Life getting you down? Nothing living up to expectations? Still waiting for something genuinely amazing to happen, like, say time travel? Then give up on this rubbish life (no not suicide) and start a virtual one (no not Facebook) using a games console like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. If you don’t play games you won’t believe me until you try, but your life isn’t complete until you’ve experienced a life changing game. And I don’t mean Angry Birds or The Sims.

Video games have come a long way. A loooong way. I mean, they’re no Matrix or Star Trek Holodeck (I built it up too much didn’t I?), but it’s as close as you’ll get for the time being. Games exist now that can resonate with you for years after you’ve played them. I know because I’ve played them. It’s now years later and they still resonate with me. This can’t be a phenomena unique to me. Can it? No it cannot.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t claim to have genuinely believed I am in another world living another life. Playing the best games in the world does give you a taster of what this would be like however. Similar to eating at a five star restaurant, you don’t know what it’s like to be rich, but you have experienced a micro-moment of it. I’d rather have a taster of an alternative life than not at all. So like books and films, certain games can enrich your life like nothing else. Do not pop your clogs without being enriched people.

10 Top Tips to Experience Virtual Life

List written in May 2011, no doubt there will be many more experiences to add in future! That’ll ruin the top 10 though, so I’ll leave it as is. K?

1. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as the next Clint Eastwood shooting up Red Indians or Jake Gyllenhaal shooting up… er, well, it’s probably time to get another dream. Or play Red Dead Redemption, the closest thing you’ll get to a genuine Wild West cowboy experience. No film, play or book can compete with this magnificent experience set in the United States and Mexico (out on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3).
2. Obsessively wished you could experience Renaissance Italian life since you were a child? Nah, me either, but I have experienced a taster of it in Assassin’s Creed 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. It was magnificent. Once you’ve met Leonardo de Vinci and then later assassinated the Pope in a perfectly recreated Vatican, you’ll never look back. Mama mia etc (out on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3).
3. No doubt you’ve often wondered what it would be like to wake up hundreds of years in the future to find the entire world population is dead and you’re the only human trapped in a facility run by bonkers robots. Of course you have. So play Portal 2 for its amazers story and tricksy puzzles (out on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or PC).
4. On a similar note, play Fallout 3 or Fallout: New Vegas to find out what it’s like in a world that’s been utterly destroyed by nuclear war. Such fun (out on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or PC).
5. It’s likely that you’ve often longed to know what it’s like for your child to be kidnapped while you’re out shopping. Course you have! Now you can in the emotional and devastating Heavy Rain (out on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3).
6. Dead Space is a few years old now and it has a fully fledged high budget sequel, but the original invokes such heebie jeebies that it far surpasses the heebies in the Alien films’ jeebies (out on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3).
7. Alone in a world with your dead girlfriend. Bring her back to life by murdering giant animals and live with the consequences. You won’t forget Shadow of the Colossus (on Playstation 2 and 3, coming out in HD in 2012).
8. Escape the hubbub of work, family and friends by experiencing life isolated in the midst of space playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (out on the Nintendo Wii). Alternatively, live aboard a busy starship trying to save the galaxy in Mass Effect 1 & 2, the closest thing to Star Wars since… Star Wars (out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)
9. Live the New York high life as an illegal immigrant caught up in gang warfare. New York will look like Grand Theft Auto IV once you play it and not the other way around. So much more than violence and fast cars, you will never, ever, ever forget this experience*
   (* maybe, out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)
10. There’s something special about living life as Lara Croft, and it’s not just experiencing her ample bossom. Tomb Raider Underworld won’t blow you away, but its tropical adventure will capture the imagination. If you don’t get Lara Croft, instead opt for the critically celebrated Uncharted 2, the male version of Tomb Raide… OK, OK, Uncharted is leagues ahead of Tomb Raider. Imagine Indiana Jones only better because you’re controlling it (both out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3).