We thought it might be interesting if the Most Agreeable writers gave guided tours of our game collections. It’s always interesting to have a peek inside someone else’s collection, and we’re all quite different in terms of what games we like to collect, and what things are important to us. The other members of The Manor will be giving their own guided tours over the following weeks, but first up, here’s my game collection…

Can you spot it? I’ll give you a hint – look to the left…

Yep, there we are, that unassuming green box. Let’s take a look inside…

Here we go – just about visible under the tangle of cables is my humble game collection. Considering I’ve been a serious gamer since I was about 9 (and I’m now 38), you might be surprised at just how few games I’ve got. Well, I used to have a lot more, but since about my mid-twenties I’ve tended to sell games as soon as I finish them. This is partly due to the realisation that once I’ve finished a game, I never go back to it – with so many amazing titles out there, it seems strange to me to play the same game again and again. Also, I tend to move around quite a bit, never staying in the same place for longer than a couple of years, so I’ve grown tired of lugging stuff from house to house. It’s the same reason why my book, DVD and CD collections are now just a tiny fraction of what they once were.

Anyway, let’s take a closer look…

Here are my most current titles – the rest of the box mostly contains games from several years ago, waiting patiently for their turn to be played. But XCOM 2 and DOOM were only released in 2016, making them practically cutting edge in terms of my game collection. (I’ve already traded-in Valkyria Chronicles Remastered since this photo was taken – it’s now been replaced by Tomb Raider on PS4.) Valkyria has quickly become one of my all-time favourite games (review coming soon), but now I’ve finished it, I know I’ll never go back to it again.

I tend to wait several months until games have come down in price before I take the plunge and buy them – I’m not in a hurry to play the latest games straight away, and since I don’t do online multiplayer, I don’t have to worry about online player counts dwindling in the months after launch. I picked up DOOM for just a tenner a couple of weeks back. First-person shooters generally aren’t my cup of tea, but I had to make an exception for DOOM – I played it non-stop on the original PlayStation, back when FPSs were brand new and my reaction times weren’t as hobbled as they are now.

Here’s my current Nintendo game collection. The Wii U has been my most-played console for the past few years, but now I’ve pretty much gone through every game on it that I want to play. I’ve kept Mario Kart 8 for the multiplayer, although it hasn’t seen an outing for a while now, so it might be time to sell it on. Splatoon was a beautiful mistake – I was so entranced by the idea of Nintendo doing an off-kilter online shooter that I snapped it up not long after launch. But once I got it back home, I remembered that I really don’t like online shooters, and it’s been sat in the box ever since. I’ve played through about half of the single-player game, but I’ve never been online with it – although I plan to give it the ‘Better Later Than Never‘ treatment one of these days, when the mood takes me. Darksiders is a game that I’ve been meaning to play for a long time, and since the remaster was the last boxed title to be released on the Wii U, I’ve decided to make it the last title I play on my Wii U before I finally sell it.

Speaking of games that are a bit like Zelda, I’ve still yet to finish The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, despite getting it at launch in 2011. I’ve made a start on it though, and hope to get it finished in time for the end of The Year of Zelda. Zelda and Metroid are probably my all-time favourite game series, and I’ve played most of the titles in both, although Metroid: Other M is a notable exception. I’ve heard it’s probably the weakest Metroid game, but I need to play it, if only to sate the completist in me.

My 3DS collection is looking pretty weedy at the moment – and I’ve finished both of the games pictured here, so they’ll be off to the trade-in store soon enough. But I’ve got Metroid: Samus Returns on pre-order, so there’ll be fresh blood coming in soon. Plus I’ve got my eye on Ever Oasis – the reviews were a little lukewarm, but I loved the demo, and it’s a game that looks right up my street.

(By the way, if you spotted Sin & Punishment 2 in the shot above and are wondering why I haven’t talked about it, it’s because it’s just an empty box. The disc was lost in a house move many years ago, but for some reason I just can’t bring myself to throw the box away…)

Onto the PS3. Ni No Kuni is a game that’s been on my radar for years, and I finally picked it up early last year. I know I’m going to love playing this Studio Ghibli inspired RPG with added Welshness, but I keep passing over it simply because I know it’s a big game, and my gaming time is so limited these days. Armored Core was a gift – I’ve never played a game in the series before, and I’m not sure what to expect. I’m sure I’ll eventually give it a go one of these days.

Uncharted 3 will be another entry in my ‘Better Late Than Never’ series of posts – I enjoyed the first two, even if they’re essentially popcorn action flicks with absurd body counts. Hmm, actually, perhaps that’s why they’re so enjoyable? Anyway, the final game is Heavenly Sword, which I wrote about recently in my Ninja Theory post, and which I’m thoroughly enjoying (even if some parts are frustratingly difficult).

And finally, here’s my Xbox 360 collection, many of which have sat unplayed for years. However, I bought Overlord II, Resident Evil 6, DmC: Devil May Cry and Castlevania: Lord of Shadow just recently, and I’m looking forward to playing through all of them. Well, maybe Resident Evil 6 is the exception – I’ve heard it’s one of the weakest titles in the series, but I’m keen to try it anyway, even if I don’t bother finishing it. Child of Eden is a fun, trippy, on-rails shooter from the creator of Rez, but annoyingly your progress is linked to your score – which usually means playing through the same level multiple times in order to unlock the next one. It felt like a frustrating way to artificially extend the lifespan of the (short) game in my opinion, although I may eventually go back and try to finish it.

The Orange Box is my secret shame – I got given this YEARS ago, and I’ve still only played one of the games in this compilation (i.e., Portal). I’ve been meaning to play Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and 2 for ages now, having finished Half-Life 2 on the Xbox, but I just haven’t gotten around to it for whatever reason. Then there’s Crysis 2… I don’t know why I bought Crysis 2. I’ve a strong feeling that I won’t enjoy it, but I keep it around on the off chance that I might play it and like it.

Brutal Legend is from the legendary Tim Schafer, designer of Psychonauts and many other wonderful games, and I have no idea why I still haven’t played it after all these years. Maybe I’m worried that it might not be any good? Whatever the reason, it’s been languishing in my green box for eons now. Then there’s Halo 4, a.k.a. the least interesting Halo game I’ve played so far. I played through the first three Halo titles and ODST in coop with a mate, and we had a whale of a time. But we got about halfway through Halo 4 and just… well, we just got bored. Maybe it was the unfathomable plot? The tsunami of uninteresting lore? Whatever the reason, it just didn’t grab us. I’ve been meaning to revisit the game for a while to finally get through to the end… but if I’m honest, I doubt I’ll ever go back to it.

The last game is XCOM: Enemy Within, which is UTTERLY BRILLIANT AND YOU SHOULD BUY IT. I finally got around to playing it last week, having bought it years ago at launch, and it is just phenomenally good. BUY IT!

Of course, this is only part of my full collection – I also have 20 or so digital titles. I tend to shy away from buying digital, simply because I usually sell on my games after finishing them, and digital copies can’t (currently) be resold after purchasing them. But there are quite a few games in my collection that are digital only, like Sundered and To The Moon.

So that’s my game collection, what do you think? How does yours compare? Let me know in the comments!