The lights are on
Veteran Member - Level 14
It used to be, when I got a new game I’d play it through to completion before moving on. A large part of that choice was economic – buying games was a luxury when I was a kid – but it was also how I liked to play. Why move onto something else if I could squeeze even a drop more entertainment from a game?
Now that I’m older, and there are so many great games vying for my time and attention, I find myself becoming more of a grazer. If I’m not playing a game for review, I’ll bounce between several games in the same time frame. Here are some of the games I’m currently juggling, along with my lame excuses for why I haven’t just settled in and beaten each one. Yet.
Am I alone here? Do you guys have several games in your queue at any given time, or do you like to finish up a game before moving on?
Dragon Age II
I was pretty excited for this one, but it hasn't grabbed me the way Origins did. I've probably spent about five or six hours playing Dragon Age II so far. I haven't encountered anything as interesting as the monster in the screenshot, though. Phil Kollar tells me that encounters require a lot more strategy when you get further into the game, which is encouraging. As it stands, combat has been pretty dull. The story hasn't really kicked off, but I'm assuming that it's one of those slow-burn type things. This is probably highest on my "OK, it's time to put this thing to rest" list. It's a shame that it feels a lot like homework.
Crysis 2
Predator 2 is one of my favorite movies, so it wasn't surprising that I love Crysis 2's cloaking-enhanced suit. I'm trying to be as sneaky as possible, so I've been replaying the same dumb mission over and over again. I'm not sure if it's even possible to make it through the section without being detected. As it stands, I'll try it a few times before enemies start noticing me and I eventually get blown apart. If I approached it like a traditional shooter I'm sure I would have beaten this thing by now. I guess I'm stubborn sometimes.
Torchlight
This is my go-to game right now when I have a few minutes to kill. I can sit down and feel like I've made a little progress over a short period of time. I don't think I could sit down and plow through the entire game in one big ol' binge, but it's the perfect back-burner game for me.
LittleBigPlanet 2
I played the first few levels of this one with my son until it got too difficult for him (he's only four – cut him some slack). I continued by myself, but it's not as much fun as a single-player game. No, I haven't gone online and played with strangers. I'm too old and crabby for that. Maybe I'll have Tim Turi over sometime and we can knock out a few more levels.Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
Confession: Sometimes I remove the batteries from a controller and give it to my son. Then I play this game while he thinks he's actually racing. I've played through 60 of the missions this way, and he hasn't caught on yet. Did I already mention that he's only four and that you should cut him some slack?
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That summarizes my gaming life. I feel tempted to do the controller without batteries trick whenever I attempt to play Goldeneye 007 with my dad. I feel like Dan Ryckert.
This is how I approach games these days. It's sad and leads to me not finishing many games that I'm not forced to by work. Every time I try to be monogamous with a title I end up being distracted by something shiny and new. As of this week I've added 6 games to my "to do list." This list includes a quarter of the 3DS launch titles, Tiger Woods 12, and NBA 2K11.
I see little harm in playing so many games at the same time, but deep down I'd rather complete most of these one at a time. Sorry, developers.
I've been doing that sort of thing for a couple years now. It is extremely rare for me to play through a whole game without moving onto something else nowadays. I eventually do go back to them but it may take years. The only games I can remember plowing straight through lately were Batman, Uncharted 2, and...well that's it.
I don't want to admit to all of these games but I'm currently juggling Deadly Premonition, AC: Brotherhood, LBP2, Dead Space, Dragon Age Origins, Oddworld Abe's Oddysee, FEAR 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns...and I'm just gonna stop right there because I can easily rattle off 20 more if I wanted.
I just bought Crysis 2 for some reason and I'm gonna start that next. At least I just finished Bulletstorm. That short game only took me a month to complete which is really quick by my standards.
I generally still try and focus on one game at a time unless whatever I'm playing isn't holding my interest. The problem is that as an adult (a) with disposable income, (b) a passion for games, and (c) an ear to the ground for deals, I always find myself buying more games than I can possibly keep up with. "Batman: AA is on sale for $20? Wow, I've heard it's a great game. I can't pass that up!" Thus, a game gets added to my ever-expanding backlog of games (at or above 45 games at this point). I guess that along with disposable income I forget that I also have a full-time job, a wife, and a baby (with another on the way).
I agree, there are some games I just can't make myself play long enought to beat it.
Normally I only have this problem around Christmas time when I get a bunch of games I want to dive into at the same time. For a while I was juggling Red Dead, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Half Life 2 (Yes I know how late to the party I was). But most of the time I prefer to play only one or two games at once. That way I can really get engrossed in one plot without having any of the story diluted by other stories or by the time in between play sessions.
Yeah I'm juggling Crysis 2, Lego Star Wars 3, and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It's a bit much sometimes, but it's still fun.
I spent 20 minutes in Alpha Protocol and I'm STILL pissed because I can never get those wasted mins back
I am actually juggling games too. I don't really like it, though, as it's hard to get engaged in all of these along with school and homework. If only it were my job to play video games...
Before I read any further, let me begin by answering your questions first. I, am also like you. I have a large amount of games in my ever expanding queue, but I don't like to start a new game until I've finish one I'm currently playing. If I can help it, anyway. It depends more or less on what game it is were talking about. For example, I recently started playing Oblivion for the first time and I'm thoroughly aware that hours upon hours will be invested into this game. In that case, I use this as a "game to play in between games" so to speak. I also used Mass Effect 1 & 2 in this manner, but only because I've already beaten them both. But as far as shooters go, I'll begin and finish those before I start anew.
Anywho, I'll go back to reading your blog now.
As you were.
I am doing the same thing and we have some similar games.
Dead Space 2
Little Big Planet 2
Dragon Quest 6
Radiant Historia
And super random, Resident Evil 2
dragon quest is probably my back burner, little big planet with the wife, she enjoys watching dead space 2, and radiant historia and resident evil when i sit down and put some time into them.
I totally do this, and I am relieved that I am not the only one. For me it is also that need to feel a sense of completion with a game, but also I'm not always in the mood to collect desert sage in RDR. I am playing waaaaaay to many games right now, to the point where I have to constantly, Pause-menu-options-controller-layout.
this is my list:
Toy soldiers
Fable II
Battlefield
Red Dead Redemption: undead nightmare
Gran turismo 5 ( I tried to revisit this one recently and rage quit)
COD: black ops
and i think there is one more but it escapes me at the moment.
I have to say that I fully understand where you are coming from. Becoming a reviewer was actually one of the best things I could do to fix that because it forced me to actually focus a lot more time into a game, really sit down and play it.
This is the story of my life. I'm currently juggling Dragon Age: Origins, Raskulls, A Kingdom for Keflings, Gyromancer, Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 2, No More Heros, Black Ops, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, Plants vs. Zombies, and Donkey Kong Country Returns. It's stressful at times, but gaming sure is fun when you've got a lot of them to play.