Pile of Absolution
Posted on : 24-08-2009 | By : Alex Shaw | In : Articles
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I’ve been confined to the couch for nearly a week now with an inner ear infection. Basically whenever I straighten up or stand I get dizzy and nauseous. As I’ve recovered I played games from my old pile of shame and managed to complete Half Life 2, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Shadow Complex. However it made me look at what a pile of shame represents. To date it has been a collection of games I have started but not completed. Some people may also have games they have purchased but not played, but I’m not dealing with that today. No, I’m looking at the wording. Why are we ashamed to have these games on a backlog? Surely if they were that good in the first place we would have found ourselves captivated, unable to put them down. Shadow Complex was like that for me, and Trials HD has similarly gripped Tony. Isn’t it a failing on their part? Should not the makers of these games themselves feel ashamed?
The last game on my list to get finished before PAX was InFamous, which I have on rental. I’ll come clean here. I hate InFamous. Sorry Elaine. I hate every polygon. I think it’s sloppily handled, ridiculously plotted with dislikable characters and joyless combat with faceless, witless enemies. But everybody who has played it kept telling me it got better so I stuck with it. I’m halfway through and I just played yet another miserable hour killing more scarecrow mobs and dodging water like I’m in GTA III, getting my marching orders from my turd of a best friend, my sharp-tongued shrew of a love-interest and some pushy fed I’ve never met. I’ve had it with InFamous and it’s off my pile of shame and into a new pile. The pile of absolution.
This is for every game I have assessed and played properly but was neither challenged by nor enjoyed. This is a way of saving myself countless hours of fruitless gaming with something I’ve become obliged to finish just because I started and was obliged to start just because everyone told me I had to. UFC just made this new grade too. Sorry MMA fans. I just don’t get it. As Jagger said; I’m a Street Fighting man. If he adopts my new pile idea, Tony may very well feel relieved to let go of The Chronicles of Riddick, a game he’s tried hard to get through in both it’s original Xbox and 360 incarnations, and even though Heavy Rain makes me tremble in anticipation, Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) better buck up its ideas and get gripping next time I play or it goes the same way (My wife has just informed me she will carry on with this one even if I bitch out). This may seem heavy handed, but think of it like this; I have finite hours and nearly infinite games. I want to keep up to date with the most significant titles and indie oddities, but not at the expense of enjoyment and that sense of connection you get with a really satisfying game. I’m sure all of us have at least one title in our pile of shame that we keep being told to play but are afraid to admit we don’t get on with. My advice is just set it down.
I’m not going to let my titles hang over my head any more. I need clear skies this holiday season because we’re about to get barraged with games, starting with Arkham Asylum this Friday. The one significant setback to this is that I have Shadow of the Colossus sitting in my PS2 where it’s been for months on end. I’m two Colossi in and pretty certain I know how the game is going to pan out. Is abandoning this game the act of a philistine who is depriving himself of one of the greatest works of gaming history or a realist unable to contend with wired pads, murky SD graphics and plodding Japanese adventures any more? The fact that everyone’s answer to this will be different is what leads us to cling to these games in the first place.
This is a great article, i really enjoyed it.
It’s especially appropriate considering me and a friend are in the middle of a project to play all the great games of of the past 2 generations (psone, ps2 era- plus a few real oldies) that we missed out on, enjoyed, or have heard are classics now that they’re all going cheap. so i know the immense feeling of having a mammoth “to play” list, that definitely needs a filter.
Also, play shadow of the colossus, it’s absolutely glorious. that, and also you can have pretentious conversations about its parallels with the tower of babel.
Alex, its really simple, you know that at least two thirds of those games you have there you’ll never pick up again. Since 3D gaming games really have aged badly. PS2 and XBOX games have their limits and only a handful are worthy of your full attension. Why not start organising you’re collection and make some choices, trade some games in? charity shop?
Every time my collection starts to ramp up with titles I end up having a pick at all of them and rarely finish any. I picked up Assassin’s Creed, Dead Space and new Prince of Persia. I got horrible frustrated with Creed, bored to death with Dead Space and never even put POP in the XBOX. So i cleared out the crap and picked up Wheelman
(a lot of guys i worked with made it, and its pretty good 
)
anyways, hope you get well soon, enjoy PAX
There is one problem I’m having with a lot of games at the moment – boredom. I’ll give you an example. I’ve been playing the PS3 import hit Demons Souls recently. Its a very good game but 15 hours in I have lost any motivation to play it. There just isn’t anything to keep me interested in playing it to completion. So I end up with half-finished games that I’ll come back to months later (like Mass Effect) or not at all. I wish more developers thought about keeping their gameplay interesting beyond the first couple of hours.
