oneshotstop
Novice
I need you to stop what you're doing and go download EA's Origin client. I know, I know, it is EA and they are the devil and all that, but trust me. Once you've got it, look for the Command and Conquer Ultimate Collection. Twenty bucks nets you every Command and Conquer game ever made, save for "Sole Survivor." If you haven't heard of that one, don't worry; nobody else has either. Anyway, that series is almost the entirety of my childhood gaming, short of Dragon Crystal on the SEGA Game Gear, or Raptor: Call of the Shadows on the old Gateway.
Command and Conquer (further referred to as C&C) is a real time strategy game, first created in 1995. I used to be pretty bad at it, simply massing units and storming the enemy bases until either they were dead, or I was. I didn't really have the skills I needed to diversify tactics and truly succeed. This reminds me of playing chess with my dad. After playing countless games when I was six or seven, I was fed up with losing and said I was done. He convinced me to play one more game, and I won. Obviously he let me win.
Twenty one years later, we played again. I never stopped playing chess because of that. I beat my dad! He was the greatest! Unbeatable, yet there I was victorious. Suddenly at the same old chess board in the same little table with the same old pieces, I was scared to death that he was going to beat me. He was in my head for twenty one years. But I won that time, for real. Barely, but I did it. He hadn't continued playing like I had. I don't think he realizes how much it meant to me when I figured out that he'd let me win.
I play LAN games of C&C '95 with my son, who is six. It still tugs on my heart strings when I hear all those sound effects from back in the day. That music, the machine guns, the stuff your units said when you clicked on them or gave them orders. I remember it all so fondly. So far, it is my son's absolute favorite game, and his favorite genre. Any time I play a different RTS, he asks me if I can put it on the laptop I let him use for C&C. The latest one being Act of Aggression, which is basically a love letter to the RTS games of old.
He and I play chess a lot, too. Since we can't play C&C on the go, we like to bring a little chess board with us. He says lines from the game when he moves his pieces around, and tries to make the squishing sound of tanks crushing infantry when a piece gets captured. When we get back home, though, it is game on.
Suddenly on the same old maps with the same old units, I am proud to admit that he is going to beat me. Maybe not today, but my time as King is drawing to a close. The Mammoth Tanks on the horizon draw ever closer, and I know exactly how much it would mean to the boy to win once.
Maybe it's time I let him have one.
Command and Conquer (further referred to as C&C) is a real time strategy game, first created in 1995. I used to be pretty bad at it, simply massing units and storming the enemy bases until either they were dead, or I was. I didn't really have the skills I needed to diversify tactics and truly succeed. This reminds me of playing chess with my dad. After playing countless games when I was six or seven, I was fed up with losing and said I was done. He convinced me to play one more game, and I won. Obviously he let me win.
Twenty one years later, we played again. I never stopped playing chess because of that. I beat my dad! He was the greatest! Unbeatable, yet there I was victorious. Suddenly at the same old chess board in the same little table with the same old pieces, I was scared to death that he was going to beat me. He was in my head for twenty one years. But I won that time, for real. Barely, but I did it. He hadn't continued playing like I had. I don't think he realizes how much it meant to me when I figured out that he'd let me win.
I play LAN games of C&C '95 with my son, who is six. It still tugs on my heart strings when I hear all those sound effects from back in the day. That music, the machine guns, the stuff your units said when you clicked on them or gave them orders. I remember it all so fondly. So far, it is my son's absolute favorite game, and his favorite genre. Any time I play a different RTS, he asks me if I can put it on the laptop I let him use for C&C. The latest one being Act of Aggression, which is basically a love letter to the RTS games of old.
He and I play chess a lot, too. Since we can't play C&C on the go, we like to bring a little chess board with us. He says lines from the game when he moves his pieces around, and tries to make the squishing sound of tanks crushing infantry when a piece gets captured. When we get back home, though, it is game on.
Suddenly on the same old maps with the same old units, I am proud to admit that he is going to beat me. Maybe not today, but my time as King is drawing to a close. The Mammoth Tanks on the horizon draw ever closer, and I know exactly how much it would mean to the boy to win once.
Maybe it's time I let him have one.
