26. dang. that's tears it. you know you are getting old when you are pretty sure you beat the last GTA titles...but have this unsettling notion.. that maybe you didn't cuz you can't quite remember the ending... sigh.

25. I'm closing in on the big 5-0 and still play whenever I can. Although I suck badly as most games, I find it an enjoyable way to pass the time when weather prohibits me from playing outdoors.

24. well I am 17 and already starting to experience these signs oh well I guess getting laid every night is better than being good at halo

23. The Golden Age of games isn't the days of sloppy PAL ports of SNES games, or any thing as trivial (on its own as Sonic on the Mega Drive/Genesis), but the true Golden Age is happening right now.

The rest of the list is trivial, we get old, some of you breed, some don't, we would have to adopt if we wanted some insanity. ;)

Besides, my PC is also one of my gaming machines, and the 1st rule of Scouts: Have DS (or PSP), will travel.

Last, one cannot define oneself as hardcore, that is a description the one must earn. .. I cannot call myself hardcore because games are my main interest as way of spending time, with or without my partner, but I wouldn't base a human to be a hardcore gamer on skill alone. Those who don't know their history of gamesters and whatnot, even simple things like how Nintendo was at a time a third party.

Let us face it, kids have more free time than they think they do, their brains have more wiggle room than our compressed 33 year old brains, and they don't have carpal tunnel syndrome yet.

22. This is Horrid.

I have lost all meaning in my life...

21. Less on the first, more of the latter. These aren't signs that you're "no longer a hard-core gamer", they're signs that you're 30.

Girlfriend? You mean you haven't married yet?

20. Less on the first, more of the latter. These aren't signs that you're "no longer a hard-core gamer", they're signs that you're 30.

Girlfriend? You mean you haven't married yet?

19. "You only play when your girlfriend is out"

....Because girls don't like videogames. I know I don't. *SARCASM*

18. Oh dear it looks like my Gaming Prime has well and truely peaked.

17. You only play when your girlfriend is out

"Because you only have one high-def TV and to play videogames on it while she's at home is 'selfish' and not something the two of you can do 'together'"

Arrgh, I think you've nailed it with this one, solution, go out and buy another HD TV and scrap the nursery plans for the spare room - hmm wish I was that brave!

16. 12th and #1 sign you're no longer a hardcore gamer.

You use a console to game.

15. Yes, it was great, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD NINETEEN NINETY, but right now it just doesn't wash. I'd rather have a Wii.

14. Zoyd - you're wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Sensi was one of the all time greats.

Get back in your (x)box.

13. There has never been 'a golden age of gaming' only ever 'a golden age of being young' - that's why shit games like Sensi and Speedball 2 are still fondly remembered. Did you actually PLAY the XBLA versions of either of those 2 games? For more than 2 minutes before you realised it was ABOS ('A bag of....')... Did you?

12. my fps experience is bad - because i hate fps games!

11. @Watcherzero - so very, very true. I actually spend more time thinking about when I can play games than actually playing them...

10. I still haven't played one of the games I got free with My Wii. It's sitting there begging to get it out of its shrink-wrap. I just can't be bothered. I'd rather do gardening. Or potter in my shed.

9. I don't think I'll ever come close to the exhiliration and pride I felt when I completed Sonic The Hedgehog on my Sega Mega Drive. I peaked at the age of 13, how very depressing.

8. Hang on – I never play games online. I don't HAVE a girlfriend. I never win anything. I haven't touched my PS3 for a week. I've never even been IN a Gamestation. I don't like the Wii. Spawn, run and die is all I ever do in real life, let alone on FPS games... by god... I think I may be... SOFT CORE...

7. You buy a game youve been waiting for, for months, but just leave it unopened for a week as you never get round to playing it.

6. This like one of those Horoscope things where it describes what a Scorpio personality is like... and it's spookily bang on.

Finally started playing BioShock last night. It's been by the TV since Christmas.

5. This like one of those Horoscope things where it describes what a Scorpio personality is like... and it's spookily bang on.

Finally started playing BioShock last night. It's been by the TV since Christmas.

4. I don't even like the arcades anymore!!

3. I don't even like the arcades anymore!!

2. OMG........ i am 30!! I'm passed my prime.. I didn't even pre-order GTA I'm hoping that after all the song and dance of buying it i'll get it eventually for my PS3.. still haven't completed any of the others yet!

1. Oh God. By this shortlist I am no longer hardcore *sob*