I grew up on video games. I’ve supported, advocated, and played video games a huge portion of my life so far.

I’ve grown. You’ve grown.

There’s a problem, though. You’ve grown a little too big for me in a sense.

Let me start off by saying this. I love epic 60+ hour games.

I love them a lot.

I even love beautiful cutscenes. I never said I didn’t.

I’m married now. Working full time. I have 2 kids, and another on the way. I still game, but my time is REALLY limited. All I’m asking for is for you to allow me to suspend my games when I don’t have time to reach a save point.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not asking you to allow me to save whenever I want. All I want is the ability to suspend my system, turn it back on at a later time, and pickup where I left off.

I know it’s not THAT complicated to do. I love that I can do that with my DS and PSP.

Why can’t I do it with my Wii or 360? Why must I always feel rushed when I play more in-depth games, frantically trying to find save points when my time is almost up?

Seriously. I love playing your games, but I’m missing out on more and more gaming because I can’t afford to waste time playing, and not knowing if all that I’ve done over the course of an hour or two will matter, or if I’ll have to do it all over again.

The one things that sucks? I broke another resistance band. This time the Reebok one I bought.

I’ve decided to try things with 5lb dumbbells now, as I can’t afford to keep buying new resistance bands.

Stumbled across Canabalt this morning. It’s a simple to play (as in controls) game where you only can only do one thing…jump.

In the game, SOMETHING is chasing you. You run faster and faster, having to jump across building and over objects to get away. Meanwhile, jets are screaming past you in the opposite direction and giant robots can be seen in the background.

My best score so far has been around 1200m. I’m wondering if you can slow yourself down enough by hitting things to actually see what’s chasing you.

I’ll have to try that.

I think it’s time I started supporting the smaller game devs.

OK. Maybe both.

Bea and I picked up EA Active yesterday and both did our first day of the 30 day challenge. I totally worked up a nasty sweat and was a little sore in the legs today. I have to say I’m a bit more impressed with the “game” than I thought I would be. My only complaint is that the resistance band is a bit weak. I may have to pickup a better one to really give myself a better workout.

All in all it’s cool. Let’s see how long I can stick with it.

The game starts you out with a phrase, two additional words, a girl tied to a rock, and two different types of sea life.  You can manipulate all these things, and must do so to figure out how to “beat” the game.  Different combinations will produce different effects.  As the game progresses, the phrase at the top of the screen will slowly change to reflect what is going on.

There’s two endings to the game, and I won’t spoil how to get either one of them.

After playing, check out the designer’s other, similar, games.  Very tasteful, beautiful, and well done.

Today I Die

I get a mention in the first post in the series, Advice for Sony and the PS3.  Head on over and check it out!