The number of games I want to play far outweighs the number of games I have the time to play (a subject I’ve touched on before). And with a baby soon to enter the Merriweather household, that gaming time is set to shrink even further.
There are a few things I’m doing to make the most of the game time I have. One is to focus on shorter games in order to pack more in. Another is to avoid time-consuming subquests and DLC and just focus on the main story. And a third is to focus right down on only the genres and titles that I enjoy the most.
There are lots of games that I’m intrigued about. I’m quite curious to play Titanfall and Sunset Overdrive, for example. But these sorts of shooters aren’t really my bread and butter – the genres I most enjoy tend to be turn-based strategy games, RPGs, point and click adventures and pretty much everything by Nintendo. So although I’ve got first-person shooters like Killzone 3 and Crysis 2 on my backlog, the chances are that they will never be played, as I’ll always choose a Zelda game or X-COM instead when I’ve got a window of playing time.
And as part of focusing on specific genres and titles, I’ve set myself the goal of finishing the three ‘Operation Rainfall’ RPGs: The Last Story, Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandora’s Tower. These three were some of the last games to be released for the Wii, and they were the subject of a successful fan campaign, dubbed Operation Rainfall, to have them released in North America (Xenoblade Chronicles had already been released in Europe).
I’ve already finished The Last Story (see my review), and I’m playing through Xenoblade Chronicles at the moment. Plus I bought the newly released Wii U version of Pandora’s Tower last week, so I’m well on my way to achieving my goal. Perhaps the only snag in my plan is that I’m enjoying Xenoblade a bit too much – I’ve already ignored my rule to avoid subquests, and although I’m 35 hours in, I’m nowhere near the end of the game. Still, there’s no time limit on finishing the Operation Rainfall games – it may well take a year or more if my time is truly limited. But the important thing is that it’s an easily achievable goal.
A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME 
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