Video Games

[Your Mentor]

Okay, video games seem to be a great way of decompressing after a shift. I know so many officers who enjoy them as a way of getting their minds off the job. It certainly is a better way than getting hammered on alcohol. I have four sons who are all video game fanatics and I'm a total Xbox geek.

Okay, what systems do you play and what games do you prefer and why? Try to think about why you like certain games or systems as they relate to who you are and what you do.

I'm interested.

[Welpe]

When I was into gaming, I enjoyed playing NFL Street on Xbox because it was a fast paced sports game that I could put down after a game or two. Full Spectrum Warrior was also pretty fun as well.

That said, I don't dedicate much time to video games any more. I used to spend A LOT of time playing them (my grades freshman year will attest to that). :sad:

[Nellie]

I played EverQuest for 5 years, and now casually play World of Warcraft. I know a few LE folks who play as well. The cost is minimal (14.99/month) and requires a decent PC. If you like interaction with folks online, and like doing quests and working on virtual trade skills, World of Warcraft may be for you. Don't play EverQuest; they don't call it evercrack for nothing. It consumes you, and you end up playing way too much. The total hours I played in those 5 years was almost 350 days worth.

[Welpe]

Nellie I never played those games but I knew several people in the dorms who did. They almost never went to class and almost all of them flunked out after the first year.

Also, I attended a going away party for a friend shipping out ot Iraq last year. A couple of his friends were getting impatient with the party because they wanted to go home and play WOW.

Sad stuff really.

Edit: I'm not trying to judge you about the games, just sharing my personal experiences with them.

[Your Mentor]

Cool. No big woop Welpe. I used to put a lot of time into gaming a back during Dreamcast days. I don't have school to distract me if I want to spend a day online or in front of the TV. I do enjoy it right after shift though. Brings me back to civilian life quite fast. I have four sons who are all avid gamers so it's kind of a family thing. We're all pretty balanced about it.

One reason I posted this topic is because I've found so many officers and dispatchers who are avid gamers. When you have to spend your shift in a hyper-vigilant state, it's hard to decompress when you get off. I remember getting off after swings and staying up until after midnight because I just couldn't relax. I haven't worked swings in a long time. Now, I get off, no matter what shift, I play a game for about an hour and I sleep like a baby. I think there's therapeutic value here.

A friend of mine responded to a shooting in the Bay Area where one of his beat partners was involved. He roled to the scene and was assigned to monitor/stay with his buddy. He took him from the scene to his house and they played video games for an hour or two. I understand it really helped the officer involved in the incident. I thought that was such a cool way to deal with the stress of a shooting.

[Nellie]

Edit: I'm not trying to judge you about the games, just sharing my personal experiences with them.

No problem Welpe. I was one of those folks who couldn't wait to "get back to play EverQuest." I remember attending all-night raids where I wouldn't get to bed until 3AM then have to go to work soon after. I played 24 hours straight once with my wife. It was truely a video game "addiction." Now I occasionally play WoW. I would say over the past few months, I've logged in 5 times. I'm just burned out of video games.

[Tom]

We (me and my two boys) are x-box nerds with x-box live and all. We like ALL games. I was into the "splinter cell" series for a long time.

I am an avid dirtbike rider and I learned years ago to get the family involved so I could continue to dump money into the silly sport. I continue to ride/race on my off days and having a current pro dirtbiker friend is a great plus. It's wierd because people always ask me what I ride in my personal life and they expect me to say gsxr, cbr, etc. but I tell them 450f they are shocked.

Tom

[Darth Choke]

Awesome topic Mentor!!

I work C shift so when I have only 1-2 days off, it is better to just stay on that schedule. I don't watch tv (and it would just put me to sleep if I did), so I play Xbox for 3-5 hours during the night. Of course I have to turn the volume down on my surround sound system hooked up to digital optical audio as to not wake the wife and kids but oh well...

Splinter Cell is absolutely great.

Rainbow Six is a lot of fun.

Hitman series is twisted and cool!

I prefer stealth/strategy/patient games like this as opposed to the Halo/Doom - shoot anything that moves games. My kind of challenge is not seeing how much I can blow up but if I can sneak through an entire level unnoticed and never use my gun. (although an occasional neck break or rear carotid choke is appropriate too :biggrin: )

Now....to admit my guilt pleasure. No game has blown me away more and impressed me more than Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas.

