I Finished 100 Games This Year (So Far), Let Me Tell You About It!

Sometime near the start of 2015, which kind of feels like a year ago at this point, I made a self declaration to complete 100 video games this year after seeing that I finished a little more than 50 in 2014. I've been keeping progress using this list that I made and adding games (and wiki entries) to it as I completed them.

I'm slightly proud to say that as of yesterday, November 27th, that I totally did complete 100 video games this year! But this isn't gonna be a write-up like that one I did about 4 months ago. That's coming later, probably around the end of December if I had to put a date on it, and I haven't even begun to start writing any of it. Instead this blog'll be about what it's like to play so many games back to back, how I went about choosing what to play, games I had to give up and some of the games that didn't quite grab me.

So in other words, this is the post-mortem!

First off, I'd like to answer the question that I assume would spring into most people minds if I were to tell them that I've finished 100 games this year and that's: "How did you find the time to do so?" Well it's pretty simple, I'm unemployed and I'm not currently enrolled in any kind of post-high school education. So naturally I've got a ton of time on my hands to do just about anything I'd like (within reason). But! I've also got a couple of illnesses that make it hard to do a lot of things because I feel like actual garbage because of them. I also rarely leave my house (because of said illnesses) and don't do much else on the days where I don't feel totally terrible other than play video games.

As much as I'd like to say playing games all the time is a blast, I honestly can't because games can be exhausting. Long games, difficult games of any length, bad games and even good games are all kind of tiring to play for extended periods of time whether it be a few hours, entire afternoons or short concentrated bursts. But, even though I found it to be kind of tiring and a little pointless at times I still think I had a lot of fun doing it. I genuinely love the medium and I probably wouldn't have tried to do something like this if I wasn't that into playing games anyway. If I were to do anything like this again next year, I'd like to try and get out of my comfort zone as much as possible. Try some stuff that I know very little to nothing about and experience things I haven't before. There were maybe a few instances where I looked into stuff I had no prior knowledge in but it felt like baby steps. Gotta learn to walk before you can run.

As mentioned previously, I tried to experience new things but I didn't try to exclude anything that I wanted to play that wasn't "different enough" (I actually did exclude quite a few things but more about that later!). So in January I took inventory and organized all my physical games and made a list on Steam of games that were finish-able that stood out as games I'd like to play sooner rather than later. It didn't prove to be helpful when it came to deciding what to play because looking at a long list of digital games and drawers filled with various handheld and console games I often found myself paralyzed with options.

It's a very first-world problem to have but problems are still problems! With so many games to choose from I found it hard to just pick a place to start and even when I managed to finish a game I often asked myself afterwards "Well, now what do I play?" In the end, I didn't really end up playing many of my physical games and the Steam games I did play weren't off the list I made (Here's a pastebin link to the link as it stands right now. Check it out!) I worked around the problem by setting tiny objectives for myself like trying to play every game I owned made by a certain developer or playing some games in a certain genre. You might notice those trends if you take a look at my list since it's ordered chronologically. I also tried to draw some inspiration from what other people on my friends list were playing or trying out games that were mentioned on the site recently.

Watching Metal Gear Scanlon led me to finally cracking open the MGS HD collection and even Vinny casually mentioning Lords of Shadow 2 on the Beastcast got me to play all the games in that series as well as Symphony of the Night. Also worth noting that only 2 of the 100 games I finished this year were games I've finished previously (Lisa and Remember Me in case you were wondering). So I think it's safe to say that I've succeeded in trying out "new" but not necessarily "different" games.

On the matter of exclusions and deciding what not to play; as one might expect, most of the games that a person can "finish" are usually single player experiences. There are plenty of co-op games that you can complete but I've pretty much written most of them off. My reasoning being that any game that was designed for co-op that you can be played by yourself probably isn't a game I'd be interested in playing by myself. That and the fact that there aren't many people I'd feel comfortable asking to play co-op games with me, locally or online.

