Postponing Great Games to Play Lesser Titles

[nekunando]

Like many of you, I have a considerable and ever-growing collection of games that have been built up since the 1990s. The majority have been played to a finish, many even replayed multiple times, but there are also games on the shelf that may barely have been touched thus far, if at all.

 

I've been through a decent number of titles this year that have lay dormant in my house a long time, such as Dino Crisis 2, where the receipt in the box states that I puchased it in November 2008, Duke Nukem 64, which I've also had for about a decade, and many others.

 

The Wii U landscape has obviously been quite barren in 2016 but I still have great games that I need to finish. Pikmin 3 is a quality title that I enjoy and Twilight Princess HD is currently suspended only a few hours into the adventure.

 

These two games are examples of amazing software at my disposal and they share that company with other good titles that include The Evil Within, which I haven't placed in the drive of my PS3 yet, Tales of Symphonia on Gamecube, also untouched, and several others that I should finish, such as Majora's Mask 3D and Red Dead Redemption.

 

I'm sure I can't be the only one here who does this but it seems bizarre to have so many superb games available at hand to play any time and yet I can end up playing through titles that I know in my heart aren't that special. I'm currently chipping away at Hybrid Heaven on N64, for example, a game I know will never knock my socks off and is unlikely to ever be considered amongst the elite N64 titles, but one that I'm choosing to play over other superior games.

 

Why do we do this..?

 

Do you guys have any good examples of neglected software?

[Jonnas]

I still have Bioshock, Bioshock 2 & Bioshock Infinite untouched in my Steam library. I don't get it, the series sounds like it would be my jam, but I haven't had the itch to play them.

 

I guess that's it, if the itch to play a specific game/genre isn't there, there's no point in going for it because "it's supposed to be great". And sometimes, the smaller games end up being more to our liking.

[Glen-i]

To be honest, not really. I just finished Paper Mario, and now the only game I got on my WiiU to play that I haven't finished yet is Explorers of Sky, and I've almost done that.

 

It's only when I run out of games, that I go play something more minor really.

Maybe I just have good self-control. Maybe I'm just weird. (It's probably that)

[DuD]

I have soo many games to start, let alone finish, but every time I get an hour or so where I can game I end up on Splatoon?

I'm also part way through Twilight Princess, and even though I've never completed it before I never have the urge to continue.

I have Metroid Prime Trilogy waiting for me.. I completed 1 on the GC, got part way through 2 abd have never played 3.

3D World and Tropical Freeze are untouched. Captain Toad and Rayman Legends are started but then left.

I have too many Wii and GC games I never finished.

I need to box Splatoon and get the Mrs to hide it!

 

Note:

 

Splatoon is not a lesser title. Its just too addictive.

[Dcubed]

There are times where you actually feel like playing a trashy game though. Yoshi's Island DS is absolutely terrible (the fact that its acronym sounds like a disease is not a coincidence), but I felt that I just HAD to play through the whole thing; morbid curiosity you see (and a bit of masochism on the side too), despite having much better games waiting for me on the backburner.

[Hero-of-Time]

 

I'm sure I can't be the only one here who does this but it seems bizarre to have so many superb games available at hand to play any time.

 

They'll probably end up being disappointing to you anyway. :p

 

I have something like The Witcher 3 sitting on my shelf and has been for around 10 months now. It's a universally praised game and I have no doubt that I will enjoy it. Just last week I played a VN game, while enjoyable it was by no means an amazing experience that I will rave on about for years. I could have started TW3 during this time but I simply didn't feel the desire to. Code Realize was a nice kick back game that I could play while having the footy on in the background. It appealed to me because I knew the time investment wouldn't be large and I could kill two birds with one stone. TW3 would be a HUGE time sink and I would have to focus on the one thing.

 

I recently played through Kingdom Hearts 1.5. I have played through both the original game and 1.5 before but I felt the desire to play it again. I have other games on the shelf that haven't been played and that are highly rated but I didn't feel like playing them.

 

Bloodborne was another highly rated game that I didn't play straight away. I was happily playing through stuff like Lego Dimensions and Shutshumi before I tackled that. Again, I needed to be in the right frame of mind to play it.

