Games/Series I Haven't Played, But Want To

Having been gaming for over 20+ years now, there are certain games/series that I either haven't had time to play or simply forgot about in the shuffle of my backlog/current obsessions of the time (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy VII). Thinking about this the other day inspired me to write down a list of those game/series that I haven't played but still wish to play some day. Away we go...

Half-Life

I know there are only two games in this series, but with fans clamoring every year for a third installment it must be something worthwhile. I was going through a huge “RPG Only” phase when the series was hitting it big so I missed the hype train. Still, I’ve been eyeing The Orange Box for years now and one day I’ll suck it up and just buy the damn thing so I can not only play my first Half-Life game, but also Portal for the first time.

Animal Crossing

The main reason I never played this adorable series is because I haven’t owned a Nintendo console since the N64. I certainly wanted a GameCube when it released, but I was so obsessed with my PS2 at the time and had a ton of games for that system already, I couldn’t justify buying another system. However, the game has such a huge following of fans that it cannot be ignored, and the cutesy homemaker vibe reminds me so much of Harvest Moon (a personal favorite series) that it’s been on my list for quite some time to try.

Metal Gear Solid

This is the series that I’m most disappointed in myself for not playing. Now I have actually played a game in the series, MGS2: Sons of Liberty, but other than that I’ve been watching from the sidelines wondering what it’s like to play. I do own the HD collection for the Xbox 360, so I have the opportunity to rectify this situation, but these games require such a commitment I think I’ll have to actually plan time to play them (maybe even take some vacation time). With MGS5 on the way, I may have to expedite this process a bit so I don’t feel completely left out.

 

Assassin’s Creed

A month ago this series wouldn’t have been on my list, but after reading some reviews of the previous titles and watching vids for Black Flag, I became a believer in the series. I also wasn’t knowledgeable about the multiplayer portions of the game, but all it took were some Let’s Plays for me to get hyped, and that’s saying a lot as I’m not a huge multiplayer gamer. I honestly don’t have a lot of knowledge about the series except that people who’ve played it absolutely love it. I did recently get Assassin’s Creed 2 for free from XBL Gold, so I could always fire that up….

Mega Man

That are there, like 30 Mega Man games? Seriously, I’ve been gaming for 20+ years and I haven’t played a single game starring the Blue Bomber. I think at the time Mega Man was getting big I was too focused on Mario and Sonic to care. Granted, the series is notorious for its unbalanced difficulty which didn’t fit into a typical 7 year old’s gaming circle (unless they liked rage quitting, which I did not). I really don’t have an excuse for this one, but Mega Man is one of the biggest video game icons ever and it’d be a shame to live my whole life without ever playing one of his games. Plus, the games have a reputation for awesome bosses, and I do love some creative bosses.

Suikoden

It’s a JRPG series with a focus on story, awesome music, and massive parties from which to select playable characters. It’s everything I love in a game, yet somehow I’ve avoided playing it up to this point in my life. However, Suikoden III sits on my shelf as we speak, looking oh so sexy and just begging to be played.

There you have it – the top games/series that I haven’t played but would one day love to. Let me know what you think, if you have any suggestions, and feel free to share your own games/series you’ve never played but would one day love to.

It's Not All About Nostalgia

If you’ve read a decent number of my posts, you’ll likely know that I grew up playing video games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy VII, and Super Mario 64. You’ll also know that I committed the cardinal sin of selling off almost all my consoles and games years ago and have recently begun rebuilding and expanding on that collection. This initially began as a way to rekindle some of those old feelings and good times with the games that shaped my childhood. I wanted to help ToeJam and Earl escape Earth, help Sonic defeat Dr. Robotnik, and rip One-Winged Sephiroth a new one like I did so many years ago. Nostalgia can be a powerful driving force, so much so that it can even shape the economy (just look at retro game prices these days). However, as I’ve continued this journey of game collecting, I’ve shifted my focus a bit from strictly games I’ve owned or played before to games I’ve never heard of or always wanted to play.

