Games

Pixel Perfect Memories: Fatherhood

46 Comments

My last column before my life changes forever, I won't be reviewing an actual game today.  My blog is still churning out reviews.  If you have an interest in adventures games, check out the current countdown, where I have already detailed a game where you play characters in Edgar Allen Poe stories, another where you play a transgendered character, and not to mention the always lovable bunny and canine detectives.

While I suspect I'll have much less time to play games than I used to, I imagine over the course of the next fifteen years the ones I do play I'll enjoy more.  I also imagine I'll be way more efficient with my free time than I am now.  My goal to get a PS3 is now shot, but I may make more use of my DS.

For those in the nation that are fathers and still find time for games, how do you fit them in?  Do you enjoy playing more than you used to?  Do you involve the family more?  What did you give up?

Whatcha' playing?

46 thoughts on “Pixel Perfect Memories: Fatherhood”

  1. I have to try to wake up early on weekends (like 5:00-6:00 early) in order to fit gaming in. If I can get a game going before anyone wakes up, I can usually get a couple hours in. My wife is not at all a video game person, so it makes it harder to find the time.

    Anyway, I wanted to thank Spooky for the Outland suggestion over at Beau's site. I've been playing the crap out of it and am nearly finished, although with the Wolves latest decent into what we all expect every year, I've been playing a lot of NBA 2K13 to get an idea of how good they would have been if they weren't located in Minnesota. Other than that, I've put Fallout: New Vegas on the backburner for Borderlands 2, which is fun as hell and brings me back to my Diablo 2 days in college, only more fun and less carpal tunnel-y.

    I'm looking at trying to pick up Far Cry 3, Dishonored, Skyward Sword (because I gotta play as much LoZ as possible), and Xenoblade Chronicles (I haven't played a good JRPG in too long.), but prices aren't quite there yet. (Well, Skyward Sword is, so that'll probably be next.)

    1. It seems that it's getting harder to find copies of Xenoblade Chronicles, which sucks. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and it sucks that a lot of people may not have the opportunity to play.

      Though Nintendo showed a trailer for Monolithsoft's next game for Wii U today, so maybe they'll do another printing of XC so people can play it before the spiritual sequel.

      1. Yeah, ebay copies were $60-80, which is more than I am willing to pay for a game at the moment. Another printing would be very much welcome.

      1. Indeed. That, and Mark of the Ninja have recently reminded me of how fun 2D platformers can be.

  3. I actually became more of a gamer when I became a dad. Suddenly I was in a spot where I had to be at home a lot more, and it's not like the kid can do much early on, so there's a lot of time to kill. When Skim was very small, it probably marked the greatest amount of free time I ever had. As she got a bit older and we did more together, it subsided, but returned when she was old enough to play a handful of games with me.

    The main change now is that I have to fit in certain games at the right times. It might take me a handful of days to beat an E-rated game, and a month and a half to finish an M-rated game of the same length, since they contain nightmare images, and all that. I was actually never into gore that much, so it rarely comes up.

    I have almost 1700 trophies on the PlayStation Network and people ask how I have time for it, and I guess we just have different favorite ways to use our spare time because I really don't feel like I'm on it as much as I clearly am. If I have writer's block or I only have two hours before I have to do something, I'll normally play a bit of a game.

    1. I'm with Spooky regarding that initial "more gaming" phase. I'm not with him otherwise, since my play time has dropped dramatically since. Of course, my kids are younger than his, so maybe I really am with him, I'm just not back to that next phase yet. I basically play at night, after the kids have gone to bed. I probably average 3-4 hours a week, with plenty of them at 0 if I'm spending time on other projects and/or with Philosofette. We also cancelled our cable this week (after months of promising we would), so I've had more time for games the last couple nights.

      I've been playing a little bit of Super Smash Bro. Brawl again lately. I felt a craving for button mashing. And I'm fairly close to completing a ton of the in-game challenges, so I'll probably stick it out until I manage that. Like Cheap, I'm interested in Skyward Sword, which is essentially the game I bought the Wii for (years before its release), and yet haven't gotten around to purchasing. So maybe I'll angle for that soon.

    2. I play a lot of games. I thought 1700 seemed like a lot, but I counted all of my XBox360 achievements from all the games I've played. ...2523...

  4. My wife bought me a PS3 for Christmas, so I've been playing a bit on that.

    Lots of The Show so far. So far, I'm loving it quite a bit. The fielding is a lot more intuitive than most games I've played (I remember one of the 2K games where it was incredibly easy on a ground ball to the first baseman to simply circle first base, The Show rightly assumes that no, I want to step on the base). Not very good at hitting, so I've got the settings all weird (All Star pitching, beginner hitting... lots of 2-1 games).

