The games that define our age

I had a conversation today with a colleague who is 10 years my junior. We were discussing games and as the conversation progressed I started feeling increasingly old.

Many of the games I mentioned he had never played, let alone heard of. It got me thinking, what are the games that define my age?

Games like Mario and Zelda might have been around since my childhood, but they do not define my age as the many seequels have made them belong to several generations of gamers.

PacMan isn't a good example either as it, along with Space Invaders and Pong is such an iconic game that no gamer generation can really lay claim to it.

What then? Which games can I mention that I played as a budding gamer in the making that shaped me into the geek I am today?

With the risk of losing readers already I have to say that from my very early childhood the first game that comes to mind is the Commadore 64 Donald Ducks Playground. A Disney game created to inspire learning in children. This of cause was not why I played it, I just loved the mini games and building my Playground. I do remember continously getting run over by the train when trying to cross the tracks to get to my playground, but still I absolutely loved the game as a young child.

Another classic from my youth is Commander Keen, mention this to anyone younger than 25 and you will see their eyes glaze over with lack of comprehension, but the rest of us remember pogo sticks, weird snails and a pixelated guy with a yellow helmet.

But what really defines my video gaming age are games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein (which I played with my cousin taking turns of 5 minutes at a time, strictly meassured by my aunts egg clock), the original Settlers by Bluebyte before they were affiliated with Ubisoft and their incredibly annoying DRM and Warlords, Baldurs Gate and Diablo I.

These are the games that I can talk to my long time gamer friends that share not only my love for gaming, but also my age and nostalgia.

These are games that you pitch at younger gamers, urge them to try because you don't want them to miss out and then get met with objections about the graphics, the difficulty and other such ridiculous complaints.

Anyways, these are the games I look back at with fondness and that I believe shaped the type of gamer I am today. I know if I mention these games to anyone who has been around for as long as I have in the gaming world, they will nod knowingly and we will have hours of nostalgic topics to cover.

Which games define your age?

Baldur's gate enhanced edition

Baldur's Gate was originally released in November 1998 and I can't even begin to count how many hours I spent playing it back then. It was the beginning of my love affair with party based RPGs. I played through Baldur's Gate 2, Icewindale, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter Nights and Wizardry 8 and I loved them all.

But for some reason the computer industry moved away from these games and started spewing out first person, single character computer games and they never looked back. Until now. Today the 28th of November 2012 Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is being released and I am like a kid in a candy store.

The game is a remake of the original computer game, but complete with new characters, a new adventure and over 400 improvements to the base game. One of those is a much needed upgrade to the multiplayer system.

Furthermore a lot of bugs has been fixed from the original version and more importantly to some is maybe the fact that the additions to gameplay that were introduced in Baldur's Gate 2 has been included in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced edition. This includes the new subraces and classes.

For me though, the most interesting aspect of this relaunch is that the developers has decided to release Baldur's Gate: Enhanced edition for iPad and Android tablets and users will be able to play multiplayer with people across all platforms. It is a very smart move that should ensure an influx of players once the tablet versions are out.

I have of course Pre-ordered my copy and I will return when I have had some time to play it through. My current advice though is to just go ahead and buy it, you can't go wrong with Baldur's Gate!

Steam sale in a nutshell

Forget about shoe sales, forget about clothes shopping sprees, when you are a female gamer, what you really have to look out for is the Steam Sales that pop up unexpectedly, like this years 2012 Autumn Steam sale.

Black Friday 2012 was started off with cheap video games and not just random low quality games either. Skyrim is on the Steam Sale list for half price and so was a bunch of other awesome games like Terraria, Magic the Gathering: Duels of the  Planeswalkers 2012 and many, many more.

If you haven't already check out the deals, the Steam Sale is on until the 26th of november and if you are anything like me you will find a lot of great games that you have wanted for ages, but held off on buying due to the price tag.

Happy Steam Sale everyone