Okay, here’s the full truth: Work isn’t the only reason I’m so pale this summer. When I’m not writing or in the gym, I can usually be found playing video games. I’ve been a gamer my whole life. Yes, I had the original NES and the Atari 2600, but my earliest gaming memories predate both of those systems. My family had a Commodore Vic-20 and I have clear memories of playing Dig Dug on it, as well as some text-based adventures that you had to load via a cassette drive.
We also had Coleco Telstar, a console that resembled a wood-paneled shoe box with a knob on either end and three Pong variations built-in.
You don’t need me to tell you how far games have come since then, and with the release of the PS4 and Xbox One just around the corner, games are only going to get bigger and better. The end of a console’s life cycle is still bittersweet for me, and not just because I’m sentimental; oftentimes the best games for a system come out right before a system is put to pasture, when the developers have mastered the hardware and are able to milk the technology for everything it’s worth. That said, the PS3 and Xbox 360 are still getting plenty of great games, and their swan song has been pretty awesome. I wrote about the 10 best games of 2013 thus far for Men’s Fitness, and you can check that out here. As you can see, it’s been a heck of a year, and Grand Theft Auto V isn’t even out yet…
