Also, stay away from Civ 4 and Total War. They'll consume your time like no one's business.
Turn-based strategy in general just kills me. I love blowing through a 10 hour first person shooter and letting it sit for a few years. Even with open-ended RPGs I don't feel the need to keep playing, though it's about time to replay a couple of classics. I mostly play real time strategy for the campaigns because multiplayer is too much of a time sink (damn you, Company of Heroes..)
But I just can't stop TBS. Currently addicted to Jagged Alliance 2. Yeah, I'll shelve it for a while when I beat it, but I already can't wait to play it again, just like Total War, Combat Mission, Civ 2, etc. I haven't touched Planescape: Torment lately, one of the greatest PC RPGs of all time, because I want to play with my mercs!
Oh, and I forgot to mention the enormous time waster: multiplayer! Yeah, it's the most fun, but you'll never get through that backlog if you're playing TF2 3 hours a day.
How much playing is too much? I play maybe five or six hours a night depending if I have anything going on (since it's been winter I haven't had much going on). On the weekends I see my girl and rarely game.
Twilight Princess? Unfinished. Metroid Prime 3? Unfinished. Mario Galaxy, Strikers, Trauma Center, Pokemon Snap? Haven't touched them in weeks.
It's 2008 and I'm still addicted to Hitman: Blood Money, Counter-Strike Source and Timesplitters: Future Perfect.
It's also kind of oppressive knowing I'm going to blow $400 on a PS3 for GTA IV in addition to all this. I mock my friends for how much they spend when they go out drinking, and then I blow all this money on games.
Boredom is a result of excessive security, and science is saying it should be considered a psychosis. The way I see it, gaming is just medication.
I'll echo everybody here: just accept that you'll never play everything you want to play. There's more good games coming out nowadays than any human could ever hope to consume. Even if you were independently wealthy and somehow managed to spend 18 hours a day playing games, every day, you'd never be able to play everything worth playing.
So just surrender. Pick and choose what you spend your money and your time on. It's the only way.
Captain K on
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y2jake215certified Flat Birther theoristthe Last Good Boy onlineRegistered Userregular
edited February 2008
i was just want to emphasize to the people who are dedicated to really plowing through these backlogs of literally dozens of games, don't forget that you should put aside some time to do... other things as well. i understand that everyone here is a fan of video games, but you shouldn't sacrifice everything else for the sake of obsessively playing every game you can, in twenty years you aren't going to look back and feel proud of yourself for it. this isn't meant to be an attack on anyone, only really aimed at the people who are spending every free minute they have to beat video games they have or buy ones they dont. ESPECIALLY if beating these games is starting to feel like a chore.
i dont know, i just dont think anyone should have upwards of 50 games bought but not played/finished... it seems not only a huge drain of time but of money as well, if you buy the games before you're ready to play them, you just feel obligated to get your moneys worth and it feels like work, and i dont know
:^:
y2jake215 on
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
I've noticed over the last few years, when I had a great deal of disposable income, that I became addicted to buying games. Not playing them. Buying them. I have 50 Xbox games, 20 PS2 games, and 15 Gamecube games. I've beaten maybe 25, replayed maybe 10. For the most part, I open the package, put it in for 20 minutes, get distracted by something (usually WoW), and never touch it again.
So more recently, I've started forcing myself to just rent shorter games (like Heavenly Sword, DMC4) and only buy things that are extremely replayable or 20+ hours long. I'm also forcing myself to never buy more than one game at a time. So far, it's going fairly well. My 360 backlog is only a few games long now, and most of those were bargain bin/free/gifts.
I think the worst of it all is these next few months. Even the Great before Good philosophy can't protect you from the onslaught of the two of the biggest life-sinks gaming has ever seen: Smash Bros and GTA. Not to mention Mario Kart: Wii is likely for April/May, and Animal Crossing Wii could happen before the end of 08. Those are games that I just cannot pass up, and each of them will likely demand so many hours to fully experience. I may have to put GTA IV on the backburner for awhile.
One thing I do hate, is the fear of a game you really want to try being tough to find in a year or two. I am hoping to get to No More Heroes around Christmas time or sometime down the road, but I fear it's a little too niche to remain on shelves until then. I guess we'll see.
At best I get in an hour per day during the week, and little to no playtime on the weekends.
10-15 hour lengths for like, adventure/action/fps games is just about perfect for me.
