June 04, 2006

Play Station 2 Games

Remember the video games we used to play back in the day? I mean the ones in the 80s. We had the ever-popular Pac-Man, Asteroids, and Centipeed. Those outstanding innovations were the bomb! I can recall playing Pitfall on my Atari and thinking, it doesn't get any better than this. Okay, so I was wrong. Apparently it gets a lot better than that. In fact, it continues to get better as time moves on. Those darn electronics and graphics always improve. It's a never-ending cycle of fun and amusement. For example, check out some of the more recent playstation 2 games. Wow, what a difference from the old-school Atari. I mean, the game depths alone are amazing. People around the world enjoy these new-age playstation 2 games on a daily basis. Do you have the latest ones?

Are you a big PS2 fan? I was astounded when this console came out. The big pitch didn't only concern the playstation 2 games, but also the DVD option. That's right; you could actually use your PS2 as a DVD player as well. Folks loved this convenient option. Suddenly they didn't need to purchase a DVD player. It was an all-in-one deal. What a bargain!

I recall the first time I headed over to my brother's humble abode to check out his PS2 and his new playstation 2 games. Being out of the video game loop since the first Nintendo, I was utterly flabbergasted at the realistic graphics and sound effects. These new playstation 2 games are just so real. The people are so much different than the classic Atari figures. No more stick men. There was anything from martial arts games to sports games to spy adventures. Who wouldn't love playstation 2 games?

These days children across America take great pleasure in playstation 2 games. They contend with their peers, and battle the bad guys for as long as their parents will let them. One of the great benefits of the PS2 is the versatility. Regardless if you had a PS1, you can play all those old games on your PS2 as well. How cool is that?


If you're on the lookout for new playstation 2 games, you can browse your local Best Buy and Target stores, or simply delve into cyberspace for some incomparable deals. Buy used playstation 2 games for half the price. With the world at your fingertips, you will surely find that playstation 2 game you're searching for.

Posted by KeyWestPublishing at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

Play Games

One of the best ways a majority of us relax, stay engaged, stave off boredom, or even blow off hours at work is to play games—video games, computer games (you do know there are a few addictive games in your word program, right?), or online games.

I own over a hundred games from the ever-wonderful bigfishgames.com. I also play games at two gaming sites. One, I still frequent is free (boxerjam—I love that name, never mind that these are where I played my very first games online the very first time—in the early eighties—I went online. (Those were the days when you would dial in, wait while the screeeoooobongbongbong sound thrilled you with an electronic techno-buzz, of course.)

But to play games you can get hooked on as a middle-aged single person who prefers the nonviolent, I recommend Pogo. The play is free if you want, provided you can sit through the intermission—which pops up every too often. But really, paying to play games at Pogo (and I’m sure at other equally fine sites) is very affordable. Especially if you choose to be home bound (because you really can’t stand people in person anymore), never spend money on anything other than food and shelter, and deserve (as every human does) the catharsis playing games affords.

It may be understood, obvious, of just naturally implied but never thought about too intensely, but when one plays games on such a site, one garners multiple benefits:

1.Such platforms or networks or whatever they are called these days allow games to return to their natural form. You can play games like Checkers, a version of Scrabble, or Canasta, for example, with a robot who is as adept as or inferior to you. And the new avatars (mini-me cartoon representations of players/members) have smiles, frowns, even funny red-faced expressions for winning a round, losing a game, conceding to a set or match.

2.In-game chat for real-time games means you get to play games and communicate with others as you play, you wherever you are, they wherever they are, and there is no time lapse. You don’t hear from them three days after you emailed or snail mailed a message; you don’t wait ten minutes as if you are stoned and swearing you took way too long to answer that question; you type back and forth to people all over the world. If you want to. You can, of course, forego the robot opponent and play games with one of those people or even a whole group.

3. So the subsequent benefits of number two are many: gaming online enhances social recognition; bridges distances; encourages the human sentiments of empathy and sympathy (for anything important to the online/human acquaintances…life issues, feelings, attitudes about hard games or dull ones or games acting up); and fills the vacuum of solitary offline game playing.

4. The miracle of online game playing systems also encourages altruism and contributes to technological knowledge development, on whatever level. People in a community help others to navigate, chat, manipulate pc commands/controls, play unfamiliar games, and, in general, help each other to learn new cyber techniques. It’s a beautiful thing.

While we now know, too, that when you play games (of any mode and of certain types), those games help fight off senility, Alzheimer’s, and, in my coo-coo world, the insanity of such needful mental aberrations as ADD, ADHD, and OCD—though this last benefit is not necessarily empirically proven.

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So to play games is to invite motivation for beating your personal best, to perform in competition-mode (though this is very understated), to keep alive the hope of winning some dough. To play games is to be one of the common denominator who have latched onto the versatility of appeal, the tickle of getting out of doing some work, and the joy of winning. Something. Even if its these tokens that are virtually real but virtually useless for anything other than virtual activities. Whatever the case, it all translates to F-U-N.

Posted by KeyWestPublishing at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

Computer Game Design

Computer game design is the career of a dream come true for any hard core gaming fan. What could be more fun for a dedicated gamer than designing your own computer games and getting paid for it? Every fan of computer games has no doubt at least occasionally fantasized having a career in computer game design; as a gamer myself, I plead guilty to the same charge.

If you are dreaming of a job in the computer game design industry, the good news is it’s a huge industry and there are loads of jobs available in it. The bad news is computer game design is exceedingly difficult, and requires a rigorous working knowledge of programming languages. Getting a degree in computer science is a good start, but this is in itself no easy task. Of the six friends I had in college that were computer science majors, only one of them stuck with it to the end. It is a grueling major filled with advanced mathematics classes and tedious programming exercises.

If you love programming and don’t find it tedious at all, or at least can tolerate the tedium, computer game design may be something you could do. I think you should also have a genuine love of computer games as well, but that sort of goes without saying. My college friend that got his computer science degree is currently working for a well knowing game design company, and loves it. However, he readily admits that is nothing like he thought it would be.

Computer games today are enormous programs that can take years to complete. In the infancy of the game industry, computer game design teams often consisted of just a few people. Today, many games have several production teams consisting of up to hundreds of different people working simultaneously on different aspects of the game. However, if you prove yourself as a capable programmer, the sky is the limit on where you can go; seasoned programmers with several completed games under their belts can not only command a large salary but can have a lot of say over the direction of the game.

If programming just isn’t your thing, there are some other jobs in the computer game design field. Generally, programmers are the most sought after, but good artists and writers can be attractive employees to a game maker. While they generally don’t make as much money, graphic designers and other artists are all required to make a good game today.

Posted by KeyWestPublishing at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)