Free time is limited and it shrinks down to the tiniest molecule when you become an adult with a full time job and a family. All those summer days of hanging out doing nothing but playing video games are but a memory. It’s not completely gone as I do still get my game time and while still balancing it out with family time. Sometimes that means gaming with the seven year old or staying up a little later with the baby. Also, the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4’s Remote Play option have allowed me to get more time in. However, the reality is that I will never get around to playing all the games I want to, which is fine because being with family is an infinitely better use of time. Also, it helps that my wonderful wife doesn't complain when I do play the Switch while we watch a movie or show. She’s the best.
As time has gone on I've accepted that there are some series of games that I just won't get to experience for one reason or another. I've got to be more particular with my gaming time and carefully choose the games I want to play. As the backlog grows the chances I'll get to fully experience lengthy game series gets slimmer and slimmer. I have found ways around not being able to play the games themselves, but it's definitely not the same as if I played myself. Who knows; I also might have ended up hating them anyways. These are all my PERSONAL thoughts and in no way am I trying to bash these games. I just want to justify to myself why it's ok that I've missed out on them. As it stands below are the top three series that I feel I've missed the window on.
MASS EFFECT
With two fans of the Mass Effect series on the site, it's a surprise that the first mention of the trilogy (sorry Andromeda) is from me. I will say in the last two or three years, I did try playing the first one. I enjoyed it, but I could feel some of the jank getting in the way, and I was probably trying to find excuses because I knew there was no way I would be able to give the series the time it needs. It's massive and begs for exploration. I could mainline it quickly, but I'd feel like I'm cheating Bioware and myself. I've thought about maybe skipping the first and diving right into the second game, as I've heard it's better, but I have a hard time doing so knowing that decisions I've made in the first game ultimately bleed into the second. I'm someone who favors playing/reading/watching a series in chronological order, and getting over that hump is difficult. It's why I ended up giving up on comics; too many new series connecting to old ones.
Like comics a lot of what Mass Effect does should pull me in. Not only that the game has a lot of great concepts that Bioware elegantly placed into their epic space opera. I am a big fan of open world games, but it's so much more than that. Getting to role play in a living, breathing space colony while building relationships with the various creatures who inhabit the many planets is right up my alley. I truly think my mind just didn't want to accept a 100+ hour journey into the deep and rich universe. With limited time to play games there a lot of shorter games I could play to take a decent chunk out of my ever growing backlog. Had I the time I did in my youth, I feel like this series could very easily stick out as an all time favorite, but as it stands I don't think I'll get around to fully enjoying it for a long time. Which is a shame because I believe the good folks at Bioware created a world and universe, if given a fair chance, I'd love way too much.
HALO
There was a time and place, high school, where first person shooters (FPS) ruled my life. I spent endless hours online with friends playing Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead, and Borderlands. When it came to Halo I for whatever reason never took the time to make an attempt to do much more than a few local matches with a couple friends. At the time, I never touched the single-player. Halo, like all the other games on this list, checks off a lot of boxes that I look for in a game. The story (from what I’ve heard) is good, the shooting feels great, fun and engaging co-op. Unfortunately, it just never happened, and while it isn’t too late I feel that, other than a couple FPS games here and there, I'm burnt out on the heavily populated genre. I've had a lot of some with some more recent FPS's; Wolfenstein, DOOM and Titanfall 2. Overall though I have had very little desire to jump back into the genre. Curiosity has me wondering if whatever the new Halo game is will be what pushes me over the edge. Even though I've been saying that for the last couple Halo adventures.
Sometimes all it takes is an impulsive push of the start button on my XBOX ONE to get into a particularly long stay on my backlog list. I do own the Master Chief Collection so the ball is squarely in my court. Of the three series on this list, Halo seems the most likely for me to conquer. Hopefully the next time I write about Master Chief and company it's filled with love.
METAL GEAR SOLID
The beloved Metal Gear series is filled with the kind of insanity I can get behind. Kojima is widely considered a legend in the gaming community for a reason. His team and him created a unique series that looks absolutely unfun for me to play. The ideas placed in the game were ahead of their times that might have aged as well as the developers had hoped. I've spent time watching (mostly as background noise) other people stream Metal Gear Solid. As of the time of this post, I've seen up to about halfway thru Snake Eater, and I've laughed out loud at the absurdity, got hype in big story moments, and been confused a lot. I’ve haven’t held the controller myself and feel very little desire to do so.
Stealth is hard to pull off in games and I don't know how much I’d jive with Kojima's take on it. Especially with having seen people struggle with getting a grasp on the stealth elements. Guards see you when they shouldn’t or they are completely oblivious to you standing next to them. The AI doesn’t seem to be balanced in a fun way for the player. My gaming time is also limited nowadays and as much as I enjoy the story I don't want to have my time taken up with 30 plus minute cutscenes. I understand that's part of the appeal for the series, but it's a big turn off for me. I wish I could sit and watch for that long and probably could like one or two times, but the sheer amount of long cutscenes is a big hurdle. I hate to say it but this is the most for me but not for me collection of games. For every detail that sounds wonderful there is a design choice that turns me away. It makes me wonder how much of the love for this series is purely nostalgia based and not because the games themselves are good.
It's impossible to fit in the time to finish all the games I want to. Not only is time a factor, but money and accessibility make it hard to get a hold of games I want to play. Unfortunately that requires me to be hyper-selective of the games I actually play. Those reasons, among some others, are why I feel like I've missed the boat on these gaming series. Who knows though, there is always my 40’s when the kids are out of the house.
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