I remember the games of my childhood and how much they meant to me. And they still mean

It’s no coincidence that I’ll start my story with a preview from Warcraft, because Blizzard games, one might say, have been with me throughout my life. I was one of those lucky people who, back in 2000, had a personal computer with a real gentleman’s set of video games – "Warcraft 2" and "Starcraft", "Quake" and "Heretic", "Diablo" and "Half-Life", "Twisted Metal" and "Freddy the Fish". My future life will take a toll on me and will be full of hardships and hardships, but my childhood was absolutely bright and happy. I preferred strategy, because I liked to look down on how little people, obeying my instructions, run around a small square screen, building houses and getting into fights, and other games were still too difficult for me, and I was simply afraid of “Quake” with its infernal design.

But "Warcraft 2", colorful, intuitive and not too cruel to a timid boy, was for me a real relic of those years. I remember how my father brought speakers, which I still have, and I was surprised to discover that my favorite game can also speak, albeit in a language I don’t understand, but it can! I also remember how I noticed “some” similarities between “Warcraft 2” and “Starcraft”, trying to conduct a serious analysis with my amusing childish mind, which of the games is better. After all, “Warcraft” is so colorful and cozy, like a good cartoon, and “Starcraft” is so strict, complex and realistic.

I, of course, did not know about the concepts of graphics, visual style, that games, like computers, improve over the years, and I sincerely believed that games simply could not be more realistic than “Starcraft” – after all, I have so many of them and this is the most graphically fascinating among them. These animated portraits, explosions from hits from a siege tank, snow in “winter” locations, the interface during briefings – it’s all almost like in life, if you look at it through the tiny screen of an analog monitor. "Starcraft" is still one of my dearly beloved games, even though in an online confrontation any local regular will hit me in the ears, even with bandaged hands.

One way or another, I raved about both the “Military Craft” and the “Star Craft”, and in creative moments I even sketched their gameplay on paper – how orcs carry gold from a mine, how “goliaths” hit mutalisks with missiles – embodying with equal frequency both the peaceful and military aspects of these wonderful games. Well, at the same time I thought and fantasized about what was happening in these game worlds – my reading skills at that time did not allow me to study briefings. And even now you can’t figure out what’s going on in the first Starcraft without a bottle, but then, at the age of 5. Although the guy from my father’s work tried to explain something to me.

Time passed, changing the pace and mood of life. The former abundance remained in the past, the school stage of growing up had begun, and that computer, which had previously expanded the horizons of my childhood imagination, suffered an untimely death, leaving me for the next few years to yearn for the old days as friends told me about their video game delights. But I got "Dendi", bringing into my soul the same degree of irritation both from shitty pirated games and from the very fact of the arrival of this cheap set-top box to replace the former titan of electronic entertainment. Subsequently, I got a computer device for video game fun, decrepit and weak, barely suitable for such a purpose. And if earlier, once upon a time, I had everything I could dream of, but the current reality was a choice of 4-5 alternatives, among which “Warcraft 2” and “Starcraft” were invariably listed. Any other video game in my hands has proven to be a real rarity, and may the Emperor help me if it still runs on my bucket.

Sometimes they still started. So, after playing "Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds", I declared myself a true fan and connoisseur of the Star Wars universe, although I had not even seen the original trilogy. But there was so much in that product, and you could have spent dozens of hours studying the game inside and out, constantly discovering innovations and interesting things. Well, the developers created an entire playable race of Wookiees from one Chewbacca. And even after reading the remastered versions of “Age of Empires,” I still believe that this seemingly pale duplicate of it is, in fact, much more exciting and in every sense more diverse. Although the artificial intelligence here is quite mediocre. On the other hand, which old RTS was it even good in??

Well, finally, with the 70 rubles I earned by hook or by crook, I bought myself a disc with “Warcraft 3” – a game that I had been dreaming about for a long time. After all, I knew about its existence, and dreamed of plunging into the ideological continuation of the game, which I have not parted with since childhood. Finally, they showed me CGI videos from there and at that time I had never seen anything better in my life. And so I purchased the treasured disc, the game, which is important, started and. this is not Warcraft 3.

Or rather, it’s certainly "Warcraft 3", but https://royale500casino.co.uk/withdrawal/ at the same time it’s not. The fact is that the vile pirates, who had already darkened my sad existence with their crooked products, deceived me this time too. They sold me not the original game, but a fan modification known as “Beyond the Dark Portal.”. In other words, it was "Warcraft 3" without the original campaigns, without the "custom game" option, with only one add-on that you could play. And I played, and even at the beginning I didn’t notice the catch, because the custom campaign itself was done at a very high level – good environment design, directing of cutscenes, even the voice acting was quite good. And there was no doubt that this was the real 3rd part. The plot of the add-on took place during the “Second War for Azeroth”, and when the game at the very beginning notified me that ogres and trolls were fighting for the Horde, I just raised an eyebrow and exclaimed: “well, that’s how it is.”!".

