Mario is coming out tomorrow, and I have pre-ordered it (rare for me) digitally, so I know I will get my grubby hands on it in the morning. It is highly likely that will be my sole game until I complete it which, given my limited playing time these days, might take a while.
For the past month or so I have been playing Golf Story. I love it to bits. The story, the characters, the look, the way it plays, the whole caboodle. But I know that from tomorrow it is unlikely that I will pick it up again, and if I do I won’t be very good at it as I’ll need to practice again and get used to the controls.
I am on the last course. It is bloody hard. I want to finish this but I know I only have today to do it. I feel pressure, and I don’t like it. It’s completely self imposed, this is on me, but I feel I almost HAVE to finish this game. Complete the story (word even in the game’s title) so to speak.
Does anyone else put deadlines on when they have to finish a game? I haven’t done in the past and this is a pretty unique circumstance I guess (on the last level of a game the day before a big release come out).
Edit - I completed Golf Story with a few hours to spare. It wasn’t as fun as the rest of the game. though because of the deadline I had imposed I think I actually got a bigger kick out of finishing that last course than I otherwise might have done. So, torn.
I had to return a rental copy of Red Dead Redemption back when it came out so I had to marathon the last 10 hours or so. It just kept on going though, the ending was cool but I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a game to end so much in my life.
I don’t generally self impose deadlines, the games are always there to go back to. I don’t mind giving a game a break then jumping back in, that’s how I played Witcher 3.
Kinda different I suppose, but every other year I’ll play Luigi’s Mansion on Halloween eve, challenging myself to finish it (100%) before the sun rises. May seem silly, but it’s pretty fun and actually helps me to feel even more immersed in the game and its atmosphere.
Only did that once. I like to take my time and play games relaxed, without any pressure.
I only did that for Day of the Tentacle, because Dark Souls 3 was going to be released the day after (it wasn’t hard… i played the original 5 times).
Gracias! I was originally inspired to do it since Luigi’s Mansion was intended to have a time limit to completing the game at some point in early development. The game is still fairly short so I thought it’d be cool to try and play it like that anyway.
I set myself a deadline for finishing Mario + Rabbids just a few days ago: the release of Odyssey. I succeeded!
I subscribe to a game rental service with no return dates for a monthly fee. To keep it being good value there is pressure to finish games and return them quickly. Also there is some guilt that other people could want it.
Finally, I take part in a challenge to finish at least three games a month since I have had trouble with just spreading myself too thin with games. So though it isn’t a deadline for particular games, it is a deadline for any games.
Yes I generally do it due to mental illnesses. My brain tries to convince me if I don’t beat certain games by a certain time I’m worthless. It happens more often with difficult games than with easy ones. Like originally I did that with Nioh and it was miserable. I try not to do it anymore as its pretty bad for my mental health.
I have done this many, many times, and I always miss them. The times I didn’t miss them were when I was cranking out articles for HG101 one week to pay the electric bill, and I think that was some of my weakest work. I had to go back to the Westerado article years later for a bit of a rewrite.
I sort of let myself drift in and out of games as my interest sees fit, but boy…I’ve had the urge to finish games before sequels or a new game in the same genre is released.
This is very cool! ^^
I used to do something similar in college by playing through Ocarina of Time during my Thanksgiving break and finishing by the end of it. All in the pursuit of honoring my original playthrough which happened during Thanksgiving as a kid. Nostalgia is weird!
whenever i’ve put myself on a schedule for finishing a game i’ve found that i enjoy it less. it starts to feel more like work. i still do it, though, especially in a case like yours in which i’m very close to the end and just want to get it done with - i force myself to finish sometimes. i just like finishing stuff, i guess… but it’s always less pleasant to have to force your way through.
in conclusion, drop the schedule, be open and free, you’ll probably enjoy your games more.
