How Do I Choose Games?

Game collecting doesn’t mean trying to collect every game in existence. Not only would that be far too expensive but also nobody wants to have a full collection of EyeToy games. Something I always find myself doing is standing in game shops trying to whittle about 30 games down to a select few to purchase. Each game I pick out has something about it that stands out to me, but I need to find out what that is and decide if it’s worthy of addition to my collection, which I call ‘The Junkyard’. 

The Cover

Let’s face it, the cover is what draws you to a game, whether you’re fawning over Lionel Messi or looking at an awesome sword thrice the size of the portrayed character. I’ve spent a lot of my days buying based on cover alone, but there are faults with this. Companies will put images on the box that aren’t from the game itself to attempt to sell more copies. The majority of the time the most misleading thing companies do is just fill the cover with scantily-clad females, which definitely hits the pinball demographic.

The Name

You want the name of the game to hit you, but not hit you so hard that you fall to the floor in pain from laughing. I tend to steer toward either short, sharp titles or names that feature words like dead, demon or bear. If there was a game called Dead Demon Bear I’d be first on the pre-order list. There are however names that I avoid, these include words such as Family and FIFA as well as just about any three letter word beginning with N (NBA NFL NHL). I don’t like sports games.

The Back of the Box

f you want to know more about the game, instinct is to flip the box over and read the blurb. You want to know enough but not too much about the game as you don’t want to spoil the plot or the cool features that you unlock late in the game. Some games tell too little on the box such as Syndicate (See Above Left) which pretty much tells you that it’s a sci-fi shooter with good gameplay.

The Gut Feeling

There are games that don’t really tick off any of these categories but still have the potential to be incredible. This is mostly true with RPGs, but can be relevant with any genre. Think of the covers for Betheda’s Elder Scrolls games, they are simplistic, have little to no imagery on them yet are all amazing titles that you can spend years of your life in without noticing.

At the end of the day, there are so many factors to choosing which games to buy and it’s all down to personal preference. You may hate the idea of Dead Demon Bear but I love it. What I’m trying to tell you is don’t just go for every game and don’t just go for the well-reviewed ones. Live a little and trust your own judgement (or mine).