I knew it would happen. I knew the moment I started this blog that I would eventually pick Oblivion back up. I haven’t looked at the save game time stamps from when I last played it, but it was probably 5 years ago. I never beat it, of course. I’m sure that by skimming over this blog you can guess why.

But the thing that led to me dropping it is what’s brought me back: the seemingly endless side quests. I’ve started a new game and I’m maybe a dozen hours into it. As soon as my character escaped from the underground caves and sewers, she promptly ignored the main quest and went off fishing, spying on merchants, etc. It’s tons of fun. Just travelling between cities and noticing a cave, then deciding whether to head in is just a ton of fun.

Yes, I know I’m playing too many games at once. I always do this. So I’ve put a few on hold. I might put Assassin’s Creed III on hold too. It was probably a mistake to play Brotherhood & Revelations back-to-back and then start #3 immediately after. So I’ll get back to that. As Final Fantasy XIII-2, I’ll get back to that too. Frankly, they’re kind of hard to write about too. Final Fantasy I was easy to write about because there were so many gaps to fill in — the story in the game was pretty bare. Oblivion may be more like that, due to its fairly non-linear design. We’ll see.

I’ve also been on a bit of a retro kick lately, and I’ve greatly expanded my console and game collection. I recently picked up a Genesis, a NES, a ColecoVision (2 of them!) and a Game Gear. Not all of the games I’ve got recently will end up on my list of games to beat (ColecoVision and Atari games often can’t be beat in the normally understood way), but I’m sure some will. Games like Sonic 1–3, Super Mario Bros. 1–3, Dragon Warrior, etc. I don’t think Ninja Gaiden will make the list. I doubt I have the patience to beat that sucker.