written by owen on 2026-Jan-13.

Right off the bat this year I plan to play exclusively "xbox 360" games. Games which at the time of this writing are technically "old/retro". Most of them releasing 10-15 years ago. No point in playing the latest games which retail for $80 that you can only play on a $800 console which requires a sign-in, and high speed internet. Good games are coming out every day but there is no way to really justify buying a new game when there are so many old games that are cheap and unencumbered by modern bs. There is no single modern game that really draws my attention that much. Even the great new games can be quickly consumed.

So the plan for now is to buy a bunch of 7th gen xbox360 games that I missed out on when they originally came out (in 2010s I was mostly doing other stuff and wii). The xbox 360 games are cheap, high quality and best of all they do not require any kind of subscription or internet in order to play.

I have laid out my path for playing these;

Playing everything on easy

Most games do not really craft interesting difficulty modes - you basically choose how much you suffer. I want to suffer less in my old age. In some games the harder difficulties exist only to annoy the player. There is no point making the enemies take more damage without equally making them slower because of the extra armor. This adjustment would balance out the fact that they are now "bullet sponges". I feel its a waste of time to expose myself to such poor design. When I was younger, had fewer games I would spend hundreds of hours playing a single game repeatedly. I never knew when I would get another game so I would look for every secret in the few games I had. Nowadays you can watch a complete game playthrough on youtube - so there is not point to even physically playing some games yourself. Playing on easy is the best middle ground.

No Launch games, latest build only

On some consoles the launch games are often a little rough - except Mario64. So I have resorted to only play xox games after 2010-ish. There are a few exceptions such as BioShock, GTA4 and the Orangebox.

I have to limit the game selection in some way so that I can minimize the number of games I purchase. There a couple popular games that have cemented themselves into the aisles of time but I will skip those and only play the latest version (eg Halo4, DeadSpace3, Gears3). Games usually get better overtime - usually. Halo4 is trash. I am not going playing through the trilogies.

No Generic Games

There are some games which I despise. So I definitely will not be playing those games. Repetitive games and long RPGs are also omitted. 5 to 20hours games are ok with the exception of games that are really unique such as Dark Souls. Some games are interesting enough in my mind that I will spend extra time in the world.

No online multiplayer or paid subscriptions

Clearly I am not big on wasting my time, so online multiplayer is out of the question. Multiplayer is a huge FOMO trap. Plus I am not going to pay for something that I will not get full use of because I am busy doing other things. Having money burning in background while I am sitting on the toilet is not the kind of mental anxiety I want to put myself through. If I am playing a game I want to be able to put it down and pick it up again when I get free time to play it. I don't want it to be a ticking timebomb linked to my credit card. No FOMO.

Do not overstay the welcome

Some games like Watchdogs or GTA have very addictive mini games that you can basically play forever. They are like comfort games that give you enough newness and variety to scratch that video game itch. I will play these side quests alittle but eventually I will need stop playing the game as soon as the main quest is done. No game should be more than 20 hours in length. The longest game I have played this year is Dark Souls 2 which I clocked in 80 hours over a couple months because the game is really wild.

Playing games from physical media

As I mentioned before I want the game to still be there when I am ready to play. Buying games on physical media saves me time, and money. Its cheaper because it's used and has little chance of disappearing as time goes buy. Inflation a side, video game publishers are always releasing new stuff and they WANT YOU TO BUY IT. So It is nice to be able to buy a bunch of games and just play them without worrying about sales, updates or chaotic FOMO marketplace practices. The biggest advantage of physical media is I get to play stuff offline, day or night, no internet or internet downloads.

Conclusion

So far I think I have worked out a good plan. I have completed 6 or so games so far, some awesome, some so so. In total I bought roughly 50 games which is a good amount of entertainment. I will document my journey in the Video Games section. Wish me luck.

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