Bought two games in this month during the EA sale . I also reviewed my wishlist and removed many games . ( was 252 now 151 )

I recently bought two bundles with games. One was The Tax Day Bundle from Groupees, which was just a joke I could appreciate. I did read Snowmanilas from that bundle (which was merely okay) so it's not a total loss, and I'm currently giving Bad Rats at Steam Gifts.

The other is the current Humble Mobile Bundle 11, which I bought at only the base level, for Avernum: Escape From the Pit. That's really the kind of classic "I'll just buy it because it's a good game I might play one day" classic buying addiction problem. Really, chances are pretty low that I'll get to it over the next couple of years.

I also bought the Bundle of Laughs from Bundle of Holding, and good thing I decided to post this, because I forgot about it, so now I downloaded a couple of books from it to browse (and a few others I have on DriveThruRPG).

Bad News: (for me)
I relapsed again on April 3rd, this time with 2 games, Secret Files 3 and Secret Files: Sam Peters. The whole series went on a 75% sale a couple days ago and since I just finished the first two parts of the series, I couldn’t resist getting the remaining two because I had quite a bit of fun with this series.

Good News: (for you)
On the bright side, I immediately installed , played and already completed both purchases so it didn’t add any backlog. Also, I now have to make a giveaway according to my personal rules. I decided it makes little sense to give away part 3 & 4 of a series so I’m giving away two copies of the first game, Secret Files: Tunguska. It’s by far the best one of the bunch anyway. If you’re interested in winning one of the free copies , you’re very welcome to participate in the giveaway. Unfortunately the game is not available on GOG so those are Steam codes.

Giveaway:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/whats_the_most_macgyver_thing_you_ever_did_in_rl_secret_files_tunguska_giveaway



If you don’t want a DRM copy but still want the game, please vote for Secret Files Tunguska on the community wishlist:

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/secret_files_tunguska


Even though I would like to categorically resist, I agree with you on that - if one is to relapse anyway, might as well limit it to games one plays immediately. Since I did exactly that, things could be worse even though I relapsed.

Oh gawd...
Almost relapsed into buying the sniper ghost warrior bundle at bundlestars.

NO NO must resist.

So now you put these two games on my map, and I found they're available for Android. Then looked at the permissions and decided they're too much. So resisted, for now.

I don't think there's anything inherently bad in buying games, as long as you play them. Games are meant to be bought and played.

At 20 EUR, Secret File 3 is clearly overpriced as it's much shorter than the first two games. Took only 6 hours to complete, could be even less for people in a rush. Secret Files: Sam Peters took me only 3 hours, it's fun but only has 3 locations, very short game. Both games are easier than the first two parts and have less contrived puzzles. If you are a big fan of the first game, it's definitely worth getting parts 3 & 4 because they're enjoyable even if they aren't quite as good as Tunguska but I'd say wait for a 75% sale.

Actually it's Tunguska and Sam Peters which are on Android. But for now I'm not putting them on a wish list. I'll just try to remember them in case I see them in a Humble Bundle.

Don't worry. The games aren't really good. There are better alternatives I would say. Played the first one after I got it for like 2€. It was worth it for that price to kill a few hours, but I had to redo 3 levels because of bugs and the actual gameplay was not that great. Not terrible, but crysis 1 is better for example.

I'm tempted to get The Night of the Rabbit from the MacGameStore bundle. It's got good reviews and at the $1 it's cheap (and I get a couple other games to gift).

Oh no MacGamestore is a site I had not come across before so now thats another I am going to be keeping an eye on in the future for bargains!!!

Playing games from a wide range of genres has helped me curb my buying of games.
When you restrict yourself to just one or two genres it's easy to fall into the 'I need to buy all games in this genre' mindset, or 'I'm this type of gamer so I should buy all games that represent this'.

For me, playing a wide range of genres has made me look at games more from a functional perspective.
A game from a specific genre then fulfills a certain gaming need/obsession.

