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Tackling the pile of shame


Reflection

I’m slowly coming to the conclusion I have a serious problem with my relationship with games. It may be you also share this same issue, or you may not even consider it a bad thing. My problem is I just can’t stop buying games.

There isn’t any kind of affordability concern, I’m not racking up vast amounts of debt in order to feed my addiction. No, my problem is I don’t have enough time to actually play the games I own. I think we can all agree that life is busy and when you’ve got a full-time job, kids, a household and various other responsibilities then it’s even busier. Finding the time to play games is becoming more and more of a struggle and I can really only ever count on approximately 30 minutes of game time a day.

The problem

So why, when I already have enough content to last me several years do I then buy other things? In the last couple of weeks I’ve added Paper Mario: Colour Splash, Farpoint and Torment: Tides of Numenera  to a pile that already contains Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil 7, Eagle Flight, Stardew Valley and Breath of the Wild – and that’s just from 2017.

Using the numbers on HowLongtoBeat that is conservatively 200 hours of gameplay. Which at 3.5 hours a week works out at well over a year’s gaming, and that doesn’t take into account the other games sitting on my shelf from previous years that go unplayed. There are so many amazing gaming experiences on my shelf/PS4 HDD/Vita/Wii U that I’ll more than likely never see and this makes me sad. But then the flip side is I’m actively considering buying a PS4 Pro with Horizon Zero Dawn (20 plus hours) and Wipeout: Omega Collection (lots of hours).

The solution

What can I do? Well, inspired by the idea behind Desert Island Games, I’m planning on limiting myself to playing only eight games for a year. How exactly I do this is still undecided. Do I just draw up a list of eight existing games, or do I leave a couple of slots in there for upcoming stuff? I’ve got to include games I might play with the kids, but do I really want two slots out of eight taken up with Lego games? Are there some exceptions I can get away with (VR experience type stuff for example not counting as games)? These are all things I’m going to have to consider. I figure I’m also going to need to cover many different genres as when it comes to games I take an attitude similar to Banky Edwards’ attitude to porn.

Holden McNeil : You’ve got like 30 books there! We’re only going to be gone for two days!
Banky Edwards: Variety’s the spice of life. I like a wide selection. Sometimes I’m in the mood for nasty close-ups, sometimes I like them arty and air-brushed. Sometimes it’s a spread brown-eye kind of night, sometimes it’s girl-on-girl time. Sometimes a steamy letter will do, sometimes – not often, but sometimes – I like the idea of a chick with a horse.

So over the next couple of weeks I’m going to start considering my own eight games (but only for a year) and I’ll post my thoughts on here.

And yeah, I know #firstworldproblems.

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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: The 5 best and worst tracks

Mario Kart 8 has been out for three years on the Wii U, but with its fairly recent re-release on the Nintendo Switch, I thought I’d jot down the five best and worst tracks in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

I’ll also add a little on my feelings of the track. They won’t be long-winded, just a sentence or two to convey my thoughts. I must add that this is my own opinion and not that of GRcade. I did think it was pretty obvious, but the whiny baby Qikz told me to do this as I’ll be rating his beloved Cheese Land in a way he doesn’t like.

The best

Mount Wario

The is in the top five for its sheer awesomeness. You start at the top of a mountain and work your way to the bottom like a skier would. When I mentioned this track to someone online, after saying Cheese Land was bland because it was just cheese everywhere I was told this was bland also, as it’s just a snowy mountain. It isn’t bland though, far from it. It consists mostly of a snowy mountain, yes, but there is variety, there’s a cave with water flowing through it, the side of a dam you drive on where water is pouring down it, and then there’s an area with a load of trees which act as pretty good obstacles. You even have red flags dotted about in the last-but-one section as if it was there from a previous skiing race. This track is clearly in the god tier.

Big Blue

Another great track, it’s definitely in a tier equal to Mount Wario. The reason being that the track layout is immense, it doesn’t have the sense of speed that Mute City has, but the layout is better, as is the music. Now, normally I prefer Mute City’s theme to Big Blue’s but in MK8D there’s no question Big Blue wins hands down. There’s also quite a bit going on in the background, with its waterfalls and planes flying overhead, and I’m sure at one point at least I saw a track in the background with an F-Zero like vehicle on it. Again, god tier track and should be the track you go for when it comes up.

