Complacent Gamer reviews

With less than 6 hours before I need to wake up for work, the time presented itself as one in which a new post should arise. Since I started this site I have let it wander into a ‘post’ wasteland and need to bring it a glass of thirst quenching game opinion. Weighing in on my thoughts of my Xbox, currently acting as a giant paperweight, seemed like the perfect opportunity to spring an oasis in front of this blog.

Xbox. Oh Xbox. I slowly realized many console games rarely seem worth sixty dollars. I feel the increasing number of games released recently and slated for the near future with increasingly high numbers attached to the ends of the titles makes me reluctant to purchase anything. Fortunately I missed out on a plethora of great titles when originally released without the numerical onslaught. Unfortunately Steam recently drained my wallet by offering titles for less than the price to fill my gas tank; Wait, that comparison no longer seems to convey the same idea. Which brings me back to the reason my Xbox does not appear in an ad on Craigslist. The arcade keeps me interested. The Indy game scene allows me to play simple games and for around 2 dollars the challenge of finding a game worth the price lessens.

The Xbox does however point me toward the Indy game devs gone pro. Many of these guys feel the need to charge almost twenty bucks. I’m down for paying twenty, but most of these devs have yet to prove their worth to me. Releasing free games or even charging a buck or two works great for getting publicity. I play 10 minute demos that color my expectations and never really get a feel for the game. I fork over big bucks for replay value, or at least a few hours of solid game play. Demos tell me nothing. So until these developers climb off their horses I will continue abstaining from spending the money.

While ranting in my head about video games, I decided to take such thoughts and transcribe them somewhere for everyone else’s enjoyment. The first:

While pondering over whether or not I should play through Mirror’s Edge on hard I couldn’t help but wonder why I had to play through the game once to unlock this difficulty setting. Then I began to realize all of the video games I have played that offer unlockable difficulties as a “feature.” I guess unlocking a harder difficulty adds replayability, but it seems more like a hurdle for gamers to jump over. Creators must be full of themselves to think that I would want to play through the game again on “Super-Insane-Bats’-Shit-Crazy” mode simply because I couldn’t on the first go. I do want to be challenged, but at the same time I don’t want to play through a game two times to experience said challenge. Does it really matter if I play through the game again? I already forked over the money. Seems like the least game developers could do would be to unlock the feature for me. I understand unlockable content, but difficulty levels don’t appear to me as content. Can’t I play through the game on the hardest difficulty the first time around so I can get the full experience in one go.