From as far back as my ageing mind can take me, I have always been involved with technology – gaming especially. I went through the whole blowing the Nintendo’s cartridge, and my own Gameboy, although I’m pretty sure I spent more time in the Pokémon hospital than actually playing. But the real excitement for me, came from my beloved PS1, then my PS2, PS3 and up to my current PS4 – that’s right, I’m a Sony girl. XBOX readers, please continue to read and don’t press that red cross just yet!
When my dad bought me my PS1, astonishment came from this new disc feature. Oh, so I don’t have to blow it? Cool! Oh, but I have to put it back in its case, because of scratches? I cba. Let there be scratches! Until the ‘red screen of death’ scared the hell out of me. I can also still recall the PS1 start-up sound, can you? A few of my favourite games from wayyy back then were (are):
Spyro
Rayman
Pandemonium
Street Fighter
Crash Bandicoot and Team Racing
I miss the games, but I don’t miss the pain of losing a memory card!
One thing about my dad, he always made sure that I was up to date with the latest console, he could see that I genuinely loved my games, or were they just a babysitting method? They kept me out of trouble anyway, sometimes… I’m 26 years old, so I came from a generation where we actually played out and socialised as children. I recall bragging to the boys on my street that I had a PS2 before them and that my dad is better than their dad, remember that phase? Why do the girls not play games, I always thought? I had two PS2’s, the original fat one, then I copped the slimline one when that dropped.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the two PS2 games that will forever take the stand for me, will be GTA Vice City and SA. Probably the latter more so, but I enjoyed them both equally. I bought VC a couple of weeks ago for my PS4. The graphics and driving are terrible but the music is perfect - Fever 105! I’m actually stuck on a mission, the RC helicopter one, how my younger self completed that I do not know. “All you had to do was follow the damn train CJ!”, I don’t know about you, but that sentence still circulates in my brain and haunts me. It’s genuinely the hardest mission I’ve ever done. I remember trying to use a jetpack to get on that damn train at one point, even YouTube tutorials weren’t helping. Lord knows how happy I was once I completed that!
Fast forward a few more years, and the biggest jump in consoles arrived – the PS3, with online gaming! The online gaming world is where the lack of female gamers really presented itself to me. Am I weird? Why are there never any girls online? Why do none of my friends like gaming? But now, I just view myself as somewhat unique. Do you know how excited guys got when they heard me on the mic in a gaming lobby? That’s another post for another day, for sure.
As you’re aware, online gaming really connects you with so many people around the world, its fascinating. It connected me that well, that I’ve met people from COD in real life. And I’m pretty sure my boyfriend at 17 I met him on there too, as we both realised were from the same area. Started from COD now we here! Reminiscing that, is particularly weird, I would never dream of doing that now.
For me, PS3 and the online world, was all about Call of Duty. Now, I have to admit I wasn’t exactly amazing, but with practice comes perfect(ish). If you read Meloy’s blog post, he mentioned that he came from a generation who skipped school just to play - I was also amongst those. Must. Get. My. COD. Fix. I loved MW2, it still remains my favourite, especially the maps. RUST! NUKETOWN! They are unmatched in my opinion. I really hope that the remastered version rumour is true – but this time I’ll be skipping work, not school. The funniest memory I have from MW2, is my friend Dan got a care-package and then got brutally murdered as he was about to acquire it, and then the thief managed to get a
chopper gunner, Dan was vexxx, going sick on the mic, so funny! No one wants to lose out on a chopper gunner. Dan, if you’re reading this, I still remember and feel your pain.
Then along came Santa with my PS4, I was so excited, tearing away the wrapping paper, it felt like I was a child again. As I was a Sony girl all my life, I wasn’t familiarised like XBOX users, having to pay to play online, so having this new rule for the PS4 was a shock for me. But nevertheless, I paid and played, and played and played. I was particularly grateful for the automatic transfer of trophies, from PS3 to PS4, I didn’t like the thought of losing all that work.
I still have that very same PS4, I’ve recently come home after travelling for two years, so it certainly collected some dust, but alas, it still works! The new COD games don’t entice me as much, so GTA 5 has been my favourite game from this console – the graphics are insane.
I’m glad that I’ve grown up as a ‘gamer girl’, it’s surely been interesting. It’s fun, and the gaming world continues to connect me with people. I’m looking forward to continuing my journey, who knows what the future will hold with consoles? PS5, where you at?
Melanie Bentley Moore
Die hard Sony Fan.
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