More addicting than meth

I once saw an interview of a former meth addict recount how she got hooked on the drug: she and her husband had another couple over one night that used meth. The male took her husband into the bathroom and got him high. The female partner did the same with her. She claimed just like that, she was hook, and because the drug was so easy to get, she never came off the high until she was arrested a few years later.

I recently developed an addiction just as strong just as quickly. Only, my new addiction isn't a drug, it's a video game. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

My brother-in-law recently purchased the game and I decided to give it a try Wednesday night. I created my own profile on his Xbox at 7 p.m. and started playing. The next thing I knew, it was 11 p.m. and all thoughts of cooking dinner for the two of us had been abandoned as I spent four quick hours shooting bad guys and beating level after level.

I woke up Thursday, got some things done around the house and on my computer and started playing the game again. The next thing I knew, the final credits were rolling, signaling I had beaten the game.

It's the first game I beat since Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64. Other than playing a few rounds of Halo 2 in Iraq to pass the time, this is the first first-person shooter game I've played. It's pretty cool and just because I beat the game doesn't mean I have to stop playing. I've spent parts of the past two days playing the "Special Ops" challenges.

In the game, users go back and forth as one of two special ops soldiers. Some missions are solo, others are with a team and others are just with a SF captain, who pretty much rocks.

I'm not really sure what the exact storyline of the game is. I used the controller to fast forward the plot pieces of the game so I could get back to shooting people. Shooting people in videos game is fun. Unlike real war, being killed just means getting to start back at the last cleared checkpoint, which means unlimited lives. There are more than a dozen types of weapons to use throughout the game, including claymore mines and predators.

At some points during the game, I'd take off on my own chasing bad guys while my team rallied together before moving out. However, I quickly realized I'd be much more successful working with the computer-controlled team members than myself. At other points, they did more of the work than I did. I'd be hiding behind cover trying not to get shot while the computer characters would just be standing up in the open taking on the enemy like they were swatting flies.

I'm not going to get hooked on FPS games now, but I am going to enjoy this game for a little bit longer before moving on from it.