City Skylines is a good example. It looked like a great city-builder and I really wanted to buy it.
However I already had SimCity 4 in my collection, another good city-builder.
Thinking in terms of functionality I started playing SimCity 4 again, and that met my need of playing a city-builder.
And if I'm in the mood to play a soccer game I'll replay PES 2012 instead of buying the latest version, if I'm in the mood to play an rpg I'll replay Avernum or something else in my collection, and so on.

In terms of functionality games from the same genre or sub-genre are very similar, I would even argue that there are no significant differences between them, after all that's what makes them a genre in the first place.
Look at Far Cry 4 and Crysis for example. What you do is the same in each game: you press a few buttons to move, and some other buttons to aim and shoot. Thats what you do in all FPS games.
The only significant differences are the scenarios, storylines and settings; aliens, nazis, terrorists, zombies, jungles, cities etc. Its the same with other genres, although there are always the rare exceptions.


I'm sure you have something in your existing collection that offers somewhat similar gameplay, look there first.

I desperately need a thread like this. I probably don't spend as much as a lot of people, but I still feel like I'm spending too much, especially when I currently don't even have the time to play.

The last game I purchased was Oreshika on the Vita on March 3rd....I booted up the game just to see what it looks like and that's it. :/

Earlier today I was tempted to buy Halo 1 and 2 for PC because...I don't know, seemed like a good idea. I actually own both games on the Xbox! Fortunately I ran across the Halo demo and....well, sometimes the magic just can't be recreated.

I'd like to at least get through the end of April without purchasing another game, but every time I see Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb here on GOG, it just taunts me. My more ideal goal is to not buy a game until I actually get a real job, but who knows how long that will take (I'm in my last semester of my master's program and am studying now for a professional certification).

Totally agree with you there. This is probably the reason 2 months ago, I had several FPSs in my backlog as I was more interested in playing other games. Thing is, FPSs have evolved but devolved at the same time. FPSs have improved in terms of graphics, physics, stealth mechanics etc but also devolved or stagnated because of extreme linearity, cut and paste level design, bad writing and cut scenes interrupting the action, the all to familiar arsenal of melee weapon, pistol, shotgun, 2-3 types of rapid fire weapon, rocket launcher etc. Even though I'm interested in playing FPSs, I still leave them sitting in the backlog because most of the time, I already know what's coming. When I do play, it's also in short doses. I bought Far Cry on Apr 21, 2014, just started playing it yesterday :P

RTSs also fall into this trap. How many RTSs are out there that DON'T follow this blueprint?

1) Start map
2) Build up base
3) Build lots of defense (and if applicable, upgrade tech)
4) Let AI throw units at defense
4a) If defense doesn't hold, go back to step 3
5) Build up army of the best units
6) Save game
7) Attack enemy base
7a) If attack fails, reload and go back to step 5
8) Win map, outro
8a) If map wasn't the last map in the campaign, go back to step 1 until it is
9) Finish game

This is one of the reason's RTSs don't always hold my interest unless there are other noteworthy elements. I did however just finish Original War and it was rather refreshing to play an RTS where you actually cared about your units and soldiers were your most important resource and not faceless cannon fodder like in your run of the mill RTSs.

With this in mind, it's easy to see how games can end up sitting in our backlogs. :P

I'm addicted to breathing too. I've been trying to quit, but it's almost like second nature.

The problem is, I care about story. That's why I limit myself to genres which are more story oriented (adventure games and RPG's) and that's why I can't be convinced by this (because the setting and story are different). I do like quite a few genres, and if I had more gaming time I'd play them (and I occasionally do for a bit), but I always end up thinking I should play something with more story and character interaction.

And as you say, that makes it easier to fall into the trap of buying the genre.

Still, the consideration remains the same as you say: if you have a significant backlog, then you have games you want to play, and you don't really need to buy new games until you've played the games you really want. It doesn't really matter if the gameplay is similar or not, as long as you want to play these games you already own, you don't really need new ones.