 

A very recent example is Metroid: Zero Mission. I have never played it, despite it being hailed as a fantastic game. It's been sitting on my Wii U for ages now. Since buying it I have played through a fair few VC games that I have already played before or ones that are seen as lesser games. I only started it on Saturday ( been an amazing game so far ) because I actually wanted to play it.

 

The point i'm trying to make is, yes, there are games that no doubt we should experience but we should do it on our own terms and only when we feel the desire to play it, not just because it's an supposed to be an amazing game. Forcing the issue would possibly lessen the experience for you.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Hero-of-Time

[Jimbob]

I'm the sort of person whom will play a great game (like Witcher 3) for a while, put it on the shelf and come back weeks (if not months) later and finish it.

 

Take Witcher 3 for an example. That came out May last year, i played it for about 2 1/2 weeks near-enough solid. But, for some reason i put it on the shelf as a "break". Didn't finish the bulk of the game until February 2016 (main game, all side-quests and Heart's of Stone). I returned to the game on my Christmas holidays, and played it each evening and 1/2 my free time solid for 6 weeks. Kind of wish i waited until Blood and Wine before playing, would have had the nice new menus and the more sleek inventory.

 

Same goes for games like Skyrim, i enjoy them but i shelf them for a while. I've done the same in recent weeks with Fallout 4, Little Big Planet 3 and Bioshock. But i'll play other games like the numerous indie games, Nintendo games (i'm down to 2 WiiU games now (Yoshi's Woolly World and Twilight Princess)) and smaller titles.

[Aperson]

I must admit to having something of a similar problem. I have game save files on the go on the following games which I have yet to finish:

 

Final Fantasy X

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Burnout 2: Point of Impact

LEGO Star Wars II

F-Zero GX

Timesplitters 2

Viewtiful Joe

Dragon Quest IX

de Blob

Rayman 3 (Don't even know if this file exists anymore)

World of Goo

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (I have a legit reason for not playing this any further, the game crashes at a certain point)

Donkey Kong 64

Metroid Prime Trilogy (albeit I've completed all three Prime games before)

Super Metroid (I kind of got myself stuck in the run-up to Ridley's hideout)

Metroid Prime: Federation Force

Mass Effect 3

 

All these games crying out for me to finish... and I find myself instead caught up in the 20th anniversary of Pokemon celebrations recently and trying to fill up my Pokedex. When Sun and Moon come out I will probably just end up playing Moon.

 

I think the problem is that having a backlog of games is all well and good, but forcing yourself to play games just to finish kind of kills the enjoyment when perhaps certain games are ones you are just naturally more interested in playing and in the present moment get more out of. I started my file on Xenoblade X nearly a year ago, I am still only halfway through the game.

 

EDIT: Not forgetting Oracle of Seasons but I may have lost the SD card that the Virtual Console version of that was stored on.

[Kav]

Lately I've found I can't be bothered with my single player games and prefer to play multiplayer even when I'm gaming on my own.

 

Not that I'm postponing to play "lesser" games though.

[Ashley]

I postponed playing Knack so I could review 3D World.

 

I kiiiiiiiid

 

Anyway, there's a lot of great games I want to get round to but they tend to be more involved, so I end up dabbling in some other smaller titles. They may still be enjoyable but I suppose if you were to objectively compare them they'd probably be considered lesser.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I try and arrange when I'm going to play games based on what's happening in my life around that time. E.g. if I know I've got a break coming up, I'll do a bigger or more time-consuming game or two. If I've got parent's evenings, meeting and so on, I'll make it either something shorter or will play some Street Fighter or FIFA.

 

I don't feel that you have to play games right away as soon as you buy them. I don't mind waiting. But, I'm trying to get into the mentality of finishing my games and so I won't really alternate between two or three bigger game. I've just finished the Bioshock games and didn't play anything else in between. Same when I had the Uncharted games on the go. It's better for me because it means that I can't lose focus and can fully engross myself within a certain game's universe better than if I had to dip in and out often