I realised this weekend that for whatever reason, my relationship with gaming on a whole has changed a lot. I'm getting a bit poor at games in general now, not devoting half as much time to then as I ever used to and as I result I seem to get frustrated a lot. It isn't pad snapping frustration, but mainly vitriolic swearing, eye rolling and utter indignation at failure. Eventually I'll hit a point when the quickening rage subsides into a kind of endorphin fuelled calmness where I breeze through previously difficult sections like a leaf on the wind.

Case in point was a terribly unfair boss fight in DMC4 where you control the clunky Nero against Dante, king of dashing around like a slippery wet thing on wheels. He'd ripped chunks off my health bar and I was getting audibly and probably visibly annoyed with the game before managing to turn the tables and turn into some kind of pirouetting brick, clumsily dodging attacks before punishing him for being such a dolt, "take that AND that you digital cunt" I spat, pretty much verbatim.

Also, dark Soul's Four Kings remains my gaming White Whale, and the heady rush of adrenaline during the fight always ends up being turned into contempt for the disk in the drive, and vows of never touching it again, before crawling back like an abused lover. Something about running on that fine line between victory and failure provides a bit of a rush, but it is tempered by my self loathing which feels that I should be better at these things, after all I did beat DMC3 on hard so it is pretty much my god given right to be able to conquer these Everests of difficulty.

So, in short, are you the wise old zen master capable of taking repeated game over screens without a flinch, or do you melt down into a pad snapping, bile spitting mess at the first sign of defeat? Anecdotes welcome.