Co-op games aren't the only multiplayer games I actively avoided either. There's quite a few multiplayer only games that came out this year that I steered clear of, namely Rocket League and Overwatch, because those aren't games you "finish". You can be finished with them (as in fed up and done) but there's no end-game to them so I kind of just ignored them even though they seem like a ton of fun. But now that I've already reached the 100 game finish line I feel very little compulsion to actually play any multiplayer games now. I couldn't play Overwatch even if I wanted to (I don't think I've been invited to the beta) and Rocket League just seems less and less interesting to me as time goes on. Feels like I might have written off multiplayer games entirely, which is a bummer because playing games with other people can be really fun!

Multiplayer games aren't the only games I ignored though, I also had to avoid going back to a couple of games due to DLC and updates for the sake of making progress. The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth came out recently and it seems like a pretty good addition to Rebirth, which I played feverishly for about 100 hours on the week of it's launch and then proceeded to not play since then. I knew I'd want to play it if I was aware of even the tiniest bits of details about it so I kinda had to tune out to any kind of coverage of it. Lisa: The Joyful also came out and I've been psyched to play that ever since I interviewed the developer about it in April. I bought it but it's still sitting in my Steam inventory waiting to be activated. I'm looking forward to seeing what it's all about, whenever that may be.

Before I touch on the games that I put time to and didn't finish I'd like to touch on the games I played that I knew I couldn't finish. You could consider these palate cleansers that I got hooked onto between the story-focused games I spent the year playing.

I... somehow put about 50+ hours into TERA. The number of MMO's I've played is close to nil. Probably because I'm turned off by the social aspect of it and I just can't afford to pay subscription prices that most MMOs are locked behind. I mostly played the game when I wanted to listen to a podcast and on the channel(server?) with the least amount of people on it so I could enjoy being a cute bunny girl with a big ol' sword all by my lonesome. I stopped playing it around the time I hit level 40 or so when hitting the next level took noticeably longer to get to. Which was about 90+ minutes at that point.

I also fired up Skullgirls every time they added new characters to it. I like Beowulf but once people wised up to his tricks it got a lot harder to win with him because a lot of the people that are still playing Skullgirls are really good at it. A lot better than me at least, but I feel like I really started to get a good grasp on the mechanics and eventually found my main when I started practicing Double. I switched over to Robo-Fortune once she got released and she's actually super fun to play but I eventually drifted away from the game because again, everyone that's still playing that game (on the PC anyway) is really, really good. I may have put about 100 hours into it this year which is a bit kind of unbelievable.

Similarly, I also put some hard time into Rising Thunder when that first came out and found it to be pretty fun. I played a lot of Vlad because he seemed pretty cool (and he is!). I didn't have trouble with most of the match-ups either except for Vlad mirrors because every other person that was playing Vlad actually practiced combos and knew how to do them. I also tried playing Dead Or Alive 5: Last Round but since I'm not too familiar with 3D fighting games I spent most of my time in the training modes trying to get a feel for it. I'm pretty sure it still haven't clicked with me yet but I'm hoping I understand it eventually. I do like doing combo throws though, that's real fun!

And finally here's the hall of shame, the games I put serious time to put didn't finish for various reasons. I tried my hardest to finish every game I seriously played ("seriously played" meaning putting about 3+ hours into it) this year but unfortunately that just didn't happen. Keep in mind, these are also the games that I actually remember not finishing. There's also a handful of games (mostly PS2 JRPGs) that I tried for about 30 minutes before deciding that I wasn't really interested in playing them at the moment. I'd disclose those games to anyone who wants to know what they are but it's a bit too long of a list to actually recall at the time.

Enough with the introduction, here's the games I feel kind of bad about not finishing!