This game is unbelieveable. The language is totally unneccessary (although realistic). I could do without the f-bomb every other word. The amount of interaction and scenarios and things to do is extraordinary!!! Can you kill cops, rent hookers, pimp hookers, run over innocent people? Yes. But you don't have to. You do whatever you want. I cannot explain the game...it has to be experienced. Fly, skydive, trick out virtutally any car with hydralics, drive tanks, hummers, go out on dates, swim, name it....you can probably do it in this game.

[K-Lo]

Man what ever happened to the good old days of Atari? :confused:

One button and one joystick.....oh so easy. :biggrin:

If I am fortunate enough to become an officer, I am going to start the CHPBBAC....

CHP Bring Back Atari Coalition

[Mac]

I haven't been much of a gamer in several years. I'm just the opposite of Darth - I started out with Wolfenstein on the PC, then graduated to Doom and Duke Nukem....absolutely LOVE the first-person shooter games! A buddy and I used to hook up via modem (dial-up days) and play in "Deathmatch" mode for hours......we'd also go head-to-head over the modem on Nascar, but I'd inevitably get bored and go wrong-way on the track at top speed, causing spectacular crashes. :badgrin: Falcon 2.0 was another favorite, but I don't think I ever actually completed a mission - I'd fly around and just blow up and shoot down everything I could.

Like Tom I'm an avid dirtbiker, and I've considered getting an XBox or PS2 just to play the MX games. It would be a great vicarious riding fix when I can't actually go out and get some seat time.

[Welpe]

Hey Mac I remember playing Duke Nukem and Jedi Knight via modem with some buddies. Those were the days.

Have you played any of the Battlefield 1942 games? Those are great fun. Drive, run or fly around the battlefield in a bunch of vehicles and blow stuff up online. :lol:

[Mac]

Nope, I haven't played any online games since the dial-up days. One of the coolest things in Duke Nukem was that one of our Explorers had a program you could use to build your own modules/levels, and he re-created our Area Office in amazing detail (with a few humorous touches added like strippers in the Captain's office, etc.). It was absolutely surreal to play Duke in such familiar surroundings, and it made for great stress relief when you had "one of those days". You could come home and shoot up/blow up everything in the office without hurting a thing.....I guess you could call it going "cyber-postal". :badgrin:

[Welpe]

That's pretty cool. I used to tool around with that level design thing as well. I even bought a design book for it.

I replicated the secret headquarters from the movie Men in Black. That took a long time but it came out pretty well. I never thought to do anything else like my school. I probably would've been expelled. :rolleyes:

[Capsicum]

I'm partial to racing games. My kids like sports games and hence usually smear me when I play with them. I've got an Xbox with Live and its just cool to be able to race with people from all over the world. An amazing amount of British people are usually on when I play and listening to them talk to each other is very humorous.

[HwyChaser]

I didn?t see this topic earlier, but I spend a lot of time on my Xbox with my son (9 yrs). We play Madden 06, NASCAR 05, Call of duty and all the Star Wars games. I already reserved and paid for my Xbox 360 which comes out on Nov. 22nd. I also bought a 50? plasma HDTV last week just to game with. The 360 is going to be incredible, all the games are in high definition and should have great depth.

[Your Mentor]

I'm with you HwyChaser. Xbox is really something and the 360 looks ready to amaze even further. I won't reserve mine yet. I bought an Xbox right after they first came out and paid $299. Then the price dropped and all the hardware bugs were fixed. I had to buy a new one recently because my old one was giving me dirty disc messages all the time. I couldn't believe the difference in speed (they've upgraded the firmware as well over the years). So I spent $149 for a newer, better system than the one I bought when they first came out. I'll never do that again. I'll wait until the price drops; though that may not happen given the 360's stats. Either way, I'm going to wait until any kinks that may arise are worked out of it. You've got it made with that television. I've only played with high definition once and it was amazing even at the lower 480dpi setting (older HDTV ready set). I couldn't believe the difference. With a new tv you should get the 1080dpi resolution using the Xbox High Def pack (only $20). Worth the bucks.

I almost bought a PS2 when they first came out. I had a PS1 and a Dreamcast (the grandfather of the Xbox, which I still have and play sometimes.) but held off when I read an article about the Xbox months before its release. After looking at the stats, I decided to blow off the PS2 and I'm glad I did. I've seen some good PS2 games and my twins like some games on it (they have an Xbox, a PS2, a Gamecube, Gameboy Colors, a Nintendo DS and still play games on their Nintendo 64. Their Dreamcast died. Even their mom plays on all platforms).

