2017 - 12 Month Pile Program

I've been trying to pay better attention to my burnout point with games. I know that I tend to abandon them after 12 to 16 hours, but that's something that comes after burnout. I'm trying to figure out when the burnout starts so that I can take a break from a game before I'm sick of it rather than after.

As near as I can tell so far, it doesn't have much of anything to do with how many hours I've put into a game but is just a matter of how many days I've been playing it. With very, very rare exceptions, my limit seems to be just over a week.

This year, I'm going to try something new and deliberately and arbitrarily rotate what I'm playing every week. I'm going to swap console games (and possibly console platforms) on Sundays and handheld games on Wednesdays. Maybe that way I can stay ahead of the burnout.

We'll see.

Yeah, I've changed my system from forcing a game swap every 20 hours to forcing a game swap every month, personally. The number of days tends to be a better indicator of how "long" I've been playing something than the number of hours.

Demyx wrote:

The number of days tends to be a better indicator of how "long" I've been playing something than the number of hours.

This surprised me when I realized it, but it makes sense. Even when I'm not actively playing a game, I'm at least thinking about it. Those off hours add to the fatigue, too.

Looks like the year is off with a bang for me. I'll say one thing, clearing a bunch of small but brilliant games off the Pile does wonders for morale. And gaming enjoyment too.

I'm very happy with the Switch announcement.

At an AU$469.95 price point, that thing is sooooooo far away on the Horizon, they'll most likely have a refresh SKU before I think about getting on board.

AU$119.95 for extra controllers for the kids, and that's starting to be an very expensive item.

Breath of the Wild was going to be my main reason to get it, but with the collectors' edition rolling around at AU$189.95, I'm not going to be boarding that hype train in a hurry.

I managed to get a pre-order for the Nintendo Switch on Amazon. After making a list of the Switch games I want to get, I went ahead and cancelled the order. There is no way that if I allowed myself to buy a new console that I wouldn't then allow myself to buy the half dozen or more games I want. It would be a fast ticket to failing my challenge.

I've been trying to be consistent in referring to my prohibition on buying games not as a ban but as a personal challenge. It's not even partway through January yet, and it's already been a struggle to not buy things, but viewing it as a personal challenge has helped me rise to occasion. If it's just a ban, I'll resent it and be relieved when it's done; if it's a challenge, then it's something I can be proud to have accomplished.

Keeping my Switch pre-order would be setting myself up to fail, and I don't want to do that. (My wife also seems to be plotting to get me one. If she does, I want it to be a gift that I'm surprised and grateful to receive, not something I've just bought myself already.)

Wow. That's a LOT of money. O_o I'm never been much of a Nintendo kind of gamer so I hadn't even been paying attention to the announcement, but wow.

That's a LOT of money.

Oddly enough, the Switch announcement also impacted my own personal challenge to myself. As stated, I'm trying to keep to one new game per month, and even then it all depends on my progress on whatever I'm currently playing. So January is Gravity Rush 2, and February was going to be Horizon: Zero Dawn on the 28th.

But with the Switch announced for the 3rd, snagging an expansive game like Breath of the Wild at launch, and Nier Automata coming out the Tuesday after, I have decided to hold off on Horizon. I am now skipping one of my more anticipated games because, honestly, Nintendo will almost always take priority for me.

I might grab For Honor as it releases two weeks earlier, but I'm going to see how my current game completion goes instead. I've been bouncing between a lot with Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies being my priority title, and it would be nice for February to be a "finishing up" month.

I've decided on a £260 total gaming budget for the year in the end (I think posted in another thread somewhere, gaming goals maybe).

First bite into that total yesterday... Caved and spent £12 on Stardew Valley for PS4.

I'm hoping to play it on Vita via remote play... Hopefully works out and playable, seems like an ideal game to use that feature if the TV in usage by others of an eve.

So 2017 budget - £248 remains.

No more purchases planned for Jan.

As much as I'd love to jump on the Switch train, budget denies.

I might however be able to squeeze a pre-owned Wii U with 3-5 of the top titles it has to offer out of that total spend if I bide my time waiting for the right bargains. Just have to careful on the ps4 purchases, we'll see - I may pop by the Wii U thread for some recommendations

Eleima wrote:

Wow. That's a LOT of money. O_o I'm never been much of a Nintendo kind of gamer so I hadn't even been paying attention to the announcement, but wow.

That's a LOT of money.