    In Final Fantasy V, I hit a wall where I accidentally save stated right before a boss fight where only black magic can deal damage. I've got physical damage dealers and healers - the fight will be literally impossible. I have to go back to the last save game, but that's like an hour and a half back. I'd forgotten what an absolutely infuriating feeling that is.

    On the PS3, I've played a bit of Uncharted. I like it, but... the series does get better, right? What I've played so far is fun, and very pretty, but not incredibly ensnaring. I find it very easy to eject the disc and go back to The Show. Maybe the second and third games are where it gets super awesome? Maybe later in this game?

    Also, I played through Descent again, because seriously - why not?

    1. I think Uncharted 2 is one of the very best games of the generation, and is far better than the first. I think I like the first better than I liked Uncharted 3 overall. The beginning portions of the game were really excellent I thought, but it sort of fell apart for me around half way through. It was still worth playing, though.

      1. All of that. The first is very fun, but the second is leaps and bounds better in every way, and one of the best things I've ever played, if not #1.

    2. I'd forgotten what an absolutely infuriating feeling that is.

      something extremely similar happened to me in FFVIII, i believe it was. whichever one had the final boss fight on its own disc. the last save point is just before the beginning of the boss fight, which i wasn't aware of, so no going back. my party was just strong enough to get through the dungeon, but not enough to beat the last boss. no other saved games (space was precious then), so, yeah, i never finished that one.

      1. my party was just strong enough to get through the dungeon, but not enough to beat the last boss.

        I was a master at that. Usually, it's not quite so mean about "ha! now you're stuck here", but I was so underleveled in my fight with Sephiroth to end FFVII that it took like 80 minutes to beat him.

        1. Heh, glad I'm not the only one, although I was less "underpowered" than the fact that I choose my two groups rather poorly.It took me a good 2-1/2 hours to beat him, if I recall. I wasn't so much in danger of dying as I just couldn't generate enough damage on one side to do it quickly.

        2. And this is why I struggle with RPGs. I'm constantly worried, even when the game starts, that I'll be underpowered, or level up incorrectly.

          1. This happened my first play through of Oblivion. I had no idea how to level correctly and got caught in an inescapable dungeon with a weak character. Didn't have any saves outside of that dungeon and repeatedly got my ass kicked by some painted trolls. I didn't realize that I could change the difficulty level at that point so I started over.

        3. i don't remember how many times i tried to beat the final boss, but it just wasn't happening. i wouldn't have minded wandering around the last dungeon grabbing XP, but i couldn't even go back to that.

        4. I've been lucky enough to never have to restore back too far, though when I played FFVI, I saved right before the cranes and wasn't leveled up enough. It took me several days to get lucky enough to beat them so I didn't have to restart the whole game.

          Good RPGs allow you level up just by fighting all the enemies you meet without running. The bad ones either force you to pause for long periods of time to mindlessly kill easy enemies, or suddenly trap you in a tough spot without warning.

  5. I'm getting back into Borderlands 2. Started up a Mechromancer character and am going to play through all the DLC (I got the season pass). I'm enjoying the game a lot more the second time around, for some reason.

    I always hated to admit this growing up, but I'm a pokemon fan. A huge fan as a 10 year old, gave it up as too nerdy through high school, but recently picked it up again as a nostalgia thing. It's an easy thing to play on my DS as I use my exercise bike. Currently playing through White. Excited about the new 3D versions coming.

  6. I've struggled with gaming as an adult. I sometimes wish I could do it all the time. I sometimes ignore it for months.

    When I decided to be more intentional about my career, I expelled all games and systems from my home. At the time I had one child, with one on the way. Things were like that for a few years as every waking hour was trying to improve my craft (programming) and help out with the family.

    Once I started to get comfortable with my trajectory again, I bought a PS3. I vowed to play one game at a time, to completion, then sell it. So I collected a pile of games, but didn't ever play them. One problem is the first game I did this with was Metal Gear Solid 4, which was a pretty horrendous game IMO. (Oooo, another 45-minute nonsensical cut scene!)

    In the past I could burn days off my life playing sports games (Madden, baseball, basketball). The Show and NBA 2K have attempted to do this to me. But with these more recent sports games, success now requires practice. I appreciate the realism, the challenge, and wish it was there when I was a kid gaming away my time. As an adult it's frustrating because unless I played these games every day my skill level was never enough to have fun with them. Further, after a couple weeks and 20 hours of playing them I would step back and say to myself "what the f*** did you just do with your time?"

    More recently I reconnected with one of my best friends through gaming. Battlefield Bad Company 2 was our choice and we'd play multiple times a week, headsets on and talking. Again, though, I regretted the time I spent gaming. The addictive nature of it bothered me. And so I've decided mostly I just want to talk to my friend, so if that's just on the phone that's fine. We haven't been playing nearly as much, but I expect we'll find a balance at some point.

