Last week I roamed about Polygon and Kotaku, cleaned up the home office, filed passports, did not read those library books and barely played Assassin’s Creed. Overall, the week ahead is looking a lot like last week.

One of my goals this week is actually a goal for the month, and by extension, the rest of the year. I’ll be writing more about it later.

Atelier Ayesha arrived from Gamefly today, so I’ll be trying that out this week.

Still have more cleaning to do!

And like I said before, I didn’t read these books either… but I do have an idea for a program I’d like to write, so that’s something.

This makes for lots of games this week, but I’m gonna try to squeeze in Assassin’s Creed again.

I’ve also got a few posts I’d like to write for this blog, but we’ll see how the week goes.

Just got this from GameFly today. My current headache is keeping me from playing it RIGHT NOW even though I am very excited. I also sent back Ocarina of Time. I just couldn’t stick with it. I’ve moved DJMax, Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault and Forza: Horizon to the top of my list.

After a long hiatus, I finally went the *** to the library and rented four books about software.

Little did I know that I would post NOTHING while I tried to complete my Four in February. The challenged proved more difficult to complete than I first imagined. Last night, at 11pm, I finished my fourth game in February. I spent around 20 hours a week gaming, so all told I spent roughly 80 hours gaming this month. The playtime for the four games I beat totaled somewhere near 60 hours. The 20 remaining hours were spent on games I didn’t finish. Here’s my notes on my Four in February experience:

I was off to a blazing start after beating Portal in just a couple hours. I enjoyed it, but it seemed a lot easier and shorter than Portal 2. Though, had I known what Wheatley was when I played Portal 2, I would have trusted him a lot less. Even though I played it fast, I still got chills from Portal’s creepy, abandoned vibe. Actually, I get that vibe from any game that sends my character to prison or leaves them alone for a stretch of time… perhaps it‘s just my own fears of isolation…  

Anyways, with only three games left on February 2nd, I thought I had this challenge in the bag. The next two were Assassin’s Creed: Revelations and Fire Emblem Awakening. Fire Emblem was a bit of a struggle to find, due to some unexplained shipping problems. AC:R is one that had been sitting on my shelf since launch, still in the plastic.
  

I failed. I was sinking a lot of time into the game and making little progress. More importantly, it wasn’t fun. I found myself feeling impatient and frustrated. Some games are not meant to be tackled in a time-based challenge, especially not as a first playthough. You need to have time to wander, time to enjoy, time to get lost in that world.This is precisely the reason I didn’t choose Skyrim as a February game.

So, it was time for an alternate. I looked over the games I already owned (quite a few) and considered the ones I haven’t already beaten (not so many) and narrowed that down to ones I thought I could beat in under a week (very few). I tried Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts briefly, but the multitude of individual challenges lead me to try something else. I settled on Assassin’s Creed 3 (which was still in wrap from launch). I had just played Revelations, so the story was fresh in my mind. Also, I was confident that I could beat it quick. By this point, I only had four days left. 

 The first three chapters were horrible. The next couple were long. I was getting very concerned that I’d be playing until midnight tonight trying to get finished. The second half of the game, however, was quick. It wasn’t a great game. In terms of the Assassin’s Creed series, it wasn’t even a good game. Nevertheless, I beat it. Just like the AC game before it, there was a completely WTF ending, then a half hour of unskippable credits.

I enjoyed the 4if Challenge. I don’t know when I would have gotten around to beating the last two AC games without it. I may have never played Portal. I would have played Fire Emblem regardless. I intend to write a meta-review about all four in the coming days.

Over the last month or so, I’ve been roaming the halls of Kotaku. My reason to return to the site was twofold: absorbing every little bit of Awakening conversation and getting back into a writing habit. I’ve recently joined Polygon, which seems a bit more active in forums and vigilantly moderated. I’m sure I’ll keep up my activities at both sites next week.

Play Station All Stars for Vita just arrived from GameFly today. I convinced Aaron to start playing Fire Emblem, so this will allow me to actually let go of my 3DS a bit. Maybe.

I decided it was high time to start programming again, so I went the *** to the library. I was making strides in this area, but stopped when it came time to sell my house. I intend to start with the PHP book first. I think my Ruby understanding is still intact, but I hope the two books here will help me make those skills a bit more applicable. Finally, the software dev book is to help my understanding of the field, and decide if it’s something I’d like to look into more seriously.

I happened to see this article about cleaning up your house in a weekend. I currently have a bit of a clutter situation. My last house had a lot more storage than this house, which lead me to keep more crap than I needed. I’ve gotten rid of a fair bit, but still the clutter lurks. Most everything in the aforementioned article was obvious, but sometimes obvious things listed objectively lends perspective.