Towards the end of last gen, before the Wii/PS3 came out, I tried to 'complete' my PS2 collection by buying all of the really old PS2 games that I had missed over the course of the 7 years or whatever. I tried to play them. Now I have about 80 PS2 games total, but about 20 of the 'new old ones' I own I haven't put more than 5 minutes into.. because all of my game time now is occupied by the Wii and NDS. (that is, I had about 60 ps2 games from the generation, now I have 80; those 20, I haven't had hardly any time for)
Prior to the Wii, I bought about 15 GCN games. I managed to get through Prime, and half of Prime 2, and PN03. Other than that, I haven't much touched those other awesome GCN games I have..
So no, I don't have time for it all. But at least for the current gen, I've beaten every game I've bought for my Wii and NDS. And I have about 30 NDS games and about 23 Wii games.
I resigned to the state that I'll never be able to do everything. I try, but I openly admit the folly of my attempts :P
Full-time work, in one fell swoop, took away more than half of my social life (social life outside of work, that is). With all that time usually reserved for fun stuff now gone, I'm unable to listen to every CD, watch every movie, travel to every country, play every game etc.
But in a weird twist of fate, I've never been happier! I've always got something to look forward to after work because I've culled my social and personal life down to the creme of the crop. I can't remember the last time I sat around at home and was simply and utterly bored.
But to move this line of thought back onto the gaming trail, I have felt overwhelmed but it hasn't really bothered me. I'm a big list writer so they're all right there waiting for me if I happen to run low on interactive entertainment. Just gotta pick and choose the games you'll think will give you the most satisfaction in the period of time you can play them and you'll be quite content Sure, you won't be up to date with everything on the internet/PA forums, but like someone said earlier this isn't a race. Enjoy what you want to enjoy now, theres always time later.
TeeMan on
0
Waka LakaRiding the stuffed UnicornIf ya know what I mean.Registered Userregular
edited February 2008
I got a DC, Saturn, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, DS and PSP. It is often overwhelming having so many games to play and not enough time to play them. I got a backlog of games I picked up but never even finished. I haven't even opened about 5, they just sit there... mocking me and I end up going and playing Arma and Team Fortress.I've completely quit WOW as it took too much of my time, now I only play short burst games.
I find plenty of time for PSP and DS though, long trips to work suck.
don't forget that you should put aside some time to do... other things as well. i understand that everyone here is a fan of video games, but you shouldn't sacrifice everything else for the sake of obsessively playing every game you can, in twenty years you aren't going to look back and feel proud of yourself for it.
This. Especially the bolded part.
Despite the fact that I love playing games, there are only a few instances where I look back and remember my vid game triumphs (this from the guy who had an Atari 2600 as a kid and started his true gaming with Wolfenstein, Doom and Duke Nukem on PC when they first came out). Real life experiences stick. I remember a few awesome moments with games, but when I compare my time logged with games versus my time logged with real life: 10 hours of meh moments in real life equal maybe 10 minutes of game time even with the most incredible game. I don't have many game memories stay with me because they're not that important or relevant.
I took a cooking class with my wife and a couple of friends last weekend and, all that day before the class, was dreading the fact that I had to give up 6 hours of gaming time on a Saturday afternoon and evening. The cooking class was fucking awesome and I'll remember it for a long time to come. Afterwards, I came home and played some HL2 on Orange Box and had a blast, but probably won't remember much of the specifics with that gaming session 6 months from now... but only because I had so much more RL fun and then unwound with some throw away fun with a video game.
Games are great, but should be the fun stuff you do outside of the true great stuff you need to enjoy in real life.
NexusSix on
REASON - Version 1.0B7 Gatling type 3 mm hypervelocity railgun system
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-
don't forget that you should put aside some time to do... other things as well. i understand that everyone here is a fan of video games, but you shouldn't sacrifice everything else for the sake of obsessively playing every game you can, in twenty years you aren't going to look back and feel proud of yourself for it.
This. Especially the bolded part.
Despite the fact that I love playing games, there are only a few instances where I look back and remember my vid game triumphs (this from the guy who had an Atari 2600 as a kid and started his true gaming with Wolfenstein, Doom and Duke Nukem on PC when they first came out). Real life experiences stick. I remember a few awesome moments with games, but when I compare my time logged with games versus my time logged with real life: 10 hours of meh moments in real life equal maybe 10 minutes of game time even with the most incredible game. I don't have many game memories stay with me because they're not that important or relevant.
