I thought the influx of great new games happened a little in the summer, and then big time during the holidays. So could somebody PLEASE explain to me how I' m farther behind then I ever was before?!

I thought I had a handle on it, I really did. The year started out with the typical post-Christmas insanity, and I dove into Prince of Persia, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Max Payne 2, and Final Fantasy X-2. This was only weeks after completing my first full season in Madden 2004, getting to 45 hours in Disgaea: HoD (and not even scratching the surface), beating Suikoden III, and getting to about 90% complete on Silent Hill 3, Rygar, and Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven.

So Deus Ex: IW gets beaten first. Great game. Not as good as the original, but great nonetheless. FF X-2 goes next, after a marathon week. SO much fun. Prince of Persia blew me away, and kept me riveted until that was completed, and finally, Max Payne 2 turned out to be one of my favorite games of this generation...had to play it a few times.

In the midst of all this, four games get added to my pile: Ninja Gaiden, Champions of Norrath, Beyond Good and Evil, and Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. I start NG, play it, break a few things in my apartment, and finally beat it (one of my better gaming achievements). SC: PT has to be next, given the fact that SC in one of my top 5 fav. games of this generation, and SC: PT was, of course, just as good if not better. Loved it to death. BG&E was good, but not as absorbing as I wanted it to be, so I quit about halfway through to move on and come back to it later (almost a blessing). CoN, I JUST started, at the same time I' m in the middle of Onimusha 3, another fantastic title.

So, I' m sliding backwards again, and then everyone goes and tells me that, oh, by the way: Chronicles of Riddick is damn good. A 9.3 at GameSpot? WHAT? Full Spectrum Warrior has mixed reviews and I wasn' t too interested in that anyway, but CoR blindsided me. Then I play the demo of Front Mission 4, and realize that it' s coming out in two weeks...another must-have.

To top it all off, I haven' t gotten around to finishing those two or three " 90%-completed" games, I still want to get Top Spin, NFS: Underground and the new 007: Everything or Nothing, not to mention the games in the past I' d like to play again and add to my collection (The Mark of Kri, ICO, Otogi, etc.).

And what' s coming this year? Fable, Star Ocean 3, GT 4, Halo 2, Suikoden IV, Metal Gear Solid 3, Devil May Cry 3...and that' s just for the systems I have! Maybe Metroid Prime 2, Resident Evil 4, and the new " realistic" Zelda will push me over the edge and coerce me into picking up a GC. Oh yeah, and the old classics remade for the GBA (SMB, Zelda, Excitebike, DK, etc.) are calling to me and saying, " I' m only $20, buy ALL of us! Have fun with the rosy nostalgia you KNOW we will provide!"

' sigh'

I almost want all these upcoming great games to be delayed. Like I said in another thread, I wouldn' t mind if the next generation didn' t start until 2008. Maybe by then, I' ll be ready. LOL

certainly is a hassle trying to get the top notch games. But think of it this way... whenever you have a game doen you know there will be a vast amount waiting for ya.

I suppose it' s better than scrounging vainly through racks and racks of games, searching for that hidden gem amidst a pile of trash. There were many a day like that in the 16-bit era...for all the timeless classics we got from that generation, there was also a mound of garbage to sift through. I remember those days well...I guess I prefer the generous helping of quality we get nowadays, but back then, finding a truly great game was like striking gold.

To be honest as a percentage I' d say there are probably more rubbish titles released nowadays than there were during the 16 bit days. The problem is that A) more games are released B) games are generally speaking longer/take longer to beat and C) games are much cheaper nowadays. Which ultimately means a vast backlog of stuff to play. Things are woefully bad with me atm. A clearout is imminent.

Nah, the ratio is much better now. They released a LOT of games back then.

The average reviewed game gets about a 6 or a 7 nowadays, while back then, it could easily have been a full 1 - 1.5 points lower than that. Besides, I remember waiting a year for one great Zelda or Mario game, and trying to find something to play in between. Between PC, PS2, Xbox, and GC (not even including the GBA), we get anywhere between two and ten really good games per month...that' s insane. I' d have to wait a full year to get five decent ones back in the early days of the SNES and Genesis (the SNES turned out to be my favorite system of all time, though).

Surely the average should be 5? :p

I still think that as a percentage more good games were released during the 16 bit days. Maybe it' s got something to do with me not liking many a modern genre (FPS' s, PC RPG' s and 3rd person shooters/adventures really don' t do anything for me) while there were few genres I disliked during the 16 bit days.

I' m sure a lot of games coming out will be of good quality. Currently I can only think of a few that I am really looking forward to playing. I certainly can' t afford to play all the games people say are great, nor do I desire to, so I think I' ll stick to what I can afford and pretty much know will be great.

I keep hoping that they will start developing more story-driven online games, not necessarily RPG' s, but something more engrossing than putting multiple players in a single game and saying " here ya go, kill each other..or something." The future still has much in store, though.

