Today’s Play: An Experiment in Trying New Video Games

Shawn Farner -

Back in January, I wrote about my video game backlog and how desperately “in the hole” I was. I’m doing a bit better now, thanks to the fact that I knocked out a few of the games on my list (Wind Waker HD, BioShock Infinite, Portal 2, The Stanley Parable). Unfortunately, a significant backlog still remains.

My situation got me thinking — what can I do to get myself to at least *experience* some of these titles? That’s half the battle, really. Starting something new can be tough. And when you’re like me, and you find it hard to jump to a new thing when something else isn’t finished (whether you’re enjoying it or not), you do a lot of standing still.

This lack of movement, and a desire to become more exposed to what’s out there, led to the idea for Today’s Play.

What is Today’s Play?

Today’s Play is a new feature on BestTechie that will publish once a week, on Mondays. In the posts, I’ll briefly review what I played the previous week, and talk about what I did and didn’t like about those games.

I’ll also share a game schedule for the next week, which you’re all more than welcome to play along with. It’s my intention to experience a different game every day or two, and you should expect to see four to five different games on the schedule any given week.

My goal is to get a taste of these games so I can decide which I’ll continue with, and which I’ll say goodbye to. Taking part in this experiment will also let me play more new releases, which my previous approach (“beat all the backlog games first”) didn’t do.

What Platforms Will the Games Be On?

At this point, I’m going to stick more to the previous and current generations, as the libraries for those platforms are already pretty substantial. I also have to stick to what I own. That means: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, and Wii. If an interesting iOS game pops up, I may play that, too.

Will You Stream Your Gameplay?

Indeed, I will. You’ll be able to follow the action on Twitch.

When Does Today’s Play Start?

Today, of course, starting with the brutal Dark Souls. The schedule for the week is below. As I stated earlier, you’re more than welcome to play along and shoot your thoughts or feelings on the games to shawn@besttechie.com. And, if you follow my Twitch account, you can be notified when the stream goes live.

Today’s Play for the Week of 5/11/2015

  • Monday: Dark Souls
  • Wednesday: D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die
  • Thursday: Never Alone
  • Sunday: Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut