GregHowley.com

I don't play games like I used to. I agree that it's mostly because a father with a full-time job and an hour commute doesn't have a lot of spare time, and what time he does have he wants to spend with his beautiful daughter. But I'm not interested in going over the cause so much as the effect.

When I was thirteen years old playing Bards Tale 2 and Ultima V on my Commodore 64, I'd put hours and hours into the games, staying up until 2 o'clock in the morning regularly. Today, I'm lucky if I can get 45 minutes in the evening to sit down with my DS.

Even recently, I was a game completionist. If I started a game, it was very rare that I wouldn't complete it. Granted, games like Condemned: Criminal Origins, Prince of Persia and DragonShard just turned me off to the degree that I stopped playing, but that was the exception rather than the rule. I even finished crap games like Prey and super-long games like Oblivion. And when I replay games, I try hard to hit the parts I missed, making sure to collect every animal photo and MDisk in Beyond Good and Evil and trying to get all the figments in Psychonauts.

But I've just mentally laid three games to rest, mostly because I just don't have the time. The first of these is No More Heroes. I got up to Jeane, the second-to-last boss, and I've even managed to beat her down to stage 3 of 3, but I just can't manage to actually win the game. This certainly isn't the first game I've ever gotten stuck on, and I'm not saying that I'll never go back and give it another try, but for now I've got to put the game back in the box and move it off my radar. That Jeane is one tough S.O.B.

Secondly, Assassins Creed. The game is fun despite the much-discussed monotony. One of my main gripes is that you can't run away from a battle. Once you're engaged with weapons drawn, if you want to run, the best you can do is back away very slowly. I've tried jumping, retargeting, and every other button I can think of, but no luck.

Assassins Creed is the only PS3 disc I currently own, so I'll probably not sell it until I pick up Fatal Frame 4 later this summer, but I've got no interest in going back to it. If I've got time on the big TV, I'll probably start Okami.

Lastly, Metal Gear Solid 3. Although I've never played the original, I played the second Metal Gear game on the PC and despite the fact that it was a terrible port, I enjoyed it. Right up until the part when I was fighting three giant Metal Gear REX robots and they kept killing me.

I gave Metal Gear Solid 3 a shot on Fathers Day. I got through the 35 minutes or so of opening cut scene, and eventually figured out how to save the game. Then I started trying to sneak past the first enemies in the game. Oops! Came too close. Oh, look! I can change camoflage - that will help. Okay, more sneaking. This time, I got caught by an enemy who wasn't even on screen - I had no idea he was there, since there's no way to change the camera angle.

At this point, I figure I'll just go up and kill the guy. So I run up and kneel down in front of him. Oops! Need to stand up! Now I'm lying down on the ground in front of him, getting shot. Damn! I stand up and then immediately lay back down. Aargh!

And that's why I quit that one. The controls on MGS games have always been a bit weird, and this one is no exception. I don't know if I'll ever have the patience to go back to it.