Some people, if faced with the opportunity to do nothing all day, would probably freak out and have some kind of nervous breakdown. Me? I would just play video games. And I still might not have enough time to play everything I want to.
I don’t know if you have been feeling this way recently, but I know that for me, my free time is getting more and more limited (a job, house, wife, Web Zeroes and writing a novel will do that to you). As a result I’m finishing far fewer games now than I ever have before. In the immediate future I’ve got Brutal Legend waiting for me, assuming I don’t do any repeated playing of all the games I’ve bought recently.
A new GameSpy piece by comedian Michael Drucker covers this very topic, and is making a simple request of the videogame industry: stop making games for one year. His point? There are simply too many great games coming out to keep up. While it is meant as a mostly humorous piece, there are parts of it that ring ridiculously true, such as when he notes that a Legend of Zelda game was maybe the 10th best game of last year. 10 years ago, that thought was absurd. Anyway, the article is a great read, and made me laugh out loud a few times, so I’d definitely recommend checking it out for yourselves.
How many of you guys have felt this way lately? Right now, I’m a little disappointed that I’ve had too move on past great titles that warrant more replay time (Borderlands, Dragon Age, Modern Warfare 2 to name a few). What games are on your backlog?
Source- GameSpy
Nature just took a massive deuce in the form of snow where I live, so I’ve got enough time to play games…most notably ME2 and AVP. Should be fun until things thaw out.
I am totally with you on this one. I really don’t have enough money to keep up with all these great titles, let alone time for them all. On the note of Zelda being a the tenth greatest game, its a real tragedy because games like RE5 don’t really get as much attention as they deserve.
Great piece. That guy is spot on. Pretty sure my list of languishing titles approaches his, especially since the accursed Steam holiday sales. MGS3 is probably most prominent on my backlog pile, gathering dust along with the likes of the Half-Life 2 Episodes and Kingdom Hearts 2, not to mention the recent additions of AC 2 and Divinity 2, or the fact that I only have the willpower to hold off on ME 2 for another week max…
Well, when I was a kid I decided to face the reality that there was no way I could afford all the games I wanted to play, or have time for them. I know that there’ll be good games that I miss out on, but that leaves me time to play the ones I REALLY wanna play. Sequels to greats take priority over new IPs, Great Developers take priority over new companies, that type of thing.
There is never enough time!
I personally have been disappointed in the lack of originality of the games in the past year though. It may just be me aging, but games 5 years ago, seemed fresh and new. Now most alot of the new games are either different renditions of guitar hero, or sequels to games, that they don’t change much to.
Don’t get me wrong, some of these games are great, e.g. Resident Evil 5 was a ground breaking Co Op game. I guess I just wish developers would start coming up with some original ideas.
[quote comment=”10219″]I personally have been disappointed in the lack of originality of the games in the past year though. It may just be me aging, but games 5 years ago, seemed fresh and new. Now most alot of the new games are either different renditions of guitar hero, or sequels to games, that they don’t change much to.
Don’t get me wrong, some of these games are great, e.g. Resident Evil 5 was a ground breaking Co Op game. I guess I just wish developers would start coming up with some original ideas.[/quote]
What about L4D?
Gamefly, gamefly, gamefly
Gamefly? Too bad some of us play PC. Oh well…. ;).
@AlphaHawk, L4D wasn’t ground breaking in any way, it was fun, yeah, but nothing special. prelude has a point. I’d say since about HL2, I haven’t really seen anything that really got me excited or blew my mind. Mirror’s Edge was original and very fun, and The Saboteur got absolutely no recognition this year, even though it was one of the best games I’ve played in a while. It was a diluted Assassin’s Creed, Hitman, and GTA, set in WWII, all thrown into one game. Pretty much just what every decent gamer is looking for. Awesome and underrated.
I don’t really have a time problem, more a money problem. I’m purchasing games which ought to amuse me for a while so I can complete them multiple times or binge on their multiplayer. Coming up, I face a dilemma with Heavy Rain and BFBC2 both coming out within about a week of each other. How will I cope?!
[quote comment=”10223″]Gamefly, gamefly, gamefly[/quote]
Actually, I completely disagree on this point. 🙂
My experience with Gamefly was that I could never get the games I actually wanted to play, and when I did get something I wanted, I generally ended up keeping it long enough that I might as well have bought it used.
It seems like the economics of Gamefly don’t necessarily work out in your favor unless you can beat every game in a week or less. Not saying it isn’t a great service for some folks, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
My brother also made the point that if you buy the games you want, you have something to trade in when you’re done playing. If you rent from Gamefly you aren’t building up that trade-in value.
Yeah, I’ve never really had much of an issue getting the games I wanted from Gamefly. I’ve only had an issue with their speed maybe once, but for the most part, I get to play all the games I want to with it. Now, I have held on to things for too long, but that’s my fault and not the service’s.
Eddy, I agree. I have never had a problem getting games. If there is something I really want, I take everything else off my list except for that and I usually get it very soon.
JJ, it saves you a ton of money in the long run. I only buy games I will replay and keep. I don’t buy games with the intent to trade them in.
Arkham Asylum is a great example. Was dying to play it, but heard it was short. Gamefly saved me money and I got to play it.
And if I keep that game for a few weeks or a month, it is cheaper than renting from blockbuster and b/c I am paying a flat fee, every month, if I suddenly feel like playing something I own instead of what I rented, or if I don’t have time for games for a few days, I don’t feel gypped.
Mostly I remember renting Metroid Prime and getting really frustrated that I couldn’t beat it quickly enough. I think I hated the end of that game purely because I felt like I didn’t have the luxury of putting it down and stepping away from it for a week or two.
Also, even with my current policy of buying instead of renting, most of the games I own are ones with super-long play times (Borderlands, Fallout 3, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2), or ones that I’ll want to replay (Resident Evil 5).
The games that I’d categorize as “rentals” (Dead Space, Wolverine, Fable II, Mirror’s Edge) are all ones I bought for really cheap and/or with a trade-in. Several of them took me months to finish, too.
Now, this does mean that I waited a few months to pick up those games for a reasonable price, but that seems like a worthwhile trade-off to me.
There is one thing that I love about Gamefly: their used game sales. That’s where I got Wolverine – for $10.