Me vs The World

As I've said before, a big appeal of video games for me is the idea that you engage in interactive entertainment without the trouble of other people getting in the way, misanthropic get that I am.

Of course, I'm occasionally partial to a blast on FIFA with a friend, or even whopping some arse on the Buzz quiz games with family and significant others, but I've never bothered with online gaming in any big way. This was due to some bad experiences with Internet Scrabble (poxy abbreviations!) and the belief that playing any Playstation game online would just see me destroyed at every corner by a bunch of spotty Herberts who had even less to do with their time than me so as to spend 20 hours a day perfecting their skills.

Top of the pile in this whole field of multi-player online shenanigans is World of Warcraft, which has never really held any appeal for me. I have friends who invest a fair whack of time in it... but I've never seen the appeal, perhaps not helped by those wretched adverts with washed-up 80s icons like Ozzy Osborne and Mr T. I've also never got into the more 'traditional' RPG settings either, preferring my games in that genre to have a more modern/sci-fi angle, Final Fantasy VII being the best example.

Despite that, I'd enjoyed playing Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit a lot and when visiting Ma and Pa Harrison (and their wireless broadband), I decided to give the online version a shot, thinking it would be interesting if nothing else. Well, blow me down if I wasn't actually quite good at it, if I may say so myself. Credit to the game's developers, it's quick to get right into the action against faceless bods from around the world and be chased by (or chase them). While the single player mode was fun, it adds a whole new dimension in knowing that when you overtake or bust another car, someone somewhere else is doubtless cursing your name. It's satisfying to imagine poor SpeedMaster69 (or whoever) throwing his joypad down in disgust as he's rammed into oncoming traffic.

In conclusion: I may have to invest in wireless Internet when my contract with 3 mobile runs out. Incidentally, if anyone ever considers signing up for one of those Internet dongle things with that provider, don't. My thoughts of them can be summed up in combinations of any two swear words of your choice.