“My lifestyle was so far from well, could’ve wrote a book with a title ‘Age 12 And Going Through Hell’/ then I realized the plan…I’m trapped in a deadly videogame, with just one man” – GZA
Call of Duty, Halo, FIFA, NBA 2K? All good and well, but I’ll take Borderlands, Bioshock, Civilization, Final Fantasy and Fallout. With another U92 giveaway going on this week with Madden, let’s dive in and look at all of the beautiful things that modern virtual entertainment can offer.
Connections
Pictured: good friends having good times
Whether you’re trying to blow things up with dozens of people from all around the world or trying to kick the crap out of your buddy on the couch next to you, videogames provide a lot of fun ways to hang out with your squad. I’m sure some of you have some awesome memories of the NBA 2K17 contest we had at the station! I have a lot of great memories going way back to my childhood friend Roger and various Nintendo adventures with Mario and Link and Samus, to my brother Jay and a multitude of fighting games like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Powerstone and Tekken. Nowadays games are pretty much more based on online connections, but I’ve had some good times teaming up with strangers to play towards something together, and also fighting against strangers because sometimes your caveman brain just wants to do that.
Options
Pictured: a lot of games. Not pictured: 99 other games
I like a lot of different types of games. Shooters with over 17 million different guns? Weird, independent, Tim-Burton-looking survival games? Sneaky stealthy ninja games where you sneak around stealing stuff? I dig em all. Even in what you play on, you have options. Sony and Microsoft battle each other with exclusive games for their Playstation’s and Xbox’s, while Nintendo does its own thing all day every day. I chose to build my own PC, and sacrificed a lot of time at the altar of Diablo III- a clickity action game with billions of different character and weapon configurations. Then on to lots of shooters and RPGs and strategies and simulations and Batman. Oh man I love those Rocksteady Batman games. It’s all about options.
Escapism
Pictured: a cat tasked with slaying dragons
This is what all entertainment is about, right? Everyone wants to watch a movie to feel like they’re on a different planet or hear a song to get turnt up at the club and feel like they have more money than they really do. Videogames offer exactly those same things at an extremely interactive level. I’ve been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto: Online lately mainly because its satirical recreation of sunny Southern California makes me feel more connected to my Bay Area roots than this Utah winter. I also run around stealing things, calling helicopters out of nowhere, shooting rockets at people and driving ridiculously exuberant high-end cars at break-neck speeds. Where else can you do all that?
So that’s my nerd, folks. Catch up with yet another one of my passions next week and be sure to tune in tonight at 9:00 pm for my homie N8 Smith (who plays NBA 2K17 on the U92 station PS4) and myself rockin the Hump Day Block Party!
DJ MC plays turntables like an instrument and also has a 135 lb. puppy named Mr. French. Follow them both on Twitter @DJMC1200 and tune into U92.5 FM to hear the hottest new music in SLC!
