How often do you beat your games? Or do you just play them for a little bit?
Inspired by the "How often do you game or do you just collect" thread in the Collector's Corner forum. Thought this would be a fun offshoot topic based off of that.
Everyone has their own preferences but for me the game changed (pardon the pun) once I placed a focus on finishing my games. Back in my Saturn fandom of 1999-2005, I was content just messing around, beating a few levels and moving on. I rarely saw game through, but when I went through my SNES resurrection in 2006, I happened to stick with this obscure game called SWAT Kats, and I actually beat it. It was fascinatingly satisfying to me, and ever since that experience, I've made it a goal to beat any new game I play. Of course, I can't always see a game through (i.e. difficulty, lack of resolve, or I think the game is too bad to warrant my persistance), but most of the times I have been successful in gutting it out. Personally, I find the most enjoyment from "knowing a game inside out." I feel like you can't really know a game fully until you've conquered it. But that's just me. How about you guys?
On a final note, I will say for me personally beating games has really done a lot to help me combat burning out. There's something satisfying about playing an old game you never played before, and then beating it. You feel like you truly conquered a childhood curiosity, which helps to keep the fire burning.
Once I beat a game though, I don't mind just playing a few levels to mess around. A good example is Super Castlevania IV. I beat it back in 2006 but every October I'm content popping it in for just 3-4 levels. I do want to beat it again eventually, though. But once I beat a game, it becomes a matter of "Oh, this would be fun to mess around with for 30 minutes or so" (if I liked it to begin with of course). I guess I just love that feeling of "crossing a game off the to-play/beat queue"
Everyone has their own preferences but for me the game changed (pardon the pun) once I placed a focus on finishing my games. Back in my Saturn fandom of 1999-2005, I was content just messing around, beating a few levels and moving on. I rarely saw game through, but when I went through my SNES resurrection in 2006, I happened to stick with this obscure game called SWAT Kats, and I actually beat it. It was fascinatingly satisfying to me, and ever since that experience, I've made it a goal to beat any new game I play. Of course, I can't always see a game through (i.e. difficulty, lack of resolve, or I think the game is too bad to warrant my persistance), but most of the times I have been successful in gutting it out. Personally, I find the most enjoyment from "knowing a game inside out." I feel like you can't really know a game fully until you've conquered it. But that's just me. How about you guys?
On a final note, I will say for me personally beating games has really done a lot to help me combat burning out. There's something satisfying about playing an old game you never played before, and then beating it. You feel like you truly conquered a childhood curiosity, which helps to keep the fire burning.
Once I beat a game though, I don't mind just playing a few levels to mess around. A good example is Super Castlevania IV. I beat it back in 2006 but every October I'm content popping it in for just 3-4 levels. I do want to beat it again eventually, though. But once I beat a game, it becomes a matter of "Oh, this would be fun to mess around with for 30 minutes or so" (if I liked it to begin with of course). I guess I just love that feeling of "crossing a game off the to-play/beat queue"
Comments
The last games I beat were Shadows of the Damned and Rondo of Blood (Maria). (Sept. & Oct.)
With new stuff, I almost always beat what I buy.
Back to topic...
The value of a game is different to everyone. Some people can play a game only halfway through but still feel satisfied with their experience and they got their moneys worth. Other folks won't touch another game until they've beat their current game. It really depends on what you like to play, how much time you have to play, and how many overall consoles/games you own.
Of course I'd love to beat all my games but I utilize these wonderful things called game saves. Sometimes it's days, weeks, months, or even years until I get back to a specific game save but I have no problem picking up where I left off. I've been working on LoZ OoT for 2 years now because I refuse to read a guide and other games have taken me away from it. Now if I only owned N64 and nothing else, I would have probably finished OoT within a few months. If I wanted to, I could truly dedicate my time to OoT for exploration and discovery of every nook and cranny in the game. However, since I am conciously aware that I have SO MANY other games to play, I try to go at my own pace. If I rush through it or use a YT walkthrough, I end up feeling like I didn't really "experience" the game.
I started FF7 a few months ago until The Witcher III, COD BO3, Fallout 4, and SW Battlefront came out. Will I get back to FF7? Absolutely but probably not too much until 2016. The same goes with Mass Effect 3 which I had to put on the back burner. It doesn't mean these games were difficult or that I don't like them...it just means I wanted to play something different for a while. You can call it ADD but in my case I think it's just a sense of being overwhelmed with so many choices. I'm not going to eat the same food every single day just like I don't play the same game every single day. I enjoy variety. I enjoy mixing my gaming sessions up between consoles and games.
