How I loved PC gaming...
Anti-Xbox readers turn away now, for what you're about to hear is a full-on geekasm of Microsoft's online gaming platform; Xbox Live.
I'll get started way back at the beginning. My gaming days began on the good ol' Commodore VIC-20 and then moved onto the unforgettable Amiga 500 (not just any Amiga 500, it was the Batman pack). Following that, there was a joy-filled spell with consoles from SEGA and Nintendo - the SNES being the pick of the bunch.
Then came 3dfx graphics cards, and visuals on the PC like nothing I'd seen before. From here on in, I stuck to custom-built PCs and the desktop was the home of all my gaming. I'd dabbled with the PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but once I'd experienced the online playability of Blizzard's Diablo II, there was no looking back.
Having developed a taste for online multiplayer, I soon moved on to memorable first-person shooters such as Medal of Honour: Allied Assault, Counter Strike Source and Call of Duty.
So what am I getting at? Well, I've played on my fair share of systems, and though the games and graphics have varied, one factor has always remained constant; multiplayer. I've enjoyed hundreds of single player games, but as far back as I can remember, multiplayer has always been the source of the best gaming moments.
Be it beating my brother at Kick Off on the Amiga, or performing a fatality on a friend in Mortal Kombat on the SNES, nothing quite matches that feeling of multiplayer satisfaction.
On the PC, that satisfaction was amplified. No longer restricted to mere one on one situations, I was able to game with the world. Finishing an opponent in Mortal Kombat is one thing, getting a 10-kill streak in Medal of Honor whilst dodging bullets is something else entirely.
Throw in the ability to chat with all the other gamers, via voice or text, and you had an online gaming experience that no console could match. That is, until Microsoft reinvented Xbox Live for the Xbox 360.