This shift wasn’t intentional – in fact, it was completely accidental and took me by surprise entirely because I didn’t realize what I was doing until I discovered my bank account had taken a hard hit (something I’m sure most gamers can relate to). While participating in a fun contest on Twitter in which you see how much you can buy with $30 on eBay* (not counting shipping), I realized that I was looking to buy obscure titles I’d never ever seen before. Most of them seemed to be late PS2 releases, and they were going for cheap despite their critical acclaim or cult following (according to my research). I just couldn’t help myself and ended up buying more of these unheard of games than classic retro titles – and how could I not with them going as cheap as 0.06 (~$2 including shipping)?!

[*You can check it out by searching for #ebayanonymous on Twitter.]

It wasn’t until I checked out and was waiting for the games to ship that I realized what I had done. My original intent of collecting was to relive my childhood wasn’t it? However, I came to realize that, while nostalgia is important, game collecting, particularly games from previous generations, is about so much more. Take the PS2, PS1, or N64 for instance. For me, those systems were from a time when I was either too young to have a job, or was “raking in” no more than $500/month from paper routes and working odd hours at Dairy Queen. Because of this, I had very little disposable income to spend on $50 games and relied heavily on birthday and Christmas gifts for adding to my collection (that or I would hope my dad would buy a title I wanted and I could just mooch off of him). As a result, I missed out on a lot of games that I would have loved to experience growing up. Eventually, I stopped reading gaming magazines because the pain of not being able to play all the games was too much.

Fast forward to today, and I believe I’m finally making amends for that younger, poorer time in my life. More modern games like Jet Set Radio Future, Final Fantasy XII, and Tomba! are making their way into my collection, as well as some older titles like Maniac Mansion, Ninja Gaiden, and Super Ghouls ‘N’ Ghosts. These titles have no real value of nostalgia for me like Final Fantasy IX or Earthbound, but they equally represent a time in my life when responsibilities were fewer and I was more relaxed, bills were paid by someone else, and the world was a simpler, kinder place (save for some schoolyard moments, but that’s life). Sure they may not rekindle a fire in my soul that longs for those bygone days, but they remind me how far I’ve come in life. Sure, not everything in one’s life improves over time (who wouldn’t love to have that summer freedom back just once?), but for me, building my game collection is now just as much about giving forgotten games of the past their fair shake as much as it is about travelling back in time.

Graduated Gamer understands that people collect games for so many reasons, which makes it a very personal and unique experience for everyone who partakes. Feel  free to share what drives you to increase and improve your collection in the comments.

Graduated Gamer Games In The Real World, And So Can You - Part 2

[This is the second part of a two part post about how to pick up that dusty controller after years of neglect. If you're in the darkness known as adulthood with...well, a life, then you've likely been away from your beloved games for too long and this post is for you. But hold on there Sparky - if you haven't done so already, check out Part 1 then come on back for the thrilling conclusion.]

Where did we leave off last? Oh right, I just finished telling you poor fools stuck in the real world how to get back to the path of gaming where you belong. So far we've made carved time out of our busy schedules for gaming, taken inventory of our games and systems, and done a little research into the current gaming landscape. Now we’re on to the final steps to bring you back into hardcore gaming from the depths of n00b-y-ness. Buckle up, cause here we go...


Burnout 3 would make for some gruesome driver's ed videos.

Step 4: Organize Your Gaming Area

I can’t stress enough how important this step is. Let's imagine for a minute you wanted to bake a cake, yet the sink was full of gross water and dirty dishes, the baking pans were scattered about and in the wrong cabinets, and the ingredients were either missing or almost gone or expired. Yea buddy, good luck making a cake (or scones or cupcakes or whatever the hell else you like to bake). A clean working space is essential for anyone to get any serious work done, whether it be for your work life or personal life. When I decided I wanted to get back into gaming shape again, I took one look at my entertainment center and nearly gave up right then and there. I had cords going every which way except in the proper inputs, game discs in wrong cases, XBox games mixed in with N64 games mixed in with my Nintendo DS. It was a clusterf***, but instead of giving up, I rolled up my sleeves and got to organizing.

