fire_of_avalon

Being, at the best of times, a marginally successful adult who hates being a grown-up and rarely has the money for games I have no real advice aside from buy cheap, play free games, and get all of the life you can out of the stuff you do own. There was a point in my life where I easily bought 1-2 games a month minimum. Now that I can't, I've learned that not only do I not need to play as many games as I used to, my taste has actually refined to the point where I could never even want to buy as many as I used to. When you can't buy every little marginally interesting title you might enjoy playing for a few minutes anymore, you start to focus in on the incredible titles. Those once or twice in a year gems that you absolutely must play, that make the blood pump at the thought of starting them up and which never fail to meet or exceed expectations. These are obviously quite rare, so it works for people on a tight budget.

It's also great to hit up flea markets and break out old systems when you find something cheap you missed the first go around. I'm lucky enough to live in a city with a weekly flea market which actually has a local guy who has an incredible selection of titles and great prices as well, so if I'm really jonesing for something new I'll take $15 and head down there to see what I can find within budget. It's been rare for me to walk away empty handed over the last few years, though I've basically completed my collection of ever N64 game that doesn't suck so I'll have to move on to other systems now.

As for what you should be playing, I'll be damned if I know. The last new game I bought (not counting getting Assassin's Creed 2 today) was Little Big Planet 2 which my wife and I haven't found the time to get into much, but which is a remarkable title. There are some free to play games coming out now on Steam I hear on the PC front, and there's rarely a shortage of interesting and free indie stuff out there. And of course, for the really cash strapped there's emulation if you have no moral qualms with it. Just download a system and go. I'd recommend going really retro with classics like Robotron, Berserk, etc. and just work your way up. Honestly, there are so many great retro games out there that you could be kept busy for years before you ever had to buy a modern title.

When it comes to DS games, If I really wanna play, i emulate heh.

I was in your position not to long ago, then I got a job at gamestop and had to know more about gaming again. I was soooo lost at first. I use to be super into it and then as you said, once it started getting more and more advanced and progressing quickly I kept getting more and more poor (well more bills less money to spend). But having to spend time around gamers, gaming speak, etc I just started feeding off what others were saying. I then started to read more articles online and such, read gameinformer. Hell I still don't play hardly any games but I now know wtf is going on at least.

If your computer can run them occasionally buy a game for it. If you have some extra cash, buy preowned systems and games. It'll save you money. You don't need the newest Xbox 360 to play all the games, you can get and old one and just catch up with some older games. We haven't yet moved to new consoles so you're okay for now. That's what I did, I bought a refurbished 360 and have been slowly working through some games.

Even now when I talk about games I say, "I've heard really good things/bad things". Just read and look out for stuff if you wanna be in the loop. Talk to a gamer, pick their brain about games.

As for balancing time, don't pile on your games. Play games as they are intended to be played, for fun. It shouldn't be a job to crank through them. Hell take a month to get through a game, as long as you have fun doing it.

Yeah, at this point now in the genre's history, it seems pretty much impossible to be on the know of everything in the genre. Most gamers tend to be specialist in one genre they love anymore. Something that is quickly noticeable if you ask someone what they should be playing in a specific genre on this forum. You'll notice each genre has its usual suspects to give advice.

Finding time to play games, at least for me, is less about finding actual time in my schedule and more about finding a game that makes me want to play it continuously. I struggled to finish Assassin's Creed 1, which took about 6+ hours to finish over the course of two months, but I've already put in close to 20 hours into Assassin's Creed 2 in a week. The time is there, you just have to finally be playing something that keeps you entertained. Even then, I wouldn't concern yourself about getting up to speed, I don't think most gamers know everything about every title (I got reprimanded cause I didn't know Bungie studios left Microsoft and stopped making Halo just the other day). It also helps that this has been a very low key console generation. Outside of major sequels to titles from last generation, there hasn't been too many new major IPs to concern yourself with. the PS3/360 have spent the majority of their time trying to convince non-hardcore fans they are radically different from each other (not really, there really is no reason to buy one over the other, cause the amount of exclusives each title has over the other is a moot point, so it comes down to what you can afford and what your friends own) and Nintendo is doing their usual "we'll go our own way, and piss everyone off in the process except the few die hard fans who must play Mario,Zelda, and Metroid" plan.

In essence, nothing has really changed since the last generation except games are HD compatible now, if you give a flying flip about crap like that. Now that my tangent is over, I would look around and if you see something that interests you, that is what you should be playing. Just cause a title is high profile means you'll enjoy, and just because a game is being sold for 4.99 at the bottom of a Wal-Mart clearance bin, doesn't mean its utter trash.

Its hard for me to suggest anything from this generation, cause its been pretty lackluster for me but maybe its cause my favorite genres have either transformed into something they are not, disappeared, or retreated to the handheld market where no one cares that the game doesn't have state of the art graphics and follows every anime trope from the last 20 years.

If you're willing to pirate games, that cuts down on cost like crazy. So uh, hypothetically speaking, I could pirate 90% of the games I want to play, and that would usually leave maybe four a year that I can't. In my current situation I can't afford even that many, but I think even on minimum wage I might be able to manage it, though I may have to play games on a time lapse. As for time, well, I don't know. Hopefully I'll get to know the joys of a full schedule soon.

Trust me, my dad is a social worker! He finds plenty of time to game etc. You dont have to be hardcore and spend 4-5 hours at a time playing, sometimes its more satisfying playing 30-45 minutes a day! I have to at 18 being a student at university (Hopefully) with my boxing and football. Its no big deal if you dont find loads of time! Just keep a passion for it

Is it really a problem for you, foa? I hardly play any games unless I'm with kishi (Maybe played two or three this year so far), but while I can't speak to other gamernerds about games, I often share other interests, and have a compatible personality with them. You should ask Del Murder why he hung around eoff [before ffxi came out] without playing a lot of final fantasy.

just stay a generation behind (I do have a ps3, but use it more often to watch movies. They've really come down in price, though! I scour craigslist every so often and see quite a few in the sub-$200 range.), and emulate what you can/feel comfortable doing. Quality games stick in the collective conscious, and while you might get teased a little at first, people will still love to discuss games they loved a year or two or more ago.

you could always just budget for so many games. That's what a lot of people I know do. It's just part of the entertainment budget they have. Also playing during commutes, instead of watching tv, while exercising, with friends over

These adult gamers with lives and a job? They all have a backlog a mile long, otherwise this site wouldn't exist