Dusting off the zeros

I've had a really hard time focusing on any particular game.  As much as I psych myself up to play something, as soon as I get stuck or something goes wrong I quit the game and move on to something else.  Which usually isn't gaming related.  I need motivation.  A purpose.  A goal.  Something competitive to get me really juiced up to play something so that I won't bail as soon as things get tough.  So I decided to look through my game list.

After correcting my list to add 4 games that I owned but somehow forgot to add, I realized I had a LOT of games where I haven't earned any achievements.  If I took out the Arcade titles, which were the majority of them, I would still have a bunch with a zero gamer score.  I then narrowed that list down to stand-alone or first in a series games and I still had 17 games on my list.  If I haven't finished the first game in a series I'm not going to play the sequels so those were easy to eliminate. 

After I got this list I went through and wrote them down in order from the one I played the longest time ago to the the more recent.  Oldest to newest based on when/if I've played them.  That list is as follows:

Too Human
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Magnacarta 2
The Last Remnant
Jericho
Darksiders
Lost Planet
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Star Ocean
Tales of Vesperia
Enchated Arms
Guitar Hero III
Infinite Undiscovery
Star Wars: Republic Heroes
Dishonored
Dungeon Siege III
Dead Island

Some of those games I've played and tried get achievements in like Rayman, Lost Planet, SW, Dungeon Siege and Dead Island (although I just started playing with one since it's a free DLC game).  I know I've played Guitar Hero several times but I can't believe I haven't gotten any achievements in that game yet.  Oh well.

So last night I decided to play them in that order until I've gotten at least 1 achievement in each game.  And if I like the game enough I'll keep playing it until I've finished . . . . or get stuck and quit. 

I put in Too Human last night and played it for over an hour.  I picked up 6 achievements for 45 points before calling it a night.  I wasn't fairing well against a mini-boss and I couldn't figure out how to beat him.  After dying twice rather quickly I decided to call it a night. 

Now I know what you're thinking.  Here she goes, giving up on another game because it got too hard.  wah wah wah.  That's not the case.  I spent the rest of my evening looking for the strategy guide (which I swear I have) but couldn't find it.  I then spent time trying to find the little insert that came in the game case to see if that would have the command info help that I needed.  And I found it.  Read through it.  And now I'm better prepared to get back in the game.  And yes, I will get back in that game just as soon as I'm done here.

The game was released in 2008 and thankfully they were still packing a manual with the game disc in the case.  Now a days you'll be lucky just to get a slip of paper with the game's title on it.  If that was the case with this game, I probably would have set it aside and moved on.  After all I did get some achievements.  But I actually like this game.  I can go melee or I can go long range.  I just wish there were more chests or things to open.  And things to steal.  Oh well.

So while I could move on to my next older zero game I think I'll stick with Too Human for awhile.  At least until I get super stuck.  But hey, my planned worked.  I'm playing games.  I'm focused.  And I got some achievements.  Of those zero achievements games on the list above, which ones would you like to see me play?  Let me know in the comments.

Poll Results - Are you getting R6:V2?

Okay, here are the poll results:

Are you getting Rainbow 6: Vegas 2?

Yes = 4
No = 2
I'm not sure = 1

My vote was "I'm not sure". I did that fairly early on in the voting. The closer it got to the release the more I was leaning to "yes". I even tried to pick it up yesterday. I didn't pre-order it which caused me to go to 3 different stores trying to find a copy. I couldn't. I finally gave up and went home.

I'm not too terribly heartbroken that I didn't pick up a copy. I have plenty of other games to play anyway. I looked through my friends list last night and only a couple of them had the game show up on their recently played games list. I'm sure there will be more that have the game today.

One reason why I didn't pre-order it is because I'm mad at Game Stop. Their policy (at least at the stores in my neighborhood) is that if a game is announced with a release date of March 18th that means that is the day the game ships. It's not available to be sold until the 19th. Needless to say none of the three stores I went to yesterday were a Game Stop. They all had the game for sale but they were currently sold out. For me a "release date" should be the day you can actually buy the game. That's what other retail outlets think. But not Game Stop. I think if there's a game I really have to have the day of release I'll pre-order it from Best Buy or somewhere else. Otherwise I'll just wander in and see if they have any on the shelf.

I'm not sure I'll be able to pick up a copy of the game tonight either. I have a brief break after work before I have to be at a work dinner function. I'm hoping to see if I can't pop in to a Game Stop or other store and pick it up on the way over there. If not I might do it on the way home. But most likely I'll just go home and crash. I'd like to play the game but I could wait another day or two if I had to before I sat with a controller in hand and the game in the console.

The only other games coming out on the horizon that I have my eye on are Too Human, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Gears of War 2 and Final Fantasy XIII (hopefully they'll release that game before I die). Other than that I think I'm good for awhile whether or not I get Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 any time soon.