Oh no, the dreaded P-word. I’ll be honest, I have been avoiding video games and movies with ‘pandemic’ in the title. I am sick and tired of the altered lives we have been forced to live for nearly one year, but this is not the reason for this entry.
Let us focus on the positive side-effects of this pandemic. It is hard to believe that anything “positive” has arisen from this nightmare, but hear me out.
It is winter in Toronto and I have yet to brave the nasty weather commuting to work. I have been working at home since March of last year. We can take this as one of the positives.
I always loved video games but have not really played since high school due to time constraints. Prior to the pandemic, I would spend the vast majority of my time on the road. I simply did not have the time to play video games.
Since the pandemic began, I find myself at home with plenty of time for games. Video games help me take my mind off the pandemic. Since travel is severely restricted, I find I can travel virtually via video games.
I can to explore the United Kingdom and Germany via Train Simulator and Train Sim World. I fly around the world via X-Plane 11 and Infinite Flight. I drive around Italy and France in Euro Truck Simulator. I drive around the western United States in American Truck Simulator.
I explore Victorian London via Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. This game is underrated and a lot of fun. The architecture is beautiful and being able to scale any building in the city via parkour is a thrill.
I fight for survival in a post-nuclear war Russia, beginning in the Moscow Metro and exploring the monster-ridden forests. Metro Exodus is a fantastic game with unbelievable graphics.
I experience the difficulties reintegrating into society upon returning from the Vietnam war in Mafia III. This open-world game is set in a fictitious city called Bordeaux, modelled after New Orleans in the 1960s.
Medieval fantasy is explored via two of the most highly-regarded RPG games of the past 10 years… Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3. Both offer the ability to escape the real world and live vicariously through the characters throughout the vast lands they inhabit.
Those who know me know of my deep connections to Asia. I travel virtually to Hong Kong by playing Sleeping Dogs. This is a game where you play the part of a triads gang member who ends up working undercover for the police. The streets of Hong Kong are incredibly replicated in this game. You feel as though you are really in Hong Kong.
While in Asia, we cannot forget Tokyo and Osaka Japan. Yakuza 0 is a fantastic game set in both cities. Walking the streets to me feels so authentic due to the time I have spent in both cities in real life. This game makes me want to go back to Japan so bad.
Gaming has been a lot of fun for me and has taken my mind off the isolation brought on by the lockdown. Another positive side-effect is cooking.
Now that I am home, I have time to cook every single meal I eat. Although my community contains hundreds of restaurants, and we have easy access via delivery applications, I have rarely eaten takeout food this past year. I can count how many takeout meals I have consumed.
I am enjoying cooking all the foods I love every single as opposed to weekends only. Another side-effect if you can call it that, is the fact that I have lost weight due to eating healthier and maintaining an exercise regiment at home.
Friends tend to be temporary items in our lives. Only some friends remain with us through thick and thin, year in and year out. I have been blessed with having a lot of wonderful friends. The pandemic has allowed me to realise who my true friends are. It has given me more time to actually speak with friends who I have not spoken with much over the past few years because we all lived such busy lives.
My favourite side-effect of this pandemic is that isolation has given me more time to focus on writing. I have much more time to contribute to these blogs and my books. I love to write, as most of you can tell by now. Be on the lookout for many more products on the horizon.