Dude, Where's My Chart?

I received a copy of Uncharted 2 recently for the PS3. I can say wholeheartedly that it is nothing short of astounding in the visual department. The world is rendered in such amazingly meticulous detail that it's almost too much to take in sometimes. The amount of information that it offers to populate the artificial world it creates is sometimes overwhelming in its capacity. I've completed a couple hours of the game and I have yet to get bored with the visuals in any capacity.

One idea that I've held tightly to over the last decade is that graphics do not equal gameplay. You can have the prettiest game in the world and it can still remain quite decidedly un-fun. With Uncharted 2 I was extremely skeptical of my own potential for enjoyment and was worried that I would encounter a very pretty but vapid experience. Actually, now that I think about it, that is true to an extent. It is true to the same extent that Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was a completely stupid yet still thoroughly enjoyable movie experience. Basically, playing this game is like playing an action movie. It moves through tropes of the genre as if checking boxes on a list, but the whole experience is executed with such quality that by the time I get to the end of it, I expect that it should have been a memorable experience and one that I've enjoyed.

This Again?

I just read this from Friday's Penny Arcade post. It basically puts my exact thoughts on modern PC gaming into very sharp focus. In other words, I agree:

"I have long since decoupled "having an optimal experience" from "enjoying myself," though for many, many years the two were synonymous. As friends left the Windows platform one by one, a trend I've only recently begun to reverse, it became clear to me that fun is pretty much fun, and fun with friends is amplified, and as a personal edict this has served me better than the earlier, more strident one."

In some ways, I miss the days of the PC's dominance of cutting-edge video gaming. There are some things that can only be experienced by gaming on a full-fledged computer and that, to some extent, still holds true albeit to a lesser extent. But one thing that that platform requires is an occasional spirit to tweak and troubleshoot. As I get older, this is something that I find myself less willing to do. Sure, it's always a learning experience, but sometimes I just want to, you know, have fun. I have a wife, a kid, a job, and other hobbies outside of gaming and I no longer have the desire to spend two hours troubleshooting software when I could be having a good time.

Don't get me wrong (Fool Evan). I still enjoy gaming on my computer. There are lots of advantages to which I alluded before. I like all the indie games that are available. The mods are a huge benefit. But, and this is especially true for the latter, those require troubleshooting most of the time. I still want to play PC games, but I am content with playing smaller, more intimate or sometimes just older titles that I'm sure will work. I no longer have the desire to stay at or just behind the crest of the hardware wave. It can be a much kinder, gentler, and frankly, less stressful place to be.