At the beginning of this semester I was swamped. School was harder than ever, because I was taking 20 hours and because my classes were actually tough for once, I was working twice as much as this time last year, and I had something of an axe hanging over my head in the form of a Study Abroad application I had finished over the summer. I had almost no time for gaming and quickly became disillusioned, retreating into books, something that requires less input on my part to get to the story. As time went on I slowly re-entered gaming in general.

About a month ago there was only one game I wanted out of this fall/holiday season, Borderlands. As time progressed I was highly impressed by a few other contenders. DJ Hero grabbed the part of me that loves rhythm games and won't let go, the addition of Daft Punk only adding fuel to that fire. Uncharted 2 apparently looks, sounds and plays gorgeously, with a seamless story and quite fun multiplayer to boot. Demons' Souls looked to quench a thirst I wasn't even sure I had, but the more I saw of it the more I wanted it to hurt me in its beautifully dark fantasy world. Brutal Legend struck a chord in my heart with its reverence for metal and the minds that spawned such a rich and fantastic world.

Essentially my price of admission to this fall's gaming bonanza went from $45 to at least $360, but one little email changed all of that in an instant.



This excited me immensely because I had been waiting for a decision on what could easily have been a life-altering event. So I headed over to their website and found this.



That sentence meant that I was going to fulfill a dream I've had since I found out where the 2010 World Cup was going to be. For at least the past 5-6 years I've told everyone I know that 2nd semester junior year of college I would Study Abroad in South Africa and then stay and attend the World Cup. I was unaware just how much this had been weighing me down, and the instant elation I felt was tremendous. I was literally giddy.



The next day I was still happy enough to say "Fuck it, I kind of want to get Demons' Souls, so I will." I went to Game stop and they were out, but told me to come back the next day. So I did, and again, and again. In all I went to the local Gamestop four days in a row. Each day being told that all their copies had been purchased before my arrival. On Friday I was told to return on Monday.

Over this weekend period my desire has cooled off considerably for Demons' Souls, but it was matching by a ramping up of interest for Uncharted 2 and, oddly enough, Left 4 Dead 2. Saturday night as I watched the USA qualify for their 6th straight World Cup the reality of my situation really hit me. This led me to make a quick, yet torturous decision. No new games. In fact, no more game purchases at all. I have a tendency to only finish more recent games, and ones I've bought in the past or for cheap generally have more trouble holding my interest. It's going to be difficult, but the pay off will be tremendous. Not only will I have the opportunity to fulfill a life's dream, but Cape Town is also something of a mecca for awesome activities, such as cage diving with sharks.



The possibilities for travel are also immense, the ability to see a multitude of things I never have, and probably never will again.



In short, it is a chance I shouldn't squander. So I'm going to make the most of it, and until I get there some sacrifices will have to be made. Despite how inextricably linked gaming has been to my life for so long, ignoring the fact that the run-up to new releases will still make me dizzy with anticipation it is simply one of the easiest things to cut entirely from a budget, so cut it has become. There are things beyond gaming that require my dollars, so for once I'm not going to bow down at the altar of minds greater than my own, pay my $60 tribute and receive a good time.

It's important to remember that there are things that go beyond gaming. It's not just having to pay the rent or get out of debt that should curtail your purchases, there are things in life that shouldn't be missed. I believe that I have stumbled into one of them, and I'm going to let it bleed me dry. I will pick up most of, if not all of, those games eventually, but for now I'm going to step away. I suppose this is more of a personal musing, in that I just happen to be actively breaking what has become a sacred tradition in gaming, but I hope it can get you to take a step back at some point as well, sometimes I feel that I've relied too much on gaming to take me away when there's a whole world out there waiting to be explored.

Don't expect any dazzling reviews or insight into the latest thing from me for quite a while. If I stay strong it'll be nothing particularly new until I leave in January, and I won't be coming back until the end of July. If the reception is friendly I may throw a few non-gaming, but still awesome, related blogs up during that long stretch, but it's still a ways off, so who knows.

Also, I just want to say great job on recent CBlog updates Niero, the picture uploader is super snappy now, along with pretty much everything else.

This was pretty much a last second change to a monthly musing, its original title was Fall Purchase Panacea, but I like to throw something down as a Monthly Musing even if it only barely fits, and truth-be-told this one may only fit in the twisted depths of my mind.