-esque. Cut scenes abound. Characters have, well, character. Everything has a bloody plot. I feel like I spend as much time - if not more - watching video "games" than playing them these days.

This isn't a bad thing. I'll never forget plowing through Final Fantasy VII in my dorm room, skipping classes and generally wrecking my GPA back in the nineties. Xenogears was a transcendental experience despite the second disk of rocking chair Citan blathering important plot points that I never got to take part in. The first God of War (I skipped most of the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube generation until late) blasted unused synapses into action with over the top QTEs and raging Kratos badassery. Even more recently, I was permitted to step into the shoes of Batman even, through a couple of great games by Rocksteady.

However, I miss the 2-dimensional (literally and figuratively) characters, inexplicable "plots", general weirdness and resulting sense of mystery that came prepackaged standard with the games of yesteryear. Call it nostalgia if you must, but there's something alluring about the hero whose only characteristic is his senseless name and apparent desire - manifested through my actions - to wipe all evil from the face of whatever world it is I'm saving today. I was free to imagine my character being any sort of person/automaton/benevolent force without the strict characterization thoroughly administered by today's Uncharteds and Gears of Warses.

The most fun I've ever had with video games was with those with zero plot, and a whole lot of pixel smashing action. Shmups, 2D platformers, on-rail shooters. Bring back the visceral and simple. Blah blah blah.

<insert conclusion here>

I'm a little drunk on a Friday night and about to play some Dead Space. Yeah!