    I'm also at another important stage of my career and am feeling the need to commit some free time to my growth again. Not as much as 7 years ago, but now I have 3 kids and the free time is less and less.

    2. I feel your sentiment on playing modern sports games. I don't have the time to get great at these games, and one game can often take well over an hour. If I was a kid, I'd play the ever living fire out of these games. Nowadays I prefer games with endings.

      1. I always get excited to play sports games, then I get let down because they require soooo much investment in learning the mechanics, etc. If it's a game that I am going to play in short bursts, I'd like the mechanics to be able to be intuitive and tight. I don't feel that way about most sports games. Hot Shots Golf is the exception, and that's the one sports series I really play a lot of.

        1. Yeah, the Easy level on a sports game should be, you know, easy. Especially when you have two or more levels above that. It shouldn't be difficult to make a game so that you can play it on the Easy (Rookie) level and be competitive as soon as you get it.

    3. Metal Gear Solid 4, which was a pretty horrendous game IMO. (Oooo, another 45-minute nonsensical cut scene!)

      That's pretty much the opposite of every review you'll find. I guess the cutscenes make perfect sense if you've played the entire series, but little to no sense if you haven't.

      1. I played the PS One MG. Really enjoyed it.

        The reviews fooled me, that's for sure. The reviews say it's one of the best games ever. When I would sit down with an hour (or worse, 30 minutes) to play and have to sit through 45 minutes of weird dialog. Ugh.

        Incidentally, what would you pay for a PS3-ultra whose only feature was to improve load times? I'd replace my PS3. If only it could also improve the UX of many horrible game menus...

  7. I've taken a break on my 100% run for New Super Mario Bros. U, which I really need to get back to. I did finish the main part of New Super Mario Bros. 2, though. The end of it was really good, the level design got super fun. I'll probably get back to that one to 100% after I finish U.

    Right now I'm playing Super Mario: Sticker Star on my 3DS. I absolutely adore it so far. The writing is fun and the combat using stickers is really interesting. It's also paced perfectly for a portable game because of there being individual levels to go through on the map. I'd heard mixed things on it, but I think it's totally awesome.

    On my 360, I've been playing DmC: Devil May Cry. I think Ninja Theory pulled it off. Yeah, British punk Dante is pretty silly looking. And the plot is stupid as hell (I think this is a big part of why they were brought in). But the game is damn fun. It's not quite as daunting as the earlier games, but the combat can get tough, and you are required to use a lot of different skills. I was skeptical on this, and ended up buying it on a whim because of a gift card. I'm glad I did.

    I also played the Metal Gear Rising Revengeance demo last night. Oh hell yes. There's a lot to learn in the demo, and I'm thinking I'll play again tonight because I felt so overwhelmed. But I can't wait to play the full version of this. It's going to be excellent.

    I'll be picking up Ni no Kuni by the end of the week, but I'm not sure when I'll start it. It looks to be excellent though. I'm glad it made the trek to the West.

  8. I wouldn't know where to start with what I've played - I get new free stuff every week. I wish I had a day off to talk about this.

    I'll mention real quickly that existing-franchise vids might be on the rise again. I bought Brave for my daughter, and found that I, too, am having a blast with it, even if it's stripped down to a game's essentials (or maybe because of that fact). I guess the latest Transformers game is excellent, too, though that would be a hard sell for me since I hate the recent film franchise so much.

    1. There's a Transformers game that came out a couple of years ago (and maybe a sequel?) that wasn't based on the movie but got really good reviews. The one based on the movie sucked.

  9. I play a lot of games with my boys. Mainly racing games and Wii sports games. My wife needs more sleep than I, so I play games for just me when everyone is in bed or when the boys are asleep and the wife is getting ready for bed. Most of the games I play by myself are on the computer, usually card games. I play those games to relax. I do play some Wii games to get some exercise or vent frustrations.

          1. it's the principle of the issue at this point. after it first came out, i thought, hmm, i'd love to play that, but i think i'll wait until the price comes down. that was 5 years ago.

            1. I love/hate this about Nintendo's games. At least I know if I buy on release, I generally won't get burned with a 50% price drop in two weeks. On the other hand, when there's something that's several years old I want, it's hard to justify full price.

            3. Prices never drop on Nintendo games primarily because of the customer base. On PS3 and 360, you have savvy gamers who await releases and buy up all the copies within the first few days. Sales stall at that point. On the Wii, you have customers mostly browsing, and they're casual types who have no idea (and don't care, really) if a game is new or if it just came out, so the big-name titles sell fairly well forever, rather than like hotcakes for a few weeks.

              1. Well, Nintendo generally releases one version of their evergreen titles per generation. So, I mean they never have to worry about blowing out copies of the old version of Mario Kart because a new one is coming out for a new year or whatever. It's annoying, but I sort of see it from a business standpoint.

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