WARNING!! STUPIDLY LONG ESSAY BELOW
TL;DR- rejigging my 12in12 after half a year to better fit myself. I played some games, enjoyed some, not others. Go play Night In The Woods it’s brilliant.
For reference, my original post is here:
https://reddit.com/r/12in12/comments/acvotl/my_12in12_walking_sims/
Hello 12in12.
So I thought since it’s been longer than 6 months I should do an update, and reflect on my time attempting to do this challenge and what I’ve learned about myself as a video game player.
So firstly I’ll recap what I have actually managed to beat this year. I have beaten 8 games this year, but many of these are smaller games. These were:
LA Noire (switch): enjoyed the first half but was really soured on the story and the mechanics by the end of the game.
Firewatch (switch): great story, really enjoyed it. A few performance issues on the switch version though
Hitman (PS4): an incredibly enjoyable sandbox, really enjoyed playing through each of the missions. Replayed the levels a handful of times but I would never want to do all the repetition to 100% this game
Doom (Switch): was very pleased I got through this as I found it tough, but was an exciting, intense experience.
Night in the Woods (Switch): what a beautiful and fantastic experience. Without spoiling it, this games deals somewhat in issues of depression, anxiety, loneliness, loss, and presents it all in a way that really resonated with me. I wish the ending had been a little different to how it was (if you’ve played it you’ll know the part I’m talking about) but overall it really resonated with me on quite a significant level. I’ve read reactions from others online and not everyone seems to have got as much out of the experience, and that’s fair enough, but I found it to be incredibly memorable and I am excited to play it through again with my wife and see what she thinks of it.
Crash Bandicoot 3 (remake - switch): a game I am incredibly nostalgic for and was happy to play through it again in HD. YMMV but I love these games.
Metroid: Zero mission (GBA): Great reimagining of the original game, I would recommend playing this as your first metroidvania as it’s not too challenging and offers lots of hints and waypoints to help. Great place to start with the series as well, excited to play Super Metroid in the future.
Wario Ware (GBA): I mean...it’s Wario ware, what can you say? It’s brilliant, but it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea.
Okay, now for the games I didn’t get through
The Last of Us (PS4): got a few chapters in but the gameplay really wasn’t grabbing me. I know this is a highly revered game, and I do want to press on with it to experience the story, but I always think “I could play Last of Us....but I’d rather play X”. Maybe it’s just not for me
This is the Police (PS4): really interesting light-strategy game, love the presentation. Still playing this one though as it’s taking a while to get through.
Breath of the Wild - The Champions Ballad (Wii U) - good lord what a let down, played it for a few hours and was bitterly disappointed. I won’t spoil it here but suffice to say I was hugely let down by what the expansion was- it felt lazy to me. Disappointing after what a fantastic experience the main game was.
Smash Bros World of light (Switch) - got to the main boss of the first world and am currently stuck. Okay so I kinda suck at smash but I don’t think I suck too bad to beat the single player mode on medium difficulty. honestly I tried for two hours and it just always kicks my arse towards the end of the battle. So yeah just got frustrated and gave up.
Life is strange (PS4) - I did the first chapter, thought “yeah that was pretty good” and never picked it up again 🤷♂️
Everything else on my list up to this point I never got round to starting/picking up again so not much I can say there.
So, what have I learned from this experience? A few main things I think:
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I don’t have as much time to play video games as I thought and the amount of games I set out to play were way too much for my schedule. Honestly I see people on here completing 3 or more games a month and I just think what the hell lol, how are you doing that?
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When I do play video games, I tend to play a lot of multiplayer with my wife and friends (rocket league, sonic mania, mario kart, smash, fifa, worms, new SMB etc etc etc) and so while I do play a lot of video games, I’m not getting through a lot of single player experiences. I’ve also realised that that’s ok, and as long I’m enjoying my free time it really doesn’t matter.
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I am way too easily bored to play video games one at a time. I much prefer playing 30-60 mins of 3 or 4 games than 2-3 hours of one game.
So, with all this in mind, I’m redoing my 12in12 for the rest of the year. I have reduced the number of games, taken into account what I’m enjoying at the moment, as well as games with near release dates that I will definitely want to play:
July/August: Final Fantasy VII (Switch): I have literally never played a turn-based RPG before but I’m really enjoying it. Just left Midgar and excited to see the game open up
September: A Link to the Past (Switch): Incredibly excited for this, can’t wait.
October: This is the Police (PS4): As talked about above, hoping to be able to finish this game just to see the rest of the story
November/December: Death Stranding (PS4): Seeing the trailer for this is what made me get a PS4 in the first place. So obviously this is one I’ll play day one. It could be amazing, it could be terrible, it’ll definitely be weird and non-sensical. Either way, I can’t wait to experience Norman Reedus And His Jar Of Foetus.
If I can beat these four games, that’ll at least be 12 games for the year, and I can consider that I (sort of) did the challenge. But I certainly won’t be doing this again next year. It’s been fun to try, but it’s just not how I play video games.
If you read all this thanks, sorry for the essay, reading all this is probably a bigger accomplishment than playing 12 games!!
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