Anyone else keep starting big games even though deep down you know you can’t possibly finish them?
I love diving into a big, deep open-world that promises me a hundred hours of stuff to do. Or, I love the idea of it anyway. Realistically, I can’t do it all that often. When I’m busy, I’m really busy, and those kind of games drip-fed at a glacial pace just don’t work for me, so I inevitably fall off, or can’t finish them before something new and shiny wants my attention.
It doesn’t stop me from loving the thought of it (or perhaps what I love is the idea of having the free time that would allow me to do it). So I’ve noticed any time I have an afternoon off, or a little extra time outside of what I usually would devote to my regular gaming staples, I start thinking “let’s get into a big, meaty single player game, I’ll definitely keep up with it this time!”
I was in that place last month, and noticed Star Wars Outlaws was available on GamePass. Installed it, enjoyed it for a few hours (I gather it’s much improved over the state I heard about at launch). But now I’m trying to maybe squeeze in a single mission in-between doing other things, and… I know how this goes.
this about any game in particular?
I have the opposite problem: I’m too aware that I can’t finish big games in a single sitting, so I just… never start them, because I don’t know when I’ll be free to keep playing them next, and I have a terrible memory so if it gets too long and I forgot what I was doing I’d have to replay it from the start anyways.
My issue is that I have trouble focusing on any game long enough to finish them. It is too easy for me to feel fatigued with a gameplay loop and start seeking a different game for variety. Leaving the prior game unfinished and collecting digital dust for months to a year of “I’ll finish it later…”. I do genuinely finish eventually, but i do should learn to just uninstall in the mean-time. My poor drive is nearly always full and getting a bigger one is a bit costly atm because big-tech lost its marbles and is desperately trying to generate… Read more »
That’s why I stopped playing triple-a. Indie games are shorter, cheaper and the action that is there is usually much more condensed and fun. They do fewer things in a shorter time frame and better. Triple-A titles often feel like they just added random stuffing in there just to make it last 60h or something, because people won’t pay triple-a money for a 5h experience. But I don’t want to spend 60h in a game. I don’t have the time. Unless the game has such an amazing gameplay loop that I keep coming back, but usually indie games excell at… Read more »
I used to LOVE diving headfirst into all sorts of long RPG games with such meaty content, but I find myself now lacking the energy to sustain multiple instances of gameplay over multiple games. I feel like my tastes are now wandering back to older games for replaying them, or newer games with more compact gameplay, like the more recent Resident Evil remakes, and Requiem. I have such a backlog of unplayed games now, that it feels more appropriate to finally turn to them, instead of always grabbing the next new thing. I just know I’ll break when the new… Read more »
I find that about 60 hours per game is the maximum I can tolerate of a single game. If it goes on longer than that I just kind of…run out of juice, I get tired of the game and begin to lose interest. Doesn’t really matter if it’s a big open-world RPG or not, it’s the length of the game matters. But then I’ve also been gravitating more and more towards indie-titles in recent years as I’ve grown rather tired of AAA-titles basically never trying new things and always just treading water. Indie-titles are more willing to swing for the… Read more »
I’m the opposite. I prefer not to start a game unless I know it’s going to take me months.
And I still go back to the old favs and run them again, like I’m currently on week 3 of Fallout New Vegas.
I’m a dad of 3.
Started Baldurs Gate 3 over Christmas.
Still going, might finish it in April.
No you wont.
As a dad of 2, I second this message.
Although…
I have the bittersweet privilege of being divorced with shared custody, so I do have far more time now than I did when I was married and the primary care giver.
That said, I started BG3 in december too. I dream of finishing it by May. 🤣
Dad of 2 girls. Same…
Sometimes I don’t even go for new games, but hop back to old ones. Played Anno Pax Romana for like 10h (over 3 Months), jumped to Everspace 2, started Claire Obscure, recovered the Resi 2 Remake and played that for a few hours. Picked up the Pragmata Demo and now I am hyped for that, just to play it a few hours and never touch it again.
Been autistic I tend to go though a phase where I will hammer a game to death at the minute it’s Factorio and then after i done hundreds of hours I get sick and never touch the game again for ages. This is fine when it’s a game I can pick up easily like Stardew Valley as I can just pick my save up and go. But my grand strat games like Hearts of Iron or Stellaris once I played it to death and when I feel the itch to get back in normally when a DLC comes out the… Read more »
Outlaws never deserved the hate it was getting before it even launched.
Hear hear!
I played the hell outta that game from Pre-launch through to conclusion, all the DLC and absolutely LOVED that game.
I just started Outlaws a couple of weeks ago, without realizing how massive the game seems to be. My biggest issue with expansive games is that the story somehow gets lost in all the side quests and distractions, and that’s when I lose interest. If the overarching story is compelling, then I can hang with a game for a long time.
I do wish there was a “story mode” that lets you just play through the plot without the sidequest distractions.
Sure, you can do just do that, but it’s really easy to get lost down the sidequest rabbit hole without even intending to.
*Looks at pile of unplayed PS5 games over 3 years old*
*Looks at continuously growing Steam pile*
Yeah, I admit, I know exactly how you feel. Stupid adult life with its stupid responsibilities taking up all my free time *cries*
Congratulations having fun with Star Wars Outlaws, that’s a huge achievement.
Yep, this is exactly the feeling…
Tell me you are a parent without telling me you are a parent.
Lmao, I miss the days of my youth where I had no obligations and could just game incessantly. Now… I just don’t have time for those games.
That’s what FFXIV is for.
Ah, the Backlog paralysis.
I have a question for those of you who picked the patreon subscription (or maybe Tim himself):
Are the comics available here or do we have to read it in the (shitty) Patreon interface?
Once I’m done troubleshooting the system, all of the patron comics will be available here (you should currently see a locked comic in the archive that will go free on Monday, but can be read now by Patrons).
I am 49% through the story of RDR2
I’m still playing Fallout 4. I’ll play for periods of time, and then not touch it for months (or years) and then pick it back up again lol.
I spend a week or so reading stories from a story website, then I spend a week or so just watching youtube videos and shorts, then I play Star Wars the Old Republic, Eve Online, Red Dead Redemption, DC Universe Online and sometimes Lord of the Rings Online and EverQuest II. I’ll buy a subscription for a month, play a game for it, then buy a sub on a different game a play it.that is 6 months of different games, and 2 months of other things. Here is my issue. I’m kind of hooked on the initial parts of the… Read more »
That’s why I’m slowly ending the game buying. Other than snagging the Battlestar Galactica Deadlock DLCs before it left the Xbox, I haven’t bought a game since the end of 2023.
Sure, I still have a list and I plug away at existing games when I can but, at the rate that I’m going, I probably won’t buy another one until one of the console stores (that I have) close down.
This is where I was, fifteen years ago. Between kids, and work, and the wife and I having time together, and sleep, there was almost no “two consecutive hours” carved anywhere- and if I did, it felt intensely selfish.
That’s why the Switch was a godsend. I don’t have two consecutive hours on a couch – but I DO have a half hour at lunch, fifteen minutes after work, a half hour in bed, etc. It gave me my hobby back.
Kinda my problem with gaming in general these days. Makes it hard to start most anything too so I’m tending to replay old stuff I’m familiar with.
As the quote goes “We buy books, because we believe we are buying the time to read them”