I was watching television just the other night and a videogame was being advertised. It was a first-person, war-themed shoot-em-up, something a la Call of Duty. My wife turned to me inquisitively and asked me if that was a game I would like to play, if it was up my alley, so to speak. I knew it was somewhat of a ploy; my wife loves videogames, but doesn’t really like games that involve killing. We don’t have kids yet, but we will someday, and I’m sure being the parents we’ll be, we will introduce them to gaming, but probably in a rather controlled manner. This particular game, which highlighted “realistic wartime action,” would most definitely not make it past mom’s censors. But her question intrigued me: what did I think of such games?

I quickly ran through the games that have a permanent place in my library. I have loads of them, but often I’ll play them a few times and then disperse them to true lovers of the genre. But of course, I have some keepers, titles that I’ll play over and over again. Some of those currently include Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum and, naturally, all of the franchises from my youth (Mario, Zelda, etc). I realized that conspicuously absent were any games whose main objective was: as a human, realistically harm another human. I throw that modifier in there because Team Fortress 2 is all about murdering one another, but it’s so cartoony I never really thought about the characters as real people, which I think makes a difference.

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Well I have to say, even though I’m a video-game reviewer, many of the big titles passed me by this year. I have these darn “professors” who expect me to “read” so I can get “grades.” Totally cut into my play time, if you ask me. So when I think of games, I really put them into two categories: those I can play with people, and those just for me to jump in solo-style have some fun.

The multiplayer one for me is easy: Left 4 Dead 2. One of the things I love about gaming is the interaction, the camaraderie. Well, no, the trash-talking. But really, I see gaming as a social experience, and L4D2 gives me everything I need from a game. I can jump in and play through the campaigns on a survivor team or bust some heads as the infected. It’s fast-paced and simply tons of fun if you’ve got friends to tackle it with. I can pop it into my machine over and over and continue to have fresh, new experiences. I applaud any game that has the ability to do that. I don’t think this really needs more explanation. If you’ve played it, you know what I’m talking about.

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Well it’s a bit of a slow season for video games, and so now is a good time to indulge in some guilty pleasures. Today’s a rainy day and I’m borrowing a title from my young nephew that I’ve been secretly anxious to play – Lego Batman for the Wii.

This probably marks the first time I’ve turned on the Wii in about 5 months, but never-the-less since I’ve popped it in, I can’t seem to stop playing it. I mean c’mon, it’s really just the melting pot of the coolest stuff ever: video games, Legos and Batman.
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