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I'm Still Addicted to a 12 Year Old Game (SOCOM 2)

M

MastaKilla

Member
Hello Gaf,

I have a bit of a problem. In my mind, November 4, 2003 is the greatest gaming related day of my life. In my heart, everything from that day till now is life's lesson of enjoying a blessing while you have it, because everything dies eventually then it's gone for ever!!

Okay, sorry I'm being over dramatic. But on that day, Socom 2 was released on the PS2. I remember spending the rest of my high school days in class, drawing out maps in my notebooks and thinking of strategies for my clan to dominate each and every map.

Fast forward to today: the Socom franchise is dead. zipper interactive is dead. Sony doesn't care about the shooter market, they let their 3rd party friends take care of that. Here I am, 12 years later, plugging my PS2 into my tv and connecting my PS2 to my laptop, in desperate attempts to keep playing Socom 2 through Xlink using a lan connection. Somehow, there are still a hundred or so equally desperate people doing the same thing.

This weekend, I was on my ps4, playing through Tomb Raider DE, and all I could think of is why am I not playing Socom? Then friends came over, we played Fifa and Diablo, and eventually I stopped playing and watched old Socom videos on YouTube while they all played.

Listen, I'm a pretty normal person. I am married, I've got my degrees and career, I have a lot of friends who I have fun with. So the answer to this problem is not: get a life! Lol, I have one, I just wish it had more Socom!!

So Gaf, I ask you: Has any single game ever done this to you and for how long did it last? It's been 12 years now and Socom 2 still has the same grasp over my heart as it did when I was 15 years old! When will this unrequited love leave me so that I can enjoy the rest of the greatness gaming has to offer?


Very late but worthy EDIT: here's a tutorial on how to setup Xlink to play socom 2 online: http://community.therealsocom.com/threads/complete-socom-xlink-configuration-guide.4253/

And here's a petition going around for a Socom Remaster:

https://www.change.org/p/shawn-layd...twitter&utm_campaign=share_twitter_responsive
 
Amazing that such an old game can still somehow survive with a community today...

I wish they did something to M.A.G. to allow this type of option... at least with the smallest game modes...

Socom 4 was a pretty sweet game, IMO. I should have played that more...
 
It's normal, really.

If you want to stop thinking about it, just keep playing until you get sick of it, then you won't want to play it again for a while
 
Dark Souls had a hold on me for a couple of years.

OP check out rainbow six siege. I think it might scratch that itch for you.
 
I know that feel. While not quite the same I've been waiting on Dino crisis for years and besides that until recently I was dying to play Resident Evil Outbreak online agin. Through fan efforts who were just as hungry for it that finally became a reality again.

Games can be a strong thing that stay with us for so long. SP or MP. As you said with hundreds of others playing socom 2 the same way you are, at least you know you're not alone.
 
I came here to say that this isn't normal. But apparently people who play multiplayer games, who generally play video games for different reasons than campaigners, identify with this better than I do.

So maybe it is normal.

As much as I might replay single player games (double digits amount of times), I don't go to these lengths to do so and an not so possessed that I get distracted playing other games.

But I guess that flame I feel when I replay RE4 or BioShock is a version of what you have.

I had an epiphany here.
 
Socom 1 & 2 were the greatest mulitplayer games ever. Socom 2 shipped with 20+ maps, if I recall correctly? Good luck getting that today. I am sorry but I just dont see H-Hour as anything special.
 
MastaKilla said:
So Gaf, I ask you: Has any single game ever done this to you and for how long did it last? It's been 12 years now and Socom 2 still has the same grasp over my heart as it did when I was 15 years old! When will this unrequited love leave me so that I can enjoy the rest of the greatness gaming has to offer?
Click to expand...
90% of all games I have played recently are nearly a decade or more old.
Truthfully the only recent modern games I've played have been Ground Zeroes and Dark Souls/Dark Souls II and Sleeping Dogs, since not much else on PC is worth it aside from GTAV which I simply haven't had the chance to buy.

Every year or so I go back to one or two real old games.
I think it should be encouraged, for example Morrowind is REAL rough to play for the first hour or two but then after that everything about the age of that game just slips away and you don't even think about it, you just enjoy it.
 
bLMSiE5.jpg


I still play this game constantly. I was just joking to my wife the other day that we'll be sitting around in our 60s, retired, and I'll still be playing this damn game. I play Blue Burst on the Schthack server occasionally so I can actually play online, but for whatever reason I play mostly solo on my Gamecube, grinding characters up to level 200. There's something relaxing about playing PSO that's hard to explain. After thousands of hours, everything in the game is so familiar it's like hanging out with an old friend. I have a 1-year old daughter now, who I hope to convince to play split-screen with me some day.
 
There's nothing wrong with liking or revisiting old games.

To that end, a lot of MMOs are aging and still have very robust communities.
 
I have an addiction to Sid M Pirates. Every month or so I quit whatever I'm playing and start a new pirate career in the game again.
 
I still find myself going back to Doom 22 years after it hit the market, so I can understand that feeling. A well-designed game that's fun to play but which has just enough of an ability to keep the game fresh will last a damn long time. (Custom WADs being Doom's ace in the hole, while the challenge of fighting real human beings being most multiplayer games' ace.)
 
Runescape and Civilization games. They both take up a lot of your time, which can be addicting and can last you a very long time as well. I haven't played RS in months though, but I do play a Civ game every now and then.

Also, you invited friends over to your place to play games and then you stopped playing to watch Youtube? OP, plz explain.
 
I still play Doom 1 & 2 (both vanilla and modded) regularly.

Been like that for years now. It's just part of my gaming diet.

