This is the third part of a four-part series that will look at how I became the nutball, Sony fanboy, obsessive gamer I am. As you read this, if you have similar thoughts or your own stories please add them to the comments. If you are so inclined you can read part 1 and part 2 of the series to see what led me to this stage of my evolution as a gamer.
The PlayStation 2 was a huge gaming obsession for me, but gaming became difficult in 2001 when I had my first child. It's funny, at the time I was 27, a professional in my career, but loved video games as a release and still roleplayed with friends once a week. I felt completely unprepared to add this child to my life, since in many ways I still felt like a kid myself.
The first year we had our son gaming didn't change much; I was still able to play quite a bit. My best friend used to come over every Saturday and we would play through Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance in co-op until we finished it three times (hey, we had to unlock Drizzt Do'Urden).
It wasn't until year two of his life, when he wasn't content to just sit in a chair (facing away from the TV) and watch daddy as he plays games that my gaming time decreased. Hey, don't get it in your head that I sat in front of my TV ignoring my son and played games for six hours a day after work. I probably averaged one to two hours a night and four to five hours each day on the weekend (nap times and after he was asleep).
This amount was slightly less than before I had children, but better then I could have hoped. By year two I was lucky to play for an hour every few days and one to two hours on the weekend. When he was three things got a little better and I finally snagged an Xbox, specifically just to play Knights of the Old Republic and the forthcoming Jade Empire (love that Bioware).
I swiftly had my Xbox modded so I could play DivX movies on the console (DivX DVD players weren't everywhere yet) and quickly built up a big catalog of Xbox games. As much as I am a Sony fanboy it was becoming obvious that cross-platform games looked better on the Xbox and most games had surround sound enabled in them.
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