5 New Year’s Resolutions for Better Gaming in 2010

With the New Year firmly underway, and some of last year’s biggest titles delayed to early this year, the time is right to look at some of the ways you can get more out of your gaming in 2010.

1. Keep the headset plugged in.

Yes it can be awkward talking to a bunch of strangers in a game lobby, but there’s nothing more frustrating than a carefully planned CTF strategy gone awry because silent guy couldn’t get the message to grab the unguarded flag. It’s like playing with Leroy Jenkins only without the hilarious catchphrase. If you’re going to ruin the match for your team at least have the courtesy to chime in with a ridiculous retort or a witty barb.

Now I know what you’re thinking, nobody likes listening to 12 year old kids whine about how you must be cheating, but that’s what the mute option is for. Or better yet, if the game supports it, just call a vote to have them kicked. The entire online world could use more acconutability. If more people had to worry about being tossed for their belligerence, there’d be a lot less bad attitudes and a lot more team players.

2. Spend less time tracking down obscure achievements/trophies.

Now there’s nothing wrong with the occasional boosting to get that gamerscore up a few points, but orienting all your time with a game over how get achievements can quickly sap all the enjoyment out of a game. Take the original Assassin’s Creed for example. About a quarter of the game’s achievements (there were no trophies yet) revolve around collecting flags scattered across the entire game, but the flags offer no reward outside of the achievements they bestow upon the gatherer (Sorry PS3 gamers, hopefully you find flag collecting a deeply satisfying activity in and of itself). That might be fine if there weren’t so many flags to collect, but as the hours spent in pursuit of those banners mount, the sheer futility of the exercise and the tedium of climbing yet another set of buildings would be enough to sedate even couch jumping Tom Cruise.

The point isn’t that achievement hunting is evil, everybody does it, simply that it should be fun. If you’re going to put in that extra effort tracking down a few more points at least chose to do it in a quest that doesn’t make you want to pay your little brother to do it for you. Take a page out of Notre Dame’s playbook when they fired Charlie Weis with millions of dollars left on his contract. Cut your losses and put away the game with only 70% trophy completion before you spend so much time joylessly trophy hunting you end up fat, morose and unemployed like Charlie.

3. Find more excuses to play portable games.

It can be easy to overlook the handheld system in favor of their high powered console brethren unless you’re regularly taking public transportation, but why should complete strangers be the only ones to see you look ridiculous blowing at your DS or furiously shaking your PSP in frustration? Granted, there is something not quite right about sitting on a couch playing on a 3 inch screen when you’ve got a 40+ inch LCD sitting right in front of you, but I challenge you to pick up Spirit Tracks, GTA: Chinatown Wars, or Rock Band Unplugged and have less fun than you would playing their big screen counterparts. You could even plug the PSP into the TV if you just have to use it. Whatever it takes, find some time for the little guys, they’re too fun to ignore anymore.

4. Play it on PC.

Now the cost of a decent gaming PC is normally so much higher than the cost of a console that it discourages this sort of thing, but the 360 is 4 years old at this point. Anyone who has bought a new computer within the last year with a discrete graphics card has a decent shot at being able to play the AAA titles with a higher level of detail than on their console. The advantages to PC gaming are substantial. You get the increased precision of the keyboard and mouse, the benefit of other people’s creativity with mods, the PC version of games usually retail for $50 instead of $60, and if you play any Valve games, you stand to save a few games worth of cash on DLC.

5. Make a point to play multiplayer in the same room with your friends.

With online multiplayer in almost every title, even if it has to be handled by a separate developer ala Bioshock 2, it can be easy to forget what multiplayer used to be like. But close your eyes and remember with me the days of talking trash to your friends and seeing their humiliated faces, anger inducing victory dances after you run the table in a Smash Bros tournament, and being able to slap the controller out of your friends hand when you’re about to lose at Mario Kart. Now that may seem mean-spirited, but it’s a lot more fun taking crap from your friends in person than it is listening to a tinny voice in one ear talk bad about your mother.

It’s not all about competition either. There’s been a dramatic increase in games that feature co-operative modes as of late, both online and off. Online Co-op can be a lot of fun, but it can’t quite compare to the thrill of feeling you’re the excitement in the room as you and your friend barely escape a level with your lives or eek out a new high score. Plus, how are you supposed to high-five online?

Got any suggestions for better gaming in 2010? Let us know in the comments.

coded by nessus

Tagged as: achivements, multiplayer, Online, PC, Portable, trophies

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Better Gaming in 2010

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