Too many games?

[QualityChimp]

Just had a look at the new GamesTM thread and there's five games that score 9/10 in it!

It just makes me want to ask how often people buy their games on average?

I've always come from the school of buying a game cheap/2nd hand and playing it through to completion. When it's done, I'll move onto the next game.

Recently, with the advent of online gaming, I've felt pushed into buying games when they come out so I can play them with friends or get online before only the experts are left to soundly thrash me.

I've just started Condemned, which I've had in its wrapper since launch day, I won a copy BioShock and that's still in it's wrapper, but still I'm compelled to buy Halo 3 and renew my Live contract for a year (best part of ?80) because of all the hype and the fact that my 3 main gaming chums have it and I like the thought of us riding round in warthogs together. Vegas was great in co-op with them.

I've moved house, getting married and money is tight so there's better things to spend money on or just start saving again.

I don't want to be made to feel I'm tight when I've got games to play, bargain games to pick up and other things to spend on.

Is anybody else in this boat, do you buy games as and when they come out or are you content just buying when you're ready?

[Yoshimax]

I was going to start a similar thread actually.

I'm actually glad there's nothing of worth on PS3 at present cos I'm drowning under the 360 stuff - With PGR4 next week and GH3, PES2008 and no doubt something else I've forgotten (when's the orange box ?) weeks away along with XBLA stuff like Speedball 2 and Sensible Soccer it's gotten way out of hand.

Can you imagine GTA was still due this year ><

[capcom_suicide]

I expected a thread like this to pop up. It's madness!!

The last 4 weeks I've picked up:

Halo3
Sega Rally
Blue Dragon
Medal of Honor Airborne
Bioshock
FIFA08
Hitman2
Just Cause
Heavenly Sword

A mixture of "New" and "old" and it depends on my feelings about a game, for wether I'll buy new or old.

Coming up I have ordered:

PGR4
HL2 Orange Box
Call of Duty 4
Assassins Creed
Mass Effect
Army of 2
SC Conviction

And that's just to NOVEMBER!!

The way I do it is:

- Games I am 100 on, pre order
- Games I am 80/20 on, buy 1 week after release from these boards at &#163;28
- Games I am 50/50 on wait for a &#163;10-18 purchase.

Then with the games themselves I tend to be brutal. If I don't like it after 3-4 hours it gets sold on. I tend to only lose MAX &#163;10 on a game. So maybe 50-60 quid a month as I have a pool of 10 games to play with.

I don't get to play all the games, but have a system where I can buy them all and sell them without taking much of a hit, and then just play through the ones I like.

I can NOT remember a time like this for gaming. I'ts utterly amazing.

EDIT: The point of all this being, if you have a job and family you can't hope to play them all and bottom line you just have to prioritise a few games a month!

[ezee ryder]

Totally can understand picking up games when they go cheaper or waiting til you finish one before buying another, nothing tight about it. I used to do that back in the day but now I just buy games as they come out. This past week is the best example of my impatience. I bought Halo 3, Skate, Sega Rally, FIFA 08 and Conan (not too bad actually). I have mostly played Halo 3 and FIFA 08 while the other 3 have just been played a little. I sometimes ask myself "why don't you just wait?", the answer is simple...I can't!

[QualityChimp]

Yoshi, your gamerscore always blows me away. I don't know how you find time to play and fully enjoy the games you have! I mean games these days are a lot longer than old MegaDrive and SNES days, you could complete some of those in hours.

Modern games take weeks/months/years to finish when you include trying to get all the 360 Achievements. I just feel I've cheated myself when I see so many of my achievements unfulfilled!

Do you ever feel like saying "Stop! I'll finish the games I've got, then come back to the games that have come out whilst I was finishing those off, which'll probably be half the price at release!"?

[capcom_suicide]

Yoshi, your gamerscore always blows me away. I don't know how you find time to play and fully enjoy the games you have! I mean games these days are a lot longer than old MegaDrive and SNES days, you could complete some of those in hours.

Modern games take weeks/months/years to finish when you include trying to get all the 360 Achievements. I just feel I've cheated myself when I see so many of my achievements unfulfilled!

Do you ever feel like saying "Stop! I'll finish the games I've got, then come back to the games that have come out whilst I was finishing those off, which'll probably be half the price at release!"?

I agree, Yoshi seems to "Consume" his games!

I can afford the RRP, but not the time to play! lol.

