Don't Call Me Casual

A Casual Gamer - define it. What is the definition of a Casual Gamer anyway? I don't know. I guess it's the gamers that know nothing of the industry and play games very passively. If that's the case when does a Casual Gamer bleed into a Gamer or Hardcore Gamer. There's all these lines of gray and no definitive mark where a "gamer" gets to be labeled casual or core or whatever. David Thompson, VP of Scottish developer Slam Games, sheds some light on this, ""Saying somebody's a casual player is doing them a disservice, because there are people playing Bejewelled for twelve hours in a go - I wouldn't have ever played a game for more than a couple of hours in one go, so I think the terms are maybe mistaken somewhat. I think it's more the style of game - something you can sit down and play in chunks, rather than having to sit down for three hours to play the next chapter of the game, whatever that is." So there are some confusing descriptions here too. A person playing a gamed labelled as "casual" for extended periods of time. Does that push them into "core" or casual core? Whatever, I don't want to get lumped in to any of these groups. If someone plays games there just that, a person that plays games - like the rest of us.

I heard all the reviews and all the bad talk surrounding Haze but I didn't listen and I am playing through it right now. The game itself seems pretty solid but I am only about an hour into it. Voice acting is garbage but the view of super soldiers in the future - getting drugged up all the time and listening to rap music while they are in battle is pretty cool and a little ridiculous. I only have one big gripe about the game so far, the 20 minutes I had to wait before I started playing it. I boot it up and it installs, no problems here. There is an update with the game, so I get booted out to the cross media bar and an update has to take place there. Reboot the game with all the updates and installs and it has to stabilize the network before I can even start playing it. It's not that 20 minutes is too long, I would love it if it was just one install and I could go make a sandwich or something but you have to sit there and baby sit it. Press X to confirm, Are you sure you want to quit Haze? Install complete, Press X to restart system. After babysitting the numerous updates, I sort of didn't feel like playing Haze that much anymore. I'm not very far in but Haze is off the a rocky start, the only thing that can save it now is if I hear Korn's special Haze song soon.