Game Over on Gaming?

​Guest Blog post by Adam Foster @AngelicWiganer / @snoopfozziefozz

Hi all you gamers out there. What does gaming feel like for you in 2024? For myself at times it feels like the hardest hobby or pastime to do in order to relax. I don’t think it should be that way at all. But it is. I’ll try and explain why. I’ll give you a little background into my lifestyle and maybe you could understand, or even suggest an idea or a way how I can start to enjoy gaming again.

I’m just your average 43 year old bloke I suppose. I have a full time job, a great wife, 3 kids, 2 dogs, and a rabbit and in addition to this I also am a part time reseller on eBay as I like to have a little extra cash in order to get some of the nicer things in life. So yeah I do work hard. But my full time job is shift work, so yes I work long hours on the days that I am in, but I only work fifty percent of the days of the year.

I have always been into gaming or video games since the early eighties when I was bought a Commodore plus 4 and later gifted a ZX Spectrum 48k. My younger and teenage years went all the way from the NES up to the PS1. And I’ve had most of the consoles in-between. Now I own a Switch, a PS5 and also a Series X.
My free time is precious to me and I want to make sure that I am enjoying what I do. Now I don’t know if it’s me or the way my brain works but I struggle firstly to pick something to play. I am a Gamepass owner and at times I find the choices overwhelming, like when you’re trying to find something to watch on Netflix and then thirty minutes later you still haven’t found anything. I also don’t get inspired by many games that I used to.

I watched the latest Nintendo Direct and the Xbox Games Showcase and I honestly couldn’t pick out one game where I thought “oooh I want to play that” I feel at present that gaming is either made from remakes, remasters, or using the same tired old generic formats to create games. I don’t want to feel like that. I want to still get that joy and emotion from playing games which I used to.

I also struggle to get into games like I used to. I tend to play them for a couple of hours and then I just don’t play it anymore because I am burnt out, or the game just hasn’t grabbed me. The list of games I have started and not seen through to a finish in the last year or so has been horrific. I know these games aren’t bad games at all. The reviews and feedback from other gamers out there is on the whole positive. Here’s what I have started to play and then I gave up:

Halo 5
Final Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy 16
Exoprimal
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Resident Evil 3 Remake
Resident Evil 8
Bayonetta 3
Persona 5
Tunic
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2
Street Fighter 6

That’s just to name a few.

I don’t know what’s wrong. Maybe gaming isn’t my passion any more, or should I say not the most passionate thing in my life any more when it comes to choosing how I relax.

So I’m reaching out to you the gaming community, help me. Suggest some titles over any of the three major platforms and I will be happy to give any game a try. Let me get back to being a gaming guru again In the meantime, you lot keep enjoying what you’re doing and keep gaming.

​Guest Blog post by Adam Foster @AngelicWiganer / @snoopfozziefozz