GamerSushi Asks: Saying Goodbye?

Uncharted 2

For today’s GamerSushi Asks Friday, we’re going to take a look at the long, hard farewell. I feel like there’s a “that’s what she said” in there somewhere.

After finishing Far Cry 3 recently, something happened to me that I’ve really only experienced a few times in gaming. After the main game was completed, the pirates were vanquished from the island, outposts liberated, animals hunted and huge portions of secret items located, I realized there was nothing left for me to do in the game. Because of said pirate vanquishment, I couldn’t even run around and kill a few bad guys. I was done with the game, almost completely.

And when it came time to sign off, I found myself coming up with excuses to hop around the world a little longer. I was kind of sad to say goodbye. This has happened before, and will hopefully happen again.

It’s always a bit surprising, too. After all, I tend to be so goal-oriented that I’m doing what I can to knock a game off my backlog, and somewhere along the way I get swept up in either its world or its story. Uncharted 2 is one of the most striking examples. When the credits rolled, I actually felt a kind of ache, knowing that I wouldn’t see these characters I had grown to love, almost unbidden, for quite some time. Uncharted 2 wormed itself into my heart, and I didn’t want to say goodbye to it.

This happens from time to time. Other examples include Knights of the Old Republic, a game that totally shredded my social life for an intense four days. Red Dead Redemption, the most beautifully realized open world I had played by that point in this generation. Arkham City was a mix of a great world and a riveting story, and I loved living in Batman’s cowl. And Wind Waker from last generation was a visual treat, a cartoon that I could have existed in forever. I can’t wait for that Wii U version, either. Like I said, these experiences always catch me offguard by the time it’s time to say goodbye, but it’s more than welcome.

Do you ever run into this issue, where you don’t want to say goodbye to a game? What are some games that have hooked you to the point where turning them off actually made you a bit sad? Go!

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

13 thoughts on “GamerSushi Asks: Saying Goodbye?”

  1. That would definitely be Psychonauts. I only played the game last year and it was such a wonderful ride. The game and all its antics and qualities transported me back to my childhood and I loved every single moment of it. The story was completely original. The characters were unique and well defined. The jokes were absolutely hilarious. The gameplay was in a style I haven’t played in years. It was a fresh change of pace from all the FPS I was playing. If I were to wipe my memory and restart a game, it’d be Psychonauts, no competition

  2. Saying goodbye to Mass Effect 3 was damn near tragic to me. If some mysterious space genie asked my if I wanted to live in the ME universe, I could, I’d be there in a second. No game has ever gotten me so enthralled in its atmosphere as ME, so leaving it behind and being forced out of it caused that aching feeling you were talking about, Eddy. I remember in ME3 just walking around the Citadel before the final mission, knowing that I was about to go on the final mission, just looking for a reason to postpone it. Luckily we have this other Mass Effect game in development and I’ll get to return eventually, but for right now, I miss it.

  3. Am I crazy if I say Spider-Man 2 for the PS2? The swinging was so much fun in that game that I went back and did every side quest and when I was done everything in that game I still found reasons to swing around for hours even though I’d seen every piece of scenery that game had to offer.

    The Amazing Spider-Man game was a reasonable facsimile for this experience, but nothing beats the original.

  4. Definitely Zelda: Twilight Princess. The lack of a New Game+ doesn’t help, but I was so in love with the game’s world and its characters that even once I 100-percented that game, I was still hesitating to move on.

  5. Jak 3 for me. You could always go back and just fight enemies and whatnot but the story is what made the game so great so it almost wasn’t the same game anymore.

  6. Definitely Red Dead Redemption, that game had such a great story and both endings. I was in denial with the first one, and the second one was the best closure to the first I’ve seen, from my opinion any way. Once everything was said and done, I just didn’t want it to be over. That game will always have a soft spot in my heart because I really enjoyed it. I also have to go with Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I loved the characters of the single player campaign and was bummed when I got to the end and they threw that cliff hanger at me… still waiting on a Bad Company 3 :/

  7. Chrono Trigger always makes me sad to leave. And FF VI. 🙁

    Dishonored was like that as well. I wasn’t ready to leave that world yet.

  8. To The Moon did this to me for sure. But hopefully there will be more of that coming eventually.

    Fallout 3 did it to me too. I had hit max level before finishing the game and went out exploring every destination in the game (it was the perk I picked at level 20). I wanted more to explore, but when I stopped leveling up, I felt like I wasn’t doing anything. So I recently started a New Vegas campaign and installed all the DLCs to up my level cap to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately, I played Old World Blues part way through, which was awful, and then started a second DLC (cant remember which one) which also totally sucked, so I lost interest in the game…

    Maybe I’ll start Fallout 3 again from the beginning… 🙂

  9. @Julez, I was the same way with New Vegas but just the standalone as I had not gotten any of the DLCs at the time. I level capped right before the final battle mission and had made a save point so I could see how all the endings panned out. I got through 3 of 4 and I just felt as though I had nothing more I could really do. I was pretty bummed for it to all be over. I just recently started playing through Fallout 3 again and I’ve got New Vegas to look forward to after it.

  10. I wanted the story of Zach to continue in FF7 Crisis Core. Shed so much man tears at the end. But besides that it would have to be Assassin’s Creed 2. After completing the main story line, and all the side quests and beating memories at 100%, I would just log on and make myself my own story, or mission and Assassinate some random guard, Like you Eddy, I just gave myself excuses JUST to get on the game. It was hard for me to just up and finally quit the game.

  11. Ratchet and Clank games do this to me. They’re so fun and quirky and have a wonderful atmosphere. Any time I complete the harder playthrough I’ve ended up completing most of the content the game has to offer. That saddens me.

  12. The first Sly Cooper. I loved the world, the music, the tight platforming, the hub levels, the bosses…EVERYTHING! When I completed it back on the PS2, I did it with a 100% rating. But I’ve never felt so empty in my life. I got all the clues, beat the time trials and got all the moves. Cool. But now I couldn’t just hop around and collect anything but coins and horseshoes. Mt heart wept for weeks lol. I had to buy the Sly Collection and Sly 4 all in one week because my Sly addiction has yet to fade.

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