The biggest ones are Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and its sequel, The Two Thrones. I absolutely loved The Sands of Time, and I awaited its sequel with all the expected fanboy rabidity. That is to say that I got it in December of 2004, when it was released - but as many times as I've given it a shot these past few years, the frustrating shift in aesthetic always boots me out again, and I invariably toss it aside. This became even more ridiculous when I received the third iteration of the series as a gift, and my anal-retentive nature refused to let disc meet tray until I conquered its predecessor.
Maybe I'll get to it after I beat BioShock, which was itself interrupted by Assassin's Creed. To be honest, I was almost dreading Christmas and the weight of games I might not play in the foreseeable future.
Then I played Portal across the midnight between December 25 and 26 - which makes it the second game to supersede BioShock, but what the heck, right? It was fun. What an odd realization.
Gaming, much like any of the other "legitimate" hobbies, is supposed to make us feel good. There's some sort of mental stimulation we're expecting, otherwise we wouldn't be tossing the industry all this money, right? Maybe it's a test of skill, maybe it's to be horrified in crazy, new fog-shrouded ways, or maybe it's a way to connect with your friends.
But when you force it into an already collapsing timetable, well, you might get the gaming done, but at the cost of why you were doing it in the first place.
I guess the lesson here is balance, because as much as I love gaming in every available form (except online games, due to my being somewhat of a misanthropic tightwad), if it needs to be pushed aside for a while, I think it's best to let it go. Because the important thing isn't being a gamer, it's playing the games.
So screw it. Maybe I'm slow, but it's not like I have something to prove. I don't need to be better than anybody and anything - except the occasional round of Smash Bros., and if I lose there, well, as long as it's fun and I find creative new epithets with which to mar my buddies' brains, I'm happy.
So maybe I'll toss in The Sands of Time, try to recapture the magic, finally push through Warrior Within as the middle chapter of a trilogy rather than a despondent white whale of a standalone game.
Or I'll play through Portal again. Or BioShock.
It should be fun.
