I dunno if it happens to the rest of you but sometimes I’m just totally off my game. Nothing I try seems to work and everything feels frustrating and useless. This normally only happens on free-flowing games like FPSs and the like but it can even bleed into turn based games, with stupid moves that I immediately want to take back plaguing my otherwise flawless saved games. As I’m not the kind of guy who’s willing to reload saves, even when I do get back on form, these off-days change the game I was previously playing. All energy levels previously filled within moments become dangerously low and all my companions are dead.



Take Half-life 2 for example. I’d never played it before (I know, shut it! My PC wasn’t capable and then I had plenty of other games to get through) and started it around the beginning of December, along with a few other games and plenty of Christmas running around. So I got to a bit later in one of the prison-style levels and saved-up for the holidays. Lalala, holiday time! I was away from almost all games for well over a week.
In that short time, I completely lost my ability to game.

I came back, looking forward to killing some more Combine and immediately walked into a hail of gunfire from some nasties. No problem, I thought, I’ll just pick up this barrel and wing it at them! The barrel I was aiming at flung itself towards me and I deftly deflected some gunfire before flinging it towards my enemies.

The barrel settled gently on the ground less than two feet in front of me.

WRONG BUTTON!!!

I crouched behind the barrel, my only cover, only to accidentally press the fire button, causing my “cover” to shimmy over into a corner. This left a huddled Freeman smack bang in the middle of a corridor, getting gunned down from all directions!
Right, time for the Magnum: my most trusted weapon. Ever since Goldeneye, it’s never let me down. I see a set of explosive barrels behind some of the Combine and take aim, my previously full health and armour taking a beating. BOOM! A couple of enemies went flying and I’m just about to celebrate and start concentrating on the others when I realise the other explosive barrels are lit and rolling towards me like they want revenge.

“You! You killed my brother! You’ll pay, bitch!”



I did my best to leg it and even performed a routine movie dive-away-from-the-explosion manoeuvre but my energy was really taking a battering and I’d somehow managed to position myself in front of two sentry-guns.

Crap.

One flurry of action later and I’m left surrounded by the dead, with 12 Health, no armour, little ammo and no Health Packs waiting back the way I came. Then my cat demanded attention and someone messaged me so I saved and quit until a few days later.

I came back to it last night and looked at the mess I’d left Gordon in. Up ahead, I could see enemy forces gathering, probably looking at the footage from when I’d expunged my hiding place with a blast from the gravity gun or laughing at the barrels exploding behind me as I turned tail. They knew I was out there, hurt and alone. They had cover, ammo and drones. I was coughing blood into my suit and counting the shells for my shotgun. They had more numbers than in the last fight, in better positions, with backup on the way. Going on previous form, I didn’t stand a chance.

But today was different.

Today, I was no longer in the negative zone from days before. Today I was in "the zone".



I remember someone telling me scientists had even proven that this state of mind truly exists. There is a gaming nirvana where we are calm but energised. We can see more, react quicker and make fewer mistakes. I remember it happening on Starwing a lot, and on Rez. Is it the pressure, the love of the game, familiarity? Or is it just that playing even at an average skill level feels like “the zone” after a performance so bad it almost killed me? I don’t know.

Anybody else get these off games or is it just me? And have you been in the zone recently? Tell me about it, make me smile!