IDOLM@STER SP: Perfect Sun

Early on in the year, let's say starting somewhere around February, I fell into a deep, deep idol filled hole. I got really into the 2 IM@S mobile games; Million Live! and Cinderella Girls. Not necessarily playing them (because they aren't available in English and I just don't want to deal with proxies to try and play them) but just looking at the art, listening to the music and following the in-game events and news. I was very much in the mood to actually get my hands on an IM@S game and play it and since I don't own a PS3 my closest options were the SHINY FESTA games and the SP games, both of which are on the PSP. It took a couple months but eventually got around to buying them (and a couple of figures too.) and once they got arrived I got right into playing them. I really like the SHINY FESTA games (I bought all 3 of them) they're rhythm games that are pretty similar to those Project Diva games and I also like what I played of Perfect Sun.

But the reason I'm talking about it here is because it's kind of... stressful. Maybe stressful isn't the right word to use. It's just a real bummer to fail in that game. Whether it's saying the wrong thing during conversation event or just screwing up one of the training mini-games failing always made me just feel real bad. I failed one of the later auditions and it kinda drained all the enthusiasm I had for playing it. I just couldn't deal with losing and decided to stop playing.

Odin Sphere

Of all the beat'em up's/brawlers I played this year Odin Sphere was probably the best of the bunch. It's more fully realized than any of the other games in the genre that I played this year and it also looks real nice. I stopped playing after I finished the Gwendolyn's story and took a break from it since and just haven't gotten around to playing it again. I think there's at least 3 more characters to play as until I've actually "finished" it but I felt like I was kinda done after playing just one of them. There's an HD remake coming out for it in January which is tempting me to get back into but I'm not certain if I will or not.

Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed

I sorta put the nail in the coffin on this one after I replayed the first few hours of this for whatever reason. Steam says I've only put 8 hours into it but I certainly remember putting a lot more time into it than that. The silly premise seems totally up my alley and I don't remember disliking the gameplay so I'm not against giving this another shot sometime.

Mugen Souls

I bought the PC port for this when it first came out and I found the opening parts to be really, really boring. There's a lot of interesting mechanics in Mugen Souls but the combat was just a little too easy for me to get into it. The English voice acting and translation also seemed kind of bad too but not in an enjoyable way either. I just found it be kind of... poor.

I only got so far as the second world before I decided to stop playing.

Planetary Annihilation

I've never played a true RTS before, over 900 hours of Dota 2 but I realize they're hardly the same kind of beast. Planetary Annihilation seemed kind of cool, but at a certain point anytime I played a game that had more than 3 factions in it and one of the commanders died the game just locked up.

So I can't really go back to this one even if I wanted to. Maybe I'll try it again if/when I get a better computer but until then this one's a no-go.

Final Fantasy XIII-2

I started this immediately after I finished XIII and... I didn't really get into it. I probably would've powered through it but the performance on PC is less than ideal. It runs about 30-ish at the best of times and hits the low 20's when things get intense. Everywhere I've looked people seemed to be getting similar performance out of it so I'm guessing it's just a bad port and not my machine, which is a bummer.

But... Lightning Returns is coming to the PC soon and I kinda want to finish XIII-2 before that comes out. Oh and before I forget, the future-man who serves as you second party member kind of looks like John T. Drake to me and I found it be really distracting.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

I started this after I finished MGS3 and was actually really enjoying it. The TV I was using to play it on, however, decided to stop working around the time I was getting really into it. I tried to finish playing it on one of the many CRTs I've got around my house but I couldn't deal with looking at all the unreadable text.

Eventually, I gave in and just watched the Metal Gear Scanlon special on it instead.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

This one hurts the most. Because it's such a fun game to play, I've put about 50 hours into it after all. I think the distance between what I felt like was big story stuff is what lead me to drift away from TPP. That, and the real-time deployment missions kind of provided an excuse for me to not actually play the game. I could just check back in a few days, collect my rewards and start some new deployments. I've fired it up a few times to do that but I haven't seriously played it since late September.

I definitely want to get through soon it since I'd rather not be spoiled when I listen to the GOTY deliberations that are coming up.

