Its that time of the year again. The universities are all but becoming devoid of life as the students return to their ‘real’ homes, the workers are looking forward to a few weeks of time away from their mind-crushing nine-to-five schedules, and the teenagers are finally off school, left to play in their own devices outside on these busy December streets, causing anyone of the right mind to stay in at risk of being beat up and mugged or something in this country. And there I am, indoors, with an Xbox360 and PS3 both hooked up to my fat 32" HDTV sitting in front, the Wii on standby, and a selection of the best from the end of year deluge (read: fuckton) of games right in front of me. And I laugh, at old Mrs. Wetherley, as the group of teens stationed outside my window are having off with her handbag. Or as Dave, the gardener on the other side of the street, continues even in the cold weather his weekly shirtless mowing of the lawn. Oh Dave, even as you pass fifty you never cease to amaze me.

But that laugh turns to a hollow sigh; as the air slowly escapes my lungs, I start to wonder, what am I doing here? Between me and my TV is a void that must be filled, with something. Anything to escape me from this boredom, this feeling of nothing to do. But there is something to do, right in front of me. And as I begin to wonder what brought me to this place, I realise...

There are too many fucking videogames out there now. And I don't want to play any of them.

Its easy to point out that there were a lot of games out at the end of this year. In my opinion, every platform had something big to occupy your time, even the Wii with just the latest Animal Crossing is something I’m looking forward to losing my life to all over again. But all these big releases have come so fast, that I realise I wont have the time for them all, in turn somehow shoving my personality into a corner and made me not want to bother with any of them. It’s a good thing (yes I count this lucky) that many of this holidays releases turned out to be a bit rubbish: Mirrors Edge, Prince of Persia, Sonic Unleashed, I think I’ll pick you up late into the new year when you’re all inevitably a tenner a piece.

This also however, doesn’t count the massive backlog of gaming I haven’t had the time to do with all the other things going on in my life. I recently scoured all the local game shops for DS game’s I’d been looking to purchasing for a while, that were at an affordable price. Anything for £10 (that’s cheap for a game in UK money) or less was mine to have. This has left me with a massive pile to get through - some untouched, some barely scratched the surface - and me wondering where the hell to start. Ever hear the saying, “too much of a good thing...” well to be honest I can’t remember exactly how it ends but I’ll assume it goes something like “can only lead to negative consequences.”


It makes me so happy, yet so sad.

I think I’ve reached that point where there are so many things to do, that I cant enjoy any of it; it all feels like a chore to me. One finished, throw it off the pile and go onto a new one. Its just a sequence that endlessly repeats itself until the end, when you finally reach the bottom, and wonder what the hell you’re doing with your life.

Sure, there was the sensible, and less money reducing thing to do, which is to begin/buy one game at a time, and don’t start/purchase the next. I’m not like that though: like many people, if there’s a new experience out there, I’ll always want to try it out as soon as I can. It’s kind of a curse and a blessing at the same time, but I try to manage it as best as possible.

I think everyone needs some kind of pressure to go with their life. It keeps things interesting, and helps us aspire to relinquish these hurdles which face us as people. I’ve been presented here in this christmas holiday, with a large list of leisure activities and what appears to be no strings attached. Its kinda dull, and funnily enough its actually making me pray for the return of essay deadlines, so here’s my proposition. To justify mentally my playing of all these games, I’m going to write something about every single last fucking one of them, and post it on this site. I don’t care whether it’s a review of the game, I don’t care if I review the genre the game is based on, I don’t care whether I do some kind of homo-erotic fanfic where I take all the characters from the game and turn them into a group of cabaret dancers for some kind of mental slave overlord; just as long as I do something with them all, I might actually start enjoying what I play again.

I’m a person who likes to set himself these little challenges in life, just to prove that I’m capable of them. Gaming is usually my reward for finishing them, whatever stressful tasks may engage me - most often today being essay deadlines which have all but dried up - I can usually always kick back with an old videogame and relax. This time though, both ends are a reward in themselves. Writing about my life’s passion is something I’ve always been interested in, and Destructoid seems like the right atmosphere to start. Each game justifies one written piece, and each written piece justifies one more game.

I guess its time to begin then. And i'll try not to suck.

Wish me luck. I love you all.

Also, cocks.