How Do You Choose Your Next Game?

[Headsprouter]

There's no conscious decision-making. Something could just pop into my head or sound appealing out of nowhere. Otherwise it's simple thing like new DLC.

Seeing as I'm slow to try new things, approaching a new or newish genre involves a lot of thinking. I decided a while ago I decided I wanted to experience REAL survival horror, as in I wanted to be afraid and vulnerable. So I traded for Amnesia. Later, after waiting a month or two to get "in the mood" and build up the guts, I played it.
I quickly found out I love the genre, by the way. I'm doing a second playthrough of the main story and- look at that! The sequels coming in 2 weeks!

Time to shit myself without being late to the party this time!

 

[Mrkillhappy]

Well you see first I create a bunch of post it notes, put them on a dart board, then...

Just kidding in all honesty I just buy (assuming I have the cash) or play what I feel like playing at any given moment. Though it is somewhat common for me to go in order if the game is part of a series. For example I immediately fallowed MGS2 with MGS3 when I first got them.

 

[templar1138a]

Choosing the next game to play is really easy most of the time. But sometimes, it's the exact opposite. It all comes down to knowing what core gameplay elements I'm in the mood for. And if that's not specific enough, then I think about the other details (setting, gameplay mechanics, etc). And sometimes I have to do a little trial and error.

For example, Steam recently had Evil Genius on sale for $2.50. I'm not much of a strategy or management gamer, but I used to play Dungeon Keeper when I was a kid and I've grown a little more gaming patience since the last time I tried Evil Genius, so I bought it. Thing is, all those tutorial videos and the fact that the game is one continuous level made my head spin. I much prefer to play a game where I'm on the ground running, even if I'm supposed to be in charge. And I was definitely in the mood to play as a crime boss.

Then it hit me: I had a save file of Saints Row 2 that I didn't get very far into the last time I'd been playing. And even though I'd already beaten the game, it had been a while since I played it through. So, I went to it, and it's been a good choice. I still break from it to play a little Minecraft, and after finishing the Samedi and Brotherhood missions, I'm starting to feel my ennui set in again.

So it seems I'm going to have to figure out what to play next... again. I'm not interested in Saints Row 3 because of how much they cut out of character customization, and I'm not going to determine what price I'm willing to buy Saints Row 4 for until after Yahtzee reviews it (after all, I bought Saints Row 2 because of his review, so I figure he's a good judge of this particular series for me). Oh first world problems...

Off-topic: The MGM Grand can kiss my ass.

 

[Fijiman]

Well first I have to consider what I have money for and then I have to consider what I have room on my hard drive for. I have a list of games I want to play, but I'm not likely to get any of them anytime soon so after I finish a new game I usually just go right back to other games.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

I'm not interested in Saints Row 3 because of how much they cut out of character customization.

They cut out the ability to put on socks. That's all I'd say is bad about the new customization options, looking between the two (2 and 3) what 3 lacked in the ability to have different layers of clothing, it made up for it in the visual department.

Ergo I didn't put much clothing on my SR2 character because nothing looked good, I have a hard time making up my mind in SR3 because of the quality on offer. But that's my personal taste, and the character customizer is free to download.

 

[TehCookie]

First I pick the genre I feel like playing then look at my backlog. Or I'll play 30 mins of each until one clicks. I'm always on the lookout for interesting games so I always have an enormous backlog, and it doesn't help that most of the games in it are long RPGs. I also have a terrible thing where I'll buy a game for a good deal regardless of if I want to play it immediately or not.

Currently I'm on a Tales of binge, since I just beat Xillia and Graces not that long ago. I'm deciding which one to play next since I pick up most of the series already.

 

[templar1138a]

snip

All well and good, but the lack of customization (which refers to body as well as clothing) isn't the only reason. Like I said, Yahtzee's review of Saints Row 2 got me interested, and his review of 3 turned me away from it. He and I don't really have the same tastes, but he gave enough detail about what 3 lacks in comparison to 2 to make me not want it.

Also, visuals don't matter that much to me as long as the format is right.

 

[King of Asgaard]

For the first time in my life, I have a backlog of 40+ games to play, courtesy of GOG.
So, after I finish Planescape: Torment, which should be soon but who knows, all I have to do is close my eyes and point at a random game.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

snip

All well and good, but the lack of customization (which refers to body as well as clothing) isn't the only reason. Like I said, Yahtzee's review of Saints Row 2 got me interested, and his review of 3 turned me away from it. He and I don't really have the same tastes, but he gave enough detail about what 3 lacks in comparison to 2 to make me not want it.

Also, visuals don't matter that much to me as long as the format is right.

Personally I felt it was a stark improvement, I honestly don't know what's missing (besides the socks) from the customiser. I suppose I should've said functionally as opposed to just saying visually. With SR2 all the NPCs used the player character hence they all had highly dense meshes which affected performance and so on, but they really went out of their way to step up from 2 to 3 (which is why I can understand people being miffed at 4, the step isn't so grand).

Little flourishes, like parked cars, which are not in SR2 which I never noticed until they pointed it out at a GDC talk on the games art direction, which has was surprisingly deep all things considered about a game with a dildo bat as a weapon.

But to each their own, people could recommend me Wii-U games all day and I'd just be like; 'nope'.

 

[Joccaren]

I just play whatever I feel like playing. No pattern to it, just whatever takes my fancy at the time. Right now that's the equivalent of "Not Much", but that'll change once some good games come out.

 

[Foolery]

Seeing as I have a ridiculous amount of games, I just pick something and start playing for a bit. If I get into it, cool. If I don't, I just pick something else. Demos and betas are nice though. I wouldn't have picked up Final Fantasy XIV:ARR without having played the open beta test.