An epiphany struck me just a moment ago. I haven’t had an X Box 360 for over a year now. I really want to get another one, as there are many 360 games still on my shelf and many others that have come out in my absence I want to play, but I also realized that I missed a bunch of shitty games that I ALSO (previously anyway) really wanted to play. So the question is…was it better that I didn’t have access to my beloved console or will I be missing out even more now because there will be a bunch of titles that I might’ve wanted to try and REALLY liked when they came out, but will now totally forget about?

Case in point: Duke Nukem Forever. This game has literally been in development for…well, I’ll just throw out the run of the mill joke…forever. And when it came out, especially being headed by the developers of Borderlands, I expected it to at least be decent. Finished? Maybe not. Polished? Doubtful. But hopefully fun, at least for oldschool Duke Nukem fans. Alas, it was so far from the mark that it was in a different time zone.

It’s now available for Steam for $5 or something and from what I understand, even that’s considered too much. But then again, if I wasn’t all geeked up and ready to go for Legend of Grimrock, I probably wouldn’t have bothered if given the synopsis later on. It may have been something I might have checked out later, but only on sale, and even then very doubtful.

My Little Pony: Retro Is Magic!

The BIT.TRIP series is something I recently latched onto and that’s been out for QUITE a while. The problem is I was ignoring shit. But here’s the thing, when you ignore stuff, you don’t get hyped as easily. And if you don’t get hyped as easily, you don’t feel like you MUST buy every little thing you think MIGHT appeal to you. Sure, sometimes there are certain things that are a safe bet.

Is it being released from Atlus? Check it out. Suda 51? Go for it. Metroidvania? Probably right up my alley. Oldschool design, newschool interface? Worth looking into. Original Final Fantasy crea-YES. But the problem is it’s hard to juggle it all and, being human, we all have a tendency to forget. For example, there are easily tens, if not hundreds, of games and upcoming projects I’ve seen on Destructoid that I know I’d be into, then I totally forget them about an hour later.

And it could be that I just have a terrible memory, but ultimately, I often wonder if that’s simply a calculated risk given I’m able to be disappointed less and focus on games I DO have more. Here’s another way to look at it. Recently I downloaded F.3.A.R. Yes, I hate having to parse that shit out, too. Anyway, the…uhhh…well, THAT series…I’ve always been a fan of.

…Hobo With A Shotgun?

People are fairly divided on it, some stating the original was better, others saying the second one wasn’t scary, still others wondering why there were mechs…and these are all valid complaints, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s an excellent series headed by equally excellent companies. So when the third one got such negative reviews, I decided to backseat it.

The same thing happened with Saints Row – The Third. They went on sale, I got them, and I fucking love them. Yeah, they have their flaws, but SHOCKER…sometimes your experience may vary from reviewers’! LE GASP!! In any case, had I decided to completely ignore these and totally buy into the reviews, I would’ve missed two (in my opinion) fine titles that I truly enjoy.

And it makes me wonder…can Duke Nukem Forever really be so bad? I’ve seen the gameplay vids and I gotta tell ya…probably. I wasn’t too impressed with some of the playthroughs I’ve seen. The jokes were barely that, the graphics were crap, and Duke isn’t a likeable character in this one, which would play well if they wanted it too, but we’re supposed to be rooting for this guy…and I kinda can’t with what’s being presented.

“You seem to have a little something on your face there…”

But again, you have the case of games like Alpha Protocol. EVERYONE hates that game…but I enjoyed it. Yes, it’s a BAD game…but the good parts of it are brilliant. And then I hated Super Meat Boy, Resident Evil 4, even Grand Theft Auto 4…I mean, it really does get ridiculous. So really, what’s the best thing to do?

Can you trust yourself to not geek out everytime you hear about something you think will great? Can you prevent yourself from making breakneck decisions and shelling out ridiculous amounts of cash to try to buy up everything all at once the DAY it comes out? Can you afford to stay behind while your friends play it, love it, and while you want it, you’re still not sure if you’ll like it?

Honestly, it’s hard to say exactly what to do. Even with an endless supply of cash, do you want to encourage a company to continue making crap by buying crap? But how do you know it’s crap? Just because everyone says so? On the flip side, how do you know if it’s good? Or even if it’s crap, does that mean you simply won’t enjoy it? And this is one of the many reasons I’ve been so jaded lately.