When I bought an Xbox 360 I picked up Mass Effect 1 and 2 and had a great time. A few years later I saw Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition and although I read it was pretty stat heavy it was dressed up like a standard first person shooter, so I cheap fifa coins decided to give it a go. It was a pretty hard slog for the first few hours but persevering it all clicked and was an enjoyable experience, although very different from my usual style of game. I ended up putting in 120 hours in my main run through and 20 hours with my evil character.
While typing this email I remember that I had played a role-playing game before, Vagrant Story back on the PS one. I had a great time with that until my progress was stopped when I met a dragon boss who was immune to all attacks. I worked out that I had to improve the attacking power on a specific type of bladed weapon by going out and fighting the smaller dragon type enemies, which could take a number of hours. I now realise that is grinding and is pretty typical for Japanese role-playing games, but that put me off playing any more of the game and I guess put me off all role-playing games after that.
PPS: Although my game playing has tailed off quite a bit in the last few years I still read GameCentral pretty regularly. Your interviews are far superior to any other gaming publication or website. Most interviews are simply PR fluff, but you’re willing to ask the harder questions most places avoid. Any time you meet PlayStation boss Jim Ryan is always an entertaining read.
What games or games have you played so much that they’ve become a genuine obsession and how did that manifest? Did you end up thinking, or even dreaming, about them when not playing? Did you get involved in the game’s www.utfifa.co community and background lore? Do you collect merchandise to do with it or read, or even write, official and unofficial fiction based on it?