My game night group hasn't changed much over the years. It mostly consists of my older brother, who is a network administrator at a software company, and a friend (who married my brother's wife's sister-- I know, just move on) who is also a radiologist. Once in awhile my younger brother will take a World of Warcrack hiatus and join in on the Wednesday night festivities with us.
We've played several games throughout the years. Here's a run down of those games.
The first game that we all played together was World of Warcraft. Few games (if any) are funner to play together with a group of friends. As you may have heard, WoW has addictive potential and it may have occupied more than just a Wednesday night for us. We tried to enter Azeroth whenever we could. It was only a matter of time before the wives stepped in and like High Inquisitor Whitemane herself wiped our little group. Even great wives have limits. Some of us only made it to level 40 or so. I kept playing solo for awhile and made it to level 70 before I called it quits. It's just not fun playing alone. Still, I think WoW will always hold a special little place in our hearts *sniff *sniff.
Next we all picked up Battlefield 2142. This is a great coop game. It is extremely well designed and balanced to be played as a squad. We started Helix_C clan and it wasn't long before we had a full team of Helix_C soldiers all in the same squad battling it out together. Battling it out is an apt way to put it because this game is all about the battle. It is intense. There is no better way to put it. My heart literally raced during some of the firefights. 64 players is a lot to have on the same battlefield. We learned our roles well and became a tight squad. There were many nights when Helix_C turned the tide of a tough battle. We played 2142 for a long time and really never got tired of it. We went on to the next game just to try a new genre out for awhile. To this day we'll play a few rounds of 2142 while waiting for all of us to get online.
I don't think we ever really got over our WoW loss. In an attempt to enter into another fantasy world that has groups and loot and leveling up and skill points and many other standard WoW/RPG elements, we started playing Dungeon Siege II. While this game had some fun elements, it definitely was not a WoW replacement. I personally got bored with it, mostly because the combat was so simple. You just hold the right button down on an enemy and your character attacks it. Every once in a while you can use a special power. This is all there is to combat. It was nice to level up and continually get better loot though, this almost reminded us of the good old WoW days... almost. It was close enough that my younger brother left WoW once a week and joined us on Wednesdays.
I hardly ever buy a just released game, mostly because I'm so cheap and I am patient enough for the prices to drop. I just couldn't wait to buy Borderlands though. I started reading about this game more than a year before its release and knew that I was going to like it. I love FPS and RPG games, and Borderlands is a nice fusion of these genres. I also was really excited because Borderlands is meant to be a coop game. It was a perfect fit for our Wednesday night game nights. I convinced my brother and friend to purchase it and it wasn't long before we were zipping around planet Pandora shooting up anything that moved and running over everything else. I still couldn't convince my younger WoW-head brother to join us though, which is unfortunate because Borderlands is at its best with 4 players. It is still an absolute riot with 3 of us though. So much loot! The game is genuinely funny. The NPC characters are hilarious. This is the game that we're currently playing Wednesdays and I can't wait to play every week.
So there's a brief history of our game nights. We've played some good games and I'm already thinking of some more for the future, maybe Left 4 Dead or League of Legends. We'll see. All I know is that I'm always excited for Wednesday nights to roll around.
As the aforementioned "older brother" I must concur with J with his breakdown of the games we have played. As a recovering WOW addict it has been hard to move on to other games. I still have dreams of traveling through Azeroth as my Paladin thoughtfully labeled "Jugz". Battlefield 2142 filled the gap of intensity but not the satisfaction of the all around game play of WOW. 21 as we have now call it is still the adrenalin rush for quick game playing, and it was nice to revel in having Helix_C in the top four slots in points and kills. I'll include a link to some videos we took in our hay-days. :|
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DSII was fun but not challenging enough.
BL has been a nice addition to our lineup. It's nice to lay waste to anything that moves. You know it's been a good night when you've had to go and purchase ammo four or five times in one night. :D
I would also like to add that this all really started with two Pentium 90 PCs networked in our house fifteen years ago. Command and Conquer, Quake, Descent, Duke Nukem, Diablo, those were the first hooks that punctured our skin and wouldn't let us go.
I can't wait until I have my own office out in the garage or somewhere where I can ratchet up the volume and shake the house with my Krylov, Ghanz, Dual Wielding Battle Axes, Sniper Rifle, or Rorsch.
Game night is nice I will agree. :)