I honestly couldn't tell you what the first video game I ever played was.
I was born in 2001, and some of my earliest memories of gaming go all the way back to around 2004. Contra is somewhere in those memories, although I was probably far too young to properly understand what I was doing.
What I do remember is that I absolutely loved playing video games.
Growing up, I played everything I could get my hands on. Road Rash, Virtua Cop 2, Total Overdose, Prince of Persia, GTA, Assassin's Creed, Prototype, Batman, Spider-Man, Tomb Raider, Hitman — the list goes on.
And oh, Hitman. I could probably talk about that series for hours.
Back then, I wasn't thinking about frame rates, graphical fidelity, game design, or whether something deserved a particular review score. I just wanted to play. I wanted to explore these worlds, complete missions, discover what I could do, and have a great time doing it.
Somewhere along the way, gaming became a huge part of who I was.
2019 — The Year Everything Changed
In 2019, I finished Class 12 and was preparing to enter college.
To celebrate getting into an institution I had worked hard to get into, my grandfather gifted me a PlayStation 4 Slim.
My first proper gaming console.
Until that point, I'd mostly been a spectator when it came to console gaming. I had played plenty of games on PC, but I didn't have particularly powerful hardware, and studies had kept me away from gaming for quite some time.
So imagine going from barely playing games for a while to suddenly having your very own PlayStation.
And it gets better.
Alongside the console, my parents let me pick out several games. Among them were God of War (2018), Marvel's Spider-Man, Red Dead Redemption 2, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed Origins, and Horizon Zero Dawn.
What a collection of games to begin with.
The first game I played was God of War.
And what an experience that was.
Kratos and Atreus travelling together to fulfil Faye's final wish. The combat, the world, the characters, the relationship between a father and his son — I was completely drawn into it.
Remember, I was coming back to gaming after a relatively long break, and this was the first major experience waiting for me.
I fell in love with it.
Then came The Last of Us, another incredible journey. Then Uncharted 4.
And somewhere in between all of this, I had started playing Red Dead Redemption 2.
Now, here's something funny.
I initially thought RDR2 was slow.
Really slow.
But the more I played, the more I began to understand what Rockstar had created.
There was something about that world. The freedom to explore, the characters, the interactions, the smallest details. You could spend time brewing coffee, cooking meat over a fire, or simply riding through the wilderness, and somehow none of it felt insignificant anymore.
Even reloading a revolver felt satisfying. The animation, the mechanical sounds, the attention to detail — it was ridiculous how much care had gone into everything.
And then, of course, there was Arthur Morgan.
An outlaw with a troubled past, facing his own mortality and trying to make something better of the life he had left.
I won't turn this introduction into an entire Red Dead Redemption 2 review. Trust me, that game deserves an article of its own.
But I will say this: it changed how I looked at video games.
I began appreciating not just what a game let me do, but how it made me feel while doing it.
From a PlayStation to My Own Gaming Rig
Gaming didn't stop when I entered college.
If anything, it became an even bigger part of my life.
Through college, through COVID, and through all the changes that came afterward, I kept playing.
I discovered new games, revisited old favourites, explored genres I hadn't spent much time with before, and experienced some genuinely extraordinary titles.
Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, Sekiro, Control, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Hogwarts Legacy, and many more.
Eventually, I reached a point where I could build my own high-end gaming PC, capable of running modern AAA titles at 1440p with the settings cranked up.
And now, I'm fortunate enough to buy the games I'm genuinely excited about when they release.
There's something wonderfully satisfying about that.
Going from being a kid who played whatever he could get his hands on to being able to experience the latest games on hardware he built for himself.
But the excitement hasn't changed.
I still look forward to entering a new world for the first time. I still get excited about great combat, beautifully crafted environments, memorable characters, and those little details that make you wonder how the developers even thought of including them.
And I still find myself thinking about certain games long after I've finished them.
“I want to talk about what actually happened when I sat down and played.”
So, Why Am I Starting This Blog?
Because I love talking about video games.
That's really all there is to it.
I'm not a professional game reviewer. I don't receive review copies from publishers. I don't have a publication telling me what to play or when to finish it.
I'm just someone who loves games, buys the ones that interest him, plays them, and has a lot of thoughts about the experience afterward.
Some games have blown my mind. Some have disappointed me. Some have frustrated me beyond belief before eventually becoming favourites.
And some have stayed with me for years.
I want to write about all of them.
The incredible stories. The satisfying gameplay mechanics. The worlds I couldn't stop exploring. The tiny details that made me smile. And yes, the things that didn't work, even in games I otherwise loved.
I don't want every article to be another checklist of graphics, gameplay, sound, and a score out of ten.
I want to talk about what actually happened when I sat down and played.
Maybe you'll agree with me. Maybe you'll completely disagree. That's part of the fun.
If you've ever spent hours exploring a world when you were supposed to be completing the main story, replayed a mission just because it was that good, or sat staring at the screen after finishing an unforgettable game, I think we'll have plenty to talk about.
I've spent most of my life playing video games.
I think it's about time I started writing about them.
Welcome to my little corner of gaming.