Gaming Update: Mass Effect is Fun.

The night of the last post I finally decided to start playing Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. You can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect or see pictures and video at http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/718/718963/imgs_1.html

Basically a space roleplaying game but with actiony combat(instead of the typical turn based.) I'm 22 hours in so far and having a lot of fun, I've heard quotes of length between 30-100+ hours, I guess it depends on how many side quests are completed or time is spent exploring.

It's keeping me busy but also entertained, was up until 7:30am today with that "just one more..." kind of attitude, in this case it was just one more planet to explore(ended up exploring about 5 more than I planned...) and loving nearly every minute of it(though the Mako kinda sucks.)

What to play..

Well, lately I've been cutting back on my WoW time a bit to pace myself, don't want to get back into burn-out mode again. During this spare time I've been watching some backlogged shows and debating what game to get into...and that's what has me deadlocked right now.

For the shows I've been watching, still working on that Stargate SG-1 box set, just started season 4(of 10) so still a long way to go there. I also started catching up on Naruto Shippuuden, the second anime series based on the manga character Naruto(duh!) The first series ran for about 210 episodes, I saw what I'm going to of those. This series is up to episode 54 or so right now in japan, I just went through a marathon session the past few days and watched the first 31:) Still a lot of other anime I want to see or catch up on(I'm about 50 episodes behind on the series Bleach as well) but I want to get some gaming in, too.

That leads back to the reason I started this post, games. I have too many games, I buy them when they come out because I want to play them but end up playing WoW(or whatever mmo I'm addicted to at the time) instead. So over the years I've amassed the backlog of games I linked in an earlier post(which isn't complete either, but it's the games I'm most interested in) The issue is just picking which one to play.

As are a lot of people, I tend to get into a "the grass is greener" mindset with things. So say there are only 2 games I *really* want to play, if I start one I'll likely have my mind start wandering and think "would I have more fun playing the other?" and it would eat into my enjoyment of that game. That isn't always the case, and some games really do suck me in, but it isn't always true. So the tough part is picking the game that *most* closely matches my mood and interests right now.

I have this same issue with picking movies to watch usually, so I've devised a system for that:
1. Make a list of 5-10 movies/commentaries I'm in the mood for right now.
2. Randomize list.
3. Ask friend to pick random number(or use random number generator)
4. Enjoy movie(with occasional thoughts of other movies...)

Sad I know, but I guess I'm just that indecisive about some things. So now I'm spending literal hours of off and on internal debate about which game I should start playing now, knowing that it will be shelved indefinitely come April 29th with GTAIV. That is a game that looks to eat many hours of my life, hours which I will likely not be thinking of other games:)

Hmm, 30...

I guess I don't feel any different today physically? I know it's just a number, and if I don't think about the number at all I don't feel any different than I did last year or even the past few years, but focusing on the number definitely is weird...

Had dinner with some family last night, probably will have dinner with family again tonight and that'll be about it, hooray and such for birthdays I guess.

Let's see if this kickstarts any form of maturity or responsibility...hmm, wonder if I can start getting senior discounts now.