Hey Mac, Doom3 came out on Xbox and the disc includes the previous PC versions of the game. Also, Xbox Live offers tons of online play. If you were playing on dial up you'd be blown away by Xbox Live. The driving games are amazing. Tons of first person shooters await my friend . . . And if you like motorcycle riding, try MotoGP2 and MotoGP3 for online racing. I've seen it and it's pretty incredible.

Keep gaming!

[SB 405]

I know this thread goes waaay back but I didn't want to start a new one. A few weeks ago I was over at a friends house for a BBQ and he asked if I wanted to play a few games on Wii. Now I've heard of Wii but before this day really didn't know much about it. We played a couple games of golf,bowling and tennis.


Well,I became so hooked on this game and couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was so last week for Fathers Day a few of my family members pitched in and bought the game for me. Funny,I've never really been a big video game person but the Wii system really gets you physically involved in the games which is what I enjoy most.


I now find myself at the local Target and Toys R Us every few days looking for new games to purchase. Anyone else hooked on this game?

[quaylie]

I know this thread goes waaay back but I didn't want to start a new one. A few weeks ago I was over at a friends house for a BBQ and he asked if I wanted to play a few games on Wii. Now I've heard of Wii but before this day really didn't know much about it. We played a couple games of golf,bowling and tennis.


Well,I became so hooked on this game and couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was so last week for Fathers Day a few of my family members pitched in and bought the game for me. Funny,I've never really been a big video game person but the Wii system really gets you physically involved in the games which is what I enjoy most.


I now find myself at the local Target and Toys R Us every few days looking for new games to purchase. Anyone else hooked on this game?

Wish I could say the same but I honestly turn my Wii on every 6 months or so. I spend more time with my PS3 to play games and watch Blu-Rays. I love it.

I do think it's cool that the Wii has gotten people into video games that never were before.

[350zCHP]

man, i'm old school! yeah xbox, playstation 3 and nintendo wii are cool, but I cant figure out all of those damn buttons!! The legend of Zelda was my favorite, too bad they don't make them like that anymore!! :doubt: time to take out the old school NES out of the attic!!! if it still works :think:

[dimplez]

My hubby comes home and after a shift we play the old school Mario Brothers! We still have a nice working Super Nintendo and N64....He also decompresses by playing Xbox360 Halo 3 and other games with me.

I just fell in "love" with video games shortly after he started the academy, because it allows him his decompression and recoup time, but he's still spending time and doing something with me. Now I'm totally hooked, and it is so much fun to watch him play even if i'm not playing too.

Just generalizing and not meaning to offend, but I feel if more wives would take the time to try video games they might just like them, and then they could play with their hubbies and have much less "he doesn't spend time with me" "or he's so zombie like when he comes home" to complain about....

at least that was my hubbies solution to that problem! lol now I'm the addict...and he's the one saying I spend to much time playing video games:lol: lol

[PTR-Jason]

I used to love Delta Force Land Warrior, was a great game I used to play multi player, Team King Of The Hill. Can go in and clear the zone if I wanted fast pace, or choose another character and go way out in the mountains and snipe people trying to get in the zone. Also spending have the game running to the other side of the map to knife their sniper, then hiding from him the rest of the game was a game in it self.

I also played the Microsoft Combat Flight Sim games online and was always in a "clan" or "squad"

Now that I use a laptop, gaming SUCKS so I dont do it anymore.

On my playstaion 2 I play Metal Gear Solid, and Grand Theft Auto San Andres.

Now for old School...

I still think I have Nintendo (NES), Atari, Sega with Sega CD and Sega 32x around my house somewhere. I used to love Matchbox Motor City Patrol when I was growing up as well as Mission Impossible the game, both for NES.

[Darkside213]

Currently I have a PS3 and a pc. I STILL to this day play Diablo2 and also Lord of the Rings Online. On PS3, I'm finishing up Prince of Persia, Little Big Planet, Fallout3 and am going to soon start Metal Gear 4.

I also have a PSP that I haven't touched in a while

[rufio11]

I have an XBOX 360, the games I play are Halo 3, Gears of War 2, and Forza 2. Love the team shooters, but I also like the racing games like Forza 2. This was fun to read being that I love games and have often thought if I still would if and when I become a CHP. for those of you that also play these games and would like to play them with other fourm members my gamer tag is ELITE1411. So hit me up and will play some gears or halo. :cool:

[Darkside213]

I've been playing Left 4 Dead on 360. FUUUUNNN!

Gamertags
PS3 - Darkside213
360 - Darkside2136

[sqrlfghter]

i love me some video games. i'm really looking forward to two for xbox 360: batman-arkum asylum & modern warfare 2. i like it because it is escape from work. it's nice.