Ribbon Road

This is another fantastic track. It’s colourful, has a fair bit going on in it and the good thing about being colourful it isn’t bland. The music is also ace too. I like that it’s a toy set up as if either Mario and co. are racing on a giant’s toy or it’s as if Mario and co. are toys and someone is playing with them. If this comes up give it a vote, you won’t be disappointed.

Rainbow Road 64

For me this is the best Rainbow Road Mario Kart 8 has to offer. I like the new Rainbow Road, but it just isn’t as nice as this, and the music in this is one of the best pieces in the game. I also really like the SNES Rainbow Road and think it’s actually not too far behind this in terms of good levels, but this wins out for its great track design, interesting backgrounds and music. The only downside is that it’s only one lap.

Hyrule Circuit

Another great track and the last of the five I have chosen as the best. Again another track with a great musical piece supporting it. I already love the Zelda theme, so having it remixed with guitars and having a more rock style to it is only a good thing in my eyes. I also like the design, the fact the coins are rupees and other little touches. The shortcut by the Master Sword is also a neat little thing that I don’t think I’ve seen in another track in Mario Kart.

The worst

Cheese Land

What do I say about Cheese Land? Well to start, it’s extremely bland it’s just yellow everywhere, and the only thing that isn’t are the chain chomps. The track layout isn’t that good either, it’s not fun to race on and the people who like it have no soul. Clearly an evil track.

Wario’s Goldmine

I’ll admit, it’s not as bad as it was on the Wii. The minecarts aren’t an obstacle like they were previously, but the level just feels so unfun. There’s something about it that doesn’t click, it’s not like Cheese Land in its blandness, but it doesn’t really have anything about it that screams this is fun.

Dry Dry Desert

I wasn’t sure whether to go with this or Bone Dry Dunes as both are rubbish and pretty bland, they’re just a sand level with no colour. The only reason I picked this as a worse track than Bone Dry Dunes is that BDD has a ship that shoots coins.

Toad’s Turnpike

I think back to the N64 version of this and thinking I used to like it, am I thinking of a different track? Have they changed something? Or was I just wrong? The track is uninspiring, and the traffic is pointless. It very rarely hinders how you play, so it’s just there. You’d think the traffic would make you think on your feet to weave in and out of it to get to the top, but the track doesn’t do that, cars and trucks are basically scenery.

Grumble Volcano

The final of my top five worse tracks from MK8D is Grumble Volcano. I didn’t like this on the Wii, and it’s surprising. You have terrain that falls away, and a volcano going off in the background, but I just can’t get behind this track. It should’ve been great, but I cannot get any enjoyment out of it. To be frank, it seems more on me than the track, but I simply don’t like it.

Final thoughts

While I don’t think the worst tracks are truly awful, there is a lot in the way of preference to the tracks, layouts, and so on and it would be great to get comments to see where people line up with their top tracks, or just to let me know why ‘X’ isn’t a great track and why ‘Y’ is. So, either leave a comment or pop into the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe thread to give me a piece of your mind, you can also join us for Mario Kart Monday’s as well.

Disgaree with Pedz? Settle it on the track and join GRcade for Mario Kart Mondays Deluxe at 9pm on Monday nights. Click here for the tournament details

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Desert Island Games – Episode 1 Part 3

Here we are with the final part of Rax’s Desert Island Games list and we get find out games 6, 7 and 8. We’ve only had 1 Nintendo title up till now so maybe the big N will feature a little more heavily in these.

Game 6 is the latest edition in Nintendo’s long running Legend of Zelda series. Released only a few months ago simultaneously on Wii U and Switch having originally been in development solely as a Wii U title, it marks a significant change in direction for the series by moving to an open world environment. It released to universal critical acclaim and currently has a metacritic of 97%, placing it as one of the highest reviewed games of all time. Rax’s next choice is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Nintendo Switch.

