Christmas Woes
I don’t have to tell you that this time of year can be stressful for folks like us. The beaten, the damned, the downtrodden gaming elite. At this point in the season, if you’re like me then you have little to no money left to your name. Your next meal will likely be chicken ramen with some barbeque sauce and maybe a little peanut butter on a spoon for dessert. This is the lovely time of year where everyone goes balls out with their game releases in order to coerce you into spending that oh so hard earned holiday bonus on a new adventure. Here’s some helpful advice on how to survive the assault on your wallets that likely just took place. At the risk of dating myself, let’s look at some of the titles we’ve seen grace our shelves in the last few months.
Gears of War 4 and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, both of which came with extended “gimme all your money” editions including a previous or many previous installments in their franchises. Pokémon Sun and Moon, which any halfhearted or even jaded fan at this point has to pick up, because nostalgia…right. Two games finally released from what is cumulatively almost two decades in development over several different consoles, Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian. The rumblings on the net say they are living up to their expectations. This is just a sample of the things that are brand new to your systems in the last couple of months.
I know that many of you out there in internet land don’t like all, or even any of these products, but chances are at least one or two strike your fancy. This time of year is always hard for me, and not for the obvious financial reasons, (here’s my trick, redbox is your best friend and have a pretty decent collection even in Podunk nowhere). No, time is the big constraint I find myself in every Christmas. Between family, friends, and just general self-wellbeing, the holidays can take every last precious second of your off time. What’s the use of getting multiple epic stories and game of the year contenders if they are just going to sit on your shelf gathering dust for the next few months.
The point I’m trying to make is to pace yourself during the holidays. Don’t fall victim to something that took me many years to correct in myself, trying to just play and get it over with. Here’s an anecdote, for demonstration purposes about an experience I had just last Christmas. You wake up and rush downstairs in your mother’s freezing house only to find that you and your wife are the only ones awake, so coffee hasn’t happened yet. The troops rally, and about an hour later, you find yourself in gamer heaven. Multiple triple A titles, giftcards to PSN and Steam, and a handful of blurays for good measure. While I was ecstatic to be the recipient of so much happy goodness, I found myself in an instant dilemma. Do I pop in Black Ops 3 and play that for a while, or should I see if Star Wars Battlefront really is as pretty as the streams I’ve been watching of it are? Of course, there’s always time for those, why not sink my teeth into Elder Scrolls Online? But then again, maybe Assassin’s Creed is more suited for short bursts, and somehow I have to work through the Master Chief Collection and Halo 5, and Destiny isn’t going to level me up all by itself. “Oh what’s that mom? It’s breakfast time, then we’re spending the rest of the day at grandma’s house?” Well…I guess I might be able to sneak away and play my 3DS for a bit. Maybe I can just pretend to have a stomach ache and I can start powering through Zelda on the shitter for a half hour. Seriously, I still feel guilty I haven’t gotten more than an hour into Black Ops story mode, and have played maybe twenty total matches in Battlefront to date.
I’m thankful for what I have, and that my lifestyle allows me to have a hobby as expensive and time consuming as video games. I know this story isn’t relevant for many of you, at least not to this extent. My advice to survive the holiday woes of Steam sales and discounts too good to be true, don’t overdo it. If it’s on sale now, it will be again. No need to commit to things months in advance, or have a backlog miles long. I’ve found that my staples carry me through gaming droughts. I’ll always have something like Overwatch or Civ 6 to tide me over until the next big must have game comes (for me, it’s likely Persona 5, come on February get here faster). New games aren’t always a for sure, but getting to the meat of a game and not scarfing it down has offered me a new take on holiday game season. Get on out there and enjoy those gifts, and have a great holiday!
