((Graphical Quality))

I am a simple man, or at least I was. I had recently purchased a nice shiny new video game for my Xbox 360. It had a fairly nice box art which had promised physical rewards for completing in-game levels. I gleefully complied by entering my address into the title screen. As soon as I hit start, I hadn't known what pact I just signed. The graphical game play was fantastic, especially the players hands, which had further than photorealism, because I had played using a 3d TV. The start to the story was quite simple in the beginning. I was invited by my friend, a mobster like the player I inhabited, to go to a coffee shop and discuss business. I was having a blast with the simple the act of picking up a cup and putting it down. As we finished the discussion, we returned to our car, but to my suspicion we were rushed by a rival gang armed in the art of fist-i-cuffs. I used simple tactics, button mashing, to defeat my opponents.

Then, as I punched my last enemy in the face, there was a small video as I held the unconscious enemy from behind his beaten head. I was given a simple prompt. In white text 'play' was written along with the stock X button image. I complied with my instructions unthinking of what will happen. But I was able to assume. As my thoughts came to life, I watched almost as if I was the man in the game. My hand-made hard contact to the man's face and I watched as my hand moved to reveal a brutally bruised face, dripping with blood. I flinched at violence, but that was when the prompt came again, bigger and now a shade of grey, 'play more' with a flashing X button. I hesitated before mashing the X button on my controller on to recoil at how I slowly pummeled the man's head into a bloody pulp, seeing his face, as if I could touch it, with every blow. I blinked several times and opened my consoles disk tray, took out the games disk and replaced it with Skyrim. I enjoyed my near medieval adventure until I encountered a precarious instance. I was moving into assassinate a guard, I saw the prompt, 'play' with the same X as before. As I shook off the strange bug, that I tried to ignore the sprite and as the simulated animation began, all the textures changed.

They became real. My character, currently an Aragonian, turned into me, in my physical form on my lazy ass in front of a TV. As I shoved a large sword into the helpless man's chest, I turned away when far too real blood spilled onto the cobblestone street. I quickly stood up and turned off my console, then the TV, then the light for my living room. I walked away, I never turned on my console again, and I never played again. Several weeks had passed and I found myself in a far too... familiar scene. As I finished my coffee with a friend I was confronted by a group of thugs. My friend and I were easily able to repel our scrawny opponents, as we both had some practice in different mixed martial arts. As the fight ended I found myself holding the last punk by the back of his head after I had just knocked him out. Then I saw it, I saw the prompt, but it had changed. This time it was almost pitch black and it read 'play' then it flashed to 'forever'. It did this in such a rapid succession that it was difficult for me to read anything but 'play'. I then felt my hand move in and go straight through the poor man's head, without any form of resistance, like a hot knife through butter. An eye hit me in the face along with a large, unrealistic, but oh so real, splash of blood.

As I cleaned my face from the blood and brain, I was only able to see red and the prompt reappeared, darker than my blindness. PLAY. Unable to see, and unable to feel I simply thought what I was to play. As soon I thought to move my body, I heard my friend and companion's blood curdling scream. I saw him, I watch me, murder him, with a strong piece of rebar impaling him with it. The 'camera moved back into my head, I saw the monstrosities that I had just committed, and then I ran. I ran and ran all the way home. I saw the game, and compelled by an unknown force, I popped Skyrim out and plugged in the accursed game. And as I pressed play, I put down my controller and thought, but that was when I was reminded the entire reason I forced myself to play the damn thing. Prizes.

The possibility of reward bounced in my mind. So I played many levels and after a full play through, I was given a simple prompt. 'Stop playing' the screen read. That was when I heard a van rush past my street. I got outside and checked my mailbox expecting reward. In my mailbox I found a box. I grabbed that box bolted into my house. I opened the box to be met by a new game, in a Windows PC styled box and a roll of 100 dollar bills. I counted the money to find the total to be $100000 in cash. I didn't know what to do. This was enough money to last me a long time. I sat and contemplated the events and figured that I would plug the game into my computer and at least attempt to play the game. I did just that, only being met by a standardized Windows 7 download wizard. As soon as the game had finished in the span of 5 hours, I was met with a true horror. The launch screen was completely different from the console port. I gazed upon, with the same too real graphics, a mixed mesh of human faces. Their eyes were either too big or too small for their sockets, with the rest of their features being turned and distorted in awkward ways. "Fuck this shit" I called out upon analyzing the screen.

