Saturday, January 30, 2016

Juggling Media Consumption: Video Games

Given that I'm going to class these days and, therefore, have homework to take care of, I have a feeling I won't have nearly as much time for video games as I did a week ago. And I already didn't have much time to play, so it's going to be rough.

Still, it's an important hobby to me, so I'll find time somehow. Here's what I'm juggling now:

The rough part is that, unlike TV shows, I can't really do much else while I'm playing games. Games often require my full attention, which I'm not always at liberty to give. The primary exception is portable games, which I can play while I'm out to lunch, before bed, or while taking a bath. However, those activities are also sometimes shared by books and Cracked articles on my phone, and given that I have a resolution to finish 12 books by the end of the year, books should start taking precedence soon.

That said, recently I've been enjoying Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy on my 3DS. It's kind of fun, but the characters and music make me long for an actual Final Fantasy game rather than this distraction that relies on nostalgia. I imagine I'll be setting it aside soon.

When I really have some time to kill, I've been putting more time into Star Wars: The Old Republic. My eight(!) characters are approaching the end of the classic campaign, and the recent expansion promises an interesting single-player storyline that is supposed to feel like closer to older Knights of the Old Republic games. MMOs are purposefully time-consuming, but SWTOR's recent updates that really streamlined the process, so I'm making a lot of headway when I actually put in the time.

Not long ago, Laura and I started playing Secret of Mana together. Laura had never played it before, and I haven't gotten far in that game for a long time. In fact, I barely remember anything about the latter parts of the game, so it's practically a new experience for me at this point. We can't always find time to play together, though, so it's slow going.

I've also started playing Radiata Stories again in the past few days. It's really one of my favorite games, a real hidden gem of the PS2 era. Seriously fun and interesting, and frankly amazing to me from a technical standpoint. Plus, just a straight-up good story.

And that's pretty much it. I mean, I'm sure that seems like a lot of games to be juggling to some people, but it's worth noting that I have no idea when or if I'll finish any of these games. I'll be sure to reflect on them here, though, if and when I do.

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