It really really depends on the situation, but the controllers are more expensive this time around than is standard for Nintendo (but they are crammed with some neat tech you don't find in the Sony or MS controllers). It ultimately comes down to what games need which configurations and how many people you think you'll need to support on average.

ccesarano wrote:

But with the Switch announced for the 3rd, snagging an expansive game like Breath of the Wild at launch, and Nier Automata coming out the Tuesday after, I have decided to hold off on Horizon. I am now skipping one of my more anticipated games because, honestly, Nintendo will almost always take priority for me.

Horizon was already on my "wait and see" list, but with Zelda coming out early March I have a feeling I'm going to be going straight to Zelda from FFXV (currently 30 hours in, still faffing about in Ch. 3 and haven't even triggered the mandatory quest at Lestallium but getting close to doing so... I think). So that's definitely a skip right now.

She Remembered Caterpillars got a surprise launch announcement for this week. Might grab it anyways and as an indie puzzler I can't imagine taking too much time. Maybe something to play if Demyx is using the Switch for Zelda?

Eleima wrote:

Wow. That's a LOT of money. O_o I'm never been much of a Nintendo kind of gamer so I hadn't even been paying attention to the announcement, but wow.

That's a LOT of money.

Australia is getting screwed again, sadly. Prices are a lot lower elsewhere.

Yes, absolutely, Australia is getting the short end of that stick, AGAIN.
But it's not just that. My stance on consoles in general, is that they're pretty pricey. This stems from my position, which is that of a PC owner. I already own the PC, so I only have to pay the price of the game. Consoles, on the other hand, come with their own price tag. And that's something I'm not used to.

I feel it's a lot of money for what the Switch is, regardless of your region.

I look at the titles announced for it and think to myself "well, there's two titles, maybe three I actually care about, that are currently only going to be on the Switch". This is for the next couple of years, so until there's more to look forward to, I will await the first or second inevitable price drop.

Eleima wrote:

Yes, absolutely, Australia is getting the short end of that stick, AGAIN.
But it's not just that. My stance on consoles in general, is that they're pretty pricey. This stems from my position, which is that of a PC owner. I already own the PC, so I only have to pay the price of the game. Consoles, on the other hand, come with their own price tag. And that's something I'm not used to.

I think the appeal for consoles is definitely lower with PC gamers since you're getting a large amount of what's out there already (along with some good exclusives of your own) and the PC ecosystem is incredibly diverse. A lot more so than the consoles in general.

Increasingly Nintendo tends to be the one manufacturer that has enough exclusive software to really justify owning one of their systems, so that's why I like them. Then again, I've been dual-classing Nintendo and PC since I was 5 so I might be a touch biased

Eleima wrote:

Yes, absolutely, Australia is getting the short end of that stick, AGAIN.
But it's not just that. My stance on consoles in general, is that they're pretty pricey. This stems from my position, which is that of a PC owner. I already own the PC, so I only have to pay the price of the game. Consoles, on the other hand, come with their own price tag. And that's something I'm not used to.

I'm on the opposite end of that. I have a laptop for working on, but it can't play anything more intensive than Shadowrun. Buying a gaming PC that could play Dishonored 2 is a huge chunk of change all at once, far more than any console.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

I might however be able to squeeze a pre-owned Wii U with 3-5 of the top titles it has to offer out of that total spend if I bide my time waiting for the right bargains. Just have to careful on the ps4 purchases, we'll see - I may pop by the Wii U thread for some recommendations :)

This would be a good pathway to travel, especially with your budget in place.

One of the main reasons I can happily "pass" on the Switch, and won't be pining for the nu hawtness is because I realistically still have all of the Switch announced IPs to get through on the WiiU.

Still haven't completed Splatoon single player

Still haven't played through all of the Mario Kart tracks on my kids' profiles (all unlocked on my own)

Still haven't played Twilight Princess HD (WiiU), Skyward Sword (Wii), or A Link Between Worlds (3DS)

Still haven't played Mario Galaxy 1 or 2 (Wii)

Still haven't got the first "milestone" in Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

Still haven't explored the first city in Xenoblade Chronicles X

I can effectively counterbalance each title announced with a Nintendo IP I have yet to complete on current and previous gens, so I'm not really missing out, just realising there is "much still to be done", so I don't need another machine acting as a portal to my pile.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Eleima wrote:

Yes, absolutely, Australia is getting the short end of that stick, AGAIN.
But it's not just that. My stance on consoles in general, is that they're pretty pricey. This stems from my position, which is that of a PC owner. I already own the PC, so I only have to pay the price of the game. Consoles, on the other hand, come with their own price tag. And that's something I'm not used to.

I'm on the opposite end of that. I have a laptop for working on, but it can't play anything more intensive than Shadowrun. Buying a gaming PC that could play Dishonored 2 is a huge chunk of change all at once, far more than any console.

