Up next in our #Listmas rounds is a simple question:

What games did you not play this year but wanted to?

My game radar this year remained honed in on Red Dead Redemption II for most of it. But that doesn’t mean my head was in the sand otherwise. A number of awesome games presented themselves for purchase this year, but they did not make it into my library, for reasons. Here are the top five that come to mind. 

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Early on in the year, I was determined to get at least a few games out of my backlog, and among them was The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Knowing that I’d wanted get to The Witcher 3 at some point, I thought it reasonable to try to sink my hooks into its well-received predecessor. I managed a measly eight or so hours with The Witcher 2 before setting it aside, because it just didn’t click. Could have been that I was suffering from fantasy-adventure overload thanks to replaying the Dragon Age series. Could be that I just wasn’t ready to delve into such a lore-rich and detailed game. I may try to give it another go when the timing feels more right…or, maybe I’ll skip it and just play The Witcher 3? Hmmm…

Street Fighter 30^th Anniversary Collection

Given that we are a Street Fighter household, I remain a little surprised that neither my husband nor I made immediate moves on this game when it was first released in May. This is especially true given the fact that we can no longer play any of our classic PS2 Street Fighter games due to the lack of a PS2. But I suspect that lingering bad feelings about the way Street Fighter V was released, plus a good bit of disappointment stemming from Marvel vs. Capcom Ultimate, may have had something to do with our avoidance. Still, the Street Fighter 30^th Anniversary Collection is a pretty incredible compilation, so I’m sure we’ll get it at some point.

Detroit: Become Human

Detroit: Become Human was high on my “interested” list for several months before its release. But then it came out, and…my interest fizzled. It’s not that people didn’t have good things to say about it, but I think I just saw too much of it to immediately want to invest my sixty dollars.  I kind of made that mistake with Beyond: Two Souls, and I just didn’t feel like doing it again. I’m thinking that it’ll likely be a future digital download for me, one day when there’s a really good sale in the PS store.

Dead Cells

Everything about Dead Cells, a metroidvania game upon which praise has been and continues to be heaped, is right up my alley. Fun but challenging platforming, unique and eye-catching graphics, a good story to latch onto. And yet, no Dead Cells for me. I considering getting it last Christmas (it was still in early access then), but that never happened. And then my mild obsession with Ori and the Blind Forest took over. It readily filled my difficult-platformers fix…right when Dead Cells came out as a full release in August. With another Steam sale now upon us, will Dead Cells make it into my library this year? flips through wallet, dusting aside cobwebs The outlook is…slim.

Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XV has been on my to-buy list since it first came out, and that’s despite itself. At Christmas 2017, it was one of only two games that was on my wishlist. What was that other game, you ask? It was The Legend of Zelda; Breath of the Wild. And I’m sure that if fortune has favored Noctis and his bros over Link and forever-questing, I might just be playing the game right now (and maybe even having a better time with it).  However, I have a tenuous history with Final Fantasy games, at best, with the last one I attempted to play being FFXIII-2, and that just didn’t work out. So I have to admit that part of my avoidance of FFXV is based solely on old fears, which isn’t a very good excuse. And now, with FFXV’s Royal Edition now available, it may be time for me to jump in the ol’ JRPG saddle, or sports car, as it were, again.