Two Neglected Games

As I believe I've already mentioned, there were two games I got in the four weeks preceding Christmas which I've been playing continuously since then but in a more-or-less apathetic fashion. As it turns out, those two games are both skill-oriented games (i.e. games where the interest is created by developing your playing ability rather than through narrative devices and character development), which is part of the reason I have yet to write a review about them. See, with games with no clear beginning/end, the only way to say you've played enough of them to justify reviewing it is to have completed most of the different unconnected trials of which you can avail yourself, which generally means pouring lots of time into these games essentially doing the same (sometimes) mundane task over and over. As such, although I have spent a fair amount of time playing these two games, I'm still not all that close to finishing them, and probably won't make much progress for a while, as I've got more pressing interests at the moment.

Now, while I don't want to talk too much about the games themselves right now since I'll hopefully do that in depth in an official review, it would be good to go into why I'm having such a hard time finishing each one. The first of the two games is Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, clearly the newest installment in the Mortal Kombat franchise and therefore a fighting game. The problem here is that although there are two story modes for the game, they're so brief that you don't really feel like you've gotten the full effect of the game until you've beaten Arcade Mode with each character (which takes a long time). While this can be fun if you get into a routine, it's frustrating enough that it's hard to choose to play this game over other more-involving titles.

The second game is Pure, an ATV stunt/racing game with beautiful graphics and fantastic gameplay but not much to offer in the story department (hell, even less than in Guitar Hero!). This said, I'm probably a little further along in this game than I am in MK vs. DCU, but the fact that each race you have to choose from feels more or less like all the others makes it difficult to get motivated to get first place in every race (let alone just finish each one).

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to knock these two games out sooner than later, but I wouldn't hold my breath, as I've got plenty else to keep me distracted until then. I do think the big lesson learned here is that, with the exception of Guitar Hero, I don't respond well to skill-based games and should probably avoid them entirely from now on.