As people around the world set out each New Year to lose weight, or help more people in need, the Daily Reaction crew of Seb and Dan resolve to improve their gaming habits. Today we go over what things we regret missing out on in 2012, and what we can do in the new year to regain our gamer cred.
Dan: Well the one thing that has been my biggest shame this whole year has been the number of games I have completely missed out on even though I had bought them. During 2012, it seemed I had actually spent more time learning about and covering the games industry, than I have actually playing games. The amount of time each day dedicated to working on Daily Reaction, and Bad Gamers shoot days as well as other fiscal responsibilities has left me with a stack of games that could possibly fill up all of my time in 2013, and there are still games to come out.
My biggest regret as a gamer is the fact that I have yet to even play Shadow of the Colossus, as it released when I was in the middle of schooling and has since become my white whale. Despite having bought the Ico & SotC Collection a number of months ago, it sits still in its original wrapper begging to be brought to life and to explain all of the hype. So, before the year gets too far in, it is my hope to accomplish this simple, but much needed task.
On top of a true classic topping my backlog of games, my unopened collection consists of about 8-10 titles that range from new games like Far Cry 3 to other missed gems like Resistance 3. Starting from a point in the near future, I will have to dedicate a bit of time each week to slowly reduce this never ending pile of shame, hopefully before BioShock Infinite releases in March.
Once I have made it through my pile of bad investments, I will hopefully find some more Vita games to get through, as well as any of the highly regarded titles I missed. My Vita is currently nothing more than a pretty paperweight sucked dry of any electricity, working as a constant reminder of Sony’s seemingly forgotten middle child.
Besides all of my bad non-gaming habits, there are a number of things professionally that I hope to accomplish throughout the next year. Having created and produced the surprisingly successful Daily Reaction and Bad Gamers with Seb in 2012, I hope to not only improve the quality of both features, but to bring more content to the site in various ways. The ultimate hope I have for 2013 is to increase the amount of video content on the site, and see how you guys/gals respond.
Also I want more Twitter followers than Seb – Follow me on Twitter @Foolsjoker.
Seb: Ok, so that was a sickeningly long way of building up to simply plugging your Twitter account, so I’ll show how much better I am and do it at the beginning – @SebMoss is where the magic happens.
Playing more games is an obvious one, there are so many incredible titles out there dating back years, that it’s virtually impossible to play them all and keep up a job. But while I’ll certainly try to play more of the big hits, my resolution is that I want to play more indie games to truly understand everything about the gaming scene. And I don’t mean just the ‘big’ indie games that reach the PSN, but I plan on putting some time aside to play the really obscure stuff that hardly anyone plays – those are the games where the developer is generally just trying to make their vision a reality, where they don’t care about controversy or appeasing publishers and fitting into genres, because they know that it’s not going to be big anyway.
While I am playing the big PS3 and Vita games, I want to work out what the fuss is about trophies. For me, completing a game is the reward, I don’t see the need for a virtual symbol to remind me that I did it. I also don’t need it to show other people that I did it, because I know I’m better than them anyway.
Another resolution is that I plan to give motion gaming another chance. As it is, it sucks, it’s a terrible insult to gamers and gaming. But it doesn’t have to be. When the next big motion controlled game (probably using a next-gen camera on the PS4) is announced, I promise to not immediately trash it and expect it to be another slap in the face to PS owners. I mean, we all know it’ll be terrible, but I’ll pretend it won’t be…
Conversely, I’ll have to keep level-headed about next gen. We’ve all been waiting for the consoles to come, so it’s hard not to get too excited – especially when you consider all the games that are in development for PS4 – but it’s important to not get taken over by the hype.
While I’m at it, it’s important to not let PSLS get taken over by Dan, who seems intent on spreading his flawed views outside of just DR and BG. And while I’m at that, it’s probably a good idea to help the 30yr old fella to finally pop his cherry, as Bad Gamers regulars will know that he has severe problems closing.
2013 is going to be an exciting year in gaming, with so many titles coming out that it’ll be hard to keep on top of them all, let alone dig into our backlog, but I sure can’t wait to start.
What things do you regret missing out on in 2012? Do you have any plans to change your gaming habits in 2013? Are there any games that you missed out on, and hope to revisit before they disappear under a layer of dust? Let us know in the comments, or by Tweeting Seb and Dan pictures of yourself dressed as Baby New Year.
Be sure to email DR ideas, podcast comments and resolutions to DailyReaction@PlayStationLifeStyle.net.
