Every summer, from about late May or early June until mid or late August, there is a dearth of highly anticipated video game releases. This is exactly why we have the Summer of Arcade sales with Xbox Live, the PlayStation Summer Sale, and of course, the venerable Steam Sale. It’s also the perfect time to catch up on backlogs, like what I’ve attempted to do this summer.
All in all, I’ve been fairly good with my stack of shame this year. It’s a little sad that I’ve played more games from my stack of shame this year than new releases, but sometimes that just happens. I have a feeling that will all change this Fall, starting with the release of Saints Row IV on August 2oth. Then it may be all downhill from there, especially once the next-gen consoles release.
What’s really interesting to me is that during this lull time with releases, I’m playing a video game that has quite a bit of lull time as well. Granted, it’s kind of my own choice, as I’m doing more wandering between locations in Skyrim than I am actually playing quests. I think I’ll go over here…wander that way, kill random beasts and bandits, discover a few towns, and then get killed by a stupid dragon because my level isn’t high enough yet to conquer every dragon I see. In my average play time of 2-3 hours, I maybe get one quest completed because I’m too busy wandering.
And that seems to be the beauty and allure of Skyrim in the first place.
I know I need to stop doing that, because I know I’ll get fed up and bored more quickly if I’m not constantly doing quests. Besides, it would be nice to have a chunk of the main quest done before Thing 2 is born next month.
Then again, I have a feeling that Skyrim will become my own personal World of Warcraft, meaning that it’s a game I’ll play at least once a week while playing other things. I have so many friends who have 200+ hours in Skyrim and haven’t found every quest yet. There’s something to be said for a game that can potentially last that long with random side quests.
At least I know my Xbox 360 will get plenty of play time even after the next-gen releases.
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