It’s Controversial Being Me
Upon the release of GTA IV, gamers everywhere seemingly dropped whatever they were in the middle of to pave way for mowing down pedestrians and showing their hos a good time in Liberty City. As appealing as that may have sounded to me, I had another city to explore. Well, an entire 4 discs of cities, dungeons, and villages to be exact. When GTA IV was launched, I was amid the second disc of J-RPG Lost Odyssey, and no matter the hype GTA IV generated, I couldn’t tear myself away from the world I had become immersed in elsewhere. Not because Lost Odyssey is so great. I mean, it is great, but just because it’s actually impossible for me to call it quits at any point during the story to start a new adventure.
But apparently, what with it being GTA IV, I was expected to make some allowances. From the course of GTA IV’s release up until now, I’d received several Twitter messages from followers telling me to pull myself away from the trouble Uhra was facing to create havoc in Liberty City. Gaming doesn’t quite work that way for me. I can’t actually get tucked into a game unless I’m going to finish it, from start to finish. And no, I don’t necessarily mean unlocking every Achievement, or collecting every hidden valuable in the game; I simply have to complete the story.
Even games that I have found to be flawed, such as Medal of Honor: Airborne. While I found it impossible to progress through the game without getting severely agitated with the game play, I still persevered and made it to the rather unspectacular finish.
I have friends, however, who jump between 4 games each session on their Xbox. OK, so it’s no biggy switching discs between a game such as Viva Pinata with, say, PGR4, but I can’t comprehend doing that with, for example, Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata. If a game has a story, I’m going to be playing it from start to finish. Even if the game in question, like Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, is pretty clumsy as far as the story line is concerned.
That’s not always been the case though. In my PlayStation days, when I was about 11 years of age, I wasn’t too focused on finishing games. I’m pretty ashamed when I think about the chance I had to lose myself in Final Fantasy VII, yet the fact I never progressed past the first bloody disc because I was too busy swapping between that and, er, Spyro (go easy on me, I was a kid!). But now that I’m older and actually have a concentration span, it’s impossible for me to chop and change between games. So while the messages of gentle persuasion I received about GTA IV trickled through, and as the near perfect review scores were leaked on the internet, I had no intention of disembarking from my party of 6 on Lost Odyssey. Not because I didn’t want to experience the delights of GTA in both 3D and High Definition (last GTA game I played was seriously old school), but because I had a story to finish elsewhere.
So here I am, booting up my Xbox and seeing that out of 17 friends online, I’m the only person not playing GTA IV. Oh, and this isn’t the first time for this to happen either. While everyone was playing Bioshock, I was on Blue Dragon. Halo 3, I was on Skate. The Orange Box, I was on Tomb Raider: Anniversary. It seems I’m forever at the receiving end of confounded messages as to why I’m not playing the latest hyped game. So, I guess that makes me a controversial gamer, right? Having said that, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person who places importance on finishing a story before starting another?
Tags: GTA IV, Liberty City, Lost Odyssey, Medal of Honor: Airborne, PlayStation, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Uhra
May 7th, 2008 at 3:29 am
I am with you on most of those points. When I get involved in a story I prefer to finish it. However, it is a little different for me as I prefer Multiplayer to single player. Some games I don’t start SP at all. For Halo 3 I had the game for a month or more before I touched Solo play. On The Orange Box I only did Portal and TF2. I am on GTA IV but I made sure I was open for diving into the story. I plan to complete the story on it but am having a hard time balancing MP time as that is what I prefer. It might have to do with the fact that I normally game a max of 2 hours a day (2 or more hours is a great day but very rare) so only playing an hour to hour and a half is sometimes hard to get stuck in a story. Might also be why I like MP more because I can normally jump into a game for an hour and get lots of playing before getting off. I don’t really jump between games though if I’m in the middle of a story.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:29 am
I was all over Mass Effect, The Orange Box and Rock Band when they came out, but I waited quite a while for BioShock, don’t play Halo and I haven’t played my Xbox in at least three weeks, so obviously I haven’t picked up GTA IV yet. The only time when it’s a bad idea to not be playing the most popular game is because you’ll miss out on the time when the online is the best (or in the case of TF2, the laggiest.) I still need to buy Skate, by the way. I’m holding out to find it at a good price.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I’m not like you at all. I jump between games quite a lot. But I always keep track and I have to finish the games. No more than 3 games at the same time.
I really like the way you do it. It’s hardcore in some way.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I never really used to play games to completion until I got my 360. Since then I’ve completed almost every game I’ve owned on it (Guitar Hero 3 and skate. being exceptions). Now I seem to be more like you in regards to having to complete one story before I start another and luckily I wasn’t playing through any other games when GTA IV came along.
Although speaking of this, we never did finish that co-op game of Vegas 2. Oh well, I’m addicted to GTA IV now anyway
May 8th, 2008 at 10:11 am
James, I don’t think I’ve met many people who prefer MP over SP. Makes sense though what with you having a family and only getting a couple of hours, even if that, to game.
Kenneth, you’re right about the only bad thing being missing out on when the MP is at its most popular. Unlike James though, I’m not that big on MP (only like playing Rainbow online). On the other hand, waiting a while after the game is out gives devs a chance to iron out any problems. Speaking of, hopefully by the time you pick up Skate EA have sorted out the lag issue.
Alexander, my memory is abysmal so there’s no way I would actually be able to jump between games and remember what I was doing in each one. Especially as I like my story centered RPG’s. Kudos to you for that!
Andy, same here. I didn’t really play games to completion until the 360, but the last console I spent a decent amount of time on was the PlayStation, and I was pretty young then. Hey, I’m up for finishing Rainbow co-op with you if you are! Also, I don’t think I’ve seen anybody else play GTA IV as much as you :p
May 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Yeah and I still didn’t manage to complete the story in less than 30 hours for the Liberty City Minute achievement
After this weekend though I have roughly 5 months off from university so maybe I can use some of that time for a 2nd play through (I swear I wasn’t this bothered about the G’s until I started reading your blog :P).
I should also be able to use that time to get my new blog up and running.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Yeah, having a wife and two kids means limited gaming time. Before the kids though on the original Xbox I used to game upwards of 5-7 hours a day every day (RS3, Halo, etc). Just can’t pull that off anymore.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
And here’s me still trying to find all of those blummin flags on Assassins Creed!
I’ll get round to GTA IV eventually but I am quite content at the moment seeing everyone else hyped about it. Yes i’d like to play it now but it can wait!
(I think).
May 12th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m never playing the latest games. I mean I just got Assassins Creed and Gears of War. I put it down to concentrating on current game and being a tight arse with money
Gotta have those cheaper games 
May 12th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Great to see a dedicated gamer! A trait I should put to practice a bit more often when it comes to gaming. I have 26 games on my 360 - only 4 of which I’ve actually completed. Why? Simply because I have a habit of jumping from game to game! I’m trying to change that a bit now - which is why I haven’t bought Vegas 2 yet, as I have yet to complete Vegas 1!