First, I took a trip to Target and bought some basic organizing bins with separators to store memory cards, controllers, and battery packs. I also bought book-ends to keep my cases in proper standing order. I gave my XBox, N64, and 360 each their own space on my TV stand (they've put up with you this long, they deserve it). I organized the cords in an orderly fashion and clipped them together with cord clips to make it aesthetically pleasing (maybe I'm just OCD, but cords going every damn place make my skin crawl). And most of all, I made sure that my game discs and cases were matched (seriously, I have no excuse for how the majority of them were in the wrong cases other than I just got lazy).

If your games and systems have been untouched for long enough, they likely have a nice dust layer that'll need wiped away, so bust out the Swiffer or the Green Clean (environmentalism is sexy) and get to work. A dusty console is a miserable console, and as you all (should) know dust is bad for electronics, so do a good enough job that you could eat off of that PS3 (not that I recommend that either, because trust me the only thing worse for electronics than dust is nacho cheese). Once you're done, take a step back and admire your new and improved gaming space. Hell, feel free to take pictures with it, because you two are going to be very chummy in the near future.


Step 5: Start Gaming...Slowly

Before you roll your eyes at this, think about it for a second. You're an adult with responsibilities, deadlines, possibly a wife and kids, friends, obligations, etc. Burnout is always a threat in a non-gamers life, and adding in one more "to do" will only increase that possibility. The last thing you want is to kill all your hard work at the start because you tried to have a few late night marathons of playing Skyrim in the first week. The real world shouldn't come between you and gaming, but in all fairness your playing time shouldn't interfere or disrupt your life in the real world either.

Finding a life/gaming balance is essential, no matter what age you are - the only difference is that you have far more people depending on you as an adult than you did as a child or a college student. Remember Step 1? Take the time you set aside for gaming and adhere to it strictly. As you become familiar with your craft and feel more comfortable setting more time aside, readdress Step 1 and change your habits accordingly. The point here is to get into a good groove with a slow start. If you try to push yourself back into gaming shape too soon it's bound to shoot you in the ass like a 6 year old kid in Blazing Saddles.

Step 6: Buy More Games and Enjoy Yourself

Alright hot-shot, you've taken the time to get set up, test the waters, and finally drag yourself out of the dark pit of despair known as life to enjoy gaming once more. Now comes the final step in your metamorphosis. Just like any other hobby or pleasure in life, there's an investment to be made, and to truly be back in the realm of true gamers, you'll need to update that game library of yours. If you're still mashing buttons on your PS2 I suggest looking into a shiny new PS3, or trying something new and buying the sleek looking Super-Slim XBox 360. If you've got a newer console but are "stuck" playing Gears of War 2 or Resistance, there are so many games to choose from that are bound to satisfy your newfound game-lust. You came a long way from the real world n00b to be where you are at this point, and you should celebrate with a copy of a game you've wanted to play for a long time.

And there you have it: my 6 steps to take yourself from the depressing depths of a gameless adulthood to the grandeur of pwning n00bs (or whatever it is people call it these days, I don’t know since I just started gaming again not too long ago). Now go forth with controller in hand and stake your claim once more in the landscape of gaming greatness. Oh, and feel free to share this with any other poor shmucks who haven’t yet seen the light and are also trapped in the real world.

Graduated Gamer Games In The Real World, And So Can You - Part 1

Being an adult sucks. I don't mean being a college student, 21 years old, invincible, going to sleep at 5 AM and skipping all your classes to wake up at some time in the late afternoon. I may sound like an old fart when I say this (and believe me, I’m not proud of it) but those glory years in no way resemble real adulthood. How do I know? Because I'm 26 with a full-time job and two college degrees on my wall. I've been there, and I should have never left.

I did not stay as long as I could, nor did I fully cherish it.

