It's true. I always have been. It is the one shaming trait of my longstanding gamedom that I try to conceal and dispose of. I understand that gameplay is the superior qualifier which separates the classics from the bargain bin, but that doesn't seem to stop me from shelling out the cash for any claim to visual dominance. This has always been limited to the consoles, of which I also rabidly covet, however I tend to restrict my "hardcore gaming" towards them alone.
I can think of two specific instances of my manic lust for console polygonal conquering:
The First was when I found out, through my usual sources, that Half Life 2 was going to be released for XBOX!!!! Notice the lack of a numerical representation of degrees at the end there. Yeah, Original Black Pillow-of-Plastic XBOX.
I could hardly contain myself considering that I had recently over-clocked my PC to run the damn game only to be subdued by steam-suck (a common ailment in the years 2004-2005) And when I finally got the green sheathed disc to play properly through my box.....IT WAS AWESOME, sort of. The graphics were not the talk of the day, no, it was the gameplay. Valve's deal-at-the-crossroads which allows them only triple-A titles saved my graphical masochism that day.
The Second was just recently. A Certain sequel to a game known for requiring Level 6 Retinal Entry Clearance at Langley just to view the damn load screen. I could only speak of the visually unparalleled Crysis.
(_;YOU CAN NOT PLAY ME ;_)
And Crysis 2 was coming out for my dinky little PC as a Console. YES! I needn't look any deeper into it, I put that reserve down, son! A few months later and I must say, it does look fantastic on the aged box. With stereoscopic 3D support to boot! The gameplay for the story mode was excellent if a tad repetitive towards the end. The multiplayer, well, is butt. And that takes it so many notches down, for me, that this 9.5 just became a 7.5-8.0. Those pages for people who choose their selections solely from a chronicle in descending numeric pffft. I apologize for all those who don't covet the aforementioned metarankics.
But I digress,
I don't think I will ever quench the lust for high-poly, high-fps, high-anti-aliasing, high hoping NEED to seek that shit out. I will post more examples as I can think of them.
I want to end on a slight tangent:
MY FAVORITE 360 ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCK EVER!!!
Was it getting 100% in Liberty City? Was it Unlocking the Recon In Halo 3? Getting Every Achievement in Braid except that one that involves perching on a cloud for several REAL hours?
No, no, no. It was Crysis 2. When I beat the game on Hard? No. Easy? NO!!
It's quite simple. After you start the game and go through its little intro movie you are presented with a little level and suddenly you see a familiar green rectangle pop up on the screen to ask you:
CAN IT RUN CRYSIS?
25 Gamerpoints
LUST QUENCHED.
