New System

Well, I never thought I would be posting something such as this, but......I got a new system.
This system has a LOT of games. A LOT. Its a VERY popular system. In fact, its the MOST popular system on the market right now.








I....Camaroguy579.......bought a Nintendo DS. There, I said it. I bought a Black Nintendo DS. Those who don't know me so well from The Gamer's Garage are probably thinking 'Big deal, everyone has a DS.' You just do not know how much I have hated on all things Nintendo for the past 7 months. I never understood it, all the games I saw were little childish games (Which still holds true in some cases).

The reason:
I was looking to get my girlfriend a DS because I knew it was right up her alley. She loves puzzle games, Mario, etc. She has been playing stupid cell phone games to pass her time on break at her job lately, plus she doesn't do anything but listen to her iPod at home when she has free time.
So, once I saw she has been playing cell phone games, I went into Wal-Mart, and bought her a Cobalt Blue DS along with New Super Mario Bros. The shock and awe on her face was enough to last a lifetime for me.
We get to my buddies house with it, open it up and look at this sleek looking machine. Read some of the instructions, figure stuff out, set it up, and then play the game. I was amazed at this Mario game. It was the same Mario that I grew up playing, but with all new graphics and a few added features. I was simply astounded at this little hand-held device. Once we discovered how easy it would be to Pictochat and play multiplayer games together without us both having to have the game cartridge, I HAD to get one. I knew that this is going to be great for us.

You might be saying that I could have got a PS3 with all that money. Well, your absolutely right. But if I had bought a PS3, that would have been quite selfish, and my girlfriend wouldn't be having such a great gaming experience right now. I'll get a PS3 one day, maybe after their library has been added to a lot more.

For one, this is a gateway to getting her into gaming so that when we are married and live in the same house, she will want to play my 360. Two, I honestly and seriously think its a sweet system. This will really get her wondering more and more about gaming, and will open a new door into my gaming world, so I am not only limited to the 360 wall at GameStop.

Ok, the games we got are:

• New Super Mario Bros.
• Mart Kart DS
• Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (My current game)
• Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Her current game)

All of them have been cool so far, but she LOVES Professor Layton and the Curious Village. She has asked me to help her many times on some of those puzzles. The Wolf and chicken one was quite difficult.

Ok, so there it is. I bought a DS. You will now hear me talking on The Gamer's Garage about the DS, and whatever new games I bought for it. I am no longer a hater!!! I will no longer skip DS game reviews on podcasts!! I am now a more well-rounded gamer (But I will still shoot people in the head in COD4 :)

My One Week off the Xbox 360

If you were on my friends list, you probably got my message about me taking a week off of the Xbox 360.
I did this for a few reasons. One was I became very aware of how much of a hold I allowed videogames to have on my life. I wasn't getting other things done in life that could have been done had I not been gaming. Now this isn't to say I was like a lot of those WoW players that neglect friends and family to game, I was just playing it when I could have been washing my car, or getting ahead on some other work. This week was no minuscule task, I have played that 360 pretty much every day since its release in November of 2005.

I don't like to allow anything in life to grab a hold of me, and have me under its control. All this is not to say its Microsoft's big plan to put a 360 in every household so they can control the world, its videogames in general. If this had been the Wii or PS3, the same thing would have happened (That is if they actually had games to keep a hold of a gamer's attention anyway, but thats for another blog post).

Another reason is my church was having a week long fast, and I chose videogames to fast for a week. I understand a lot in the gaming world doesn't understand things such as this, but 'fasting' is sacrificing something that you would normally be doing, and substituting that time for prayer. A lot of folks do food or something else, but I just felt that videogames was a good choice, since I already knew it controlled me far too much.

I actually had no desire to play the xbox a few days after I started. The first few days I would wake up and think about playing, but then realized I wasn't going to. It really showed me how often I would be playing, and just how much I could get done in real life if I didn't. The car got washed, things got done that needed to be, and it wasn't a big deal really. Its not like I am addicted, because even before this break I rarely thought about videogames when I wasn't actually playing them. I enjoy my life far too much to be controlled by that box.

Don't get me wrong, I love everything that videogames has to offer, it just shouldn't take up the most time in our lives. I mean, I'm 21, going to college, an active youth leader at my church, have a wonderful and beautiful girlfriend, and I'm trying to kick start my life with a new condo and a new truck. Videogames are just something I do for leisure time, which is how its supposed to be.

I took a break from the gaming community during this week as well. I love the community, I just get tired of the complaining and same ole' routine every week.

So, in closing, I urge you to check yourself as to how much of a hold videogames has on your life, and see if your life would be much more productive with limiting them more so than you currently do.

I appreciate you checking out my blog. You can also find me on The Gamer's Garage podcast every week, found at www.TheGamersGarage.com