When you have about a dozen or so consoles and thousands of games, it gets harder to focus on 1 single game at a time. Sometimes I only want to play retro therefore other game saves won't get touched for a while. Other times I go on a modern console multiplayer binge. It really just depends on what I'm in the mood to play and for how long. That's why I'm slowly seeing the benefit of trimming the fat in every collection down to only the games I think I want to play in the future. I've already told myself that I'm going to cut down on the amount of modern games I get per year so I can better focus on what I already have.
So overall I try to finish all my games and sometimes I do...sometimes I don't. It doesn't bother me if I don't beat a game right away or at all.
As for the terrible ones I play them a bit just for a laugh, Often not making it past the 2nd level
Originally posted by: Mad Martigan
First of all Steve, I was just reading stuff on your site and I quite enjoyed it! Your "Misc" section about WWF and Goosebumps certainly brought back good memories for me!
Back to topic...
The value of a game is different to everyone. Some people can play a game only halfway through but still feel satisfied with their experience and they got their moneys worth. Other folks won't touch another game until they've beat their current game. It really depends on what you like to play, how much time you have to play, and how many overall consoles/games you own.
Of course I'd love to beat all my games but I utilize these wonderful things called game saves. Sometimes it's days, weeks, months, or even years until I get back to a specific game save but I have no problem picking up where I left off. I've been working on LoZ OoT for 2 years now because I refuse to read a guide and other games have taken me away from it. Now if I only owned N64 and nothing else, I would have probably finished OoT within a few months. If I wanted to, I could truly dedicate my time to OoT for exploration and discovery of every nook and cranny in the game. However, since I am conciously aware that I have SO MANY other games to play, I try to go at my own pace. If I rush through it or use a YT walkthrough, I end up feeling like I didn't really "experience" the game.
I started FF7 a few months ago until The Witcher III, COD BO3, Fallout 4, and SW Battlefront came out. Will I get back to FF7? Absolutely but probably not too much until 2016. The same goes with Mass Effect 3 which I had to put on the back burner. It doesn't mean these games were difficult or that I don't like them...it just means I wanted to play something different for a while. You can call it ADD but in my case I think it's just a sense of being overwhelmed with so many choices. I'm not going to eat the same food every single day just like I don't play the same game every single day. I enjoy variety. I enjoy mixing my gaming sessions up between consoles and games.
When you have about a dozen or so consoles and thousands of games, it gets harder to focus on 1 single game at a time. Sometimes I only want to play retro therefore other game saves won't get touched for a while. Other times I go on a modern console multiplayer binge. It really just depends on what I'm in the mood to play and for how long. That's why I'm slowly seeing the benefit of trimming the fat in every collection down to only the games I think I want to play in the future. I've already told myself that I'm going to cut down on the amount of modern games I get per year so I can better focus on what I already have.
So overall I try to finish all my games and sometimes I do...sometimes I don't. It doesn't bother me if I don't beat a game right away or at all.
Hey thanks for the kind words, man. I had a blast writing up the Goosebumps and WWF Memories articles. Really took me down memory lane when I was working on them bad boys. Actually was able to catch the recent GB movie last month with my childhood best friend. That was a fun little night for us. It was great to see part of our childhood on the big screen in the year 2015.
Good post, too. I admire your ability to pick up a saved game even years later. I'm a little too OCD to do that in most cases, heh.
@ Brock, I think you and I are in the same boat!
New gen stuff is a lot different. I've complete a ton of Wii U games since they've been released in some form or another.
Might be thinking of something else though. Wee bit tipsy now.
I have found some games lately to just play for fun. Been playing Pinbot and Pinball on nes quite a bit.
Originally posted by: Ozzy_98
I beat them anytime they talk back or don't clean their room.
Might be thinking of something else though. Wee bit tipsy now.
LOL, good sense of humor, sir! *tips cap*
We all know these (NES/SNES) games take repetition, practice, and patience to figure everything out. You can't just sit down and finish a game in one day. You need to get to level 8 three times, dying each time, and then on that 4th try, on the 4th day you'll finally have the final pattern down to finish the game.
If it's a fun game then I want to beat it on my own. If it's fun, yet hard and annoying, I'll use level selects/game genie to play through the entire game so I can see the levels and experience the whole game.
It's funny because right now I'm on the verge on finishing a few games. Mighty Final Fight I think will take me a few more tries, and Dragon Spirit. I've been going at these two pretty hard lately and I'd like to take them out.