I was not destined to complete this campaign. At mission 6 or 7, the difficulty of the game becomes prohibitive, simply insurmountable. And the mod had plenty of general game design and technical problems – just look at the ultimate ability of the paladin Beorn, which, instead of resurrecting only one fallen warrior, as stated in the description, resurrected everyone. However, if it weren’t for this bug, I wouldn’t have even completed the 2nd mission. Many years later I will go through this modification in its entirety, and I must say that as good and interesting as the first half turned out, the second half was just as faded and uninspiring. The harsh heroic plot dies somewhere in these same coordinates. The last mission is completely AFK-30 minutes, because according to its conditions you need to defend yourself, which the artificial intelligence was not notified about and it refuses to attack. But even so, it was an interesting gaming experience, and I didn’t have to be upset by the idiotic complexity of the game for a long time, because I finally got the original I wanted.

In the end, I was able to get that same game in decent quality – as it turned out, pirates can break Warcraft in a rather non-trivial way, but I will encounter this later. There was no enthusiastic excitement this time – all the emotions of the first immersion in such a coveted game were stolen by a fan mod. But this is not scary, because the real “Warcraft 3” captivated me much more than the talented, but too awkward craft based on it. Captivated me completely with its plot, as simple and understandable as it was dramatic and epic. "Warcraft 3" still surprises me with the level of its dramaturgy – to tell a picturesque story, with a dozen heroes placed at the epicenter of global and monstrous events, when your artistic means are mostly scripted screensavers with models from the game – well, you have to be able to do that. And Blizzard were great at telling stories, although in the dialectic of their plots the same paths run through – be it a traitor to his species who has joined evil, like Arthas and Kerrigan, be it an even more severe threat hanging over the world and waiting in the dark, and the need to unite everyone with everyone to defeat him, where without this. Although, when you’ve been non-stop writing stories for MMORPGs for almost 20 years, creative impotence suggests itself, and now it’s a pity to look at Blizzard, in what context don’t express it

But this shame will not overtake the dream company very soon, for now I am still 10 years old and for the first time I am imbued with the story of Prince Arthas, I destroy his own kingdom with his hands, and I am imbued with much stronger feelings for the Warcraft franchise, if only sympathy for the ancient isometric strategy. Feelings of which nothing is left at this moment, because for 20 years we have been torturing ridiculous plots and single-cell drama from a previously luxurious universe and the remnants of the self-respect of its authors – but let’s not talk about that, it’s really sad.

Frankly speaking, even though I replayed the game a lot of times, except for the plot, surroundings and its general mood, I didn’t really like “Warcraft 3” either now or even then. Yes, the chosen artistic style is determined by the time of the game’s release, it is considered to have immortalized this game, and it is perfectly perceived both in a single playthrough and in multiplayer, but how ugly and cartoonish it is anyway. The graphics don’t ruin the game’s immersion, but it comes very close. And although "Reforge" was a general disappointment, I bought it only because I finally began to like the game visually. Well, the gameplay of the 3rd “Warcraft” itself is thrice-damned microcontrol in a local magical Armageddon. I previously wrote that any disabled person could stand me in Starcraft, but Starcraft, despite the fact that it is also an RTS and is also entirely tied to micromanagement, I always saw it as a game primarily about intelligence, about the ability to deploy your troops, their positioning, about the strict mathematics of victory, but here we have what – here you have 25 units and 40 buttons, click them. And it’s clear that I’m exaggerating now, and in “Warcraft” it’s also impossible to make decisions without intelligence and efficiency, but these battles where you’re trying to out-mimic the enemy – I can’t do anything right now, but then I just suffered. And of course I couldn’t know that I could press the “A” button and press it into the floor so that my troops would automatically engage with the opponents closest to them. Instead, I, not being an intellectually gifted child, pointed at one target in the enemy camp and helplessly watched as my guys died just trying to get to it, not understanding what exactly I was doing wrong, but persistently feeling like an idiot. "Warcraft" 3 is generally like that for me – I’m helpless in it, I still don’t understand its pacing and game mechanics well, and this still terribly frustrates me. But at the same time, I still loved the game very much, and even now I’m not indifferent to it, so what?.

But it wasn’t only Warcraft that was the object of my keen interest at that time, and it wasn’t the only one that aroused conflicting emotions in me. Damn Spider-Man games. I loved this hero madly, and tirelessly watched tapes of Raimi’s films and the 90s TV series. And of course I dreamed of being able to play Spider in a video game format, but what did I get?? The dream of a young klutz come true – a pirated disk with all the Spiders available at that time. And, as I formulated for myself the observation of those years, the more games crooks put on one DVD, the more likely it is that they are all bloody broken. And this case was, of course, special.

