2019 was an atrocious year for me. From the perspective of being a dad, and my business, it was incredibly busy; but for purposes of discreet entertainment in the form of video games it was filled with more games than I have bought in one year, hands down, but with my lowest volume of free time to actually play.
Still, I did finish a few games, specifically:
Resident Evil 7
I was trapped on the sequence where the redneck patriarch chainsaws you to death for like a year or more before finally getting through it then blasting through the game over a weekend. I was most surprised when late in the game's chapters it suddenly turned into a more or less normal Resident Evil title.
Call of Cthulhu
The actual playtime I spent on this was only about 9 hours, but it as intermittent over months...as if I needed to savor the discreet chapters for overly long periods of time. My ultimate assessment was: fun and worth it for CoC fans, but the storyline got a bit nonsensical at the end and the mythos elements were uncharacteristically chatty as Cthulhu tropes go.
Destiny 2 (up through Forsaken)
Though arguably one is never done with Destiny, I did manage to finish all the specific story content up to and through Forsaken. I look forward to meaningfully exploring Shadowkeep at last now, though due to the weird way Destiny parses out scenarios I am still mopping up random stuff I missed.
Gears of War 4
Yeah, believe it or not, I did not properly complete this game until earlier this year. I am trying (hopefully) to finish Gears 5 much sooner. As for Gears 4? It was fun, but not as engaging in the long run as the original trilogy. Gears 5 is already shaping up to be much better, though.
Mafia III
I didn't so much finish Mafia III as reach a point where the dark message of misery in the game became too overwhelming, and I suddenly realized I did not want to spend time with these characters in this grim depiction of New Orleans in the 1960s anymore. I think I was about halfway through the game at the point where I just suddenly hit this wall of unpleasantness.
Watchdogs 2
I played this game to death, and then kept playing. I finally more or less gave up this year, but only after completing the entire campaign in 2018, and as much bonus content as I could stomach before at last the virtual world of San Francisco started feeling a bit too familiar to me. All told, I got a lot of time out of this game, which I started in 2017 on the PS4. I have a copy on Steam....entertaining the idea of starting a new game all over again.
Fortnite
Fortnite can never be finished as such, merely stopped. Thankfully this year I stopped (well, until last night, when I logged in to claim all the free stuff for their Winter Event and then ended up playing through 9 more season ranks....so yeah grain of salt on this quitting thing!)
Games in Progress
Absent from this list are titles I am working on. Yes, even Resident Evil 2 Remake, which I love, I have yet to complete (in my defense I really wanted to finish RE7 first before diving in to it). So, these include:
Legrand Legacy - I love this retro style fantasy RPG on Switch; it's also on Steam. I bet I'm about 20% of the way through it.
Pillars of Eternity - plowing through on the Switch slowly.
Anthem - I play this one in 1-2 hour spurts every month or so. I'm at the grindy part of the game, not sure I can motivate myself to care, even though I like the core gameplay.
Resident Evil 2 Remake - this is really on my priority list; I started it on PS4, but now have a copy on Steam and want to restart it.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint - working on it! This game will last me years.
Generation Zero - the tale of Swedes vs. giant robots is something I grabbed over Xmas and have been playing obsessively for the last couple days, but can tell by my progress it is designed to last a long time. More on this one later!
Deadly Premonition: Origins - played on Xbox 360 long ago, replaying on Switch, about 1/3 of the way through so far.
Horizon: Zero Dawn - still trying to finish this one! I put Days Gone on hold until I do. I think I'm about halfway through, hard to say. The game is easy to get distracted in, and so much fun. Don't know why I haven't focused on it more.
I'm leaving a few titles like Baldur's Gate series, Assassin's Creed III and AC IV on Switch off, because while I've spent some time with them, these are just to kill spots of time here or there and not serious playthroughs. I completed both of these titles years ago, just happen to enjoy the replay on the Switch in a moment of boredom.
Okay, there you go....the "state of play" for an obsessively finicky gamer with a short attention span and not enough time to get anything done (but too many games in the mix to settle on just one).
For 2020 I plan to commit firmly to buying no more than 12 games the whole year (one a month). I'm hoping that forces me to slow down a bit on the purchase to finish ratio of titles in my collection. If buying 12 games in a year sounds like a lot to you, then I salute you and your fantastic resolve (whether it be due to your own willpower or lack of cash!)
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