I get REALLY into the games, haha... my gf and I have a running joke because when I was playing Dragon Spirit and I said "Okay, I got the sword and I need to take it to my brother." out loud, talking to myself. She, of course, heard me and laughed at me for my dorkiness. I also laughed. I had died intentionally and was the Golden Dragon, so really, I was taking the sword as the dragon, to save my sister... but I was so into it, I was just talking out loud trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
I haven't used the GG in many years, but I'm adding more and more games to the list. Other games, like Mighty Final Fight and Dragon Spirit, just get played through as per normal. Game 1: Die on level 1-2. Game 2: Die on level 3... and so on. Until you meet the boss, get killed by them 100 times, then beat the game, haha... No save states is the real way to beat a game. Some games need to be beaten as such.
Originally posted by: Brock Landers
Well since you're a bunch of completionists, maybe you could parlay that attitude into a late push for the NA SNES thread
Heh, count me in for 2016 for sure. Right now I'm in the middle of finishing up an RPG thatt has gobbled up all of my gaming time in the month of November. Literally. I started it the morning of post-Halloween like at 1 AM. I'm going to finish it off before December bloody hell! lol
Originally posted by: AirVillain
One of the things I'm looking for when I play a new game is if it's going to be fun enough to try to beat. I like how you prevented any video game burnout by doing it, and I get the same feeling of fulfillment when you've actually accomplished your goal.
We all know these (NES/SNES) games take repetition, practice, and patience to figure everything out. You can't just sit down and finish a game in one day. You need to get to level 8 three times, dying each time, and then on that 4th try, on the 4th day you'll finally have the final pattern down to finish the game.
If it's a fun game then I want to beat it on my own. If it's fun, yet hard and annoying, I'll use level selects/game genie to play through the entire game so I can see the levels and experience the whole game.
Heh, me too! I do pretty much the exact same thing. Anytime I play a new game I figure out pretty fast if I want to see it through. Most times the answer is "Yes, I'll push on until it stops being fun or gets insanely difficult." For games that are too difficult but I'm curious to see the game's later levels or see the game through, I employ cheat codes i.e. level select, game genie God mode, etc. I've done this with games like Realm and Time Slip.
Then there are games where I play 20 minutes of and I know that's it for me. Bram Stoker's Dracula comes to mind. I think I sold that one off almost a decade ago after sampling it for 15 minutes, lol. It was that bad...
RPGs are a funny genre. I always finish them. I just feel weird leaving an RPG unfinished forever. I usually keep them in my system until I finish them, because I know if I try a new game in the meantime I'm likely to forget about that RPG. Plus even if you keep notes, it's annoying to pick up an RPG months or even years later. It always takes some time to get reacquainted to. I just prefer beating them before switching up to any other games. That's probably why I have the old school SNES model and a mini. It allows me to play some quicker action games while keeping my RPG firmly in the cartridge slot of the other model
Originally posted by: Steve
Originally posted by: AirVillain
One of the things I'm looking for when I play a new game is if it's going to be fun enough to try to beat. I like how you prevented any video game burnout by doing it, and I get the same feeling of fulfillment when you've actually accomplished your goal.
We all know these (NES/SNES) games take repetition, practice, and patience to figure everything out. You can't just sit down and finish a game in one day. You need to get to level 8 three times, dying each time, and then on that 4th try, on the 4th day you'll finally have the final pattern down to finish the game.
If it's a fun game then I want to beat it on my own. If it's fun, yet hard and annoying, I'll use level selects/game genie to play through the entire game so I can see the levels and experience the whole game.
Heh, me too! I do pretty much the exact same thing. Anytime I play a new game I figure out pretty fast if I want to see it through. Most times the answer is "Yes, I'll push on until it stops being fun or gets insanely difficult." For games that are too difficult but I'm curious to see the game's later levels or see the game through, I employ cheat codes i.e. level select, game genie God mode, etc. I've done this with games like Realm and Time Slip.
Then there are games where I play 20 minutes of and I know that's it for me. Bram Stoker's Dracula comes to mind. I think I sold that one off almost a decade ago after sampling it for 15 minutes, lol. It was that bad...
RPGs are a funny genre. I always finish them. I just feel weird leaving an RPG unfinished forever. I usually keep them in my system until I finish them, because I know if I try a new game in the meantime I'm likely to forget about that RPG. Plus even if you keep notes, it's annoying to pick up an RPG months or even years later. It always takes some time to get reacquainted to. I just prefer beating them before switching up to any other games. That's probably why I have the old school SNES model and a mini. It allows me to play some quicker action games while keeping my RPG firmly in the cartridge slot of the other model
Totally... It's pretty easy to decide which games are worth playing. And ifthey're insanely difficult or annoying then you want to see the whole game!
RPG's is the only spot we differ, though, as I don't play any. I think for the very reason you described. I don't like NOT finishing games. RPG's involve far too much effort for me, I don't want to get hooked in, haha.