Despite discussing the financial and emotional benefits of playing old games in ‘’The Convenience of Playing Old Games’, I wanted to put forward the case for purchasing and playing brand new ones. I know that it can be easy to take one stance rather than look at two. So, I thought it would be a good idea for us to talk about the thrill of playing a video game which has just released.
Playing a brand-new game as soon as it comes out means that you get to experience that game fresh off the presses. In other words, the most obvious benefit, you are playing a game that’s just come out! That is super exciting because nobody else has played it, apart from perhaps those with review copies. That means you get to play through the game knowing that the graphics should be as good as they come, the gameplay should be great, the updates should be fast and numerous, and the player base plentiful.
There’ll almost definitely be people to play with online, allowing you to experience this brand-new journey as planned. Even better, you’ll be able to talk with your friends about your adventure every step of the way. One of the best things about school was the freedom to talk to your best friends about the most recent games that came out; the new Star Wars film, the best Yu-Gi-Oh cards, amongst many other trivial yet meaningful ventures.
I am truly excited to talk with my friends about Borderlands 3 when it releases later this year. I thoroughly enjoyed diving into the story of Red Dead Redemption II with my friends, talking all thing Arthur Morgan, the things we liked and disliked about the gameplay, Red Dead Online, and more. Nothing is better than experiencing a fantastic game for the very first time, except maybe experiencing it with those closest to you.
Which leads onto my next point. Because said game has just been released, players around the globe will be wanting to see what it has to offer, whether this be an extremely positive experience or a surprisingly disappointing one. Either way, there’ll be plenty of lets plays, streamers, and general independent media productions surrounding the new game, no matter whether it is good or bad. This means that they’ll be plenty of content of other gamers playing and talking about things almost immediately, since they all want to be part of the conversation as well. That is a huge bonus if you’re into watching others play and seeing how they go about things differently to you.
And that swiftly moves us on to another point; the joy of seeing the reaction to the game live as it happens. Seeing the big game sites releasing their review either right before or after the game has released is interesting, allowing us to judge and compare both the big outlets and small gaming personalities. Reading reviews and seeing videos published gives you a great insight into how the gaming community are taking to the game, and from that, you may be able to judge how long there will be interest in its updates, its DLC, its online modes and its general future roadmap.
It is also rather exciting to see opinions become fleshed out and formed as others play the game at the same time as you are. Specifically, this is interesting for games with big hype surrounding them such as Red Dead Redemption II. Seeing some of those reviews drop a day or so before the game came out made me even more excited than I already was – something which seemed an impossible thing to do at the time. Those opinions and conversations become part of the gaming community history.
What’s more is that if you are playing through a giant open-world, or you’re stuck in a really hard section of a quality FPS, the Wikipedia’s will all be available, topical, and updated by the hour. Meaning that if you’re stuck or need to find a collectable, the content won’t just be available – it’ll be fresh off the presses. New tactics and strategies will be developed daily, with many updating forums and guides as often as possible. This makes your life easier if you are in fact struggling to get past a specific chapter or need to know how a quest ends after choosing a certain ending.
I am fully aware that this next point is pathetic and is appealing to the 50-year-old man in me, but I shall state my point, nonetheless. Playing (and completing the game if you’re thoroughly enjoying it) as soon as it comes out means that it is ‘out of the way’ so to speak. I.e. it’s not joining the back-catalogue. You can uninstall that bad boy as soon as that last achievement pops, just like I do every time I finish the game I’m playing. Ticking it off your completion list forever allows you to feel ultimately satisfied for not only enjoying the journey but for venturing through it so damn efficiently. Nothing appeals to me more than making sure the list of games to play doesn’t just increase, but decreases.
This leads me to my final yet perhaps not last chronological argument: you get to play the free updates and all the DLC as soon as they come out, since you’re already all caught up with the core game. Hopefully, you’ve been finished with the base game for some time now, so to see DLC being released is a great excuse to step back into that world. Of course, hopefully it hasn’t been long enough that you’ve forgotten all of the controls and/or what you’ve been stockpiling in your inventory.
So, while there are benefits and cons for playing new games and playing old games, the main emphasis of these articles has been to argue a core thesis of my lifestyle.
To play games. Period.