I'm almost certain that there's some aspect to this whole thing I forgot to mention and I don't mind answering a few questions about this little exercise if you read this far and have any. I'm not even close to finished playing games this year though. I'm determined to see some more routes/endings in Amnesia: Memories and there's a grip of visual novels I'd like to check out. There's still a few days left in November and the entirety of December left for me to play a good amount of stuff. Whether it's releases I missed (Undertale, Her Story and Cibele are some immediate standouts that spring to mind) or old stuff I just want to check in on.

2015 ain't over yet and I'm probably gonna keep playing games unless I decide to travel for the holidays. I've also got to get started on Game of the Year lists and that write-up I mentioned at the top of this. It's going to a little tough to balance writing stuff and playing but I'm looking forward to getting my thoughts written down and readable!

Sometime near the start of 2015, which kind of feels like a year ago at this point ...

... yeah. 'cos it is. 100 games in a year is madness. Full props for that. I'm about to hit 20 for the year and consider that good going.

Do you have the ability to stop time perpetually or something

Where did you find your HYPERBOLIC TIME CHAMBER?

It feels like an achievement when the number of games I finish in a year reaches double digits, well done for reaching triple!

Wow, nice work duder.

Christ man, that's a lot of gaming. I'm sorry to hear/read about your illnesses. As much as I have NO idea what your life is like, I hope they don't get you down too much/ stop you from doing things you can do. Emotions and such.

Of the 100, what stood out to you? Not necessarily judged as "The Best" but more what was memorable, fresh or just sticks with you for whatever reason?

Try Rocket League! It's good times!

p.s. Cool story bro unironically

You finish 100 games and I have trouble finishing onw game because it doesnt hold my attention unless its a great game like The Witcher 3.

I appreciate all the congratulations!(Is that a thing people say?) It doesn't really seem like I did much of anything but 100 games is a lot of games. It also feels kinda good to see I accomplished something I set out to do, which doesn't happen to me all that often!

@bluefish: Looking over the list again, the games that stuck with me the most at this point are Sakura Wars, Hylics and The Talos Principle. They're all fairly different and set out to do different things but they're the games that I kept thinking about (positively) the most long after I played and finished them. Games like Doom, Duke 3D and Symphony of the Night also stand out because they're all fairly old games that still hold up pretty well.

@j4yk: I'd like to think that I played a lot of good games (or at very least, decent games) but there were quite a few that I absolutely did not like that I played out of the 100. The only reason I didn't drop them is because by the time I was ready to quit, I checked and was already more than halfway through finishing them.

@blzzzrrttt:

I'm in awe and a little jealous dude. 100 is such a satisfying number, you really knocked out some bangers too. Sounds like you don't intend to do it again and that's something I totally understand. Doing that many can make it a bit stressful and pressure you to play in a way you might not enjoy (if you are like me you like to poke around in games instead of mainlining it).

Did you feel your approach of sticking with one series or developer worked for you? or did you get fatigue on those games the more you played?

I wouldn't feel too bad about FF Xiii-2. I think you can play LR without finishing it w/o too much problem, especially if you go find the cutscenes on youtube etc.

I liked Xiii-2 (to be fair FF is perhaps my favorite game series so that doesn't mean much) but I did feel the whole thing thin was pretty thin for a FF game. Kinda like X-2 in a lot of ways, a fun fast battle system that is way too overpowered for a recycled bestiary,Compelling female protagonist (I thought Laura Bailey's performance was the best part of the whole game) on a journey that isn't compelling at all in mostly retread environments, middle of the road production values, a kinda meh story.... basically the whole thing is a bit undercooked. The soundtrack was really great though.

btw as for my own list, I'm nowhere going to be nearly as successful as you have been. I got busy in rl as I always seem to during the fall. Pretty amazing how deeply football and holidays/family stuff change my gaming time. I don't think I ever realized that until I started making lists like this.

