What is Shameless Gaming? Well, I’m glad you asked! Shameless Gaming is Kotaku’s version of Dry July, a month where we ignore new releases and play through our video gaming pile of shame together. We take all those unfinished, ignored games, the ones we cast aside, and we give them the attention they deserve! Join in!
Too many choices can be a terrible thing. If your pile of shame has started to become mountain-like, it can be hard to pick a game to start playing. Far too often, the easiest choice is to play an old favourite or nothing at all.
Trying to sort out your games can make things easier. There are many sites out there that let you catalogue your collection: Darkadia, Backloggery and How Long to Beat.
My preference is for the simplicity of Darkadia. If you’re after a bit more versatility, Backloggery might be the site for you. How Long to Beat provides a wealth of information about game completion lengths, which can be very handy.
Before this month began, I entered my collection into Darkadia. Then it was just a matter working out which games in there stood out as ones that desperately needed to be taken out of my pile of shame.
The first choice was the easiest. Half-Life 2 has been in my pile of shame ever since The Orange Box came out. Portal had proven to be a strong distraction, so I had never managed to play more than half an hour of Half-Life 2.
Similarly, StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War were fairly simple choices. StarCraft II was one of the games that I finished during last year’s Shameless Gaming month. While I wouldn’t dare try my hand at the multiplayer, macroing my way to victory in the campaign to learn more about the lore and get a feel for the game just seems right.
Shadow of the Colossus had the misfortune of being released at the end of the PlayStation 2′s lifecycle and many people never had a chance to play it. The HD re-release that came out recently offers another opportunity to play it, and I’m going to take advantage of that opportunity.
The final game that I’ve picked out is Dead Space. There’s no real reason behind this choice. I just thought that it might be fun to play a horror game, as it’s not a genre I typically play.
According to How Long to Beat, that’s almost 90 hours of gaming to get through this month. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will take less time than that, yet it’s still much more time than I would normally spend gaming in a month.
This will take some effort.
As soon as July started, I started to play Half-Life 2. Simply playing about with the physics engine is remarkably fun. Buckets were almost put on heads, dolls slid down slides, guards were assaulted with boots. It may not have been the point of the game but I was having fun.
Then I unlocked the gravity gun. Things only got better from there.
It wasn’t long before I finished Half-Life 2 and soon I’ll turn my attention to Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Episode Two.
Now I’m going to focus my efforts on Shadow of the Colossus, which I’m making steady progress through, and StarCraft.
Having a game on PC and a game on console to alternate between should make it easier to continually progress. If one game is starting to become a little frustrating, or just not as fun as the other, switching to it will hopefully keep things fun and interesting.
More importantly, I’m just going to keep finding my own fun. If I can put buckets on people’s heads in Dead Space, I’ll never get past the first chapter.
Be sure to check out Kotaku reader Trjn’s account of Shameless Gaming. You can find his site here.
Shameless Gaming, reduce your pile of shame! Together! Let’s do this thing!
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