We get shafted on PC parts also. Last time I "almost" bought a modest PC rig for AU$750, could only run Titanfall at 720P, and wasn't all that future proof.

When I last looked, the Graphics card "something something 970" was only about AU$20 cheaper than buying a whole 500GB PS4, so I opted for that instead.

I'd love to buy a PC rig, as I think it would be nice hooked up the the TV, etc, but they "start" at over AU$1000 down here (for a fairly sub par unit), and we don't really have a NewEgg alternative to buy components from.

True, I guess that any way you look at it, it does get pricey, particularly in your neck of the woods. I guess I myself have an easier time spending money on my computer which I'll use for "other stuff" like music, surfing, email, work, than on a console which is primarily for entertainment. And then there's the whole culture thing I mentioned earlier: I grew up in a "PC only" home, my parents refused to buy consoles despite my pleadings (first it was the NES, then the Sega Genesis, and then I gave up and settled in my PC world). I guess it's mostly force of habit now, and even though I now own a secondhand PS3 (thanks to goodjerdom!), I don't know that there's any console exclusive that could tempt me to make the jump, even for the Switch. I was slightly tempted by the Wii when it came out, but having a friend come over with his from time to time made for fun parties and that was that.

If we're talking Switch, the presentation made me hurry away and preorder ... Zelda for the Wii U. Considering that I want to focus on fewer 'live' platforms this should be a wholly positive thing. Instead I feel a sense of sadness. I hoped to want a Switch even if I didn't buy one yet. Instead I see no need for one.

The good news for me is that it's region-free. This hopefully signals the end of the European release lag which has so soured my 3DS experience. Companies should move faster to guard their sales from imports. Atlas!

Maybe in 2017. That's my hope. There's nothing exclusive to (or improved on) the Switch in 2016 which I want to play except for possibly Xenoblade 2. I expected a bit more. Pikmin 4 for one! Hopefully E3 will improve matters, and 2017-18 has a few potentials already. The other big factor is that it's poor value for my usage scenario. I'd have to fork out for a memory card (£50-£100) because the pack-in is pitiful, and a Pro controller (£65) because it's similar to the Wii U's Pro which is the only comfortable design Nintendo have produced for me in 20 years. At £60 Zelda is £20 more than the Wii U version. Add all of that to the base price of £280 and I'm so far into nopeland I could apply for citizenship. If you don't have a use for the hybrid design the Switch is a weaker proposition than for people who do benefit. I can stand to pay for some superfluous-to-me stuff but there's a limit and this is past it before we consider the added cost of the stuff which I do want. There's more. Europe won't have the online service until unspecified months later, giving me flashbacks to the Wii U's premature launch. An unexpected personal stumbling block is the fact that they talked about motion control. A lot. I tried hard to get on with MC on the Wii and I never found it to be anything but a detriment, Metroid Prime being the lone exception. I'm not keen on the fancy joycon vibration either. Been turning rumble down or off in most games since it was first introduced. Both are added cost for unwanted functionality which hangs there like a threat. How many games will shoehorn in motion or rumble sections? [shrug] I prefer simplicity in hardware with creativity appearing in software.

If they do a package with better suitability for me I'll be in eventually if the games are there and our release dates are reasonable. I hope the Switch does well for Nintendo regardless. A diverse market is better for gamers.

[...]

In other pile news, I'm making progress with Dragon Age Inquisition and should have it done by the end of the month. The effort is cutting into my reading time to a degree which is making me a bit unhappy, mainly because I feel I have to play more than usual to make any progress due to the sheer amount of dead weight. Coming directly from FFXV it's shocking how dated this game feels in some aspects. The world in particular; it's all so unnatural as an environment and bothersome to navigate. When I got to my first camp site and remembered that it didn't matter I felt so sad. I miss the automatic collection of loot after battles too, and having gathering spots marked on the map. Sections like Wicked Hearts & Wicked Minds are jolly good when I'm allowed to play them. The power mechanic feels like something from those mobile games which I avoid so assiduously. I think I'll hold off Mass Effect until I know it's not like this.

Not sure if I will keep that Zelda preorder. I loved Ocarina and Majora on the N64, and Link Between Worlds, but found Wind Waker wore me out before it ended on both Gamecube and Wii U, never got far into Twilight Princess Wii despite two attempts (due to strongly disliking the motion controls), didn't finish the first dungeon of Skyward Sword (total control failure), didn't get that far in either 3DS redo of the N64 duo, and don't feel that excited by the BotW videos outside of it being rather pretty. Have I gone off Zelda? I honestly do not know. The motion control and "I remember this so the joy of exploration is missing" factors muddy the waters.

