I love videogames. I REALLY love videogames. And I buy videogames. LOTS of videogames. Maybe it's the way they are packaged. The older games came in cleverly designed cardboard boxes with little compartments for the cartridges. Newer games come in seductive DVD cases that stack well or can stand up like little books. For whatever the reason, I can't keep from getting more - and on a weekly basis. I figure the last system that I played all the games I got for it was either the Atari 2600 or (possibly) the Dreamcast (only because I didn't have very many games for it). I know I have some unopened SNES games and I think one or two for the N64. As for the big 3, forget it. With around 70+ for each system, it's no contest. So, in an effort to make me feel that I'm not totally wasting my money, I've started to mark games that I have played. I don't have to finish the game, but I do have to at least get a feel for the game. More than a demo and more than just watching the intro. Basically play it to the point of finding out what makes it unique and far enough into the game that I wouldn't want to lose my progress and start over. When I get to this stage, I put a white dot sticker on the spine of the game. Then when I look at my collection, I can easily see how many I've really played. Or see how many games I should play before buying more. (As if!) (The one thing it doesn't take into consideration is that some games I've played all the way through - like D&D Heroes and Cursed, for example - were sold off. And I think there were a few turkeys I got rid of after trying them and hating how they played. It does skew the count toward more unplayed then played, but I think it's still a good system. At some point I'm going to add GBA games to the "Dot System" too.)
Last night I was able to tag one more - Project: Snowblind for the PS2. I got a pleasant surprise from this one. I was expecting just a mindless FPS, but it had more story and setting than most. You play a U.N.-style peace-keeping soldier in the middle of what is becoming an Asian civil war set in 2065. Unlike most "peace-keepers" you get to kick alot of ass. After trying to hold a Chinese temple against enemy soldiers, futuristic double-rotor rocket firing heilo's, and ED209-like robots, you get seriously injuried and find yourself being "a candidate" for a new procedure - Project: Snowblind. (ED209 wasn't the only thing they stole from Robocop.) Neat touch: during the cut-scenes you can look around with the thumbstick, making it seem much less "canned". You then go out on more missions as this Halo-esque super soldier. So it borrows from a number of other games and movies - at least you get the feeling from the little touches (NPC chatter and computer cinematography, for example) that this wasn't just thrown together to make a buck. Hard to say how much more I'll play of it as the first mission out of the "garage" is kicking my ass so far. :P
P.S. The $900 B&N bundle is up to #2 on their best seller list, second only to SW:BF2.
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