I took a cooking class with my wife and a couple of friends last weekend and, all that day before the class, was dreading the fact that I had to give up 6 hours of gaming time on a Saturday afternoon and evening. The cooking class was fucking awesome and I'll remember it for a long time to come. Afterwards, I came home and played some HL2 on Orange Box and had a blast, but probably won't remember much of the specifics with that gaming session 6 months from now... but only because I had so much more RL fun and then unwound with some throw away fun with a video game.
Games are great, but should be the fun stuff you do outside of the true great stuff you need to enjoy in real life.
:^:
TeeMan on
0
JeanHeartbroken papa bearGatineau, QuébecRegistered Userregular
edited February 2008
I'm already overwhelmed by what's avaible on PS2/Wii/DS so i'm not touching anything else for a while. Not before the PS2 fully dies at the very least.
Jean on
"You won't destroy us, You won't destroy our democracy. We are a small but proud nation. No one can bomb us to silence. No one can scare us from being Norway. This evening and tonight, we'll take care of each other. That's what we do best when attacked'' - Jens Stoltenberg
Personally, with games, I'm moving towards new experiences.
Things like Mario Kart et al, while great with friends, are the same thing over and over and over. They're something to rent for a party or something. Things like HL2, totally worth experiencing. And then you put it away and go read a book or something, rather than playing it five hundred times to unlock "Bug Squisher" or whatever.
If you're going to drop money, may as well drop money for something new.
I'm already overwhelmed by what's avaible on PS2/Wii/DS so i'm not touching anything else for a while. Not before the PS2 fully dies at the very least.
The 360 has been a huge money saver for me in this category. I play games, and try not to buy anything else until I get as many achievements as I can get. I'm finding that I'm actually playing games completely, rather than giving up on them about halfway through.
I'm not even going to attempt to beat all my unplayed PS2 games. I literally have about 50 of them and there's a good chance many of them will be ebayed.
KimFidler on
0
SirUltimosDon't talk, Rusty. Just paint.Registered Userregular
edited February 2008
Another thing I find that helps is that I enjoy just collecting games. I've collected things ever since I was a kid (starting with stickers) and I've just moved on and started collecting videogames. If I don't get to complete them, at least I get some enjoyment out of just knowing that I have a great collection.
y2jake215certified Flat Birther theoristthe Last Good Boy onlineRegistered Userregular
edited February 2008
i'm starting to feel the exact same way about DVDs.. i'm buying them if there's a good deal regardless of whether or not i'm gonna end up watching them, im just trying to build a collection.
the blockbuster 4 for $20 deals are killing me
one time i got the hitcher (remake), half nelson, children of men, and casino royale for 20. i just couldnt resist adding one great movie, one soild one, one thats supposed to be good and one terrible movie for 20 dollars. its killing me... went to grab a $20 entourage season two at gamestop the other day.. the buy 2 get 2 free got me to pick up batman begins, sin city, and mission impossible. though $28 for those 4 is really not a bad deal... i just shouldnt be wasting money on them anyway
y2jake215 on
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
I think that having too many games to play is a pretty good problem to have since there are much worse things that could be happening. I get a pretty good amount of gaming in when my roommate isn't playing because he plays WAY MORE than I do. I don't have many friends since I don't like most people so friends don't take away game time for me. On the average week I can get in about 18-20 hours and sometimes I get just as much enjoyment out of watching my roommate play that I don't even need to play myself.
Posts
But I just can't stop TBS. Currently addicted to Jagged Alliance 2. Yeah, I'll shelve it for a while when I beat it, but I already can't wait to play it again, just like Total War, Combat Mission, Civ 2, etc. I haven't touched Planescape: Torment lately, one of the greatest PC RPGs of all time, because I want to play with my mercs!
Oh, and I forgot to mention the enormous time waster: multiplayer! Yeah, it's the most fun, but you'll never get through that backlog if you're playing TF2 3 hours a day.
Plus I'm still trying to beat WoW but it's taking FOREVER.
It's 2008 and I'm still addicted to Hitman: Blood Money, Counter-Strike Source and Timesplitters: Future Perfect.
It's also kind of oppressive knowing I'm going to blow $400 on a PS3 for GTA IV in addition to all this. I mock my friends for how much they spend when they go out drinking, and then I blow all this money on games.
Boredom is a result of excessive security, and science is saying it should be considered a psychosis. The way I see it, gaming is just medication.