At the end of 2026 I predicted a purchase of Abzu in the EU January Sale.

Abzu was not included in the January sale.

I purchased Stardew Valley instead and proclaimed no further purchases in January.

Abzu has just gone on sale in a regular old digital discounts promo at 60% off.

Oh... What to do... What to do...

Bubblefuzz wrote:

At the end of 2026 I predicted a purchase of Abzu in the EU January Sale.

Calm down. This is the 12 month pile program. Not the 12 year pile program.

Speaking of which. Doom completed. 2 games down already!
Edit: And Abzu done too. I'm on a roll.

Oops. Confused my timelines. Shhh.

Bubblefuzz wrote:

At the end of 2026 I predicted a purchase of Abzu in the EU January Sale.

Abzu was not included in the January sale.

I purchased Stardew Valley instead and proclaimed no further purchases in January.

Abzu has just gone on sale in a regular old digital discounts promo at 60% off.

Oh... What to do... What to do...

I am also tempted by the little yellow swimmer.

I'm hopeful that it will hit a PS+ "freebie" in the next 6 to 12 months, which is the timeframe I would anticipate starting it. Same with "Enter the Gungeon".

I've been rewarded for my patience in the past, fingers crossed this is true for these titles also.

Oops - I got a good deal on a Vita yesterday. Adios pile plans

Doing so well too - wrapped up fire emblem awakening and the diablo 3 main campaign this month.

Ahh well.

m0nk3yboy wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

At the end of 2026 I predicted a purchase of Abzu in the EU January Sale.
Abzu was not included in the January sale.
Abzu has just gone on sale in a regular old digital discounts promo at 60% off.
Oh... What to do... What to do...

I am also tempted by the little yellow swimmer.

Abzû is phenomenal. It's beautiful, relaxing, almost magical. Absolutely worth the price of admission. I've already played it twice.

*glances at the title of the thread* oh right sorry, I'm not supposed to enable sorry but not sorry, Abzû is so worth it.

I finished Ratchet and Clank the other night... then immediately started a Challenge Mode run, which I finished up last night. And I'm probably going to play it more tonight to clean up the handful of trophies I'm missing. This is definitely a contender for my 2017 GOTY list.

In other pile news though, I mentioned before that I've pretty much stopped doing retail therapy. That's, er... less true now. o_O

Eleima wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

At the end of 2026 I predicted a purchase of Abzu in the EU January Sale.
Abzu was not included in the January sale.
Abzu has just gone on sale in a regular old digital discounts promo at 60% off.
Oh... What to do... What to do...

I am also tempted by the little yellow swimmer.

Abzû is phenomenal. It's beautiful, relaxing, almost magical. Absolutely worth the price of admission. I've already played it twice.

*glances at the title of the thread* oh right sorry, I'm not supposed to enable sorry but not sorry, Abzû is so worth it.

Ha ha ha... Love it!

I may still grab this before the sale is over. I liked Journey for all those reasons, and I've played that game through 3 or 4 times now, which is something I very rarely make time for.

m0nk3yboy wrote:
Eleima wrote:
m0nk3yboy wrote:
Bubblefuzz wrote:

At the end of 2026 I predicted a purchase of Abzu in the EU January Sale.
Abzu was not included in the January sale.
Abzu has just gone on sale in a regular old digital discounts promo at 60% off.
Oh... What to do... What to do...

I am also tempted by the little yellow swimmer.

Abzû is phenomenal. It's beautiful, relaxing, almost magical. Absolutely worth the price of admission. I've already played it twice.

*glances at the title of the thread* oh right sorry, I'm not supposed to enable sorry but not sorry, Abzû is so worth it.

Ha ha ha... Love it!

I may still grab this before the sale is over. I liked Journey for all those reasons, and I've played that game through 3 or 4 times now, which is something I very rarely make time for.

Grrr, you enablers

It doesn't make much sense I know - but I think Abzû is on sale for another couple weeks so I may hold off to buy it in February... At least then I can tell myself I've only added one game (Stardew) to the pile in January

Garden Ninja wrote:

...And I'm probably going to play [Ratchet & Clank] more tonight to clean up the handful of trophies I'm missing.

I looked up the trophies I have remaining and one of them (hit every enemy type with the Groovitron) may require playing through the entire game over again. I really like this game, but I'm not sure I want to play all the way through 3 times back to back to back. So I might skip that one for now and come back to it.

Yeah, I thought I had that one for sure as I even used it on all the bosses, but it never dinged.

I wonder what happened to keeping progress logs for achievements in the pause or main menu?