Yea good luck! But if you can quit smoking then this has got to be easier right? My attempt to quit smoking will be Jan 2008. So good luck to both of us!

I'll be playing CoD4 for months. You should actually join us next time instead of asking for an invite and then snubbing us

You're a stronger man than I am though. I don't think I could go without new purty games knowing that it won't kill me financially to buy something.

Hemi, I've been working on a similar tack gradually over the last two years, cutting back drastically on my gaming purchases since I realized I was honestly just spending too much on them. 2007 found me with a much tighter budget than previously, which made it a necessity in addition to a voluntary initiative. My goal for 2008 is to cut that number down even more.

I've actually finished nine games so far in 2007, and am on track to complete Blue Dragon for my 10th game cleared out of my backlog in one year. Given that I'm a full-time career guy as well as a returning student who's been working on college classes at night and maintaining a good relationship with my significant other, I'd say 2007 was a bona fide success in achieving goals for myself! I don't think I can top that in 2008 unless I actually am able to apply and get accepted into a medical school by year's end to start in the 2009 school year. I set too high of a water mark for myself this year.

I'm probably about to be in a similar situation. We're trying to buy our first home, but the cheapest ones in this area are near the upper limits of our financial abilities (while still having a comfortable buffer to rely on). So, if we do happen to have an offer accepted, then the internet, as well as game purchases, will be put on hold until our finances stabilize. Now, I normally play WoW, which helps to vastly lower the number of new games I want anyway, but without it, I'll just have to buckle down and finally dip into my own pile of single-player shame.

Hemidal, I may just make a similar vow to my self come the New Year. You see, two weeks ago I was a bit curious and figured I would do a quick count of the games that are sitting in some boxes. These are games that I've bought over the last 3-4 years and have not yet had a chance to play them because of the insane school/work schedules. I'm finally going to have a bit more time now and I'm looking forward to going through them. However, I have a dilemma. You see my quick count revealed that I'm sitting on eighty-nine unplayed games. Yes, you read that correctly, 89. There actually may be a few more in a box that I didn't see yet, but I think that's most of them. These games are for multiple systems (pc, xbox, ps2, 360, ds, gba), cover many different genres, and are as old as Baldurs Gate 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, or Tactics Ogre. Luckily, almost all games I've bought were at least 50% off or used, so I don't feel too bad about spending all the $. But now, I'm sitting on a pile of games and I don't even know where to start. I guess I can't really complain, having too many games to choose from is a problem many gamers would like to have. So, I've told myself that for the New Year, I'm not going to buy any new single player focused games until I get through a good amount of the ones I already have. I'm not a huge multiplayer fan but I have CoD4 and Halo3 that I can enjoy with the GWJ crew for some time. If I see a large number of GWJ member jump on a multiplayer game I would also enjoy (i.e. Burnout Paradise, Culdcept Saga) and I can find the game at a good discount I may jump on it, but otherwise NO new games. I'm hoping that if I can get through about half of the games I have over the next year I'll be happy.

Now, now, take off that Santa hat if you're going to be a grinch.

With the winter games drought coming and my hardware/software budget blown by impulse buying, I think I'll join this movement. No new games for me until spring.*

*Unless I really want them.

You only briefly met my wife at the Houston LAN S&T, but she will latch on to an idea and run with it. She doesn't tend to spend very much money on herself, so my hobby with its $65 (after tax) games seems somewhat excessive to her. She understands I like it and it's my thing, but she doesn't know why I buy so many games.

Also, I will have a budget... One game for the first 11 months of the year.

I'm almost excited about making a list of stuff that comes out over the year and seeing if it's still worth picking up next December. I'll have a $300-400 gaming shopping spree at the end of the year, and some of the titles might be bargain bin by then.

I am also in a similar situation to CyberTrick. I have at least 20-30 games I've played less than an hour, if it all. This will be a good time to catch up on some really good gaming. I've probably got some stinkers in there too, but don't we all?

I've got $60 for the last few days of 2007. Any last minute recommendations?

Edit - I'm typing like my 21 month old daughter is talking, yikes!

I want to add, just to keep things legit, I won't be obtaining any games via torrent or other means either. I'll be playing the stuff I already own.

Trade-ins are an option, but I'm such a pack rat that it really hurts to unload games for so little in return. I tend to do that maybe once every couple of years. It would probably take some multiplayer fun that grabs the hivemind to get me to trade some stuff in.

We're going for the zero-cost initiative here.

That makes 2 for a Gametap subscription. Which is funny, because I've been playing around with the free account and I saved the email they sent for the $59.95 for a year sub.

Good luck Hemi! We'll always have Gears as well.
I had Gametap for the last year and found I didn't use it often enough to justify the subscription. In my case I was playing new(er) games instead and didn't have time/didn't feel like going through the older catalog. It is a good catalog though.

I'm personally leaning towards the Gamefly (rental) route. I spent a lot this past year on games and Rock Band put me slightly over budget.
It looks like the plans are $16/month (1 at a time) or $23/month (2 at a time). I'm leaning towards 2 at a time, which would come out to ~$275 per year. As scary as the thought is, that's just over four brand new $60+tax games.

I don't think it'll be of any help to your plan for this coming year but it's an alternative to consider for the future.
If you do go for the trade-in route, remember to wait for a promotion where they give a flat $ amount per X games traded in or for a large percentage boost. With older games it's usually a much better idea to go with the flat dollar amount.

Looking forward to seeing you in MP and clearing out that backlog.

Well, I use the savings on upgrading to a better brand of beer than the base Budweiser the game of life started me with.

I know people probably have horror stories about Gamestop, but I've been buying used games at my local store and returning the ones that I don't end up liking for a full refund. It's worked out pretty well.

Wow, you're going to miss GTA 4. I don't think I would be strong enough for that.

I will say that jumping into some instantly action MP fun with Goojers (and others) has been a blast and welcome diversion from the heavy commitment of WoW. I would be a blast seeing Fedaykin98 running around as a Heavy with ShadeRaven chasing him with a healing gun trying to keep him alive.. or better yet, in reverse roles where you can keep my sorry butt alive for a change!

I'm glad that you and Thin_J plan on sticking with COD4. I plan to put more time into that game after I work through the holiday glut.