So just surrender. Pick and choose what you spend your money and your time on. It's the only way.
i dont know, i just dont think anyone should have upwards of 50 games bought but not played/finished... it seems not only a huge drain of time but of money as well, if you buy the games before you're ready to play them, you just feel obligated to get your moneys worth and it feels like work, and i dont know
:^:
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here
So more recently, I've started forcing myself to just rent shorter games (like Heavenly Sword, DMC4) and only buy things that are extremely replayable or 20+ hours long. I'm also forcing myself to never buy more than one game at a time. So far, it's going fairly well. My 360 backlog is only a few games long now, and most of those were bargain bin/free/gifts.
One thing I do hate, is the fear of a game you really want to try being tough to find in a year or two. I am hoping to get to No More Heroes around Christmas time or sometime down the road, but I fear it's a little too niche to remain on shelves until then. I guess we'll see.
Switch - SW-3699-5063-5018
10-15 hour lengths for like, adventure/action/fps games is just about perfect for me.
Towards the end of last gen, before the Wii/PS3 came out, I tried to 'complete' my PS2 collection by buying all of the really old PS2 games that I had missed over the course of the 7 years or whatever. I tried to play them. Now I have about 80 PS2 games total, but about 20 of the 'new old ones' I own I haven't put more than 5 minutes into.. because all of my game time now is occupied by the Wii and NDS. (that is, I had about 60 ps2 games from the generation, now I have 80; those 20, I haven't had hardly any time for)
Prior to the Wii, I bought about 15 GCN games. I managed to get through Prime, and half of Prime 2, and PN03. Other than that, I haven't much touched those other awesome GCN games I have..
So no, I don't have time for it all. But at least for the current gen, I've beaten every game I've bought for my Wii and NDS. And I have about 30 NDS games and about 23 Wii games.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Full-time work, in one fell swoop, took away more than half of my social life (social life outside of work, that is). With all that time usually reserved for fun stuff now gone, I'm unable to listen to every CD, watch every movie, travel to every country, play every game etc.
But in a weird twist of fate, I've never been happier! I've always got something to look forward to after work because I've culled my social and personal life down to the creme of the crop. I can't remember the last time I sat around at home and was simply and utterly bored.
But to move this line of thought back onto the gaming trail, I have felt overwhelmed but it hasn't really bothered me. I'm a big list writer so they're all right there waiting for me if I happen to run low on interactive entertainment. Just gotta pick and choose the games you'll think will give you the most satisfaction in the period of time you can play them and you'll be quite content
I find plenty of time for PSP and DS though, long trips to work suck.
Tumblr
That said, I do have a slight problem with all the great games already out for the DS I just bought.
This. Especially the bolded part.
Despite the fact that I love playing games, there are only a few instances where I look back and remember my vid game triumphs (this from the guy who had an Atari 2600 as a kid and started his true gaming with Wolfenstein, Doom and Duke Nukem on PC when they first came out). Real life experiences stick. I remember a few awesome moments with games, but when I compare my time logged with games versus my time logged with real life: 10 hours of meh moments in real life equal maybe 10 minutes of game time even with the most incredible game. I don't have many game memories stay with me because they're not that important or relevant.
I took a cooking class with my wife and a couple of friends last weekend and, all that day before the class, was dreading the fact that I had to give up 6 hours of gaming time on a Saturday afternoon and evening. The cooking class was fucking awesome and I'll remember it for a long time to come. Afterwards, I came home and played some HL2 on Orange Box and had a blast, but probably won't remember much of the specifics with that gaming session 6 months from now... but only because I had so much more RL fun and then unwound with some throw away fun with a video game.
Games are great, but should be the fun stuff you do outside of the true great stuff you need to enjoy in real life.
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
-ULTIMA RATIO REGUM-
:^:
Things like Mario Kart et al, while great with friends, are the same thing over and over and over. They're something to rent for a party or something. Things like HL2, totally worth experiencing. And then you put it away and go read a book or something, rather than playing it five hundred times to unlock "Bug Squisher" or whatever.
If you're going to drop money, may as well drop money for something new.
i heard its getting repriced to 99.99.
I'm not even going to attempt to beat all my unplayed PS2 games. I literally have about 50 of them and there's a good chance many of them will be ebayed.
the blockbuster 4 for $20 deals are killing me
one time i got the hitcher (remake), half nelson, children of men, and casino royale for 20. i just couldnt resist adding one great movie, one soild one, one thats supposed to be good and one terrible movie for 20 dollars. its killing me... went to grab a $20 entourage season two at gamestop the other day.. the buy 2 get 2 free got me to pick up batman begins, sin city, and mission impossible. though $28 for those 4 is really not a bad deal... i just shouldnt be wasting money on them anyway
maybe i'm streaming terrible dj right now if i am its here