The Sims 3 Experiment: One House, Eight of the Biggest Gaming Icons Ever

I’ve played The Sims 3. There, I said it. Guess what else? I still have The Sims 3 on my computer – it’s been there for nearly a whole year.

I recently got back into it, and decided to do something which I dabbled in a while back. That was to create a family, although not related, of the biggest names in gaming, and put them in one house.

As of writing this I all ready have seven.

One is none other than Duke Nukem. Duke has been around for nearly the past two decades, and has had quite a few games under his belt- one of which was no doubt Duke Nukem 3D, his most successful  game to date, which still sells to this day. Duke is currently pursuing the Law Enforcement career in the house, with hoped of becoming a super hero.

The next one is Doom Guy, otherwise known as John “Reaper” Grimm, if you’ve ever watched the atrocious movie based on the series of games. Doom Guy entered the gaming market after Duke Nukem, in 1993 [Duke Nukem was in 1991], and starred in a series of games that revolutionised gaming for years to come, as well as establishing first-person shooters as the popular genre it is today. Currently Doom Guy is in the Military career, hoping to become an astronaut.

Who’s next? Lara Croft. You couldn’t have a house filled with gaming icons without the Tomb Raider. Lara was probably the first real female character that you took control of in game, and had three big hits in the series – the first three games – before hitting a stumbling block, which was most of the entire series for the next several years. But, she came back in Tomb Raider Legend, and has since seen another two great additions to the long running series. Lara is currently pursuing a career in journalism [couldn’t get any adventure clubs or something, although they are probably present in one of the expansions, which I don’t have… yet].

The fourth one should be a give away by now, seeing as this in order of when they actually hit the gaming world. Yes, it’s the G-man. No, not that G-man, but Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. Gordon has never spoken in any of his games, and lacks that personality and attitude [although borrowed] of Duke Nukem. Still, he was the main protagonist in a series which saw FPS titles become more than mindless killing sprees, but added a little logic and puzzle solving in to the mix as well, along with characters that you actually game a damn about… instead of killing everyone. Clad in his usual science laboratory get up, he no doubt works at the science laboratory in the town.

The fifth one came just after Gordon Freeman in Half-Life, and that would be Garrett from Thief. Okay, so this guy is likely the underdog of the entire bunch. He’s been in three or four titles over the past dozen or so years [four if you count Thief Gold, five if you count Thief II Gold, which didn’t actually ever see the light of day], and is set to star in a true sequel in the series soon, Thief IV… or THI4F… or is it ThIVes? Anyway, Garret and the Thief series brought about a new genre in gaming, and that was the first person sneaker. Thief probably wasn’t the first game to do this, as Metal Gear had some of that sneaking stuff in it too, but Thief helped popularise it, and many games to this day, especially Splinter Cell and the likes, owe their gratitude to the series. No doubt, Garrett is in the Criminal career path, and likes to steal, or “mooch” off of other Sims.

The sixth one? There was a hint in the above paragraph. It’s Snake. Snake? Snake?! SNAAAKKKEE! Yes, Solid Snake from Metal Gear fame, with probably one of his best titles in Metal Gear Solid, of 1999. Solid carried on the appeal of the stealthy approach in games, sort of like Thief, but in a modern, militaristic universe. He has had numerous games since then over the past decade, some of which he didn’t even really star in, in a sense. Like Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, or MGS 3 for short, which saw Naked Snake take the main role. Snake is also in the military career, and also has natural cooking and gardening abilities, which he picked up from his dad, Naked Snake, or Big Boss.

Number 7 would be a character who also cropped up in the 90’s: SHODAN. She’s appeared in two games in the System Shock series, namely System Shock and the sequel, System Shock 2. She’s been voted as one of the best villains to appear in a game, and one of the greatest all-round characters too. She even has the greyish-blue skin, complete with blue and green hair just like in the games and has an evil personality comparable to the real rogue AI.

In the game, Shodan is climbing up the rungs of the political career, seeing as she eventually wants to become the leader of the free world, or the neighbourhood at the very least. And she’s going to make people suffer and have fun while she’s doing it too.

