A lot of emotions from today's stream.
With the passing of Sir Sean Connery yesterday, I decided to dedicate today's stream to playing the only video game he worked on, EA's From Russia With Love. Connery did the voice over work for it, something he was used to doing (ie, Dragonheart), but this was the first and only time he did it for a video game. It was also the last time he did any kind of acting as James Bond, and the first since his final Bond film in 1983. Now that he's gone, this game is like a preserved time capsule of his most famous character.
This game has a personal history for me because it was the only video game (I believe) that my mom bought for me. I had asked her for it back when we used to exchange gift "ideas" for Christmas. It would have been in 2005 (the year it was released), and I remember feeling a little uneasy about asking for it because I knew it was selling for full price ($50). That was about the amount we figured to spend on each other, so I figured it wasn't too bad if that was all she got me. What I do remember was how happy she was to be able to get it for me because it was something I wanted that she could, sort of, relate to. She wasn't what I would call a James Bond fan, but I'm sure she wasn't immune to his Scottish charms. After all, she would have been in her early 30's when the movie From Russia With Love was released.
When I got it that Christmas, I knew it would always be special to me because she had gone out specifically to find it at some electronics store. Yes, I had been responsible for making my own mother into a "fish out of water" customer at some game or electronics store. It's a shame I'll live with for the rest of my days.
I don't remember when I first tried to play it. We were still living in our old house and my setup for playing console games wasn't very good. I also wasn't that familiar with PS2 shooting games. I got through the opening mission - not very hard because it's sort of a tutorial and the action is unrelated to actual FRWL storyline. The next mission is the hedge maze mission where you are supposed to sneak around, not get caught, or engage in gunfights...or so I thought. This isn't the first game I misunderstood what I was supposed to do and was, therefore, too cautious to the point of failure (the second mission in Black was the same for me). For the longest time, I just assumed I couldn't do the second mission.
Until today.
In my stream today (which coincided with the 15th anniversary of the game's release), I got through the first 4 missions (on easy, naturally) and didn't "die" once. There were a couple of close calls, but my PS2/Xbox/GameCube-era skills were more than up to the challenge. Of course, I probably shouldn't be too pleased with myself considering we are talking about games that are, relatively speaking, complete and utter dinosaurs when compared to today's games. Face it, Dark Souls this ain't. But, that's not the point, is it?
When the stream was over, I took the disc out of my vintage PS2, put it back in the original case, and just held it against my chest. I thought back on when my mom got it for me and the years that have passed in between then and now. It feels nice sometimes to have those kinds of objects that connect you to past times and the people in the pages of our history.