I think going forward I'm personally going to shoot for 52 a year. That seems like a number I have a shot at hitting but still allows me to play multiplayer games and massive RPGs that I do really enjoy (110 hours into MGSV and 40 of FF Type 0 hasn't exactly been good for knocking a lot of these out) with the idea that if I end up at 40 that's ok. And it's nice thematically as it's the number of weeks in a year

I've probably finished half that many games in the past 5 years. I think I've finished 10 games so far this year, if we're only counting games finished for the first time.

I wish to know your secret please.

You're a regular Gregg Turkington of video games. Now you gotta go full hog and watch 500 movies in 500 days.

Do you have a job?

@roundlay: @dudeglove: Read the post? He tells you near the top.

@roundlay: @dudeglove:

First off, I'd like to answer the question that I assume would spring into most people minds if I were to tell them that I've finished 100 games this year and that's: "How did you find the time to do so?" Well it's pretty simple, I'm unemployed and I'm not currently enrolled in any kind of post-high school education. So naturally I've got a ton of time on my hands to do just about anything I'd like (within reason). But! I've also got a couple of illnesses that make it hard to do a lot of things because I feel like actual garbage because of them. I also rarely leave my house (because of said illnesses) and don't do much else on the days where I don't feel totally terrible other than play video games.

The OP explains it right at the start.

I like how the idea of completing 50 games in a year is a disappointment to you. I'm struggling to think of a year when I even got near double digits!

@tobbrobb@jesus_phish Thanks, my bad. I skipped straight to the game talk.

As an aside, OP, have you thought about streaming any of this?

I beat 66 games in 2014, and I highly doubt I'll ever get that far again. I was a senior in high school with barely any homework to worry about, had no job, and had no extra-curricular activities. On a normal day, I'd get home from school -> watch a Giant Bomb video or two -> play games for a few hours -> eat -> play more games for a few hours -> watch another Giant Bomb video -> go to bed. Oh, what I'd do to have a schedule that easy again...

@slag: I wouldn't say I'm totally against doing this again, but it's a serious time investment. I probably won't do 100 next year and scaling it back seems like a missed opportunity to do something else to me. I've been thinking about playing a good chunk of games that are widely considered "the best" since most of my game knowledge is through reading and watching rather than actually playing. Like I mentioned above, it was interesting to go back and see Doom and SotN first-hand since I'd never played them before.

I found playing through a series/developer's catalog helped a ton but there was definitely some fatigue. It can be kind of grating to play games that are so similar back to back but the presence of a strong narrative (or any narrative really) kind of helps. I felt the most fatigue when I was playing though the Lords of Shadow series because the games got less and less good as I moved from game to game.

Also, I'm definitely one of those people that has to play (or at least, try to play) every game in a series before I move on to the next one. Lighting Returns definitely looks like my jam but I'd like to try giving XIII-2 another chance before I pass on it completely.

@bollard: I don't think 50 games was a disappointment, I'm just a big fan of going hard or going home. I figured since I'm usually at home most of the time I might as well go as hard as I possibly could.

@roundlay: I actually streamed quite a few of the games on my list from start to finish; Strider, Zeno Clash, Freedom Planet, Volgarr, Revengeance(twice!!), Killer is Dead, Ground Zeroes and Remember Me. I have thought about cutting back the number of games I finish next year and just streaming all of them but I want to get a better stream setup going before January. I'm real close to getting there though!

@blzzzrrttt: Ooo I like that plan. A tour of the classics eh? that'd be a nice spin on an initiative like this you don't see often. Not sure why really, as gaming gets older I imagine newer gamers might like to see that history for themselves. Maybe you'll start a trend!

I suppose too if you do it that way, you could do your series/creator method with a lesser risk of fatigue since you'd be avoiding the Lord of Shadows type games.

re: FF Xiii-2. I'm the same way, so I get where you are coming from.

Props for conquering this mountain! Real sorry to hear about your illness, but good on you for using the time/state for something fun.

Peace Walker and MGSV are such times sinks. Especially Peace Walker. People have trouble completing it within a year.

@blzzzrrttt: which of the 100 that you played did you enjoy the most?