I’m getting terrible at video games or video games are becoming terrible. I use the excellent service provided by Gamefly to rent many video games. I’ve started renting video games because of the general dissatisfaction with video games I’ve bought in the past. Renting games allows me greater freedom to experiment with as many games as I want to. Within 10 minutes of playing “True Crime: Streets of LA”, I sealed it up in the return envelope ready to be shipped back. The control systems were crap, it was unintuitive to fire my weapons, driving the vehicle was next to impossible. I hate games that require you to go from point A to point B without instructions on how to get there. “Medal of Honor: Rising Sun” was back in the envelope within 20 minutes. I died a couple of times in a mission and each time was brought back to a previous save point which was pretty far back. I want to replay the part I died at, not the preceding 10 minutes until I succeed. “Halo” does a great job of doing this.

I know video game companies face a dilemma. Make a game too easy and the hard core / early adopter gamers get bored to fast and start to bitch on the comment board. Make a game too hard and you won’t appeal to the majority of players out there. It just frustrates me when I give up on a game so quickly. Oh well, Champions of Norrath and FFX2 seem at the right level for me. I’ll play those instead.