A Hardcore Valentine
At A Glance
- You're not alone on V-Day. You have your Xbox 360!
While all your whipped friends go gallivanting off for a night of flowers, chocolate, and extravagantly expensive dinners that could and should pay for video games, the single folk among us will settle down to a seething marathon of gameplay.
Rev it up and get to work.
What better way to forget that your last girlfriend dumped you after finding out that your "grandma's funeral" was a ruse for an all-day-and-night session of Gears of War®? What better way to soothe the wounds of an embittered breakup than exploding noggins with sniper fire in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas?
Take your mind off the opposite sex with these suggestions to combat your angst.
Whatever your ailment, there's a game
waiting to take your mind off the pain.
Saw Time
Gears of War has the single most satisfying kill in all of video gaming. Nothing can compare to the grisly, gore-drenched death of the chainsaw kill, and consequently, few actions can provide the same level of satisfaction and sweet revenge. Try hooking up with your online brood for a few rounds of "chainsaws only" and see if your temperament isn't improved. What it says about you personally that hacking your buddies to death with a saw is soothing, I don't care. It's good therapy, and that's good enough for me.
The Thrill of the Hunt
In order to set aside the scar tissue of a particularly messy breakup or argument, one must wholly immerse themselves in an experience. Every fiber of your concentration should be engaged, and there is simply no better game than Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Double Agent™ for doing just that.
Wonder where the merc is at.
Whether you're dropping behind a merc to snap their neck, or hunting down a spy hacking a terminal, Double Agent multiplayer doesn't allow a spare breath, let alone time to think of anything else.
Halo Trance
Even the hardcore can get melancholy on Valentine's Day, and when the romance blues come knocking on your door, it's time to shut your brain down and float away. Your best bet is to load your favorite shooter into your Xbox 360, and let your reflexes take over. For most people, Halo® 2 fits this niche nicely, giving your brain a rest. Head shots and energy sword kills can always make any day better.
Team Catharsis
If you're working with a team of lost souls on February 14, you could do a lost worse than rallying together for a bit of tactical mayhem with Rainbow Six Vegas. Straight up deathmatch can layer frustration onto your already love-addled mind, so go straight for the team games with the best players you can find. Laying waste to team after team with your buddies is truly cathartic gaming at its finest.
Put together an unstoppable team and let your enemy feel your pain.
Beat Downs
Whether offline or on, sometimes you just need to manhandle an opponent to get that giddyup back in your step. When a first-person shooter is too impersonal, turn to the likes of WWE® SmackDown® vs. RAW® 2007 or Dead or Alive® 4 to pile-drive your frustration into oblivion. There's nothing quite like bashing an opponent in the face with a metal chair to end a First Blood match, or countering the end of an enemy combo in DOA4 to pull off a miracle finish to your round. There is no place to hide in one-on-one fighting games, and no better way to assert your gaming dominance.
Valentine's Day will likely never be a favored holiday for the hardcore gamer, but it's a great excuse to unleash a marathon day of gaming. Whatever your ailment or complaint, there's a game waiting to take your mind off the pain, so get to it.
Article by Hardcore
