We all have them, don’t we? And I’m not talking about backlogs. I mean, a game can’t exactly have gotten away from you if you currently own it, unless you happened to misplace it or rip the disc apart in a moment of sheer stupidity or rage. Or if it just, you know, broke.
Today I’m talking about the game, or games, that you’ve always wanted to play, but you just never got around to it and you’ve never found the opportunity to own it. Or rather, you didn’t take those opportunities when they presented themselves. I’m sure you all have those games where you just never felt part of that club, and when those gamers talk about how The Last Of Us, for example, made them rethink their lives, you always felt out of that circle and left to do the walk of shame.
Maybe it’s a pride thing, as personally gaming is one of my biggest passions in life, and I don’t like not knowing about something gaming related. I also want to play everything I can. Or perhaps it’s just the pain of longing, wanting what I’ve never had. Being forever alone. Like an AIDS patient.
Wow, real o’ clock came quite unexpectedly, hey?
Anyway, for me, I can always think of two games when I think about the “one that got away”. And this topic came to me because I just very recently discovered that one of those games was actually on sale on PlayStation Network for a great price, and I flat out missed it.
That game, is Shadow of the Colossus on PS2 from Team Ico. Now I know some of you may be gasping and struggling to quell your feeling of false superiority or obscure loathing for me, but it’s the truth. I never played Shadow of the Colossus, and it just, well, got away. I missed it in the sale just now, and it always just lingers somewhere in the back of my mind. Gamers talk about the best boss battles ever (although I know the Metal Gear Solid series has the best boss battles ever – total fanboy alert, right?), and about one of the best PS2 games ever made, and I’m just not in on that party.
I don’t know what it’s like out there, slaughtering titans too big to fit on the screen. I’ve just been sitting behind my desk. Well, actually, I played God of War III so I have a pretty great idea.
But you get the point nonetheless.
The second game that has always eluded me is one I’m hesitant to mention for the simple fact that some readers may force choke themselves or feel their balls shoot up to their brains at the very notion that someone could not have played this holy relic of a game. Care to take a guess?
Final Fantasy VII.
I’ll give you a moment to avoid strangulation or put your balls back in the right place.
All done? Are we ready to continue, potato minion?
Right so, I’ve never been part of the Final Fantasy VII club either. The only relation I have to “Final Fantasy VII” is having watched the CGI movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. So when people talk about how Final Fantasy VII reduced them to tears as it executed a Shoryuken punch right in the feels, I’m just not part of that club. When people talk about one of the supposed saddest moments in gaming like ever since the history of the walrus, I’m out of the loop. And when people cry “reboot” from all corners of the internet world, I feel that emptiness in my, well, I don’t know what I have there.
To be honest I’m not entirely sure why I’ve never played it. It’s not about the graphics being outdated, because last year I played both of the original Max Payne games.
Either way, that’s my sad story. And sort of a little confession as well. I suppose you want some sort of meaning to this right? Or some way it can be tied to serious business.
Well, I’d say that we humans are strange creatures. Our wants are endless, as are our longings. Yet, when presented with opportunities to actually obtain them, or when we’re just plainly able to, we don’t. Perhaps because we’re lazy, or occupied elsewhere or we just don’t for some reason. But the reality is, the longer we leave those obtainable and reasonable wants just lingering there, we’ll always wonder about them. Missing what you’ve never had can be dangerous, as can be longing.
My advice would be, since I’m perfectly capable of giving advice that I don’t follow, set aside some time one holiday or on a rainy day when you’re bored, to play that game that got away. Don’t pass up opportunities to acquire it. Don’t end up like me (yes, feel the melodrama in your organs). Even if you just get it and then leave it there, like I did with a number of games on the Steam sales, at least you have it and it can be safely slotted into your backlog. If it’s laying there, then there will come that rainy day or that time when you’re just in the mood, and then you can finally experience what you’ve been missing for so long. I’ll most likely know that feeling when I get to play Dust: An Elysian Tail.
To all of you, which games can you think of that have just escaped you? Not games you currently own or that are laying around at a friend’s house who you wish you could kill for holding your property.
Which game is the one that got away?