Let The Credits Roll – Completing As Many Games As Possible In 2015

One of the major caveats of our shared hobby is that, of the hundreds if not thousands of games released each year, we’ll never get to play them all. At the beginning of 2015 I resolved to at least try and see how many game campaigns I could complete in a year, amidst all of the writing for TSA, work and trying to deal with a busy social life – you might remember me writing about it in early January.

The journey began on January 1st, and it was on that same day that I logged my first completion, with that being Young Horses’ Octodad: Dadliest Catch. It was a simple and fun game to get me started on this marathon, but it truly ignited the spark within me to not just see how many games I could beat in general, but how quickly I could move on from one title to another. By January 7th my total stood at four games, with Valiant Hearts, Escape Plan, and Contrast all joining my spreadsheet.

It may have been because January is generally a rather quiet period allowing for a lot of free time to pursue this challenge, but I managed to finish a total of 10 games that month, capped off by Dragon Age: Inquisition, alongside the rather shorter experiences above. February, on the other hand, was half of that, as the games industry picked up pace and so too did my life outside of games. However in that month I played what would become one of my favourite adventure titles, The Book Of Unwritten Tales 2. It was a game that took days to complete and ate up a fair chunk of February, while Saint’s Row IV: Re-Elected and Transistor helped to bump the numbers up a bit more.

It was in March that I first burnt out on playing games for this challenge, and from replaying Hotline Miami ahead of reviewing its sequel to the lacklustre Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries – its poor performance eventually leading to GRIN closing down – the only games that I played were for review. I was content with catching up with TV shows and movies, allowing myself to unwind and relax. At this point I had realised that I was actually stressing myself out by trying to beat as games as quickly as I could, instead of enjoying the ride.

It was a lesson that I basically forgot by the time April rolled around, though. Again, most of the games played were for review, but I took the opportunity to test out PlayStation Now for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and I also enjoyed the homage to an earlier era of gaming and pop culture in Retro City Rampage: DX. My collector side took over for a bit too as I purchased one of the 2000 PS4 physical versions of that title.

However, gaming had been a kind of escapism for me, as my grandfather had passed away during April, and May was the toughest and most emotionally draining month of my life. My father passed away a few days after his 56th birthday on the other side of the world while he was mourning his own father’s passing.

Though I still completed three short games that month, I spent most of my time in a daze. My waking hours were filled by visitors to the house, as well as the wait to bring my father home from India. The entire month revolved around grieving, repeating the same things to different guests, and planning the funeral. My passion for everything was at an all time low. With the funeral in June, and still reeling from the raw emotional magnitude of that, I completed only one game that month.

But down to a combination of boredom and needing to fill my time with something to escape the new pressures that life had thrown upon me, July was my best month for completing games. 11 campaigns in total, including the likes of Batman: Arhkam Knight, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Journey, and Never Alone’s DLC, Foxtales. I might have completed even more, but a rather eventful stag do in Birmingham…

August was an incredibly busy time of year as friends got married, work got busy, and TSA duties were in full swing. In fact only three games were completed in this month, which was spent more out enjoying the summer instead of sitting at home on the consoles or laptop. The biggest game that was done in this month was Far Cry 4, with Lost Dimension and Funk Of The Titans adding to the total by way of review.

In fact from August all the way to December I was only completing three or four games per month, as I once again lost the motivation for this challenge. I probably used all of my enthusiasm up in the bumper month of July, so I again found I wasn’t enjoying myself quite so much any more playing games for a time, but was more content to talk about them and write about them instead. However that motivation is slowly creeping back, and with a shelf full of sealed games calling to me I don’t think I’ll be able to resist the call of them.

In total, I managed to complete 57 games throughout 2015, but if there’s one main takeaway from this challenge, it’s to avoid rushing through games just to set a personal record. I still plan to play and complete a lot of games in 2016, but gaming is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby – albeit with a hint of work here at TSA. What I can’t wait for is to see what new experiences developers of all sizes will be releasing upon the gaming world in the next 12 months.

For those who are curious, you can see my list of completed games below.