I have had my Playstation 4 for around 6 months now and I believe I have adapted to console gaming quite well. When I first had a console it was in the year of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Alex The Kidd, Street Fighter and Coolspot. Console gaming has advanced to the level of PC gaming now, so I thought it was about time I had my turn with it.
When I first started playing games properly I was a dedicated PC gamer, but it’s an expensive hobby to keep all my equipment up to date, and I just don’t have the time or money to do that now. Now days I don’t have the time to spend hours and hours playing, so it’s a just a once in a while thing, and with console gaming, you don’t need to update any hardware yet you can still play all the latest games unlike with a PC
You can see how far I have progressed with my console gaming from the two videos below.
The video below is from October 2014. It shows one of the better runs I had at the time. It’s still quite crap though.
Now compare it to how I play now. As you can see from the video below there is quite a difference. Not only in play style, but in technique and ability too.
I’d have to say that I’m quite proud of myself from going from a PC gamer to being able to play on a console. It’s quite a dramatic change.
As you all know I’m a gamer and I have been since 1999 when I got my first PC. I now have two children. My boy Ryan 9, and my girl Chloé 6.
There has been an issue raised recently about age restricted gaming products such as Call of duty, or Grand Theft Auto, and children playing them.
The law states that anyone below the age stated on the product should not be allowed to play it. The main census according to a recent poll on the Telegraph website is that it should primarily remain a parental personal choice.
The fact that gaming products are age restricted should be a general indicator that the product is unsuitable for certain age groups. As a parent I would tend to agree with that statement, but being a gamer and having played certain age restricted games I would have to disagree, well at least partially.
If you stay with me for the next bit I will tell you why. If we look at the online multiplayer side of the games Call of Duty and GTA as examples they both have guns, killing, explosives, knives, and stabbing in it.
Lets look at them individually. If we look at GTA’s online free roaming world it pretty much allows you to do anything you want. You can hijack cars, rob convenience stores, run people over, use explosives, have sex with prostitutes and kill people and from what I remember there is a torture scene where the player has to engage to move the story along.
Now lets take a look at Call of Duty’s online game play. You plant bombs and kill people. Yes! That is literally it. Kinda basic.
I’m not being bias while writing this because I have played both types of games, and this is the main reason why I disagree partially with the age rating on some games. I understand why they are there, but it should be more a guideline rather than a strict law. But board games are still safe and not affected by this. Safe games like the best jenga game are already marked as safe alongside many other board games!
I will admit that I let my son play Call of Duty even though it is an 18+ rated game. I don’t think it represents proper violence in the way that GTA does. I would however not let him play GTA. Don’t get me wrong though, as I do know that Call of Duty has some very graphic scenes in it, but these are all in the single player, which he does not play.
You can watch a video that deathmule has put together for Call of Duty Advanced Warfare Single Player, but as I said above my boy doesn’t play single player, so he wont even see any of it. So this is why I condone him playing it.
Now watch a video I found for GTA by Dat Saintsfan. I find it epically disgusting, and if I had a choice in the matter I would not let him play it.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel children should be allowed to play age restricted games? Would you let them play it if you played it first to “vet” it? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.
If you’re a gaming fan like myself and so many others then you should of known about the Call of Duty Championships 2015!
I managed to catch the majority of the tournament over the past two days, and was deeply impressed by just how well covered each match is with the commentary.
There was match to match breakdowns of what happened just in case you missed it among all the epic battles, which made for a much better watching experience.
I have included the finals below for you to watch, but if you’re interested in the final battle you should skip to 5 hours 40 minutes. It’s intense as hell as Denial takes the win for 2015!
I’ve spoken enough. I only wanted to bring you this video filled with so much skill.