I got into my car and drove off to bank to deposit my newly found cash. As I entered the bank, I felt a strange breeze come over me. My eyes began to feel heavy and I had to follow my demands, I closed my eyes for only a second, but that's all it took. Instantly my vision was fogged red, just as it did in the alleyway. Soon after I found myself slamming the head of the attendant whom I was going to entrust my new found life savings into the very desk she worked at. The whole time I heard the word 'PLAY' rung in my ears. I looked around and saw that everyone in the entire bank, more than ten men, women and pair of children, were brutally mutilated.

The floor ran with blood in a thick layer. I stood in disbelief, I wanted the world to stop and with a stroke of luck, it did. I was met by a simple pause screen floating in my vision. I attempted to move, but I was paralyzed. Instinctively I honed in on the Load option. There I saw, a screen shot of my life, the installer wizard from before. I just wished to be back there, to never have this happen again and as that thought past my mind, I was in my office chair staring at the loading bar. I remembered what had just happened and realized what I must do. As I waited for the game to install, I was shocked awake when the title screen, in all its horror appeared. I mashed through the startup actions to begin a new game as soon as possible. Without any loading screen I found my character in a dark old cabin holding what looked like a Mossberg 500 styled shotgun. I smirked at the impressive model that someone could plug into a game, before I was assaulted by a monster. It had an obtuse, mashed up skull, and arms that turned to long gangling razorblades. I quickly mashed the right mouse button.

The monster was blown to pieces. Brains, bone fragments, and most of the upper torso were quickly met to the wall behind it. I felt a jolt in my arm, both my right hand that held the mouse, and my shoulder. "The hell?" I pondered. I randomly shot off a random round and yet again, I felt a force hit my body. As I questioned my surroundings I felt a heavy, sharp, pain in on the back of my head. I turned around, in game, to be met by another angered monster. To my surprise, I found the prompt once more 'PLAY' with the E key being displayed. Feeling hatred swell up within me, I quickly hit the key. The player, whose hand no longer looked like mine, as it was covered in stitched scars and other open cuts, grabbed the monster by the lower jaw. He, or I, pulled the jaw clean off. The monster began to let out dark tears and other gurgles of pain. I was overcome by remorse, I wanted it all to stop, but it didn't. The player used the lower jaw to crack open the skull and mangle the exposed brain matter. I hit the esc key, but the game didn't stop. I wished it to pause as I did before, but no such fucking luck. I took my hands off the keyboard and brought crossed them below my nose. I began to scratch at the top of my right hand. Soon my hand was covered in several deep gashes. Looking at my hand, I quickly shoved it into my monitor, forcing more cuts and burns. "fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" I shouted. I pulled my tower out of all of its sockets and threw it across the room. There was no damage done to it, to my slightest relief.

Then I heard a strong pounding on my door. I jerked to see a monster, one directly out of the game, fucked up face and all. This time not being armed with a shotgun, I could do only one thing. I grabbed a nearby kitchen knife and blasted open the door. I began carving up the fucker, piece by piece. I started by nearly removing its face, and then came the torso. I opened the ribcage and thrashed my blade around within it. Once I had done my handy work, I saw that the god damn prompt was still there, mocking me 'play' 'play' 'play'. I had enough; I brought the knife to my neck, and sliced it open. There I died. But then how the fuck are you reading this? Well give me a damn second and I'll tell you, asshole. See the moment I died I found myself back in my chair with the game installing. I gave it a moment of thought, and realized I was stuck. I was stuck in my own forsaken little slice of hell. I did many thing soon after, I cut off my arm, leg, sometimes my tongue. It hurt for a time, but realizing I was trapped in an endless loop, I did whatever the fuck I wanted. Fact being I wrote this is one damned finger, the only one on my body, with no nose or ears. I'm currently bleeding out after chopping off my... manhood, which I did about the time I started up the game for a second time. So let me give you advice. If you see a game, with no review, no score or publisher. Don't fucking buy it, it is not fun at all.

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