Jan01
New Year, Old Games
As shown in my previous post, I finally finished up Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Two things to confess: 1) this is the second time I've 1000-gd this game, and 2) it took over 8 years to finally grind my teeth and do it. I got stuck on one of the boss fights back in '13, and was disgusted that I couldn't repeat what I had done the first time around. I made excuses- mostly, that I had technically done it once, and didn't need to prove it again.
But, like many of us, it kept gnawing in the back of my brain. That's the thing about easy games with difficult parts- I felt mocked by something that shouldn't have been a problem. "I can get everything on Evolve, but can't finish this?"- it wounds the ego, man.
The other thing that weirded me out was why I had to do it a second time. Back in 2010, my original Xbox 360 died. It had fallen over while running a disc a year prior, and the disc tray and system had never been the same again. It limped along, but finally gave out. I was basically the only person without internet in the world at that point, so my profile got corrupted while trying to transfer it manually. All my achievements were gone, so I had to start fresh.
That was just the beginning of what ended up being a terrible part of my life- job lost, violently robbed, betrayed by a good friend, etc. And the very last game I had fully completed was this crappy movie game. I love achievements, but going back to it with all the memories attached was painful.
A week ago, my second Xbox 360 finally died after 11 faithful years. It made me think back to that previous time- and I realized just how long it had been, and how much had changed. Out of all my first tag completions, I only had it left to re-do. So, I decided to take on the challenge again.
It feels nice right now. I'm kicking back before I turn in for the day, and all the memories in my head don't feel so bad anymore. It's a new year, and I was able to start by putting an old game and the crappy times that went with it to bed. Achievements do different things for different people. Personally, I know that I won't ever get fame and fortune from this nonsense, unlike a few of our more illustrious colleagues. But, it does help me calm down, and reflect on unrelated things while doing so.
Time is only wasted when you don't enjoy what you've done. So, get out there and enjoy whatever you can, whether it's old or new.