No regrets.
 
We still play Virtua Striker and Virtua Tennis with my brother on Dreamcast.
Though he is obsessed with Argentina
 
digita1alchemy said:
bLMSiE5.jpg


I still play this game constantly. I was just joking to my wife the other day that we'll be sitting around in our 60s, retired, and I'll still be playing this damn game. I play Blue Burst on the Schthack server occasionally so I can actually play online, but for whatever reason I play mostly solo on my Gamecube, grinding characters up to level 200. There's something relaxing about playing PSO that's hard to explain. Aftert housands of hours, everything in the game is so familiar it's like hanging out with an old friend. I have a 1-year old daughter now who I hope I can talk into playing split-screen with me one day.
Click to expand...
I am not alone.

Your post brightened my day. Thank you :-)
 
If you commit a crime one day and Fox News reports it, they will find this thread and use the shortened title "I'm Still Addicted to a 12 Year Old" as proof that you are also a child molester
 
digita1alchemy said:
I still play this game constantly. I was just joking to my wife the other day that we'll be sitting around in our 60s, retired, and I'll still be playing this damn game. I play Blue Burst on the Schthack server occasionally so I can actually play online, but for whatever reason I play mostly solo on my Gamecube, grinding characters up to level 200. There's something relaxing about playing PSO that's hard to explain. After thousands of hours, everything in the game is so familiar it's like hanging out with an old friend. I have a 1-year old daughter now who I hope I can talk into playing split-screen with me one day.
Click to expand...

ooh.... god I love this game
 
I'm this way with vanilla COD1 and a bit with COD2.

Both were incredible and I still dream of COD1 on Hurtgen as German with just my Kar98 flanking the US forces over thehill top and getting 4 melee kills of the people just proning on the hill.

Fuck.
 
It is a shame that it's impossible to play some older multiplayer games because the services are down / no one is playing anymore.

I would love to play some Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory online again. Newer SC games just aren't the same even though they brought back spies vs mercs.
Is it possible to play CT multiplayer on PC anymore? I have the PC version but remember having problems getting it running.
 
what I find interesting about these games that keep us hostage, is that there's so many different games that do this. You couldn't argue that it's a certain quality that keeps us coming back. Well, it usually is quality but it's not the same in every game. Although it is mostly about gameplay, not about great looks or anything. Some traits that transcent time. It's some kind of composition between your mind and your favorite game.

I constantly think back to Diablo 1 and actually, without noticing it myself then, was playing it every year between 2002 and 2007. I only noticed later because i had pictures saved (of items I found) ranging from 2002 to 2007. Although I always made a break, I always came back. And even now, when I think about a game that still captures me, it is Diablo 1. I love other games, too; arguably in some way even more, but I think Diablo 1 has me addicted in a weird way. Not only because of its great loot system. Also because the game still oozes magic atmosphere. Moreso than Diablo2 and 3. Also, nostalgia.
 
Monster Hunter Unite and Final Fantasy 11.

I just can't let these two games go. Even though there are plenty of new Monster Hunters to play, I just find the magic to be in MH1-MH Unite. As for ff11, the game has lost the majority of its past user-base, but I still play it and wish for the old days again.
 
digita1alchemy said:
bLMSiE5.jpg


I still play this game constantly. I was just joking to my wife the other day that we'll be sitting around in our 60s, retired, and I'll still be playing this damn game. I play Blue Burst on the Schthack server occasionally so I can actually play online, but for whatever reason I play mostly solo on my Gamecube, grinding characters up to level 200. There's something relaxing about playing PSO that's hard to explain. After thousands of hours, everything in the game is so familiar it's like hanging out with an old friend. I have a 1-year old daughter now who I hope I can talk into playing split-screen with me one day.
Click to expand...

Man I thought I'd be like this but I tried going back a year or two ago and it was too rough. I put hundreds of hours into PSO v2 but I couldn't even fathom how when I went back to it. I was at the point back in the day where I had every layout and spawn pattern memorized completely, knew every optimal route through every single area, every gate puzzle down to a science, enemy affinities and likely drops, the best weapons to use and when, and I learned it all myself through just playing the game.
 
Socom 2 and 3 are some of the best gaming memories I have both online and offline. I worry that with time that if they ever did remake a game in their likeness I wouldn't enjoy it as much because it's been so long, but Tha KS to your post I'm a little less worried. I'm excited for H Hour and hope it stays true to the franchise.
 
I'm the same with Star Wars Battlefront 2 on the PlayStation 2. There is even a competitive scene still playing matches today.


Although from the looks of it the new game will help me get over it.
 
The closest thing for me would be Spelunky. I still play Spelunky on a daily basis due to the daily challenges. I still play older games (Q3Arena, UT2K4, Day of Defeat) when I have a yearning but that isn't often. Is there no way to play SOCOM today? Not having access to scratch the itch would be awful.
 
socom II was ahead of its time brotha!!! i miss that game som fucking much =[ vigilance chain reaction abandoned cross roads!!
 
Somehow I had a feeling this would be about SOCOM when I read being addicted to a 12 year old game. There was nothing else quite like it. I miss it to but it has clearly been put away with other forgotten IPs like Syphon Filter and MediEvil sadly.
 
Leona Lewis said:
I am not alone.

Your post brightened my day. Thank you :-)
Click to expand...

I am not sure what it is about this game, but I feel the same way. I bought all PSO versions when they came out, but have spent the most time on pso1&2++ for the gamecube. I have gone through three gamecubes in that time and it is still my go to game.
 
I still play Guild Wars 1 all by myself. And the Jeremy Soule's music kicks in and I feel nostalgic about my best online experience/time ever.
 
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