I’ve played video games for most of my life but for the last year or two I’ve found that I don’t really enjoy them. I fired up my PS2 last night to finish one of the many games I’m stuck in (Resident Evil 4, Ratchet & Clank:Up Your Arsenal, Metal Gear Solid 3:Snake Eater) I chose Ratchet and Clank, which I last played 13 months ago, and found that I was stuck at the final boss fight. After 2+ hours of trying and having to redo some very hard stuff just to get to the super hard stuff and using the walkthroughs online I decided to end it. I put all three games for sale on Amazon. I feel a sense of relief that those unfinished games won’t be in the house much longer and that they are off of my mental “to-do” list. (this is a big part of GTD actually, that things like unread magazines laying around occupy mental “to-do” space just like things that are much more important.) So I feel good about my revelation, but still haven’t worked out why I don’t like video games anymore.

There are some exceptions. I really enjoy Zuma on my iPod. It is super low commitment and low frustration level, unlike Lumines which is too hyper and can leave you frustrated if things don’t work out. I really do enjoy Lego Star Wars 2:The Original Trilogy on the PSP. Not sure all the reasons why, but it being Star Wars helps. Playing through the original trilogy is awesome, and it’s freaking LEGOs, which I loved as well. I remember the pure joy of building ships and homes for my Star Wars figures out of LEGOs as a child. This game has capitatized on that and it works. I seldomn get stuck in it or get frustrated, maybe because it’s a kids game.

I like low frustration games.

Burnout 3 is also enjoyable for this reason, I’m just crashing cars. I recently played Dead Rising at Dan’s on his 360 and that was a blast, I’m just killing zombies.

I’m wondering how to find games that fufill my new criteria, or maybe it’s time to let it go. Not sure. It is possible that I am a Wii candiate. Everyone says it could bring the “fun” back to playing video games. (Guitar Hero is fun like this with a group of people, except you can’t sleep later with Iron Man running through your head.) I have 2 friends who are getting a Wii. I’m optimistic, but don’t feel the need to buy one…yet.

So I’ve added a link to all of my DVD Movies and Video Games. It’s pretty cool. Delicious Library is an awesome cataloging program and Delicious Exporter allows you to generate html code from your Delicious Library. It’s rad that it maintains the Delicious Library look in the html. Now lets start our own Blockbuster or Netflix.

Engadget.com
No, it isn’t GPS on your PSP (if you want that, you’ll have to roll your own). But if you live in Japan and want to use your PSP as a navigational aid, Sony is making it a little easier with a UMD-based mapping program that the company plans to release in April. The software is similar to most PC-based mapping programs, and allows users to store annotations on Memory Sticks and share info via WiFi. No word on whether Sony plans US or European versions, but that’s fine with us; until it has GPS, we’re not interested.

Link to report and photos