A few years ago, heck, a year ago even, there would be such long periods of time while waiting for new games to be released. Sure, you would get releases often, but of the monthly schedule, at least 75% were weak and 25% were ‘OK’. Where were the blockbusters?
You might get one AAA title every 5-7 months. So when you did get your hands on it, you made that sucker work for you, like an elderly lady with a bar of chocolate (seriously, have you seen how long they make them last?). This usually involved playing through the main story for short periods at a time, and upon that being finished, going back through to do the side missions and try to reach 100% completion. Then you might look online at guides for the game, to try and find hidden things you hadn’t discovered, or to locate easter eggs (hidden tributes or bonus content). And this was if you loved the game or hated it. It’s all you had!
But since around the start of the year there has been an invasion of outstanding games to choose from…and there isn’t an end in sight! It’s a veritable gaming celebration. It’s the geek equivalent of wondering through a barren desert for years without water, and suddenly stumbling into the Evian spring in Lake Geneva. We have been spoilt, as if the industry is trying to make something up to us (of course, most likely they are just pulling out all the stops because MONEY). Let me elaborate.
Even though this is typed, I find myself taking a deep breath before writing this next paragraph. In the last year alone we have been treated with…[inhale]
The Evil Within, Alien Isolation, Sunset Overdrive, Bloodborne, The Order 1886, Grim Fandango, Dying Light, Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil Revelations 2, Assassins Creed Rogue (let’s forget Unity), Saints Row IV, GTA V, Majoras Mask 3D, Monster Hunter 4, Kirby and The Rainbow Curse, Screamride, Yoshis Wooly World, Ori and The Blind Forest, Battlefield Hardline, Forza Horizon 2, Borderlands Collection, Mortal Kombat X, Wolfenstein:The Old Blood, Project Cars, Life Is Strange, The Witcher 3, Splatoon, Batman Arkham Knight, God Of War 3 Remastered, Trials Fusion: Awesome Level Max Edition, Game Of Thrones (Telltale games), World Of Tanks, Rare Replay, Gears Of War Remastered, Metal Gear Solid V, Until Dawn, Zombi, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Mad Max, Super Mario Maker…
Oh, and that’s only what has already been released in the last year, at time of writing. That’s also only proven top scoring and well received games, aka AAA titles. We still have Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Forza 6, Fifa 16, Uncharted Collection, Fallout 4, Tony Hawk’s 5, Rock Band 4, Halo 5, Assassins Creed Syndicate, Need For Speed, Call Of Duty Black Ops 3, Starwars Battlefront, Star Fox Zero, Just Cause 3, Rainbow Six: Siege, Hitman and No Mans Sky to come before the end of the year. Let’s turn to math for a minute. That’s almost sixty games, some last ten hours, and some 40+. If we take twenty hours as an average that’s 1,200 hours of games. If you play, on average, two hours a day, that’s 600 days’ worth of gaming. Do you get my point now? Those of you that always complain that you have nothing to play, or that the newest generation of consoles/games are ‘rubbish’ (to paraphrase what most gamers would ACTUALLY say), just take a look at the above list that was written from memory, which could probably be expanded upon with some research. When was the last time in gaming history that you saw such a menu?
I’m the type of gamer that buys releases as near to launch as possible, or even before (one of the perks of Kuwait!), for no other reason than seeing them on the store shelves, but not my own, makes me sad. Even if I am currently playing something, I will buy and add to the library and work my way through. I currently have no less than twelve games, untouched and waiting for their turn to be loaded up for the first time. If I were one of those gamers that cross played (start a new game, then start another as soon as i buy it, and swap and change between them), I would have gone crazy by now trying to memorize tens of different control schemes.
It is a truly great time to be a gamer and we should all appreciate these days, because when the inevitable next drought comes, and we are back in that desert scrambling for any old thing to play, we will look back on ‘That Time When There Were All The Games’ with 2015 tinted glasses.
