Have you ever had a conversation with a group of gamers, and they are talking about some awesome game that they all seem to love? It could be a brand new game, or just one from the current generation, or maybe a classic from years past. At any rate, it’s pretty much a given that everyone has played this game, and your friends are openly discussing plot points, gameplay elements, and what they loved and hated about it. Spoilers are flying, the ending is revealed, and your buddies talk about how they can’t wait for the sequel. You want to chime in and be a part of the discussion, being a gamer yourself, but there’s a problem: you have never played the game in question.

I’ve been in this situation a few times, especially in the last couple of years. For most of my life, video games have just been a really awesome hobby. However, two years ago I managed to turn my love of gaming and writing into a career, meaning that since then, I have played countless games across all platforms. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this as well; mainly that it’s rare that I have time to play a game just for fun, and not for review purposes. During the first seven or eight months of the year, it’s easier to find a few hours here and there to sneak in some non-review gaming, but once the holiday season hits, it’s all over. As a result, I’ve missed out on playing a few of the biggest games of the last two years, not because I didn’t want to, but because I just did not have enough goddamn time: Mass Effect and Fallout 3.



Mass Effect came out less than a month after I started working for Gamervision in 2007. I was really looking forward to it, especially after positive word-of-mouth from almost all of my co-workers. At that time, I was the only reviewer with a PS3, and buried in holiday season reviews; I also had a commute to work that was two hours each way, which severely cut into my non-handheld gaming time. I told myself I would pick up Mass Effect in early 2008, when it was cheaper, and play it when I had more time. Weeks and months passed, spring came, but Mass Effect just never happened. There was always something else to do, or a new game coming out, or sometimes the urge to replay an older game was just too much.

Fallout 3 was another game I had every intention of playing, and still do. I was even more excited for that game than I was Mass Effect; again, for weeks after it came out, my co-workers were talking about it non-stop. While part of the reason I missed Fallout 3 had to do with time constraints, there was more to it than that. By then, I was co-habitating, which had its positives and negatives. On the one hand, by living with and dating a gamer, it essentially cuts my costs in half as we have similar tastes and take turns buying games. On the other hand, we only have one HDTV, 360, PS3, and Wii, so when it’s his turn to use the high-tech stuff, I usually retreat to another room to play an older system, or a handheld game. We bought Fallout 3 on the day it launched, and he played it nonstop for weeks, but I have yet to pull it off the shelf and put it in my 360. Someday, it will actually happen. I hope.



Even though it’s a legitimate complaint, the fact that I can’t play some games because I’m too busy playing other games usually just comes off as baseless whining, which is understandable. There was a period when no amount of free time could help me, though, because I was just dirt poor. When I moved out of my parents’ house and started college in Philadelphia in 2001, I brought my Nintendo 64 (hard-earned with tips from waitressing at IHOP) and PS1 (which my brothers had no need for when my parents bought a PS2 for the family). At this point, the PS2 had been out for a year, and the Xbox and Gamecube were about to launch. It wasn’t until 2004 that I finally started to get caught up with the current generation, meaning for three years, all I did was play old PS1 and N64 games over and over again. I could barely afford to eat during this time, let alone buy video games; the only reason I even got an Xbox and Gamecube because they were gifts. As a result, I missed a ton of last-gen games that I probably would have loved. I finally bought my own PS2 in 2006 because the draw of Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy XII was too great to ignore, but ended up purchasing a 60-gig PS3 barely a year later. I still haven’t played Shadow of the Colossus, either of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, or even The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Even though I have no problem buying and playing older games, it all comes back to the same issue: too many games, not enough time.

Then there were my younger days, when I had frustratingly little control over which games I could play. I have two brothers, and we’re very close together in age and all lifelong gamers. When my parents figured out that they couldn’t ignore this newfangled industry, they bought us a Nintendo in the early 90s after literally years of begging. Sure, the SNES was almost out by that point, but we didn’t care. Finally, we could play Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt whenever we wanted! Of course, those were two-player games, and there were three of us, so someone was always left out. Also, we were fairly young, so our game selection was entirely dependent upon what our parents would buy for us. During the PS1 era, things got a little better; we were older, and more capable of making informed decisions about games. By the time Final Fantasy VIII rolled around, I had my first real job, so I was financially able to support my own ever-growing gaming habit. However, during that time, we were still a one-console family, meaning that we completely missed out on the N64, not to mention the Saturn and Dreamcast. As previously noted, I ended up buying my own N64 to play Ocarina of Time, but not until years later.



I’m sure no gamer feels that he or she has played every game worth playing in the industry’s history; there simply aren’t enough hours in the day, or year, for that matter. I do feel a tinge of sadness knowing that I have let so many great games slip through the cracks, and with another holiday season looming, I know that history will probably repeat itself. In fact, the inspiration for this article stemmed from the fact that I have only been able to play Brutal Legend, one of my most anticipated games of the year, for about an hour or so. I was originally slated to review it, but scheduling conflicts left me with Uncharted 2 instead (hardly something to complain about). After beating Uncharted 2, I jumped immediately into my next three reviews, while hoping I would have time for Brutal Legend before the end of the month. That’s growing increasingly unlikely at the moment, and with Left 4 Dead 2 looking to be both a work obligation and complete obsession next month, the window of opportunity is slowly but surely closing. Maybe this weekend I’ll be able to… oh, what’s this? A review copy of Ju-On: The Grudge just landed on my desk. Fantastic.