Video Games and Geeking Out

As I mentioned recently, G and I purchased Little Big Planet 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 recently.  Little Big Planet 2 was intended as "my game" and COD MW3 as "his game".  But he told me last night that he doesn't like it when I sit and watch him play video games.  So we played MW3 on multiplayer and I seriously suck at aiming, but we managed to beat 2 co-op missions.  And then he decided that we should play his basketball game on multiplayer.  It's the demo for NBA something or other...Live Jam something? 2010.  He plays this game religiously.

Every night, after he gets home from work, he plays a tournament.  And this game is a demo, so there aren't a lot of options.  For example, you can only choose between two teams.  He is always the Lakers playing the Magic.  And you can only play at home, so he sets the difficulty higher for the last two of 5 games to simulate an away game.  Of all the things that he has or does, this one is the one that I see him being the most particular and ritualistic about.  So it was sort of an honor to be asked to play it with him.  I soon found out that it only looks easy.  It took me way too long to realize that the extra people on the team are not controlled by the computer and that you can switch to them.  Also, you switch to controlling whoever you pass the ball to, which is weird and frustrating.  I ended up making one shot the entire game, sort of like my 8th grade JV season.  But I did get quite a few steals, and G complimented me on my defense skills.  It was super confusing for me though, and G probably got about as frustrated as I did with trying to remember what button does what, and it's extra hard since the button functions switch depending on if you're playing offense or defense.  I want to get good at playing it so it can be another fun thing we do together but right now it's just confusing and frustrating.  G also let me play The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time on his N64.  He even let me use his special gold controller that he's never let anyone use.  I am a Zelda nerd.  I was drawing pictures of Link and Zelda and trying to get the lettering on the title perfect back when I was in elementary school.  I have played every single Zelda game made for the old Game Boy all the way up to the Nintendo DS (which I sadly had to sell at the start of the summer to pay my rent).  I have only ever beaten the single-player quest mode on Four Swords, which was made mainly to be a multiplayer game, and The Minnish Cap, which was made for the Nintedo DS.  Somewhere in the home I grew up in lives an old gray Game Boy with a cartridge for Link's Awakening in which I am stuck at the final boss.  I am a Legend of Zelda purist.  I refuse to use walkthroughs when I am stuck.  Instead I run around harassing chickens until a giant chicken army appears and murders me.  I do this until it gets boring and then I find a different Zelda game to play, then play that until I get stuck, and cycle through them all until I have a brilliant revelation and get just a tiny bit further and then get stuck again.  All this backstory exists to explain why I played Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time until 2 in the morning last night.  I had to beat the first dungeon! I only started it at like 11 though, and we had a break for dinner.  Anyway, I feel like I'm finally experiencing an important part of Zelda geekdom that I did not have the chance to experience previously, and it's pretty cool.