Sit down kids and listen to the old man complain

A month ago or so I wrote up a list of my favorite games of the past decade. I was not alone to do so, most major gaming sites put together their own lists. One game seemed to take up the no.1 or the no.2 spot on almost all of them; Half Life 2. This convinced me to finally give it a try after planning to for years. And I unfortunately cant say that I was blown away. After finishing the first few chapters I almost have to force myself to sit down and play again.

Its not that is a bad game, it does some undeniably cool stuff but its just not all that fun. I am very well aware of the fact that Im in the minority here since this is one of those games usually receiving endless praise from gamers. Reading my "games of the decade" list, a friend of mine told me my taste in games was somewhat quirky. He is probably right, especially this past generation I feel like Im fleeting further and further away from the gaming mainstream, if I ever was anywhere near it.

In some ways Half Life 2 can be seen as the first in a series of big name, big budget blockbusters in recent years that has lead to a new dominance by the west in gaming, leaving Japan behind trying to find itself. With names like Gears of War and Modern Warfare grabbing the attention of the more "hard core" segment of the market. In a sense this, the seventh video game generation is truly the"shooter" generation. A genre in which I usually have little interest. Looking back at this generation the games I can say I have honestly enjoyed are almost all either Nintendo first party titles with their own distinct style or remakes of games from the 16 and 32bit era. I have still yet to retire my PS2, hell it gets more playtime then my 360.