"Spider-Man: The Movie" looked very attractive for its age, and if you also watched the movie, then this is real pure love, like Peter Parker for. Uncle Ben. The game really had everything you need for happiness – Spider-Man straight from the film, plot points taken from there, a combat system rich in the movements of the main character, even flying on a web around the city, even if they were done in the most boring way possible. But none of this allowed me to love the game. First of all, it was too inconvenient and difficult for an armless student. I had to dig into the game to pull myself through the next level, towards a new one, more inventive in its complexity. The game was also quite gray and colorless, and in some places even gloomy, which made me sad. It’s funny to say, but on top of everything else, I was confused by Bruce Campbell’s jokes in teaching. Or rather, Bruce jokes funny, but the muzzle, which duplicated the game, made me feel like I really wasn’t welcome here. And when the game started to crash hopelessly before the fight with the Vulture, I wasn’t even particularly sad about it. And considering what kind of game design hell begins after this battle, maybe it’s really for the better.

A bad game from 2002, but they still make mods for it. And this suit too. As if a fan of Marvel’s Spider-Man and this costume in particular would seriously play The Movie.

I liked 2000’s "Spider-Man" much more, and I have many times more disappointments associated with it. After all, unlike "The Movie", this game charmed me from the first moments. It was that bright superhero adventure with a cheerful and energetic protagonist who was very similar to Spider from the animated series. And even though the game looked poor and the gameplay was much more primitive and clumsy, it attracted you with its easy-going nature and call of adventure. Just to break my teeth about bugs. Those nasty, bastard bugs in 2000 Spider. When you jump out the window in a cutscene and should appear indoors, but this doesn’t happen, and you can only watch helplessly as the Spider falls into the murky abyss again and again. Again and again. Again and again. You press all the buttons that are within your reach, you ask the game to have mercy, but you fall, again and again.

How can I explain this correctly – now I know that this is a common bug, depending either on the amount of FPS in the game, or on something else, and I don’t really care about this game itself these days, it’s very primitive and clumsy, and to hell with it. But then, during these same 10 years, I naturally cried over this impassable moment. After all, if “The Movie” just crashed, and I didn’t really like it, then I couldn’t explain to myself what was happening in “Spider-Man” of 2000. I felt extreme anger and resentment towards the game, and there was also a feeling of injustice and longing for it, as if someone in front of your eyes broke your favorite toy with a hammer, without even explaining the reason. I loved Spider-Man, I damn sure wanted to keep playing that damn game, but all she did was tell me to "cry, sucker".

By some miracle, one day, when I started the game again, hoping for something unknown, I managed to fly into that building and move forward in the plot. Having experienced an explosion of inspiration, I began to actively progress through the game. Only to get stuck on yet another buggy spot, this time on a tower crane that you just have to jump off of, but the game for some damn reason takes all control away from me, causing me to fall back down again. And again I made several dozen attempts, exhausting this obstacle too. This time without the previous crushing feelings – it was already clear to me that the game was behaving inappropriately, and nothing could be done about it. But, in some incredible way, for the hundredth time I managed to bypass this bug again, and I finished this level in extreme panic, afraid to die and start again. AND. Soon I got stuck for the third time, on the same bastard script. Here even my fan feelings were not enough and I quit this damn broken game. And even when I soon got cheats and opened all the levels, I simply didn’t want to play it anymore – this game had tortured me so much earlier.

So what remains, "Spider-Man 2" on PC. The one where to fly on the web you need to cling to marks weighing in strictly designated places. At least I didn’t have any problems with her. Apart from the fact that the PC version is just a cheap imitation of the console version. But I couldn’t know this then and sincerely enjoyed the process. Even though "Spider-Man 2" was a low-budget, awkward and ridiculous game, it was the one that brought me the emotions that I had been trying to get from other ugly Spider-Man games all this time. I was a Spider, I hovered on a web around the city, I quickly jumped from wall to wall, and even though the game was objectively mediocre, it did the main thing – it allowed me to get into the role of my hero. And for this I love her, although today there is no reason to return to this work.

Later there was a controversial 3rd film in the Sam Raimi franchise, which I still fucking love today. There was also a game based on the 3rd part, which simply did not want to start for me. And when, already in an adult state of body and mind, I tried to return to it, I could not spend even a couple of hours playing this game. Things are really complicated with Spider-Man 3: The Game. I periodically try to play it today, and I can’t say that I get much pleasure from the process. This product should be discussed in a separate article, so I’ll just say that potentially “Spider-Man 3: The Game” is the best Spider-Man game, with the possible exception of “Marvel’s Spider-Man”. But in reality it’s just a crappy game from 2007, and there’s not much you can do about it.

At that point, the conventional stage of childhood in my life ends, but video games as objects of art and an attribute of life do not leave me even a decade after. But that’s another story and completely different memories.

On this note, I end my story and thank those who considered it possible to familiarize themselves with my personal retrospective for their attention.