My road to gaming bliss, buy fewer games but replay them more.

[alexl86]

I found this topic intriguing and felt a sudden urge to register just to post.

I've always been a victim of buying too many games. I probably have 100+ games for my PS2, I have 10-12 games for my 360 which isn't a year old yet. And I'm not playing a game for an hour, then move on to the next. I play for 20 hours or more, with nearly each game I own. I like RPGs, I like Strategy(real time and turn based), as well as most genres.

So far, the games I've sunk the most hours into is either Oblivion or Morrowind. It's a close call between the two and I'm 100% sure I've played Oblivion for more than 1000 hours. I played Oblivion before I played Morrowind, just for the record. I have a bad habit of playing a sequel, then backtracking, sinking even more money into the industry.

Since I am a sucker for Strategy, I've of course sunk a fair amount of hours into Civilization IV too. If you like Fantasy, I also enjoy Battle for Middle-Earth and Warcraft. Rome: Total War is also one of the best strategy games I've played, simply because of the depth of the battles in it.

I'm not a PC only player either, as I mentioned I have a collection of console games. I enjoy fighting games, though the genre isn't at it's peak. It's dominated by sequels and is considered niche. My all time favorites are Tekken 3, UMK3 and SF2, though I'm not sure if I prefer Turbo or Hyper Fighting. I also enjoy soccer games, like any good European. I don't particularly enjoy the sport itself and don't frequently buy the games, I'm still on FIFA 2008. For racing games, Burnout and Forza are enough to get by.

I even have some older games. I take my Playstation out of the closet to play Final Fantasy VII from time to time, I play GT2, Tekken 3 and syphon filter. I bring my NES out a couple of times a year, to see if I can still beat all the Robot Masters or beat every single world in SMB.

Anyway, you get my point. I have about 250 games in my room, right now. That's about 5000 dollars worth of games... and I love them all... Well, perhaps not all, but I do have affection for a lot of games. By the off chance that in 10 years I'll look back on a game I'm playing right now, with the same affection I have for Final Fantasy VII, which I'll admit is my all time favorite, I can't really sell any of them.

Also, I do lots of grunt work before I buy a game. If I buy one, I've seen gameplay footage, I've read hands on previews, I've heard about it on podcasts. I've read the review, in most cases. The only exceptions are a few games from certain series, where a purchase is inevitable.

It seems I've adopted a different approach. I buy more games, but I've become more picky about the quality.