Misspent youth

Hello there. My name is Sean Klima & I've been asked to contribute to Epicly Unepic (EU from here on out). I've been a gamer since I was 5 years old when my parents bought me an Atari 2600 & now here I am in my mid 30s still gaming & enjoying it every bit as much if not more than I did as a child. My current gen systems are the Wii & the PS3. I also have a PC. I'll leave the 360 reviews & comments to Davie B since I'm too cheap to buy a 360 (my wife won't allow another console in the house).

As a gamer entering my mid 30s, I'd like to issue a warning to all the kids out there: Enjoy your gaming while you can! I've been married for almost 7 years now & I'm lucky enough to have a wife that enjoys video games for the most part. We met on Everquest & have played through the entire Final Fantasy series with the exceptions of 3 & 8. Most recently we beat Super Mario Wii. If I can find the time I'll contribute a review of the game. My gaming life was going great until we had our first child. Now its almost grinded itself to a halt. Having a 3 year old & our second child on the way in about 3 months doesn't leave a lot of free time I've discovered!

In my first piece I'd like to discuss a few games that over the years I've always wanted to sit down & enjoy, but for one reason or another have never gotten around to playing. Lets start with what might be one of the greatest FRPGs ever created: Ultima 7.

I will admit I missed the boat on Ultima 7 when it was initially released. I'm really not sure why. I was into PC gaming more so than console gaming at the time. Ultima 6 consumed well over a year of my young life (it also didn't help that my floppies stopped working & I had to send away for replacements! This was before hard drives were the norm). I later picked up the Ultima Collection & was dying to play U7! It was the first game I started up. I still fondly remember the Guardian taunting me during the intro & the brutal murder upon setting foot back in good old Britannia. What's sad is I never left Trinsic....

It frustrates me to no end that I've never finished this game. And I don't mean just Ultima 7, but the entire Epic (wink,wink) that is U7 & its add on Forge of Virtue as well as U7 part 2: Serpent Isle & it's add on The Silver Seed. I can't begin to imagine how much time could be spent freely exploring Britannia.

Another game(s) I've always wanted to play were Fallout 1 & 2. Once again they were 2 games I missed out on initially but picked up together as a collection. One of my friends loved Fallout & convinced me that my life wouldn't be complete unless I played at least the first game. I've gotten slightly further in Fallout than I have Ultima 7. I actually made it out of Vault 13 & returned...and that's about it!

I think both of these collections still hold up today. I've recently installed them on my Windows 7 machine thanks to Dos-box. I had a few graphical glitches with Fallout but a high-res patch fixed that problem. Finding the time to play these games, well that's another issue entirely. If anyone who reads this has a comment on what game I should play first or wish to express their love for these games feel free! No spoilers though please! Some day I DO plan on playing them! I may be 50 & Windows 10 may be out but someday...