[LadyVol@330]

My son is one of those gamers who makes games. When he worked at Sony, every employee got a free PS2 delivered to their desk. When there, they weren't allowed to play games at their offices --strange! Anyway, he now works at the one who created PacMan all those years ago. Loves it! I remember with a laugh when we bought the kids an Atari game when they first came out, and as we assembled everything late Christmas Eve, we both decided that we would let them win a game once in awhile. Are you kidding? We could never touch them from Day 1! A guy I worked with had twin sons a year older then our son --they beat their dad handily while playing with the joy stick with their toes! Ah, the days! The personnel director at my company came directly from Atari, so she took orders on the new games and bought them for us at the company store at a nice savings. Still have the player and all those games somewhere.

[mrafael46]

Anyone get into unreal tournament? or counter-strike? Probably some of my favorites

[gabriel]

Anyone get into unreal tournament? or counter-strike? Probably some of my favorites

I used to play UT... then got into CODII and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. See the theme here? Most of those games are OLD. Nowadays I barely have time to sleep let alone play.

[Darkside213]

I have unreal tournament somewhere, gotta dig it up.

[Fifty150]

My kids are 6 and 9 so I haven't played any of the shooter games like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor but here are some cool Wii Game suggestions:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Mario Cart Wii
Super Mario Galaxy
Sonic Unleashed
Super Smash Bros Brawl
Wario Land Shake it

The Bigs (Very cool baseball Game)

[SB 405]

This is a pretty cool game if your into motorsports. I bought it yesterday, it's going to take some time to master.

http://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/RD8yOyam_2oJY4OsS1JjcsnGxoAraMVz/xkB2z7MvawZ6AsjWGvjQiDOj4gPZJM6m.jpg

[JeBus86]

I have an XBOX 360 and i play Halo 3, Gears of war 2, Left for dead. Keeps me entertained for a while :biggrin:

[cjincognito]

I'm a big fan of the GTA series. I have pretty much every system made, but I'm playing almost exclusively the PS3 and Wii now. GTA4 is great, I love getting the police to chase me and see how long I can stay "free" despite their "tactics." Of course, I can't last very long with a 5 star level and forget about a 6 star level!

[canIbeCHP]

PS3 fan....call of duty is awesome!

[gabriel]

How do you find the time!!?

[canIbeCHP]

after spending 6 years in the Navy I dont need much sleep ! lol. Its usually after the kids are sleeping. Im working part time now so i have more time...for now....school doesnt start until Sep 21.

[navyvet]

Anybody play the new call of duty? I think it's the best so far!

[TheForceCHP]

Anybody play the new call of duty? I think it's the best so far!

http://www.chpforums.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[23112]

Uncharted. Both of them.

[fuel4thought]

Uncharted. Both of them.

Uncharted was great. I just finished Uncharted 2 and it was awesome.

My Kids (4 and 6) love the Lego series games. I found myself logging several hours on Lego Star Wars...uh, helping my kids!

[Streetwatcher1993]

lol, GTA IV and COD fan here..mostly PC's here

[highway sentinel]

Enjoy the PS3, but I go through phases where I don't touch it for months and then i jump back in; usually when a new Madden is released. The first PS3 died and now I have a new one, which has problems with the HDMI connection. Damn electronics! :hitwall:

[bookin]

CoD: Modern Warfare 2...greatest online game ever!

[navyvet]

CoD: Modern Warfare 2...greatest online game ever!

I agree! I haven't played the campain yet.

[kgallemore]

COD: Modern Warfare 2
Forza Motorsports 2 and 3

It's a great break from the real world. I must say that COD:MW2 while the story line is about as unrealistic as they come, it is probably one of the most realistic first person shooters available. Yes, you can be shot multiple times and not die, but you also don't have to empty an entire mag from a mini 14 to kill an enemy.

I like Forza 3 as well. One of the best driving simulator available. It has a great drifting option that was not featured in Forza 2. Oh and you can still build a car for grip to race as fast as you can around a track without breaking the rear wheels loose.

I find playing video games to be a great way to unwind after a long day of running, working out, doing yard work, cleaning up, working...pretty much anything. Mainly because you don't have to think much about it.

But yes, video games are fun. I don't drink, but I view videos games much like I do the consumption of alcohol, always in moderation. :biggrin: If the wife thinks your spending too much time on the xbox, ps, pc or wii you probably are, and you should probably spend some time with her.

Just my $.02 :cool: