TBP
by The Rook
This came up during an image search for "oxymoron" and it was awesome. That's the only reason it's here.
There are some abbreviations that everyone recognises and are often used as opposed to having to write out the full words: ‘tba’ meaning ‘to be announced‘, ‘tbc’ meaning ‘to be confirmed’ or ‘tbd’ meaning ‘to be decided‘, for example. The condensing of words to their initial letters to allow for a smaller way of referring to something is a common practice , which tends to make me think the word ‘abbreviation’ being a long word itself is an oxymoron.
There are a number of games that I can call ‘tbp‘, meaning ‘to be played‘; games that have been bought but have yet to be placed into the relevant console. When it came to this current generation of consoles, I decided that I would make time for each and every game that I bought, if I wasn’t going to play the game then I wouldn’t buy it or, at least, not straight away; it makes sense. Somewhere along the way I have ignored that ideal and have again ended up with a collection of games that have not been started. The intention is still there to play them but who knows when that may be.
With the Xbox 360, achievements have been a factor that I had not considered; merely beating the game was not sufficient enough to move onto the next game anymore. With previous consoles it was beat the game and move on to the next; the thought of beating a game and then going back to play through it again on a harder difficulty was not something I would have done, however achievements have caused that to happen. Now I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, if anything it means I am getting more play time from my games, which in turn means I can getting more for my money.
I can see one reason right there to play Resi 5... and it's enough
Some games I buy because I am a fan of the franchise, for example: Resident Evil 5. I bought the game on the day of its release on Friday 13th March 2009, and it is part of the ‘to be played’ pile simply because I never got around to reading the manual (yes I am one of those manual reading people). Over a year has passed and I still haven’t played it, consider the fact that it was £40 to buy and only costs around £12 today to pick up, or £25 for the Gold Edition which contains additional DLC, which I would have to pay for still if I wanted it, so then maybe I should have waited. Although, I was not to know that it would be sitting on the shelf for so long.
Sacred 2, full of beautiful athletic women with pussies that'll tear you to shreds if you get too close
There’s also the special editions of games than come out that you may only get on launch day, so they have to be bought straight away; I have only Sacred 2 and Two Worlds special editions that I haven’t played yet. Other games, I have avoided buying because I know I won’t be starting them anytime some but they are still wanted games, I am happy to pick them up at a later date and hopefully at a cheaper price. This is another reason why I have games on the ‘tbp’ pile; bargains are great to find and sometimes just cannot be ignored and so I will always browse the reduced priced games or 2 for £30 offers.
There are even a few games for the handhelds to be played and, more often than not, I forget about them altogether in favour of the main consoles. I do have a PS3 and a Wii but mostly it’s the Xbox 360 that gets used for gaming. I even have a few XBLA games bought that I haven’t played either, purchased because their prices were reduced for a limited time, so that’s a virtual stack of games started too.
Regardless of how many games I have that are sitting there waiting to be started, I am not complaining about it. Sure, I would like to have more time to spend playing them (stupid work and sleep things getting in the way) but I am guaranteed of always having something new to play. So try as I might to give each game the attention it deserves while I am playing it, there are others that are going to be gathering dust, waiting for their turn to consume my attention. Add into the equation that there are new games coming out that I want as well, it is still good to have a stockpile in reserve and I will play them… honest.
As to when that will be… well that’s tba, tbc and tbd.
Last five articles by The Rook
I have a similar problem, but its not TBP, it’s TBC (to be completed)
I have a list on my computer of all the games I have yet to complete, and as of today (I just beat Brutal Legend and Bowser’s Inside Story), it stands at 34 games to complete.
So I can completely empathise with your situation.
Though, of those games you had in that picture, I only know 4 I’ve played myself. Eternal Darkness is totally worth it, Quantum of Solace I hated, I liked Dark Sector despite its flaws, and I refused to play Resi 5 without one of my friends for co-op, because I dreaded the idea of playing with the AI Partner.
But otherwise, good luck with those games, and hopefully, you’ll have conquered most of them eventually
I just had a look and I’ve 12 games started that I haven’t completed yet for one reason of another. From the ‘tbp’ pic itself I have recently started Darksiders and I am enjoying it.
I’ll play Resi 5 with AI partner first, I always beat a game in single player before trying it multiplayer or co-op, it’s known as Rook’s Rule.
That’s the way I try to do it too, but it’s just I heard so many awful things about the AI that I decided the only way I wanted to play it was with one of my friends on split-screen.
