Remember this post, where I basically whined about not having any other consoles to try out the admittedly small list of games that I've been wanting to play on the HD consoles? Well, that's changed, because I bought myself an XBox 360.
Looking at that list of games I want to play (primarily updates of old PC RPGs), I've come to realize that the length of a game is becoming a quite a factor for me. I'm someone who compulsively feels the need to finish a game, and while I'm no stranger to longer experiences like Ocarina of Time or the Metroid Prime Trilogy (the latter of which I've been playing for the past eight months), I'm a little bit daunted by games like Oblivion and Dragon Age, games that promise between 50 – 200 hours of gaming.
Because I have a full-time job and play in a couple of bands and have lots of other interests, but also really love videogaming and completing at least the main storyline of a game, I don't know how I can even try to stay up to date with current releases while simultaneously diving into what amounts to watching several seasons of a TV show. Actually, that's not a bad analogy – these games are, in a lot of ways, like watching a TV series, whereas something like A Boy and His Blob, for instance, might be like a movie. I've stated again and again that length isn't something that should be considered as a positive or negative feature as long as the themes are explored in depth, but in my personal life, I think I might consider really lengthy games as a negative at this point, even if I still really want to play them.
So, I ask you, dear readers: how do you balance playing such massive games with having, you know, a life?