I hate the feeling of a game being a deadline but I constantly find myself falling into that situation. Last year I ended up clearing my backlog so that I could give each new release my full attention. It worked well until I started picking up a lot of games that I never really planned due to getting new hardware (Pro, TV) just for the visuals. I’ve also recently picked up an xbox and have been playing through the Alan Wake games, really enjoying them, but am currently distracted by wanting to replay Wolfenstein The New Oder and The Old Blood as a recap for the sequel coming out. So I’ve yet again set another deadline for myself, I’m gonna finish up the first Alan Wake game and leave the additional content and spin-off for another date where I can enjoy them while also replaying the two Wolfenstein games. Also Gran Turismo Sport is distracting as well.
When I got to the ending parts of final fantasy XV I basically mainlined it cause I wanted to be done, see the ending, and move on. That game has a lot of spectacle and I enjoyed getting through it, but I also just wanted to be done.
I guess it would count as similar to a “review deadline” if it’s a contest-entry-judging deadline, right? And I suppose speedrunning also doesn’t count, and “gotta finish this before the train/plane/etc. arrives at the destination” probably also isn’t in the spirit of this question. I haven’t ever rented a game before, but I imagine that’s another situation which is kind of exempted.
I just don’t really chase a lot of new releases or whatnot, I suppose. I don’t feel any desire to be in on the action from day one – at most I just try to avoid spoilers for games I intend to play. And I do finish all finishable games – i.e., games with an actual end that I am physically capable of completing with more or less the amount of skill currently in my possession – so that’s not a pressure point either, especially since I don’t tend to go for those huge, dozens/scores/hundreds-of-hours-long triple-A game campaigns in the first place.
in 2008 after the glut of amazing games that came out at the end of 2007 were settled and as a 13 year old I could get the ones that I hadn’t gotten for Christmas with my friends. Well I got to the first Ass Creed, who I borrowed from a friend, saw it only had 8 main bosses and decided to beat it in less than a week so when six weeks reports came in and I got all A’s (I had a good 6 weeks and was confident about this) my grandpa was gonna take me to buy a new game and I was gonna get Bioshock, finally! I beat Ass Creed in the week before I got Bioshock but broke a controller trying to beat one of the Templar bosses in one night.
I have a similar problem, in that I find it very hard to start a game. Whenever I look at a game, no matter how much I’ve been looking forward to it, all I can see is the potential time commitment it’ll require to finish. I think about all the other things I could be doing instead, and often end up just doing nothing. It’s why tha majority of my gaming ends up being things like FFXIV and Overwatch, or even Destiny 2…they go on forever, so I can play for five minutes and feel no pressure to commit to a longer session.
I do it frequently, actually! Usually if a new game is coming out I’m interested in, I challenge myself to finish prior games in the series (if I haven’t played them before) or any new games I’m currently playing to see if I can complete them and start a new game, giving myself a constant flow of games to play (and little to no backlog)
2017 has unfortunately eradicated that with so many great releases back to back, or on the same day, but I’ve managed to keep this up atleast partially by finishing a game I bought earlier this year before starting a new game I was really interested in releasing sooner!
It can be a bit of a slog at times when I’m constantly keeping my self-imposed deadline in the back of my mind, but if it ever starts to impact my enjoyment of a game, I just “call it off” and play the game at my own leisure, since this is still a hobby and should be enjoyed as such
It has helped me significantly with actually completing games though, as before my “deadlines”, I’d start a new game, get halfway through, then drop it when something new came out, and ended up with a dozen or so of half finished games eternally in my backlog, and never felt quite satisfied with anything I was playing. I was consuming games habitually, and not actually appreciating what I was playing… when I told myself I couldn’t buy anything new until I finished what I had however, it became a miniature challenge and felt rewarding to start actually completing some of the games I had completed, and this little ritual has lead to better buying habits (no more picking up 3-4 games at launch and then leaving them on the shelf!) and I feel as though I’m actually putting in the time and respect for the games that they deserve.
Not until recently. I finally got tired of seeing these unfinished independent games I got for cheap. So I’ve been forcing myself to play through them. Last weekend I finally finished What remains of Edith Finch. This weekend it’s The vanishing of Ethan Carter. I’ve told myself I won’t be buying new games until I finish what I have, which everyone has done at some point, but I’m going to stick to it this time. Which is also something everyone has told themselves at some point.
