The Games That Make Us

Gaming influences us in many ways, it can create friendships with people continents apart, it can give us unforgettable moments that you will always fondly look back on, I believe it can even change who we are as a person for the better (and maybe sometimes for worse). It is no denying how influential video games are and I do believe that some of the games I played changed my outlook on myself and life, so I decided to look back at my gaming list and pick out a few.

Uncharted 2

This one has to be my most obvious since it is my most favourite game of all time. I adore Uncharted 2 so much that I actually have a tattoo of it on my arm. Uncharted 2 its an absolutely cinema style story where Nathan Drake is on an adventure to find the lost city of Shambhala and stop the Cintamani Stone from being taken by a crazy serbian warlord named Zoran Lazarevic. The game takes you through crazy situation and constantly Nathan Drake beats to odds to make it out (sometimes barely) alive. 

This game really sparkles though with the characters, you fall in love with every member of Nate's team and feel a real connection with each one of them which only grows with each game. In Uncharted 2 however the real star is Nathan Drake himself. His sense of adventure to the point of almost a childlike excitement when he discovers something is almost awe inspiring and with this plus his witty humour I ended up being one of his biggest fans. This was all perfectly executed by the absolute legend of voice acting Nolan North who was just born to play this role. All that mixed with some of the craziest moments in Video Games means that it is my favourite video game.

Because it being my favourite game it is hard not to admit it influenced me. I tried rock climbing growing up because I wanted to be like Nate, he was the first Cosplay I ever wore, he influenced my love of history and mythology. He really made me want to have an adventure and I would like to think in some ways I've achieved that.

Tomb Raider

I won't go into too much detail since I have brought up Tomb Raider way too much lately (see here) but I can't deny it influenced me. It was the first video game I remember playing and began my love of gaming. I adore this game and it brings special memories such as my dad assuring me the enemies were only sleeping when I shot them, I appreciate that dad.

Guitar Hero World Tour + RockBand 4

I think of games that took over my teenage life. I can help but think of Guitar Hero and RockBand. Me and my two best friends (Robin and Gravy)  at the time would always make plans to meet up for one evening every weekend to play, we would meet at 5pm cook up some burgers or pasta and then play until around 2am when one of us (normally me) would eventually fall asleep on the sofa. We did this from the age of 14 up until I turned 19/20 so a huge part of my teenage years. I loved it as well, we were lucky that Robin had the house to herself every weekend so it meant playing as much as we wanted. 

As we got older we started adding drinking games to it where you would start on easy and if you 100% the song you go to the next difficulty, if you didn't 100% you would take a drink and try again on the same difficulty. If someone 100% a song on expert they would win and the other two would have to finish their drink . It really was great fun and all three of us always looked forward to that evening every weekend where we could just be a dumb band.

The story doesn't end there though since my sister ended up joining us a lot as well. Like all siblings I think everyone has that moment where you suddenly look at your sister/brother and think, hmmm you're not as big an ass**** as I thought. This happened with me and my sister when I was about 17 and soon she joined us with playing Guitar Hero and Rockband. My sister loves to sing (she's a singer as a career now so safe to say she's pretty bloody good at it) so naturally we had our vocalist, Gravy loved to play bass, Robin was the classic rock chick on drums and I was on guitar. That was the moment the band 'The Awkward Carrots' was formed, a band that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

It is so cemented in my lore that on my sister's 21st birthday I took her to a tattooist so we could both get a carrot tattooed on our wrist for the Awkward Carrots. When I was leaving England to move to Germany, Robin and Gravy rented an entire VUE cinema room out so we could finally play RockBand on the big screen like we always dreamed about. Guitar Hero and RockBand gave me probably the best memories I have in gaming and made my teenage / young adult years some of the best moments in my life.

Halo Reach

Anyone who had an Xbox growing up loves the Halo franchise. Yes it has gotten a bit messy now but the original trilogy of the game is an absolute masterpiece in the shooter genre. I thoroughly enjoyed every game right up to 5 and even then I still enjoyed the combat, it was just a complete mess of a storyline. However my favourite Halo game is by far Halo Reach. This is for two reasons, the first is I love the story of the Noble Team being assigned a complete suicide mission and having to show what teamwork and sacrifice is to complete their objective. It is my favourite kind of story filled with a great group of characters, lots of laughs, and some completely heart-aching moments especially at the end. The second and by far the main reason it is on this list is because it is the first story game I played and completed with my dad which started a weekly gaming session we still follow to this day.

My dad had finished work one evening and came into my bedroom where I was playing some game or another and said to me he wanted to play a game together. I was very excited because no one in my family really showed any interest in gaming (that has completely changed now thanks to games being on every device now) so I jumped at the chance and asked him what he wanted to play. He then revealed Halo Reach from behind his back (which he had purchased on the way home from work) and said let's play this, at this point I was starting to question if I was actually dreaming.

So began the weekly gaming session, normally on a Tuesday or Wednesday we play for about 1-2 hours and it is always a joy. The importance of this weekly session has only increased now that I live in a different country from my family. I brought him a Xbox Series S when I was leaving as well as GamePass so we could keep the tradition. I don't really call my dad too much but I can always guarantee I can chat with him for a while once a week. It normally takes us 4-5 months to finish a game (the last were Wildlands and Halo Infinite, we now are playing FarCry5) so with 100s of games on GamePass we can always find something to play.Also yes he is a great dad.

So these were the games that not only massively impacted my life but also helped make me the person who I am today. I love these games so much and while some may find them crap, to me they are beyond special. Let me know what games help define your childhood or influenced you to be the person you are today.

Cuppa