As for holding off, I'm a sucker for new technology, and I'd rather buy a game and play 8 hours, just to see what the devs have done, and then sell it, rather than not experience the new effects/gameplay myself.

Now and then games come like Bioshock and GRAW2, that just bite me & they demand a long session.

Other times like Halo 3 you play it over a few evenings and just a quick fix like the cinema.

I love Blue Dragon, but after 20 hours I don't know if I can spare more time on it!

We need a gaming drought!

[Daragon]

In response to the question, yes there are far too many games either around or coming in the next few weeks that I have my eye on.

In the last month, I've bought:

Halo 3 Legendary
Stranglehold
Bioshock
Blue Dragon
Heavenly Sword
Halo 3 branded Xbox Live 13 month sub

This month:

HL2 OB
Eye of Judgement
Assassin's Creed

Next month:

Mass Effect (so far)

Companies really do need to stop releasing all the big guns in one specific launch window and evenly space them throughout the year (where were half of these games during the Easter drought? That's right, still in development for whatever reason.)

[Wools]

Not at all.

I used to bemone the fact that no games are released during the summer but in the end I'm generally out & about more in the summer. Also it gives me a chance to finally complete some games! I managed to complete all the games I had been meaning to over these past few months and I even brought a few games like Prey. With Prey I was intrested in it but never played due to review scores and other games in my pipeline.

Just buy a single game you are intrested in, play and complete.

Rinse and repeat!

[dataDave]

Just Warcraft + Halo3 here for me. Either one of those games require massive amounts of time as it is, let alone both at once.

[MattyD]

My outstanding pre-orders include:

• Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• Kane and Lynch
• Army of Two
• The Orange Box
• Contra 4 (if it makes it out this year)

And that's on top of Metroid Prime 3, Halo 3 and Bioshock in the last month. I still haven't got all the achievements in Bioshock but I can't put Halo 3 down!

The problems I have aside from the obvious ones of not being able to afford them all or find time to play them, is that I always used to replay my games at some point but rarely find the time to do so now. With recent releases like Bioshock I even felt compelled to almost rush through just to get it 'out of the way' before the next game came along. I'd like more breathing space to really enjoy the games I buy.

[Champloo]

Well I don't play online so I never feel the need to buy into games right away. Sometimes a game will pop along that i'm desperate to play, but I can usually hold off. The only time i've really succumbed recently was Oblivion, which I upgraded my PC for alone. Didn't want to play it on the 360 and not have access to the modding community and I was more hyped for this game than I had been for any game in ages, so I had to give in. Was worth it though! Other than that, i'm usually quite happy to skip a game with the intention of picking it up later.

I used to be pretty bad with RPG's. I'd feel the need to buy them all just to keep up. Would only finish about half, and only enjoy one or two. Rediculous really, especially since so many get released and they take so long to beat.

Since selling off most of my collection, i've found i'm far more sensible, and only have one or two games going at a time and usually take ages to finish them. Just don't have time for more than that. Right now, i've been playing Harvest Moon: MM for a good month, and FF XIII for about 3 months. Aside from a few arcadey games, maybe a bit of DS, and recently goldeneye, thats all i've really played over the summer.

Can be a bit depressing when everone's playing Halo 3 though!

[TheForce]

yes, it's madness... I'm still not tired (for a long time) with Forza2, I've finished Bioshock (which is amazing) just intime for Halo3 (wich is mind blowing) and next week PGR4 is being released and one week after that Half-Life2 Orange box will be released..... WTF ??!

one lesson I;ve learned is that I will never buy 2 great games at the same time again.... one of them will always be left alone .. and by the time you've finished the other a new great game is about the be released again.... it a luxury problem... "which great game to buy ? " .... hmmmm ....

I'm glad there aren't any interesting games being released on PS3 that makes me wanna buy one... I've got my hands more then full on the 360.

[Yoshimax]

Orange box is 1 week after PGR4 ? and I forgot about COD4 ?

[dataDave]

To be honest, apart from Halo3, Metroid Prime3 and the new FFXI/WoW expansions there is absolutely nothing else I'm interested in.

I personally don't think it's a great time for games. There's a lot of ****e out there people seem to be lapping up for some reason.

[Brats]

I'm just getting the multiplayer games. All the single player games can GTF until the new year*.

So that's:

PGR4
Orange Box
COD4
Rock Band

That's not so bad.

*Apart from Mass Effect obviously.