What a great year for games it’s been so far, folks! To be fair, it feels likeeveryyear of the last three decades has been a great year for games, so it’s always a little baffling why we act surprised that we got some humdingers in the bunch. And it’s not like having a great year for games stops there from being an unending wave of AI-generated art puzzle games for Switch or hero shooters that look like they were designed under the mandate of creating the most boring characters possible in a sci-fi setting that isn’t cyberpunk or steampunk but kind of just ‘designed-by-committee-punk’.
But good or bad,Metaphor: ReFantazioorSkull And Bones, there has been no game I’ve been obsessed with more this year than making space on my harddrive for another game, downloading it, and then deleting that game to make more space for a different one later.
Here’s how it works: sometimes I’ll buy a new game or remember an old one I want to reinstall under the completely false impression I’m going to finally finish it. As many of you know from personal experience, video games take up space on a harddrive or microSD card or what have you.
And as many of youalsoknow from personal experience, even if you expand your computer or console’s memory, you’re only going to fill it up with more PSX games downloaded off PS Plus that you might play for fifteen minutes before remembering you’ll never feel as good as you did when you were a child, a point in your life when you ironically did not think things could feel any worse. And, to me, that is maybe 90 percent of the enjoyment of video games right there. Just looking at things I could download and then thinking, ‘Well, I better clear out some stuff to have room for Wild Arms 2, an RPG I’m definitely going to play very soon’.
The fun part is, because downloads take a while, you can then just move onto something else! Maybe even more downloads that you want and deletions that you’ll need! It’s almost Halloween, so why not deleteMarvel’s Spider-Man 2andDeath Strandingto make room for every singleResident Evilgame ever made? That’s reasonable and a hundreds-of-hours-long project I’ll 100 percent follow up on. It’s not like I won’t later delete every single Resident Evil game ever made to make room for Death Stranding and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 again. But downloading each one takes time. It’s like reopening a Christmas gift you put back in the box and half-heartedly covered with torn wrapping paper.
Watch the many download bars! Watch how they bottleneck each other until they slow to a crawl and you lose interest! It’s a wonderful thing. Even the newest game can disappear under the rubble of a thousand downloads if you try. Why choose the game youwantto play when you can delete it and make room for all the games youmightplay if you were independently wealthy and all your regular life responsibilities disappeared and the Earth slowed so there were 36 hours in a day?
You could certainly try for the hidden endings in the Silent Hill 2remake today, but that’s like 50 gigabytes! Haven’t you been telling yourself you’re going to blast through every game in the Corpse Party and Disgaea series? Careful! Disgaea 3 isn’t available on Steam, so you better find your Vita, charge your Vita, buy and make space for Disgaea 3, and then never ever touch it again.
I’m not saying this is for everyone. Some people actually enjoy playing games. I used to be the same, I’ll tell you that! But now instead of finishing majestic works of art lovingly put together over the course of years, I can say, ‘Oh, that would be fun right now!’ and then delete Mario Golf (again) to downloadLuigi’s Mansion 3(again). Then, in three or four months, I’ll want to play Mario Golf and get confused as to why it’s not right there on my Switch. If you give it a chance, it’s a blast to never be able to make decisions and sit doing nothing, locked into anxiety.
Of course, you might think I’m being facetious. Perhaps I’m saying that games are too big these days and it’s hard to comfortably enjoy multiple games at once if we’re constantly balancing space for newer and more resource-consuming experiences. But I’m not. I’m not that smart and if you need help comfortably enjoying games, you won’t get it from me, the least comfortable man in the entire solar system. I’ve just realized I’ve spent more time on menus shuffling games around, transferring them between harddrives and SD cards than I have playing games. Is it a problem? Yes. Am I ever going to stop? God, I hope so.