Who will be number eight? Who do you think? Maybe we should have a vote, and you can leave your thoughts in the comments. So many choices, and you can only have eight in a household unfortunately. I guess I’ll be starting new houses with other characters who didn’t make this list.

Candidates who are on my list to make the eighth member of the household include: Agent 47 from Hitman, B.J. Blazkowicz from Wolfenstein, and some others.

The Sims 3 Experiment: One House, Eight of the Biggest Gaming Icons Ever

My Time as a Video Game Character: Doomguy

There were likely a few times in my life as a young boy were I tried to dress up and imitate a character in a video game – something which the initiated called Cosplay – which seems to be big not only in America, but Japan as well. It’s huge there, from what I’ve seen.

There was a time years ago when I was in school and they class project was to dress up as either a spaceman or an alien of sorts. I decided I wanted not only to be a space man – but a space marine.

I’d just gotten my new computer that year: a Pentium 100 MHz, and on it I had the shareware version of Doom with the famous episode named “Knee Deep in the Dead”.

This inspired me to dig in the cupboards and see what I could get to make myself look the part. So I managed to get a fishbowl. You’ve seen pictures of people or adverts on TV [I have], where people put a fishbowl on their head and pretend they’re in space. I did that. What did I do for a gun? I could have had a bb gun, or a water pistol; something even mildly realistic. But what did I do? I used a snorkel.

So there I was running up and down the driveway with my getup on, getting a headache because of a mix of the sun beating down on my head, the hyperactivity of a child, and the fact that I probably wasn’t getting enough oxygen with that bloody bowl on my head.

I went to school the next day and the teacher just laughed at my “costume”, which probably looked nothing like Doomguy at all. But kids have something called an imagination, and so we think we look the part.

We had to line up outside the classroom – which was a bungalow, seeing as the school was still expanding at the time – to get ready to head in to the neighbouring class to show off our outfits. All I remember before going in was that some idiot clubbed me over the head with something, intentionally or by accident I’m not sure, which not only gave me another headache, but cracked my helmet as well.

There I was – a space marine with a hole in my head gear. At least I could finally get some oxygen. On Phobos, Deimos, or Mars I’d be dead though.

My Time as a Video Game Character: Doomguy

The Doom Comic: Rip and Tear

Since it’s Doom’s birthday today, I thought I would post about this.

Recently I read the infamous Doom comic book called “Knee Deep in the Dead” (after the first episode in the game), also known as “Rip and Tear”, or simply “The Doom Comic”, after I was searching for comics based on video games.

DoomWorld originally posted scans of this limited edition comic book back in 2003, on Doom’s 10 year anniversary. According to the date, it was published in 1996, and although it’s been around for a while, not many people know about it. I think according to the people who have read it, they tried to bury it, forget it, and completely deny its existence, or so they say.

I’ve seen part of it and heard of it before, but only got to see the full thing the other day.

The illustrations aren’t too bad, could be better, even at the time, but the “writing” was rubbish. Anyway, if you haven’t ever read it, here’s your chance.

This space marine is on a quest to get the big gun, which is obviously the BFG 9000, and on the way, he kills all sorts of things including zombies, imps, something which I think is supposed to be a Hell Knight or Baron of Hell, with weapons like his fists (berserker mode), chainsaw, double-barrelled shotgun, chaingun, plasma gun, and finally after obtaining the BFG, he goes after the Cyberdemon. The only weapons seemingly left out here are the regular pump-action shotgun, and the rocket launcher.

I will say a few things, and you might notice these yourself:

• The face of the marine, like the one above, looks similar to the guy from the cover of the Playstation version of Doom.
• The stance of the zombie guy on the cover is similar to the one of doomguy on the cover of Doom II: Hell on Earth.
• Seeing as this was published in 1996, there’s a line in there that not only pays homage to Army of Darkness, but possibly parodies Duke Nukem 3D, released that year: “Groovy!”

The Doom Comic: Rip and Tear

Where are the stars now: Doomguy

Doomguy is the protagonist from the Doom games.

He first appeared in the shareware version of Doom, and fought through the demonic invasion on Phobos, a moon of Mars, in “Knee-Deep in the Dead”. Later on, he was seen battling it out in what was left of the Deimos labs in “Shores of Hell”. After this he ventured into hell, in “Inferno”, and finished the job. When The Ultimate Doom came out, he had to go back and take care of some unfinished business in “Thy Flesh Consumed”.

