Out with the old, in with the new

So I took GRAW back last night and used it as a trade in to get The Orange Box and Eternal Sonata. That $3 really went far don't you think? I'm still going to give Lost Planet and Enchanted Arms another shot but I need to decide before the end of the weekend. Game Stop is having a special that you get an extra $10 trade in credit when you bring in 2 games.

There are a few other games I would like to get but I'm trying to be more selective in order to save money. And the more games I get the less time I have to play them. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense. But think about it. If you had only 10 hours to play games in a week and you owned only 10 games you could very well play each game for an hour every week. You might not get very far in all of them but at least you'd get to play them all. But if you had 10 hours to play each week but you owned 100 games some of those games aren't going to get played very much . . . if at all. And since there are always new games coming out those 10 games become 100 rather quickly. At least in my case.

Second chances

So I found the case for GRAW and I have initial plans to take it back today and get something else. But while looking for that case I also found the cases for Enchanted Arms and Lost Planet. Those are two other games where I haven't gotten very far (if anywhere) in them so I might want to give them a second look to see if it will be worth it to keep them.

I've started Enchanted Arms several times but I've just never been in the mood to sit through all that dialogue and crap at the beginning of the game before you get into it. My brother dain borrowed it and at least go to the battle tutorial before he quit. Maybe someday I'll set aside an hour or two and see if I can get the game started and get involved in it.

With Lost Planet I've only put the disk in my machine just to see if it would load up. Every time I get the desire to play the game someone tells me how hard it is and how screwy the controls are. Those are not encouraging words if someone is deciding to play the game. This is another game that might require a couple hours of commitment before I make a decision on whether to keep it or not.

Another game that is currently getting a second chance (more like a first since I haven't played it before) is Tomb Raider: Legend. I've watched my brother play this game many times and I have one of the previous Tomb Raider games for the PlayStation. This last Monday I finally figured out I should probably put the game in and see what's it's like for myself. I got stuck in the first level but not enough to discourage me and make me want to never see the game again. But just enough to make me want to put in something less aggravating.

Maybe this need to par down on my games comes from the guilt of owning games I haven't played or the fact that I don't have any more room in my game binder for the latest games I bought. The fact that Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are both 4 disks each doesn't help. Not to mention all those Final Fantasy multi-disk games. Oh well. The straps are starting to rip so I'm going to have to buy a new case soon anyway. But it wouldn't hurt to clean out the dead games in order to have more money for new ones. Right?

My opinion - GRAW

Every now and then I'm going to pick a game and give my opinion of it. Why? Because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want. So there.

Any hoo! The game I picked this time is Ton Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter otherwise known as GRAW. This game came out in March of 2006 but I didn't get it until later. When I did get it it was because a bunch of my friends were playing it and they suggested it to me. Without playing a demo I took them up on it. Now I don't think I should have.

I owned it for a long time before I ever put it into my system to play. There were just other games that I was more interested in that more of friends were playing instead. When I did put it in I had a hard time reading and following the instructions in the tutorial level. I couldn't understand what they were asking me to do or where they wanted me to go. And then I got the grenade toss.

That was where I quit. I just couldn't toss the smoke grenade in the right spot in order to run across the open road without dying. No matter how many times I tried I just couldn't do it the way the computer wanted me to and that meant that I couldn't progress in the training. It really frustrated me. I stopped playing. A couple of weeks later I came back to the game and tried again. The second time through the controls were a little easier to understand, but not much. But then I got the grenade part. I had the same problem again.

This time I stopped playing for months. If I was getting frustrated just trying to make it through the training mission what was the actual game play going to be for me? Once GRAW 2 came out I figured I should at least try it one more time. Still the same problem. It wasn't worth it for me any more. But I kept the game.

I always thought I'd come back and play GRAW. I never have. And my experience playing Call of Duty 4 has taught me that there are some games I just won't be very good at. And if that is the case, why play them? I'm still playing Call of Duty 4 because I still have fun with my friends despite how poorly I play. But will I ever go back to playing GRAW? I don't think so.

So I decided to trade it in . . . as soon as I can find the case for it. I don't see the point in keeping a game that I have no desire to play (even if my friends want me to play). I'd rather spend the money on a game that interests me and doesn't frustrate me completely on the training level. Maybe The Orange Box perhaps. Or Eternal Sonata. I already have a hard enough time finding the time to play the games that I have and love that I don't think I'll ever want to put GRAW in and give it another go.

This doesn't mean I think it's a terrible game. It just means that I couldn't get through the training level. I feel stupid for that too, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it any more. If a game doesn't interest me it's going back. And maybe I'll start downloading demos to try them out first. And if you're on my friend's list and have been waiting for me to learn how to play GRAW so we could play together we'll have to find another game to meet in. May I suggest Boogie Bunnies?

Great online games should never die

Don't you just love it when you find a really great game? A game that sucks you in the minute you start playing. And one that will do that all over again even if you haven't played it in months.

I've wanted to play Gears of War again for a long time but I've been having too much fun (even though I suck) playing Call of Duty 4 with my friends. Last night a couple of them were playing Gears so I put the disk in. It took awhile for me to get use to the controlls again. But after I figured out that I needed to hold A down to run instead of the left stick all the old memories came back and it felt good.

There was something comforting about shooting locus hordes and watching their bodies contort themselves in death that just felt good. I remember coming from large teams in Star Wars Battlefront to having only 4 people on a side and thinking that was ridiculous. Last night it seemed right. Four people were plenty enough for me, thank you very much. Matches were short and sweet (or should I say bloody). And it just felt right.

But before I jumped into the match with my friends I did a search for ranked and player matches. I was disappointed in how many matches were available. Only 2 ranked matches showed on my list. And only about 8 player matches. I'd like to think that was because there were already hundreds of other matches being played that were full. But considering how long this game has been out I doubt that. And that makes me sad.

For games that have great online multiplayer game play there should always be lots of matches to choose from. We shouldn't let those games die or be transported to online purgatory. You know, the place where someone hosts a match but nobody joins them. Something needs to be done to save these games and their online lives from becoming extinct. Games like Star Wars Battlefront I and II, Gears of War, Halo 2, Counter Strike, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Burnout Revenge, Chromehounds, Call of Duty 2 & 3, G.R.A.W 1 & 2, Lost Planet, Rainbow 6: Vegas, I could on for awhile, but I think you get the picture.

Every time a new game comes out we set aside the old game and don't play it. Most people probably sell it back in order to afford the new game. But "newest and latest" doesn't always mean better. And even if it did, that doesn't lessen the enjoyment you got out of that "old" game or that you still can't enjoy it again if you played it. It's the game play that matters, not "realistic graphics" or "seamless scene loadings" or "largest weapon selections than any other game out there". If we don't enjoy playing a game, we won't. Funny how that works, isn't it?

So don't give up on older games. You liked them for their game play once so you can still play them for that reason again no matter how "old" and "dated" they may look or feel. If you did sell back your copy of those games you can always pick it back up used. Video games should be played and enjoyed for many years, not just the few months they're the latest thing out there before the next new game come out. And it is okay to buy the latest great game like Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 that's coming out next month, but don't forget to show some lovin' to the older games as well. No one likes to be stuck in purgatory trying to find a match.