I’ve been making these every year since about oh, not that long ago, and I’ve managed to actually stick with a couple of them. Hee. This year I’m trying to be far more realistic with my goals, especially since game developers seem to be hell bent on releasing fabulous games every two months. I mean, it’s great and all, but I could really use like three or four months to catch up on my backlog that goes back to the PS2 and GameCube.

1. Set aside time at night to play handheld games. This includes my iPhone games (since I write about them for the Examiner) as well. My plan is to find a way to play both consoles and handhelds at the same time. I haven’t been able to do that really well as of yet, but with Gabe’s new school schedule starting next week, I’m oh so hopeful. My secondary goals are to possibly finish Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Final Fantasy VII. Maybe start and finish Final Fantasy VIII. Ah, but all this is AFTER I finish Spirit Tracks, which I did order this week along with the guide. (So stay tuned, Mr. Stratton!)

2. Finish reviewing Dragon Age: Origins and Uncharted 2 before beginning a new game. If this means Bayonetta gets pushed back until after Final Fantasy XIII, then so be it.

3. Really try to finish what I start. I started and stopped far too many games this year. Some I plan on finishing, such as Final Fantasy x, Uncharted 2 and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but I really need to stop that nasty habit and learn to either finish what I start or quit it entirely.

And I think that’s all I’m going to hold myself to for now. There’s no law that says I can’t add additional resolutions along the way.

Happy New Year everyone! This past year has been so much fun, and I hope that this next year is just as fun.

As I write this, I’m downloading Final Fantasy VIII onto my PSPgo, which will most likely become yet another Final Fantasy game I will not finish. I always mean to finish them. I get really far in them and then I hit the level grinding, sidequest portions, get bored and quit. Now that I think about it, I have no idea how I finished Lost Odyssey.

But anyway, this got me to thinking about the one game that I most regret not finishing, which is a PC game, King’s Quest VI. This game came with my brand new computer that I purchased with high school graduation money to take with me to college. We had a computer at this time, but it was ungodly old and pathetic, so the capabilities on my new Compaq blew me away. It had 400 MB of hard drive space AND had a CD-ROM. I was in the big leagues.

I had seen the original King’s Quest on a friend’s computer years earlier, but I had no idea that the game was a franchise until I picked up my new computer. I absolutely ate up that game. I even got my dorm roommate so hooked on it that she bought her own copy. We would race against one another (in all our spare time) to try to get further than the other, but we would still offer tips on how to get past certain areas. Please bear in mind that this was before everyone had Internet access (no one had access in the dorms) and the Internet that was out there was not as informative as it is today.

I got made fun of for being a gamer by my boyfriend and his friends, so the game got put away and I never finished it. A few years later, I started to date a guy who liked PC games a little, so I introduced the game to him. I started from scratch and got all the way to the part where I’m supposed to figure out how to get to the Underworld. I never, ever figured that out. Again, there was no GameFAQs back then. My boyfriend asked if he could borrow the game and try on his own, and I let him. Then we had a messy breakup, and I never got my game back. When I asked about it, he said he gave it back to me and that was that.

So I never got to reunite Alexander with the Princess of the Green Isles. I know I was so close as well, and that burns me up the most. I had completely forgotten about this game until recently, GameInformer listed their top 200 videogames ever, and King’s Quest VI made the list. Seeing it on the magazine page brought back my sad feelings of loss.

I need to somehow find this game. I looked on Amazon, but the King’s Quest Collection for Windows XP does not include King’s Quest VI. I suppose my next step is to comb through emulators. No matter what I have to do, this is one game I must find and finish.

Yesterday afternoon I started on the last three sequences with full plans to stop before the final sequence so I could get dinner, spend time with family, work, and then finish the game when Gabe went to bed. The next thing I knew, I activated the final memory sequence and there were no individual memories for me to use to take a break. So I texted Shawn, asked him to pick up dinner instead, and I finished the entire game before he came home with Gabe and food. I am so glad I did, because I’m not sure how well I could have focused on work knowing that I just had one more assassination to go.

What everyone has been saying about the game is oh-so true. Just when you think you know what is going on, the final cut scene in Italy happens and you realize that you have no clue what is going on. It was so well done, though, and it’s really a great sci-fi story. I’m so intrigued now that I want to play the first game–even though everyone tells me not to bother–and I want the handheld games. If nothing else, I want to understand a little more about Absterrgo and what that one cut scene between Altair and Maria in the middle of AC2 meant. I think it was supposed to mean more to me than it did. Which was nothing.

The video from the glyphs meant a little more after I completed the game, although now I’m thinking maybe I should have unlocked that after I finished. Maybe I would have been more blown away by it. I would watch it again, but the game has been packed up and sent to a friend to borrow.

I’ll be taking a break for the next couple of days from gaming so I can focus on all of my notes and write the guide review. According to IGNGuides’ Twitter account, they finished writing their guide last week, so as soon as I finish this guide review, I will move on to IGN’s guide and look for other professional guides.

Then this weekend, I pick back up Uncharted 2. If it’s really as short as everyone says it is, I could possibly have that game finished by the end of year, which is really fitting since it keeps winning Game of the Year awards all over the place.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve used strategy guides for many years, but I’ve never used them as much as I do now, when I decided to start reviewing them. I have one by my side and open whenever one of my consoles is one, and before I attempt any level or scene, I read through it first to see what it suggests, attempt the play, read it again if I happen to get stuck, take notes on its advice, and repeat.

As a result, I’m not sure I could play a game normally at all anymore. Well that’s a little dramatic. With time, I could surely get over the twitching and learn how to play without guidance again, but the thought that it would take some time is mind boggling to me. I’d have to figure things out by myself? Like where to go, what to do, or what to look for? Madness! It also makes me feel like I’m not a “real gamer” anymore, as ludicrous as that sounds.

But thanks to how poorly the guide to Assassin’s Creed 2 is, I’ve been able to alleviate this addiction a little bit. As the guide is for the most part not helpful, it often remains closed until I really get lost or don’t have the patience for a Glyph puzzle (I really hate the circular picture puzzles).

However, I know it will take just one well-written guide to get me back on the books. While I think it makes me a better guide reviewer, at the same time, I do miss a little the ability to and the teensy thrill of figuring things out myself. But I shouldn’t complain too much, as I love to review these babies.