In Doom II: Hell on Earth, Doomguy had to save the earth from another hellish invasion, and was supposedly the last human on earth as all the others had left and gone into space, while he was fighting off the demons. He was alone for a few years with nobody to talk to, and claims that this might have been one of the contributors towards his ill mental health in later years.

He was disappointed in the fact that Doom II had barely any new graphics or technology, although he claimed that the level design was better than the original’s.

In Final Doom, he had to endure another 64 levels of torment and pain, as he battled through TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment. He shared somewhat in the anger expressed by fans towards the fact that TNT: Evilution was supposed to be a free expansion pack for Doom II.

“Once again, there were virtually no new textures, graphics, enemies or anything. It was boring. Did you know that these two bundled mega-episodes were done by other people, and id claims the credit? Pfft.”

After having gone through the events of Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom, he had to go and see a psychiatrist due to suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

He has made comments about his space marine uniform from the games, “Look at this [points to scar on his stomach]. That uniform was basically just a helmet and body armour that only covered my chest. They left a huge gap where my stomach is and I’ve got this scar from some demon nearly ripping it open.”

As for appearing in Duke Nukem 3D, he said that it was such a small role and he was happy to get out of there as quickly as he could. "Just another Doom clone", he says.

He was apparently glad that he did not have to take part in Doom 64. “The fans didn’t like it anyway. It goes to show that when you don’t use the star, it’s not the same. You could tell it wasn't me because his uniform was different.”

He made an appearance, but rather unwillingly, in id’s game, Quake III. He claims that he was the star of Doom and not Quake, and has never liked the Quake series of games. He describes the Strogg from Quake II as ‘pansies’ compared to the demons from Doom, and goes on to say that, although frightening, they obviously copied their look from the Cyberdemon, who he has a lot of respect for, having faced off against him many times in the past.

“With all due respect to the space marines who went to Stroggos and all, Quake II and Quake IV could easily pass for Doom games. Doom also took place in basically the same place, and I had the same objectives as they did.”

He and Bitterman from Quake II traded war stories when they weren’t fragging each other and everyone else in Quake III.

“We have a lot in common. We were both sent to a strange planet, where we were left all alone, and had to face off against almost insurmountable odds. We were also never the same again afterwards.”

When asked about some of the others who appeared in Q3A, he says, “Who was that Phobos guy anyway? He wasn’t even wearing the proper space marine uniform. Oh, I remember him! He was the guy on the cover of The Ultimate Doom doing a balancing act on a rock. Big help he was. He was even named after the moon of mars; how unoriginal.”

It was noted in Quake III, that Doomguy seemed to suffer from some sort of schizophrenia as well as PTSD, claiming that he had voices or demons in his head. He considered the possibility that he was possessed and saw an exorcist, as well as continuing to see his therapist.

Nowadays, Doomguy is taking the vacation that he needs, now that id found another star for Doom III and the upcoming Doom IV.

“Everyone knows that they are not the same person, as I have brown hair and New Doomguy has black hair. I also have a stronger physique. You still get people out there who ask, though.”

As regards the Doom movie that came out in 2005, he said, “Oh God…” [shakes his head] “Total cash-in, and I’m glad it was more Doom III than Doom or Doom II, as I had nothing to do with Doom III.”

Doomguy relaxes in his trailer home, which is actually a big escape pod from outer orbit that crashed down on to earth, and keeps pet rabbits. He still sees his therapist from time to time, and is constantly using medication and alcohol to relax and forget things from the past. He has trouble sleeping, with perpetual nightmares. Just in case, he keeps his double-barreled shotgun under the bed.

When asked if he was scared of death, he says, “Look, I’ve been to hell and back, and as far as I know, there’s nobody left down there anyway- I killed them all. It’s damn hot down there though, I’ll tell you.”

When asked if he would ever star in another Doom game, he clutches his pet bunny tightly and replies, “Hell no.”

For more, try http://hubpages.com/hub/Doom and
http://hubpages.com/hub/Classic-Games-Resurrected--Doom-2 

Where are the stars now: Doomguy