Since the NES days, playing Duck Hunt and Contra with my dad, I have always enjoyed playing video games with others. Some of my favorite memories growing up were going over to a friend’s house to play splitscreen multiplayer after school. Whether it was Mario Kart or Halo, Nintendo 64 or Playstation 2, it didn’t really matter what game or platform it was on, it was always fun when we played together. That being said, there has always been lots of room in my heart for a great solo-campaign, falling into epic stories like Zelda Majora’s Mask or Metal Gear Solid 2. For a long time, it felt like we could have our cake and eat it too. Plenty of imaginative games to play solo, as well as a great variety of split screen games for in-person social play. At some point the games changed, and the friends moved further away.
Fast forward to now, I haven’t possessed a console since 2019, and even then, I was not an active user. I’ve been moving around a lot, I didn’t want to carry too much with me, and settling into a new country and culture kept me too busy.
Only having my laptop to game on for years, I would occasionally pop on to Steam to indulge my most gluttonous gaming addiction, Total War. Since 2002’s release of Medieval Total War, I have been an avid fan of the TW franchise ever since. If you don’t know about Total War, the games take place in different time periods and have both a super in-depth grand strategy component, as well as allow you to command large scale military engagements in real-time. These are some great games that require a lot of intellectual attention from players. I love that I can feed my curious mind with these games, but as they completely suck all of your attention, for days or even weeks at a time, they can be the epitome of a solo-play game. Because of the time and attention required, I find it harder to commit to starting new campaigns anymore.
Over the past year I got married, and things in my life have begun to settle. I am not moving around as much anymore, and have been itching to get back into gaming. So, when a friend of mine offered to lend me his old PS4, I figured I would take him up on that.
As I don’t have much knowledge or desire to play the newest games, my friend recommended I purchase a Playstation Plus membership. This gives you access to a large library of older games to download for a monthly subscription fee. I was excited by the idea of catching up on old games I had always wanted to try, but missed over the years. The problem was maybe there would be too many choices, so I asked for some recommendations for games to try. I have two friends who both have Playstation Plus accounts for years, and who have a wide breadth of knowledge on many of the games on offer through the membership.
Now the question is, what type of gamer do I want to be this time around? The solo-gamer focused on immersive campaigns or a split screen social player with my wife. I think a balance of both would be the ideal scenario, but I guess that depends on if I can even find a decent split screen game my wife would want to play.
I am looking forward to jumping back into the world of gaming, and I will be sharing some of my experiences testing out different games along the way. Thank you for reading. :)