I certainly can' t afford to play all the games people say are great, nor do I desire to,

How come?

Because I' m in the Army, I get paid about $700 every two weeks, and I have to pay for the following:

My car - $380 a month
Car insurance - $180 a month
RoadRunner broadband internet - $50 a month
Cell phone - $45 a month
Food throughout the month - anywhere from $30 to $50 every 2 weeks
Weekends at clubs, bars, or friends houses - most of the rest of my money

I have my car payment and insurance come out after the two different pay periods and I still barely scrape by. If I buy even a reduced price game (like I did last week...KOTOR) I feel it within a week.

I don' t desire to play all the new games that come out because I have gotten rid of the notion that I have endless hours in a day or week to play games. I' m really not too concerned with catching " the great experience" of " an awesome game" anymore. If I buy a game and enjoy it, I play it as much as I can when I have the chance and then play through it again to try and find new stuff. Beating short games usually takes up a month at the very least anymore. Life.

So could somebody PLEASE explain to me how I' m farther behind then I ever was before?!

fathoms, that' s what happens when you only play games that take no less than 1200 hours to complete each [:' (]

LOL Terry. Okay, that may have been true five years ago when all I did was play RPGs, but now it' s an even bigger problem because I still love my RPGs, but I also play just about anything else that' s good. PoP, Max Payne 2, and Silent Hill 3, and BG&E aren' t long games; in fact, they' re insanely short (PoP was kinda in-between; about 20 hours). I admit that Suikoden III, Xenosaga, FF X, FF X-2, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Wild Arms 3, and Disgaea have taken an estimated 425 hours of my game time, but look at all the other games I' ve played too!

Extreme: I know what you mean; I have two friends in the Army that make pretty much what you do. I' m trying to save for a house myself, and even on a 40k/year salary, it' s taking a WHILE. All these tempting games don' t really help matters, either.

I heard that Army guys have really good benefits, especially for retirement. That true?

I heard that Army guys have really good benefits, especially for retirement. That true?

Yes, you get a lot of benefits plus a pension every month if you stay in the military 20+ years and retire. You still get good benefits for even a single enlistment, though. I' m getting out in a year and a half and going to college via the Montgomery GI Bill...a good college, too, the University of Texas at Austin. Otherwise I would probably never be able to afford college.

I have a couple friends in the National Guard that just got back from year-long stints in Iraq in May, and one of them joined specifically for the point of going to college.

Me, I just got loans and a few small grants. Graduated in 2000. I' ll have one of the smaller loans payed off at the end of this year, but the other one is still at about $7,500. Hey, it could be a lot worse...I commuted, and in doing so, I think I saved about $28,000. UConn' s tuition (at the time) was $12,300/year if you stayed on campus, and $4,500/year if you didn' t and commuted. It was only 20 minutes to the nearby Avery Point branch and 45-50 minutes to the main Storrs campus, so I figured I could save some serious money.

Can you commute? It saved me so much money, I couldn' t believe it (even couting gas, which was really cheap back then). If the Army is paying for all of it, though, I guess it doesn' t matter.

I admit that Suikoden III, Xenosaga, FF X, FF X-2, Legaia 2: Duel Saga, Wild Arms 3, and Disgaea have taken an estimated 425 hours of my game time, but look at all the other games I' ve played too!

425 Hours is probably just the estimated time it took you to reach the first boss in each of those games


I must admit that 2004 is the first year I' ve ever had to play catchup with games. Before then I used to make an effort to finish every game within a 1-3 day span. I developed that sort of mentality during the 16-bit era and sadly it seems to have escaped me in the year 2004. An example is Sonic Heroes on the GameCube. I' ve only recently unwrapped the game and played it despite owning it for so long, lol. I still have yet to play Castlevania on the PS2 despite owning it for many months as well, lol..

Heh...Terry, how long do you think RPG' s are, anyway? Those I listed go anywhere between 35 (Wild Arms) and 120 (FF X) hours. Most RPGs I play average 40-60 hours. I usually get to the first boss within the first hour or two, though.

I get what the thread starter means, i can' t even keep up with the xbox alone

I know, theres so many games out/coming out, I have to choose wisely, I hate blowing 50$ on a bad game. I usually pick out online games, more replayability, practically infinite, you can always get batter at an online game imo anways.

I am waaaaay behind
Playing Suikoden 3 now and then I will move on to FFX

A benefit of being behind is this though:
You play the old games because you own them rather than playing the brand new good games. So by the time you beat all your old games, the ones that were new are now not so new and you can get them for cheap.

That' s what I did
I picked up Kingdom Hearts, Gladius, and FFX all for $75 (canadian)
And also picked up Arc the Lad: Twilight of the spirits, SSX 3, and Xenosaga all for about $90 - $100 (canadian)
Rather than paying like $70 for just one new game