Every once in a while, there comes a game that you just can’t seem to beat. You work at it for hours and hours, but there’s always something in your way. It could be a certain level or boss. It could be a mechanic you can’t seem to grasp. Or, it could just be that you don’t have the twitch reflexes you need to make it through.

Unfortunately, this happens to me much more than I’d like to admit. I am one of the poor souls in this world born with the curse of loving video games, but being incredibly bad at playing them. Often I find myself feeling incredibly frustrated because I continue to hit a wall at a particular point in a game. But, I also often find that a game is too good to put down and ignore; I just have to finish it.

This summer, that game was “Deus Ex,” on its “Hard” difficulty setting. The game was electrifying from the very first level, which throws the player into an open design ripe with opportunities for multiple paths and player choice. The game also has an enthralling story involving, among other things, a conspiracy theory to take over the world.

Unluckily for me, the game is very difficult on the harder settings. Due to the way it’s designed, however, it’s hard to get the full experience of the game playing on an easier setting. Because of this, I was determined to complete the game. So, I decided to turn “Deus Ex” into a little summer project.

Whenever I had free time, I would boot up the game and take another crack at it. It only took me a little bit to get past the part I was stuck on, but I ran into more and more roadblocks as I progressed through the game. It was a long, difficult and grueling task, but I stuck to my commitment all summer long. The feeling of satisfaction I got when I finally finished was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had while playing a video game.

So, that’s what I did this summer. Look forward to more totally rad gaming blogs coming your way this year.

Senior Nick Booth has played games since he was a young kid. He is still an avid PC gamer to this day, spending a large portion of his time playing with a keyboard and mouse.