Lastly, I’ve got a family cruise coming up this summer and still haven’t gotten a passport. They are pricey! 

Mike Suzek of Joystiq started an informal challenge recently: commit to finishing four games in February. When Owen Good of Kotaku asked if they should be games you have never played or games you just never finished, Suzek basically said do what feels right. The subtext of this challenge was to end the shame of never completing certain games. My Four in February are listed below. One of them isn’t out yet, two are moderately shameful and one is kinda ridiculous.

Fire Emblem: Awakening comes out on the fourth. I’ve talked enough about this already, so moving on.

I bought the Collectors Edition of AC3 (so much swag!) but haven’t played it because I haven’t even started Revelations. I know that doesn’t matter, but I’ve had Revelations in wrap since it released. Why? That’s a longer story for a different post.

I have almost bought The Orange Box more times than I can count. I’ve carried it hopefully through stores only to find something newer and more exciting. I played Portal 2 and everything. I think I heard so much about the first one, I just didn’t bother.

Yeah. I don’t know what to say. This one makes me truly ashamed. I have never finished any Zelda console game. Some of these I have started and not finished, but I think I’ll pick one I’ve never tried.

You can publicly discuss your four by tweeting with the hashtag ‘#4if‘ or on the Four in February Facebook page. If you’re undecided, seeing what others picked and why is a great way to brainstorm. There’s been talk of making this a charitable effort: you could sell the games after you play them, and give the money to charity. It would be nice if a company like Microsoft gave a few cents for every game beaten next month (based on a completion achievement). But, chances are the charity aspect of this will come from individuals.

There’s no real comparison here, but I tried them both anyway. I had a pass from my local Blockbuster store that let me rent my one game for as long as I’d like for $15/month. I loved being able to instantly switch games, even though their selection was often lacking. Unsurprisingly, that Blockbuster recently closed. I thought I would try to remain loyal by signing up for their online service. I tried GameFly at the same time, since they both had their first month free.

Despite signing up on the same day, Blockbuster’s game took four days longer to arrive. Perhaps it just takes longer to establish the account, or I’m further from their warehouse. The GameFly game arrived in a cardboard sleeve and a paper sleeve, presumably to keep the disc from cracking. The Blockbuster game arrived in just a paper sleeve, and what do you know, it was cracked. And not just a little cracked.

This is not more of what I want.

It was cracked from the center ring all the way to the edge. I sent an defective report, returned it, and they sent another copy of the same game. That took about a week. By then I had already returned my first game and received my second GameFly game.

GameFly has a fantastic app that lets you manage your queue (which they call “Q”) on the go, browse games, read gaming news, connect with other GameFly users (like Twitter, but less fun), and more. They also offer a client for your computer through which you can play certain unlimited games. This client is basically like an app, allowing you to browse through much of what you find on the website. I didn’t use the blockbuster app because, for whatever reason, it wasn’t available for my phone at the time. I have downloaded it since, but I didn’t see any games available at all, just movies.

In addition to slow delivery, Blockbuster has as low of a selection online as they did in my local store. It seems that they are more content to simply sell the games then rent them, which may be what they want anyways. Blockbuster didn’t have any current gen handheld games to rent, and their console games were mostly outdated or unavailable. I can only assume that their movie selection is better. As I was only interested in games, I didn’t bother checking.

GameFly has PSVita and 3DS games as well as an impressive inventory of console games. They also have a Fast Return system, wherein your local Post Office tells GameFly they have received your game, and GameFly ships the next one from your list. This ingenious system takes two or three days off the return time. In somewhat related news, GameFly also brought legal action against the USPS because they hand sorted Netflix (and Blockbuster) discs but not GameFly discs for no apparent reason (hand sorting discs leads to less damage than machine sorting).

Blockbuster is a lot cheaper than Gamefly, letting you rent three discs for $19.99 whereas GameFly is $22.95 for only two discs. You can select from movies and games with Blockbuster, whereas Gamefly is only games. Each offers a trial period at a discount. GameFly will almost certainly have a faster turn around time than Blockbuster. If you subscribe to either one, then attempt cancel your membership, they will offer you a lower rate for one month. Ethically, it’s not something you should do… and I also don’t know how often that would work.

Because I was only interested in games, GameFly was the best choice. It’s more expensive, but you get what you pay for: better selection, ease of use, and quicker returns. Additionally, if you decide to use GameFly, you can use this link to get a free month (I’ll also get a free month). Sometimes they offer a free month on the site, but as of right now it’s 60% off the first month.