This is where I grin broadly at the realization that I’m no longer really in the games writing industry–it means I no longer have to review games. The emphasis is on the “have to”, because while I would get to review plenty of games I really enjoyed and learned of games I wouldn’t have otherwise, there was more than one occasion where I would “have to” review a very unpleasant game. Sometimes it was unpleasant because I was terrible at it, or the game was just flat terrible. It’s part of the business, right? You don’t always get to review nothing but teh Haloz; sometimes you have to take the Amys as well.

However, when you don’t get paid for doing so, it makes taking the bad even more cumbersome and difficult to do. My time is limited as it is, so being “forced” to play a game I really don’t like makes the experience roughly ten times worse. I had to review Arc Rise Fantasia for Kombo way back in the day, and I called the Reviews Director after playing for 20 hours, begging him to let me review the game before I finished. I think it went somewhere along the lines of, “PLEASE DON’T MAKE ME PLAY THIS ANYMORE, I’M BEGGING YOU!” Luckily for me, he agreed that playing 20 hours of a JRPG was more than sufficient to review the game, and I was able to free myself from that demon to play something I really enjoyed.

Since I am no longer writing for Gaming Angels, I took a look at the first quarter to see what games I would now be interested in, since I already knew I would be reviewing roughly 6-8 games in the first three months alone. I cannot accurately convey the delight I experienced when I saw I would only be purchasing three games early next year.

So, where am I going with this?

I have started three games this last month, and at this point, I’m not sure if I’ll finish them just because I’m not having any fun. Right now the biggest culprit is Epic Mickey 2, which I want to like very badly, but I can’t. The camera is somehow still not great, even with the dual analog sticks, the aiming is awful, and the story is lackluster at best. I played for over 15 hours, and I still can’t tell you really what the problem is. Maybe I would feel differently if I had finished the first game, but as it is now, I dread going back to my gaming room and turning on my PS3.

I feel almost the same way about Assassin’s Creed 3, but I know that’s mostly because I was so burned by all the bugs. I have downloaded the patch that supposedly fixes them, but I haven’t checked out how well the glitches have been fixed. It’s mostly because I’ve had to play other things to get other guide reviews out, but it’s also because I’m feeling extremely apprehensive about turning the game on. I honestly hope I get over this odd fear, as I really do want to finish this game before the end of the year. I’d like to start 2013 with somewhat of a clean slate from 2012.

But you know, if don’t finish all these games because I don’t have fun playing them, then I’m okay with that too. This is a hobby, after all, and why should I do something in my hobby that isn’t fun? The point of a hobby is that even though it is work of some sort, you enjoy doing it. That’s the only reason I can come up with for all of the scrapbookers in the world.

You know what else I think this means? I think it means I need to play Mass Effect again, the whole series.

I do attend church, if that seems shocking to anyone, and last weekend was our Sunday School’s man camping trip. The class was going to be girls’ only, and as such, the class director told everyone to bring any crafts they were working on and we would just work on our crafts and chit chat. Sounded like a modern version of quilting hour. So here’s the thing…I’m not artsy-craftsy at all. I don’t scrapbook, I don’t sew, I don’t knit, I don’t crochet, I don’t do any of those craftsy things so many other women enjoy doing. Earlier this year, I completed a cross-stitch of something from Portal 2, and while that was fun, it’s not something I see myself doing all the time. At least not often enough to actually own a crafts room or even a crafts closet.

So I went to Sunday School empty handed, and I felt so very alone amongst all of these women who brought stockings they were making, scarves they were knitting, and T-shirts they were during into fashionable necklaces (not lying). To be honest, I usually feel alone amongst my Sunday School classmates in thoughts, beliefs, hobbies, etc., but this was the first time I really felt left out. It wasn’t anyone’s fault; it’s just one part of typical woman hobbies that I’ve never really gotten into.

When my husband got home from working later that day, I told him how left out I felt, which was stupid to feel that way, but I felt like I was almost wasting space just sitting there and talking, since everyone else was doing something. He said, “Well, you can’t take your craft with you.” I asked him what he was talking about, and he said I was working on my craft right then. Didn’t I see that?

What was I doing? I was putting together section two of the Forward Unto Dawn Halo Mega Bloks set I got for Christmas (early gift).

I have a hard time calling it a craft, because to me, it seems like I’m just playing with toys. Although I suppose on one level, I am crafting because I am building it, sort of like building a model. He was right about one thing though; there is no way I could have taken this craft with me to church, for logistics reasons alone.

I’m about halfway done, and here is my progress so far. For the record, I have no idea where I’m going to keep it when it’s finished.

Sadly, I haven’t really been gaming very much thanks to a hectic return-from-Thanksgiving schedule. I’ve been playing the Spartan Ops episodes for Halo 4 when those release, but I haven’t been working on much else that, you know, NEEDS to be worked on. So Assassin’s Creed III will get some serious attention this week so I can hopefully start and finish Epic Mickey 2 by the end of the year.

It’s good to have goals.

Now back to finishing the Forward Unto Dawn…