Backlog anxiety. Everyone has experienced it in one way or another. Heck, everyone has a backlog. Tell me if you relate to this:
You like playing video games, but you don't have the time to play as much as you used to.
You like different genres, but mostly narrative heavy RPGs, adventure and racing games. You've moved on from the twitch fps games.
You see games on sale, and you continue to amass games, further increasing your backlog on console or pc.
You're older, you're married, you have children, you have a career, you run a business, you have responsibilities. The only gaming time you get is choosing to sacrifice your sleep, or game.
When you do get that 30 to 60 minutes to play, you have soooo many options that you spend most of your time scrolling through the list, or worse: scrolling through the stores, looking to increase your backlog, and by the time you finally choose something, your time is up, and you feel pissed off that you again didn't game.
You tried everything to get more game time. Remote play from your console and from pc, getting a handheld console, or even giving up gaming.
In my case, I like to play through games to the end of I'm enjoying the gameplay or if the story is interesting. This creates a few challenges that lead to some of the above.
Choosing what to play adhoc. This leads to me playing different games, which is nice, but after several dozen games I either don't get very far, or because I cycle through so many games, when I return to a game, I forget what I was doing, where I was supposed to go, or even how to play. This is especially true of RPGs. It also leads that time wasting of deciding what to play.
It sucks. It's frustrating. It's stupid.
So what did I do?
The first thing I needed was discipline. Just focus on one game at a time. This way I could actually have a chance of not just finishing a game, but also enjoying the story and gameplay. This also meant giving up endless grind mmorpg like ffxiv.
Second is to stop trying to play the latest and greatest. It's impossible. It just keep derailing my time in games, and I'm not finishing it in time for the next big game release.
This lead to a quest to rebuild my PS3 library (another long story), and then also pick all the games I missed out on that I wanted to play as a cause of continually moving on to new games. This was also somewhat of a response of just being tired of buying digital games and not really owning anything.
When deciding to sort the games, I eschewed alphabetical, and instead went with release date. That way I would play the games, one at a time, in the order released for the system. This would also be akin to my childhood when I only had one game to play anyway because my parents couldn't afford more, and my attention span was likely greater too. I remember replaying the same level over and over just for the fun of it.
Game number 1 was Resistence Fall of Man. This was a game I played but never finished. I've now finished it, and I must admit, the level structure is perfect for a person like me who only can play for short periods. The levels are divided into 3 chapters, they're fairly short, take about a half hour to an hour to complete. Perfect. It took me a few weeks to complete. Didn't really keep track, but its a short game, interesting story, fun shooter, and doesn't overstay its welcome. The first (shockingly) and last stage are pretty tough.
Next was Ridge Racer 7. I completed the ridge state grand prix, and part of the end game. It is a very fun racer, I was getting a little burnt out though, so that's probably a good time to stop. After all, a racing game could theoretically be endless. That took a few weeks also. It also has great pacing. Races take 3 to 5 minutes, the only thing I wish it had was the ability to save in the middle of a grand prix.
And now I've started Untold Legends Dark Kingdom, which is a super fun hack and slash (or as my wife calls it, clap and slap) arpg. The camera is crazy aggravating, however. This was one a gift from a friend, I played a bit, then traded it in. Now is my time to actually go through it. Aside from the camera, I don't think it deserves the low scores it received at the time of its release. Graphics are fine. Voice acting is good. Music is good. Frame rate keeps up. I've encountered worse stories, and games.
If you have read this far, thanks for hanging in there.
To finalize, setting the release order to the games has certainly taken the guess work out of choosing what game to play, along with focusing on one game at a time, I can just leave the disc inside the PS3, and it's just as good as the rest mode on the PS4. The load times aren't bad. I have the super slim, so maybe that helps.
Even though I technically increased the backlog by going back to the PS3 era, it feels great to be going through the list and getting games done. As I mentioned, it feels good to have physical discs that aren't crazy expensive, and I don't mind supporting the retro shops that don't charge and arm and a leg. One place had White Knight Chronicles for 15 bucks, another for 40. Yeah.
I do believe the PS3 / Xbox 360 era is the best one. While the PS1 and PS2 / Dreamcast laid the groundwork for so many gaming genres, like the PS2, you could see the huge jump in generations, but also along with so many quality of life amenities like wireless controllers, online gaming, hd 720/1080 graphics, autosaving, no memory cards, but most of all, game companies actually innovating still. I do believe gameplay innovation has grown a bit stagnant since the mid PS4 / XBONE cycle.
Patient gaming works.
Thanks for reading. Cheers, and game on.
Submitted by KnightsIntoDreams | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016
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