Games of my Teenage Years - 2007

2007

Ah, 2007, a fantastic year. It is the year that I entered the current generation of consoles with the purchase of the Xbox 360. It was also in this year that my "music elitist prickness" was at it's peak. The next two games corresponds with both of those things happening.

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Yeah, it was released in 2005 but this was still before I could just buy any game I wanted. I've always been a fan of the Tony Hawk series (well...sadly I missed out on most of the 'Pro Skaters'...), but this one marked a slight change in me. For one; it still has one of my favourite licensed soundtracks of any game ever. I was heavily into my Punk at the time and there is plenty of that to enjoy. It even had some original covers by modern punk bands, such as Rise Against, Dropkick Murphys and Alkaline Trio taking on songs from old Punk bands like Black Flag, The Adolescents and many more. 

There's some absolute gems in the other 50 or so songs on the soundtrack though. Although I can't list all the one's I like, it would take too long, I will at least link to three of my personal favourites from the game:

Everyone is Someone in LA - Felix Da Housecat

California Über Alles - Dead Kennedys

Los Angeles - Frank Black

It is the last one that makes this game important. Los Angeles is probably one of my favourite songs ever, but it had a more important effect...it lead me to the Pixies, my second favourite band of all time. So thank you Tony Hawk and your kick-ass game soundtracks. 

Oh yeah, the game's okay too.

Halo 3

I'm not one for First Person Shooters. In fact, I'm pretty damn bad at them and I don't enjoy them enough to learn how to become a god at them either, unlike seemingly EVERYONE I PLAY AGAINST (grr). But Halo 3 is different, I can't hate it. I never had an Xbox, so I've never played any of the previous ones (and I never played any since this one), but it was the first game I ever played for the 360. Not only that, it remains the only FPS game I ever was good at online (mostly...if I was lucky to avoid any of the people who play it way too much). 

I even managed to complete the single player (twice!). It has been ignored for the past four years or so and I doubt I'll be picking up number 4, but I'll never forget the first time I played it. "LOOK AT THE WATER, LOOK HOW GOOD IT IS! OH MY GOD!". As far as introduction to the current gen goes, you can't get much better.

Next: We ROCK OUT with some buddies, and then shoot them in the head to get our money back.