So Rax, another Switch game?
The weird thing is I don’t actually own a Switch yet but 2 of my games are for that console! But I have played both of those games on Wii U and figured I’d put the Switch version on there for the extra bells and whistles they include on those versions.

How far into Breath of the Wild are you on Wii U?
I don’t have a huge amount of time for games these days but this had my undivided attention for over 2 months and while I put 80 or so hours into this I still feel like I rushed parts of it. I’ve beaten Ganon, done all the memories and I’ve gotten all the shrines but I don’t feel like I’ve seen most of what the world has to offer. I’ve seen a few secrets, things I wont mention here, but I have the feeling there’s plenty more out there for me to do. For one thing I only have around 100 Korok seeds so there must be pretty large chunks of the map that I haven’t paid much attention to. In completionist terms I’m at around 25% so there’s plenty of Hyrule left for me to explore.

Game number 7 is a very distinct change in style but also comes from Nintendo.  It’s the third game in the once popular Advance Wars series and was released on Nintendo DS in 2005. Following on from the first two GBA games, it was incredibly well received and holds a Metacritic score of 90. It was praised for it’s use of the 2nd screen and was the first Advance Wars game to add a non-hot seat multiplayer mode.  This game is Advance Wars Dual Strike.

Why Advance Wars Dual Strike over the other games in series?
For me it’s the best version of the game. The GBA game was great, I know it wasn’t the original, apparently they’ve been a thing in Japan since the NES days but it was a great introduction to the series and I was super hyped for the DS version. Thankfully it didn’t disappoint, it improved on just about everything and added so much more. Its one of the most packed games I can think of as well, with the story mode, multiplayer, challenge maps etc, I have sunk a couple of hundred hours into it and I still haven’t come close to finishing everything. A long stretch on a desert island would help with that!

And so we come to the final game on your list. Originally designed and programmed by Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov, it was first released in 1984 and has since appeared on just about every platform imaginable. It’s mainstream success though was mostly due to the Gameboy version which was released in 1989. It has had countless sequels and one of which is your last game, Tetris DS.

What sets Tetris DS above the other iterations for you?
I suppose for that one its a case of having more fond memories of that version. Like everyone else on the planet, I had a Gameboy as a kid and I played Tetris on it but it never was something I was any good at or remember playing that often. But the DS version is one I played for a whole summer while I was in Chicago. Obviously I couldn’t lug my 360 there so I brought my DS and a bunch of games but the one I played the most was Tetris. I spent the whole summer setting my high score, the sleep function on the DS was invaluable for that, I could play for a bit then put the DS into sleep mode and resume where I left off. I got pretty good at it and just have stronger feelings for that version of the game over any other.

So to bring this to a close, some people might be surprised to see no Madden in your selection?
I’m not actually a big fan of the Madden games, I used to get the new one every year but it never felt like there was much change from year to year so I stopped getting them. I’ve never really missed them either as I always just played through season mode and never got into the multiplayer side of things.

Anything else notable that didn’t make the cut?
As I mentioned earlier there’s a bunch of games I love on N64 and 360 that didn’t make it in. Halo in particular was on the list for a long time but when I stacked it up against others I found myself liking it less and less as a desert island game. The absence of an N64 platformer was a surprise to me as well, I love Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie and Conkers Bad Fur Day but in a lot of ways they’re not games that lend themselves that well to playing forever. Also if this list had been made 5 years ago I probably would have included Goldeneye or Perfect Dark on the list but I don’t think they’ve held up that well, they’re still enjoyable but I don’t think I could get past how bad they feel now. They’re still great games but having played newer shooters they just feel dated and I couldn’t keep them on there,

I also considered Pokemon and various JRPGs, Dragon Quest in particular, but as great as they are and as long as those games last there’s not a huge amount of replayability with them so I had to cut them.

Many thanks to Rax for sending over those contributions and I hope you all enjoyed reading his choices. It was definitely a case of head over heart with his choices with a particular emphasis on longevity. How he’ll cope with never being able to play Mario 64 or Halo again though we’ll have to wait and see!

As he sails off into the distance with his bundle of games, I’ll (hopefully) be back in a sort while with the next contributor!