This is the beginning* of what may turn out to be an irregular series of posts even compared to my usual infrequency of posting. See, the thing is, I’m way behind when it comes to playing the games in my collection.
Of all the big games that attracted my attention during the seasonal crush of 2009 only a few like Uncharted 2 and Dragon Age: Origins have seen some serious play. Others such as Assassin’s Creed II and Brütal Legend have seen my PS3 but only for an hour or so.
As for games from that summer, the brilliant Batman: Arkham Asylum has seen a few hours of play and I really want to go back and finish that when I can find the time and motivation. Going back even further to autumn 2008’s games, I have played barely an hour of Dead Space and still have not finished Fallout 3, let alone its DLC.
I’m 120+ hours into that game and get so distracted by the world, the side-quests and just wondering what that building on the horizon is that I’m only about a third of the way through the main story arc using the trophies to gauge progress.
Recently it was simply the distraction of the prospect of a new game that led to me putting down Gran Turismo 5 and turning to a game from 2007. With Mass Effect 2 arriving on the PS3 at the start of this year I figured that my time off work over Christmas would be the ideal time to finally take my copy of Mass Effect off the shelf and play it.
Going into a game that has been around a few years like Mass Effect and being somewhat involved with and into video games it is impossible to go in ‘clean’. You will almost invariably have read about the game online or in the gaming press, maybe even had conversations with friends about it.
All of that was true for me with Mass Effect. It came with very strong recommendations from friends who I’ve talked about it quite a lot with and it’s been impossible to avoid picking up some information about it from the Internet just by an electronic form of osmosis.
So I went into Mass Effect with an accumulation of preconceptions and expectations formed over the years since its release. These Playing Catch Up posts will sometimes address those or simply consist of my musings on particular aspects of the game.
Basically they are a bit of self-indulgent mental housekeeping while I process my experience of playing the games and analyse what it is I have particularly liked or disliked about them.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy (or at least not intensely dislike) reading the words and join in a discussion in the comments about your own experiences, likes and dislikes of playing the game. While there may be minor spoilers I’ll try and avoid anything particular overt like significant plot points.
While this post is just an introduction letting you know what to expect of the subsequent posts in the series I hope it has piqued your interest sufficiently that you’ll be back at the same time tomorrow to read what I thought of Mass Effect.
In the meantime, in case you missed it first time round, you could always read how Fallout 3 managed to hook me at the second time of asking. You’ll find that tale at the link below.
*While this may be the official beginning of the series, the spiritual beginning was my Falling For Fallout 3 post.
Shaggy2Dope
Right up there with you, Greg! Except my back catalog of unfinished games consists of RPG’s like Cross Edge, Trinity Universe, White Knight Chronicles, and the mighty Final Fantasy XIII. With the exception of Final Fantasy…and Hakoom…I’ve yet to see anybody complete these games let alone a platinum trophy.
freezebug2
Jeez, every time I get a gapfill game and get started on it, the big pre-ordered game arrives which puts everything else on hold. I’ve got POP trilogy, GOW trilogy, Apache air assault, Ratchet & Clank CIT all to be started yet and numerous half way through games to get back to at some stage.
We have been deluged with big hitting titles that take front seat and that won’t be stopping soon by the looks of things. I just tend to drop everything games wise when a big hitter like GT5 is released and devote nearly all gaming time to it….not helpful really because I really want to be getting on with LBP2 and others but before you know it another highly anticipated title is released…it’s hard to keep up with really.
If only days were 48 hours long and we were able to stay awake for 36 of them regularly :P
xT-BAGG3Rx
i have so many great games that dont get played enough, started to play catch up and completed uncharted 2 and sega mega drive collection, was going to try and finish fallout 3 but i got mass effect 2 and i am playing that all the time now and the older games are back on the shelf for now.
XisTG
Same happened to me until I imposed onto myself a rule: I don’t allow myself to have more than 2 unfinished games at any time. This way I make my money worth :)
(psn games not included)
iamtdogg
Interesting read and looking forward to more from you.
I’m quite late to the party after only gettin my, own, PS3 in September and having played through a good number of games since. I’ve tried all the RPG’s but just cant seem to get into them, maybe for another time then, but currently on a quest to try to build up my gaming knowledge and blast through a whole host of the ps3 back catalogue by completeing 52 games in 2011… i’ve just finished the single player campaigns on 6 so far, with Ratchet and Clank Tools of Destruction being the one i should finish tonight, pretty much keeping me at the rate of 1 game per week. I’m also fitting in racers, fifa, and online only shooters like Lead and Gold etc too whilst doing this although you cant really do the single player campaigns on them.
stueeeee
Will be interesting to read your views on some oldi-ish games. I, much like many others have a collection of quite a few unfitted games. Seem to get them close to when they’ve been released, play a bit then leave them. Go back to them months later when I could’ve then gone and got them cheaper. Assasin’s Creed, GOW and Ratchet and Clank are among these titles. Other ones I have on the shelf I’ve completed but just want to keep them coz they’re awesome and incase I fancy a play one day, for example MGS4, Batman, GTA IV…..
Kenny
Working my way through Dead Space, Bioshock and Resistance 2.