Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be coming to Xbox Originals next week. This will mark the 3rd time I take a lackluster visit to mean streets of pretend LA. Sure its fun at first, but leaves me to question if RockStar is starting to milk the series with shit spinoffs and re-releases? The GTAIII trilogy was a thing of beauty. Fast forward and now we have Vice City Stories, Liberty City Stories, and Chinatown Wars. Is this Re-Release a last ditch effort to assure us all is ok in Take-Two Land? Ya, I’m just reaching for straws now. But are you going to buy it?

Someone told me to move this here, so i did.

Like the great music of the 60’s and 70’s (Zeppelin, Dylan), it wasn’t until someone show me how to appreciate it that I began to enjoy it. Now, I want know what games changed you from a mild hobbyist to a violent addict. What games do you think define a great video game, Ill start…

At the young age of 8 I was granted my Christmas wish and given a brand new NES and 3 games: Mario/Duck hunt, The Legend of Zelda, and another game that forever changed me as a gamer. That other game was a little known side-scrolling action-adventure with an unusual name, one that I couldn’t correctly pronounce at first, Faxanadu. Now because of hype alone I stayed awake night after night trying to beat Zelda. At some people I even remember going to a library and investigating a section I found terrible frustrating (FYI: give the guy some meat). Upon finishing, I tossed aside the cartage like an old needle looking for my next fix. Don’t get me wrong, Zelda is STILL one of my all time favorite games. But as a growing boy I need something deeper, something more, something that challenged me. (SIDE NOTE: I was not aware that there was a 4yr difference in the two games creation, I was just 8ys old) Faxanadu was just that thing. The world of difference in the two games was amazing. The land of Faxanadu was a dirty realistic world with amazing graphics, catchy music, compelling story, and an item system with great depth for it’s time. This game laid down the foundation for my love of action RPG games, and the reason why Zelda II is my favorite of the series. I played for hours on end. The game, like older games, was all about quick reflexes and the cunning skill to out think a computer. I can’t tell you how long it took me to beat it, but out of that victory came a sense of gratification I haven’t received in a video game yet. I haven’t played it since then. This is my way of never tarnishing my memories of it.

Sorry if its not very good, this was my first video game type blog and I’m still at work lol