Great article Alex. Is this not almost where nintendo is going with it ‘self play’ mode though? Get so far into a game, become frustrated with it’s control mechanism, or annoying gameplay, then just flick a switch and watch the game play itself so you can at least see the story? Of course there is always YouTube videos for that, and it’s probably only possible in some games, but it might at least get you through. I have the original Metriod Prime (GameCube) still unfinished as i could never beat the pre-end boss dragon.. but I know I will never return to try it again.
I guess it’s always more difficult when it is a game you have bought, and you want to get your moneys worth out of it, and also there is no one demanding you to get shut of the title, so it’s the easy option to just leave it on the shelf, knowing it is always there should you ever, oh I don’t know, loose all reasonable thought and start over with an aged game that really doesn’t deserve it.
In some ways things are worse in this respect on the PC. At least with console games you might move on to a new console, and get rid of the old console, or at least have it in moth balls. On PC however you can normally, quite easily, install and play a game from over a decade back with little fuss. I have so many PC games in the loft which I will never touch again, but I just can’t let go because they remain unfinished.
Next time I’m having a sort through, I will call on this notion of absolution and hopefully loose a few very poor titles, Inferno I’m looking at you, metal tin case or not!
This was a really great read. I reached this point a while back where I realized that if I honestly am not enjoying a game (after giving it an honest chance) then it’s time to stop. I’m too old to play crap I don’t like at this point. I have a job and a husband and a slew of other crap going on and it really limits the time I have for games. I feel like my game time should be something I enjoy not hours spent on games I’m just not having fun with.
P.S. – I may have teared up a little bit at the fact that you don’t like inFamous. I’ll try to be strong.
Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you said. I mean it’s the same with films, there are those iconic films that everyone tells you to watch becauses they are mind blowingly awesome, and most of the time you agree. But everyone has at least one film that isn’t considered a masterpiece that they just can’t get into, or just hate. Games I can’t really get into include the earlier grand theft auto’s (to my delight, I enjoyed 4) and the street fighter games. I can understand why people like them, but something about them turns me off. I know this next comment goes against the spirit of the article, but stick with shadow of the colossus, you will not see the ending coming, I can promise you that. You think metal gear solid 3 had an emotional ending, wait until you complete this game.
…yeah I ment “IS considered a masterpiece”….I’ll proof read next time
Wow. So many games not finished. These days I am proud if I actually finish a game rather than disappointed if I don’t. With multiple difficulty levels and achievements/trophies when can you consider a game finished?
There is something inside that tells you if you are really going to go back to a game. There are so many games that once put down are only ever picked up to move to another shelf or worse still, a drawer or box where it wont even be glanced upon.
For me the pile of shame is also the pile of absolution. Very few games make it out, and only when there is a real lull.
I abide by this fact: Games are suppose to be fun. If a game is no longer fun than I have no obligation to finish it.
I don’t care if a game I don’t like has garnered perfect 10s in all game magazines. I don’t care if my friends go on and on about how crazy awesome that game is. If I play it and gets to a point of becoming a frustrating mind-numbing affair (i.e. not fun), I’ll quit and won’t feel any sort of shame or guilt.
Now when I mean no longer fun, I don’t mean I’ll quit because its too challenging. Challenges is what makes playing games fun. However, when its “hard for no reason,” “challenging with little or no pay off,” “way too easy,” or just plain boring to play that’s when I quit. Because really life is way too short and I’ve been playing games far too long to settle for mediocrity. Even playing the worst game in the world requires a strong amount of time and effort to muddle through it.
This is why I’m so glad for eBay and Craigslist. If I buy an awful game that’s less than a few weeks old, I can either sell it to get 80% of my money back or trade it away for a better one. If I’m feeling generous, I can donate it or give it to a friend. So, gamers nowadays don’t have to be stuck with a bad game unless they really want to.
You’re not alone in this, certainly. I’ll also join Tony in being underwhelmed with Chronicles of Riddick. It took me most of Butcher Bay to properly get used to the controls because there’s something about the way Riddick moves – or “lumbers”, more like – that feels a awkward. Part of this also lies with the graphics engine, where you can feel the slowdown and I find it difficult to work around.
In general, though, not engaging with a game doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad or that you’re wrong, and it’s an interesting dilemma that you can face when reviewing a game. However, if you’re not playing a game for review and you’re not enjoying it, then by all means put the game down instead of trying to force yourself through it. Not all “good” games suit the tastes of all people, and you may as well just spend your time playing something else that you find enjoyable.