Here’s To You, Playstation
Posted on November 14, 2007 - Filed Under Video Games | 2 Comments
I’m very well aware that citing the Sony Playstation as my favourite invention from my childhood casts me in a poor light, but what of it? If the good people at Science Week Ireland are offering a Wii as a prize for the best post on this subject then they can’t take that dim a view of video games.
The Playstation was a genuine revolution in video gaming. Unlike the cartridge-based gaming consoles that had come before it, PlayStation games were sold on discs, enabling previously unthinkable audio quality. When combined with limited-yet-sufficient 3D graphics, these games were able to rival other forms of entertainment such as television and films like never before. I barely watched TV as a kid, instead electing to actively engage my brain in something, be it breaking down an opposition’s defence in a football game, or solving an intricate puzzle in Tomb Raider, or figuring out which combination of materia would best suit my playing style in Final Fantasy VII.
By the end of the PlayStation’s life-cycle video games such as Metal Gear Solid and the Final Fantasy titles had torched the distinction between video games and movies. The former’s enthralling espionage-based gameplay and intricate plot made infinitely superior in my mind to any number of James Bond or Mission Impossible movies, while the consistently compelling story lines of the Final Fantasy series placed them on a par, in my estimation, with the books I was reading at the time such as Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights or J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. My fondest childhood memories involve frantically battling with Sephiroth (FFVII’s ultra-cool antagonist) as much as they involve reading about Frodo and Gandalf.
I only hope that the good people at Science Week will allow me to continue to enjoy the bountiful fruits of the great video game tree.
(And by the way, I spent plenty of time as a kid outdoors playing football too, so I can attest that an interest in video games does not in all cases cause children to degenerate into listless, couchridden abominations.)
Thanks to Damien for drumming up awareness of this competition.
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[...] Cian on the Playstation. [...]
I’m replaying Medieval 2 at the moment…everything looks blocky, the camera controls are terrible and it’s still great.