One of the biggest differences I've noticed between adulthood and blissful freedom (apart from making more money than I spend) is the amount of time I can devote to gaming. For the first two years of what I consider adulthood, I had forsaken my precious consoles and PC games for long hours at work and sleep-filled recovery weekends. However, over the last few months I've made a conscious effort to find time to game and get myself back into “gaming shape”. This isn't so much a rebellion against the real world or an escape from it as much as it is a way to find my way back to a true passion I've had since I first booted up my Sega Genesis to collect golden rings and defeat Dr. Robotnik.

Now that I've finally settled into a nice groove of gaming in the real world (see, that's the title so I had to add it in somewhere), I want to share the steps I took to turn back the clock to the good ol’ days where weekends were for parties, hangovers lasted only as long as it took me to eat breakfast, and I had enough free time to beat a game in less than a month week day.(Disclaimer Time: These are suggestions and what works for me may not work for you. Also this is a post about getting back to gaming, so take it for what it's meant to be - fun.) To keep this from being "tl;dr", I broke this post into two parts, each consisting of three steps to get anyone back into proper gaming shape if you've found yourself lost in the craziness of (early) adulthood. So without further ado...


Step One: Make Time To Game

This may sound obvious, but honestly, it's the most important step in the process (apart from actually gaming). For me, this took a little planning and a lot of luck. My job requires long hours - it's common to work 50+ hours per week (sometimes significantly more). To make matters worse, my job also requires frequent travel that takes me away from my precious game consoles. As a result, I had make a more deliberate effort and decided to sit down and brainstorm ways to make time to game. Here’s what I came up with: sacrifice sleep, improve work week time management, make fewer plans on the weekend, and create gaming "appointments". If you're like me, you make some of these same sacrifices for your job, so why not use some of those same strategies to make time to game? If you travel a lot and don't have a handheld game system, consider investing in one. I decided to go a little old school and got a Nintendo DS because while you may not get the newest games, the bigger screens, or the better graphics of the 3DS, you can play DS and GBA games which vastly increases your repertoire of possible games to play. So now instead of napping or working while travelling, I either bust out a book or spend an hour or two catching up on Pokémon White/Black. If you can free just 3 hours out of your week to start gaming again, you’ll be off to a great start.


Step Two: Take Inventory

When I finally made time to game again, I barely even knew what games I owned, let alone which ones I had never completed due to adulthood kicking into high gear. It is my opinion that in order to know where you need to go, you must first understand where you left off. So I decided to dig into my game collection to find out just that. I started out by separating my games into three categories: 1) those that I had completed and had no real desire to re-explore, 2) games I started but didn't complete, and 3) games that I hadn't even started/opened. If you’re feeling really organized, you can  break group 2  into two subcategories: 1) those you wish to finish, and 2) those you stopped playing because you had no desire to finish (we've all played those games before - I'm looking at you, Dark Cloud 2). Once you do that, I suggest breaking down those games you wish to play by priority and by estimated hours to complete (any reputable gaming site should have this information...like IGN...duh). Keep in mind that this list is fluid, and it doesn't have to be perfect. Chances are you'll revise the list by the time you actually start gaming again. This is a good thing! It shows you're critically thinking about gaming once again and you're regaining your gaming passion once more.

Step Three: Research the Current Gaming Landscape

This step is just to get you acclimated to the current series, news, and other topics in the gaming world. In my gaming heyday I would frequent sites like IGN and 1UP daily and even had subscriptions to various console magazines. I'm not suggesting you need to be that dedicated but try to take some time to catch up on reviews of games you want to play, the latest industry news and trends, your favorite game series and genres, and, if you've been out of the loop for a long while, the latest consoles (seriously, we all know the N64 is awesome but you might want to upgrade to a PS3 or a Wii). Take as much time as you want with this; the point is to soak up enough information to be adept in today's current gaming landscape and to know where to look once you get back into the swing of things.

Well, that covers the first few steps of my plan to help you pull yourself from the pits of n00b-dom. I hope you find this helpful and it gets you well on your way to gaming in the real world. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion in “Gaming in the Real World – Part 2”!