'Press Start'........um, ok?

So, you've been waiting for a game for ages. Weeks, months, even years. It flops onto your front mat, the wrapping glistening like a newly polished diamond, You scratch away at it, shaking in anticipation. Its open. You run into your living room, slam on console and slide the disk in, revelling in the sound or computerised heaven. It appears on your homescreen and with a quick press of the X button you are indulged in gaming goodness. But wait, whats this? 'Press Start'? Oh it must be something exciting.......no, its the main menu. Barrowman!

Now we all experience this scenario and whilst it can be quite irritating, its not overly annoying. But after playing Bioshock for the first time yesterday it got me thinking, why do we have to 'Press Start'? 20 years ago when it took three weeks for a console to start up, 'Press Start' was probably a very sneaky loading screen, but now, when you can fit huge amounts of data onto a disk, do games still use 'Press Start' as a loading screen? If they do, what do they load, the main menu? Surely that cant require a lot of processing power compared to a spanning vista of the Wild West.

So much mainstream!

Of course I'm looking far to into this, but its a little thing that makes me wonder. Arcades still use 'Press Start' so the game knows when you have entered your money, but after an investment of £40, I expect my game to realise that I have paid for it! Maybe though, this whole thing is just legacy. Its something that every game has done, it has to be there I suppose.

Its just tradition. Everyone has random traditions, look at Christmas day or  that every time I enter Waterloo Station I have to claim 'there are no rotating billboards' (it was a conversation my brother and I had about the Bourne Ultimatum, long story!). Maybe 'Press Start' is a technique that all developers include because everyone else does it, MAINSTREAM URGHHHH!!!

So as games develop, letting us experience new places, new people, new abilities, we will always be haunted by the dreaded 'Press Start' screen that smiles smugly at our faces. We always push developers to change their ways, try new things, but we really should be telling them to take away the little tease of a screen. Some could say that it is a portal into the magical world of gaming, but that's an obvious lie. If you own a PS3, the bloody installing marathon is that portal, so we don't want to be faced with another barrier!
I guess I'm going to have to take a deep breath and close my eyes. It wont change. Ever. Its going to be here forever. Bit like Cheryl Cole. But hey ho, its annoying, but when you properly think about it, the bigger picture is worth it (Cheryl Cole + Teenage Boy= FUN). Lets just accept it, lets let developers continue destroying our true gaming experiences. Looking back at this whole post, I apologise for its extremely cynical view.

But seriously though, how can Matt Damon blow up a whole apartment by putting a magazine into a toaster? LIES I TELL YOU, LIES!

Even the best game ever suffers from the curse :(