I was Blockbuster today, perusing the gaming section and thinking to myself, “Self, you are really out of it. Look at all these games you aren’t playing! Get with the program, man.” While I’ve never been able to keep up with all the latest games, I have fancied myself as someone who is “with it” and in the “in crowd” in terms of new games. Sure, I’ve been playing a little Sacred 2: Fallen Angel and a lot of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, but outside of those two, I have hardly played anything new. So there I am at Blockbuster, all the games I want to be playing are staring back at me, beckoning my rental dollars. Games like Bionic Commando, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Tiger Woods 10, Terminator: Salvation and of course, Resident Evil 5. It’s almost blasphemous that I haven’t played RE5, as RE4 is one of my favorite games of all time, and my RE4 translation guide is still one of the highest trafficked pages on the site.
I need to play some of these games.
To make matters worse, more and more games have been popping up, garnering good reviews and generating a lot of buzz. Those games would include UFC 2009 Undisputed, Red Faction Guerilla, Ghostbusters, and Punch Out. And those are just 360 and Wii games. Nevermind the PS3, PSP or DS. Good grief.
So I hope to rectify my recent absence of gaming. I picked up Resident Evil 5 while I was there at Blockbuster and have high hopes (notwithstanding Brock’s recent tweet). Too bad Xbox Live will be down today, I really want to try co-op RE5. Then it’ll be some UFC Undisputed and Red Faction. Oh, and I’ll finish up Riddick, as well. And I’ll have fun, dangit!
How do you keep up? Or do you even try?
I think you’ve hit the wall where you’ve realized that you can no longer be “in it.”
Gamefly helps, but, actually, you’ve become a responsible adult, husband, and parent.
In this stage of your gaming life, you must rely on the opinions and recommendations of others as what to play?
UFC?
Wolverine is a blast, but not worth $60. I only purchase the games I get after selling other copies and using the rewards on my Sony VISA card for my PS3. Thank goodness.
Wolverine was on sale for $37 at Target today. Not really my kind of game though, but a tempting price.
The way I “keep up” is I keep adding things to my Amazon wish list. When it hits a price I’m actually willing to pay for it I buy it.
Red Faction: Guerilla is one of those rare games I was willing to pay full price for. Worth every penny!
The easy thing for me is that I can set a price for a game and wait it out. Unfortunately, when I hit those lulls when the market doesn’t have much that interests me it can be a real struggle to stay patient.
I find keeping up to be pretty difficult. Gamefly only helps to a degree since I can’t count on getting the newest games from them on day one. Buying all the new games that come out is also out of the question.
I guess this means that I can only keep up with the franchises that I deeply care about and make a reasonable effort to catch up with the games that I miss.
Also, if you need an RE5 partner, let me know. I’ve gone through the game a few times now and I still enjoy playing it.
While I haven’t scaled back my spending as much as I’d like this year, I have spent wiser. I’ve been renting a lot of games via my Getgames membership. RE5 was the latest visitor in my house and I’m very glad I waited for the rental copy as it pissed me off to no end. Co-op might have made it tolerable, but of course, I got it the day Live was down.
I’ve only bought a few full-priced 360/PS3 games this year. The $69 price tag on most games up here is a refreshing splash of cold water on the urge to spend. I’ve basically been trading in stuff towards games if I do buy them.
Now let it be said that I have been buying a lot of PSP and DS games, with discounted Wii titles also making the cut recently. I picked up 3 games last week for what it would have cost me to buy Prototype and I’m probably enjoying them a lot more than I would have had to enjoy Prototype to get past the buyer’s remorse.
One other thing that is at least helping me keep my wallet in my pocket (two things, actually):
Fallout 3 and my PS2 JRPG backlog. Between those two things, I’ve found myself engrossed in games I already own instead of pining for things that aren’t out yet. That’s probably why my actual console purchases have been significantly reduced while my portable purchases have spiked as I’ve got lots on my plate at home but can always do with more games to play at work or on the road.
@Nat – I loved Fight Night 3 and I’ve been hearing great things about UFC. I’m a closet MMA fan, so it seems like something fun to try.
@Jason – Good to hear Red Faction is worth it. I just found it on Amazon for 50$, so I’ll probably take the plunge on that one.
@Will – I’ve found with Gamefly that if I want something day one, I empty my queue for everything but that game. It’s worked for me so far.
And I may take you up on the RE5 invitation.
@Brock – getting caught up in games is where I find myself sometimes. This is not a bad thing.
I just saw UFC being played at one of the local game shops and while I’m not what you’d call a UFC fan, it is one pretty game.