Since I’m not going to be buying much in the way of new games next year, I decided that I’d use at least some of that time to tackle some games that have been lingering in my library that just seem too damn long or overwhelming.
Now, I don’t actually expect to finish all of them, and it’s possible I won’t even start all of them, but what I am doing is getting myself prepped and making sure things are installed. I chose ten games with some pretty significant potential play times, because really, the only better time to play these monsters than during low-spend 2020 is if I had played them when I actually bought them.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins
[How Long to Beat: 29 – 81 hours]
Received in the May 2019 Humble Monthly
I have a weird relationship with the Assassin’s Creed games. Weird, in that, I buy them but I don’t really play them. After my third or fourth attempt to get into the first game, I decided that playing them in order was overrated. Although there are some earlier entries in the series I want to spend some more time with, I decided to go for Origins.
Borderlands
[How Long to Beat : 22 – 63 hours]
Purchased Jan 3, 2013 for $4.99
I have played a little bit of Borderlands quite a few times, but never really stuck with it. Rumor has it that’s it’s better in co-op, but that’s not really my thing, but I feel like my recent interest in shooters filled with mayhem and destruction mean it’s time to give it another go.
Crusader Kings 2
[How Long to Beat: 65 – 291 hours]
Purchased September 2013 in a Humble Weekly Bundle (total bundle price: $6.00)
Crusader Kings 2 is another game that irks me – I should like it, I want to like it, I keep buying more and more DLC for it, but I don’t actually play it long enough to get up and over the learning curve.
Dying Light The Following Enhanced Edition
[How Long to Beat: 20 – 83 hours]
Purchased July 6, 2018 for $15.99
I really have no excuse for not diving into this sooner (except maybe that I keep going to back to the Dead Rising series whenever I feel the need to get my zombie killer on).
Fallout 4 GOTY
[How Long to Beat: 34 – 208 hours]
Purchased November 25, 2018 for $19.98
Here’s another series I had to finally give in and tell myself it was ok to play the later iterations without having completed the early games. I still probably SHOULD start with 3 or New Vegas, but I think I want to go into this one with very low expectations if I want to actually get my money’s worth.
Far Cry: Primal
[How Long to Beat: 14 – 36 hours]
Purchased August 22, 2019 for $5.50
I have no idea if I’ll even like this one – I’ve never played further than half an hour or so into any Far Cry title, but I love the concept, and I just kind of want to mess around and be all prehistoric and make my tools out of sticks and stones.
Grim Dawn
[How Long to Beat: 22 – 106 hours]
Received in the October 2016 Humble Monthly
This one I’ve dabbled in, but never really gotten into for no real reason I can fathom.
Slay the Spire
[How Long to Beat: 10 – 234 hours]
Purchased July 5, 2019 for $12.50
True confession: I’m worried this one is going to be too good, too addictive, and I haven’t had space for that kind of game in my life. Guess we’ll see how it goes.
Starbound
[How Long to Beat: 21 – 192 hours]
Received as a gift June 2017.
As one of the half a dozen people worldwide who couldn’t get into Terraria, I’m afraid I won’t like this. Or, more precisely, that I won’t get it.
The Witcher 3
[How Long to Beat: 52 – 191 hours]
Not yet purchased.
Will the hype machine kill this one for me? Will I finally discover that I no longer enjoy long & meaty RPGs? Will I finally understand what Gwent is all about? I suppose we’ll find out.
Honorable Mentions
- Bioshock Trilogy
- Call of Cthulu
- Divinity: Original Sin
- Endless Legend
- The Witness
These didn’t quite make the cut, but if I wanted to leave them here in case I nope out of any (or, god forbid, all) of my top 10.
Because I really struggle with giving myself permission to play even one massive, life-eating game – actually listing out a bunch I really want to spend some serious time with feels kind of overwhelming. However, since I’m also not restricting myself to these titles only, I’m hoping to open myself up to a good balance of intimidating titles, with some lovely little palette cleansers from my library in between.
Nerd Girl Thoughts 
AC Origins is a LOT different from the earlier AC games. It feels much more ‘action-rpg’ than they were. I really enjoyed it. Maybe in 2021 you can play AC Odyssey which is even better!
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Quite an impressive list!
From what you said in this, the only one I’d super worry about for you is Starbound. But even with that one, it’s entirely possible that this time something about the style will just ‘click’ with you where it didn’t before. But for my money, Starbound is an inferior Terraria — so that doesn’t bode well. đŸ˜‰
Otherwise though, pretty excited for you to experience these! In the context of a low-spend 2020, may even be that you can get right into Witcher 3 and enjoy it.
Either way, can’t wait to hear about it!
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I really wanted to get into Endless Legends and Endless Space as well but I wasn’t really brave enough to go for no tutorial but the tutorial itself is also too long for my taste, so I haven’t touched that one in quite some time. But I love those devs as I love playing Dungeon of the Endless. So, eventually, I’ll try to get into Endless Legends and Armello, as they seemed like my type of game.
As far as the other titles go: I’ve never really played through the first AC-game but I own most of the other ones, so eeeeh. Same goes for Fallout, I haven’t played them but own them, so I gotta play those sometime… Or Batman… or the Bioshock games… or the Witcher games… Oof.
While it may not be your cup of tea (rhymes, lol), I could be your company (I’ll stop with these rhymes in a sec)… For Borderlands. (No rhyme) – I love those games but I wasn’t really able to touch Co-op as my IRL-friends were weird (and not in a weird sense! I love them! But they all had their weird reasons like different preferences when it came to co-op, as in time-schedules, only playing with their partner, only playing on weekdays, not wanting to play with person A (or so), etc. pp.)…
uhm long story short, if you’d like to play some Borderlands (1, 2 or Pre-Sequel), I’d be up for it any time you want! đŸ˜€
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If it makes you feel better not having played Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas before Fallout 4 won’t really make any difference. Except that it might be harder to go back to those as their graphics are way more outdated (even for its time). Story wise though they are all their own thing and don’t even mention each other. Although in Fallout 3 there is a side quest that hints at some of the main plot of Fallout 4. Or something like that. Honestly, I was never able to finish Fallout 3 as I detest that game. :p
Fallout: New Vegas though has a main story that is easily better than Fallout 3 or Fallout 4 so just for that it is worth playing at some point.
I can also relate on Crusader Kings II. I have a similar relationship with its cousin, Europa Universalis. I think part of my problem is that I already went through a lot of trouble to get through the learning curve in Crusader Kings II (And I still barely know what I am doing) and then Europa Universalis has different systems and also has a big learning curve and my brain juts melts down. /sigh
One day I will give a better try to Europa Universalis.
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Ops! I lied. There is some mention to Fallout 3 in Fallout 4 but it is mostly in the Brotherhood of Steel and more to explain why they are pretty different from Fallout 3. Honestly I still feel like Bethesda hasn’t quite nailed the Brotherhood of Steel feel but I pretty much gave up on Bethesda for now anyway, so….
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Call of Cthulhu is really good if you get invested in story. Some of the mechanics are a little wonky, but overall I really enjoyed it. As for Borderlands, I’d say skip the first and go straight on to BL2.
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