I tend to find I get partway through a game, and either want to move onto another before I get bored, or before I complete the game too quickly, then end up not playing it for ages =/
I’m very careful these days about how many games I pick up. It used to be a case of buying every new release when they became available, resulting in a lot of games just sitting there waiting to be played.
These days I buy a game > finish it > purchase a new one as and when I see fit. Means I get to fully enjoy a game and odds are the next game I’m wanting will have dropped in price by time I get around to it
Being the gamescore whore that i am, i dont have much in the TBP pile, its mostly DLC i havent got around to yet, Assassins creed 2, still not done point look out or mothership zeta, and the latest mass effect DLC is sat waiting to be played
My TeeBeePee pile is huge. It’s alphabetised though, so at least there’s that. I have a tendency to see games and think “cor… like the look of that!” and it ends up on the shelf for a year while I immerse myself in those long storyline games such as Oblivion or Fallout 3. The last one was Risen, which swallowed up all my time but at least I managed to complete it and move on to the next… which was Red Dead Redemption, and it’ll be a while before I finish that. In the meantime, I have Divinity II: Ego Draconis, Dragon Age: Origins, Brutal Legend, Fallout, Fallout 2, Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed 2, and hell knows how many others sitting waiting to be played. Come the end of the week I’ll also have Naughty Bear begging to be played, although I’ll manage to avoid Lego Harry Potter as I just don’t get on well with the Lego games.
I really should try and get through more games but I LOVE those games that keep hold of you for months… I prefer them to any other type of game. I expect to play the hell out of Crysis 2 when it finally arrives, along with Fallout: New Vegas and Two Worlds II… that’s basically me sorted for at least a year with those three games alone. Awesome.
I picked up Mass Effect the other day on Steam for 3 quid so thats TBC, along with Fallout 3 and Torchlight (which I started.) I’m curently juggling my time between RDR and FFXIII.
@MarkuzR – I too like them long games that keep hold of you for a while. It can be abit of a double edged sword sometimes though.
That was a deliciouse piece of writing mon frere!
There’s nothing wrong with having a healthy selection of unplayed titles dirtying your shelf. Think of them as your nest egg! A few years ago I went through a lengthy period of time unemployment, and had nothing else to play but my own dirty laundry. I did play a lot of rubbish mind, but they helped starve the boredom when I wasn’t job hunting.
Should you ever find yourself (heaven forbid!) under similar circumstances or fingers crossed, retired, I suggest you leave the Twin Worlds Spec. ed in it’s original wrapping. Sell it. Save yourself the heartache or give it to someone you really dislike!
@Lee – I’me a score whore too, and spending time trying to get the most out of some games has led to others not being started yet. Or I could think of it that I have many other games sitting waiting to give me more points.
@Markuz – I’m surprised I haven’t alphabetised my games, I did with my TV DVDs and film DVDs (until I ran out of space) and that’s not to say I keep them arranged on the floor like in the pic.
@M@thew – the only reason I haven’t played Two Worlds is because the text was too hard to read my non HDTV. Most people didn’t like it but I know a few who did enjoy it. Someday.
@all – cheers for the comments
Nice article! I am also guilty of having stupidly large to play piles of games. While much of it is caused by gaming apathy, there is, as you mentioned, that ‘grab it at a bargain’ mentality which has led to my stack growing ever larger. Achievement hunting for the sake of completion has also stuck me on titles that I would have otherwise moved on from, however, I don’t grudge some of them this as it allows me to not only get my money’s worth, but to fully explore and appreciate every facet of some game worlds.
In my 360 pile alone, I still have to play Civilization, Overlord 2, Gun, Viking, Dragon Age, Mini Ninjas, Batman, Simpsons, Bioshock 1 and 2, and more. Also heaped up are DS, PSP, SNES, and PS2 games, not to mention my one lone PS3 game. I am also guilty of having an unfinished pile of games that I have started and not bothered going back to, despite my best intentions…such as GTA4, Saboteur, Tomb Raider Underworld, C&C 3, Ghostbusters, etc. To much to do!
@Lorna – of the 360 games you mentioned you will have to play Gun and Viking a few times as the cheevs aren’t stackable for difficulty. Gun isn’t too bad as it was good fun playing it. Viking idn’t really get much harder until the final boss and then it just cranked a few notches. Bit of an annoying fight if you used all your potions and still died. The game lets you try again from the start of the fight but you do not get your potions back. You can load you save again, but you do have to fight your way back to the final boss again. Both of those, Simpsons, Bioshock and Tomb Raider (still need to max 2nd DLC) I was able to max and Van and Cuddles (I think) maxed Batman. Just so you know as I know you like your completion in games.