Man I am cheap... plus my top 10 of the Decade

I remember on one of the podcasts way back when, and on just about any gaming podcast, there have been discussions about how single player only games are fine, even if they are only 6 hours, as long as they are fun to play through. I find it becoming harder and harder for myself to part with my $$$ for single player games that are not RPGs though. The first 'lost' gaming experience that I can really attribute to this was Batman: AA last year - I just decided right off the bat (hah) that I did not feel like paying $60 for a game I would play through and then just sell back.

Of course this changed later that same year with both Uncharted 2 and then Assassin's Creed 2, both of which have one thing in common - I have already sold them. I can't help but wonder why in the hell I dropped all that $$$ on games that within 2 weeks I was completely done with. I didn't even need the money at the time, just figured I would never desire to play the games again and sold them while I could get most of my cash back.

Why bother though? In an age where there is at least one decent game each month, why should I spend money on a new single player game that I can finish in under 2 weeks? Why can't I convince myself to pay $60 for Darksiders, a game that looks like something I would love, instead convincing myself to just wait until it is $40 or lower? I have no idea what insane criteria I am even using nowadays, but I wonder how many other people are going through the same thing. In an age where I can get Killing Floor for only $5 and get however many hours I want out of it and then turn around and get Magic on XBLA for $5 and do the same, it becomes harder and harder to justify spending the cash on anything that I cannot extend as much as I want, especially when the odds of me playing through it more than once are getting slimmer each year.

Also, since I said on the podcast I would post it but forgot until now, here was my top 10 of the decade before Blaine and I started making our combined list:

10. Orange Box
-ironically for me more for Portal and TF2 than anything else, but TF2 I still play on PC
9. Grand Theft Auto III
-the original, still the most pure fun, can't even count the number of hours spent playing this
8. MVP Baseball 2005
-my favorite baseball game ever, so many seasons played, and ton of fun even today
7. Dragon Age
-loved this game much more than I thought I was going to, great characters
6. Bioshock
-this game really struck a nerve with me, also very tied to the topic above, though I kept this one
5. Final Fantasy XII
-didn't even think I would like it, put it off for 5 months, and it ends up being one of my favorite FF tales
4. Diablo 2
-probably my top 'hours played' game of the decade easily, can't wait for 3 (Diablo 3, not my #3 game, but speaking of which...)
3. Mass Effect
-played through it twice in a row, ended up loving the action-oriented combat, can't wait for 2 (Mass Effect 2, not my #2 game, but speaking of which...)
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
-this REALLY got me hooked for months and showed how much a progression system in a shooter can keep people playing
1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
-this is probably my only game this past decade that would make my top 5 of all time, played through it I believe 5 or 6 times, excellent game