When I say, we had no kitchen, I mean it. Everything was gutted while we waited for cabinets that would never come. We needed to lick our wounds, forget about our troubles and not spend very much money. So, we decided to deliberately invest time in some of the entertainment we'd purchased but never consumed. We both quickly isolated what we wanted was a vacation to play video games and eat things we could heat up in a toaster (which was sitting on our fireplace in the living room).
During the first staycation, I had a backlog of AAA titles I wanted to play: Mass Effect, Bioshock, Twilight Princess, God of War II. I set a timer for myself for about 60 mins. When the timer went off, I'd switch to a different game in the rotation. I realized early that one hour was really too short and upped it to 90 mins where it has stayed for 7 years.
Fast forward and the staycation has had a different flavor from year to year, but it has always been about video games. I've used different selection criteria to come up with the list each time, but this year I chose to favor variations in genres. Last year I played a lot of open world games and it was just too much, so I wanted to be sure I chose different types of games.
My staycation list looked something like this:
1st Tier
*Super Mario Galaxy 97 (3d Plat)
*Guacamele 81 (2d Plat)
*Halo4 91 (FPS)
*Brothers ATOTS 90 (Indie Story)
*Infamous 2 83 (3rd Open World)
*Haunted Adventure Trilogy (Classic)
2nd Tier
Tomb Raider (3rd Action)
Bioshock 2 (FPS/Horror)
Skyrim (RPG/Action)
*Stanley Parable (Indie Story)
MT Punch Out (Classic)
Punch Out (Classic Remake)
I've learned to make a 2nd tier in case I really just don't like a game, or I get through it quickly and want to fill its spot in the rotation with something else. The number on the right is the metacritic score for the game. These are games that I own, but have never gotten around to playing. I mostly sort my options by review score, but I'll make exceptions if I just don't trust the review score, or there is something further down on the list that I know I want to play.
I found that the variety of genres was very welcome. It even let me deal with some of the less enjoyable parts of some of the games, knowing I was going to move on to a complete different genre for the next game, and that helped to limit frustration quite a bit.
I "finished" every game with an asterix next to it either during the staycation or in the few subsequent weeks after. Here are some two sentence reviews and a grade (best is 5).
1) Super Mario Galaxy 5/5 - Playing SMG is like visiting a carnival where the games are actually fun and the variety makes you feel like you are having a new experience with each level. I was blown away by the deep design that went into this game, and I still have many stars to go back and collect.
2) Guacamele 5/5 - The very forgiving checkpoint system may turn off a lot of 2d plat fans, but I found it to be the game's greatest strength. Never frustrating, Guacamele introduces clever fighting combos that make sense and give you plenty of ways to creatively dispatch your foes.
3) Halo 4 3/5 - Yes, the robot falls in love . . . . I mean, I guess that is what happened, right? The campaign is more of what you'd expect from Halo, but they do a nice job of mixing in vehicle combat.
4) Brothers A Tale of Two Sons 5/5 - This is only going to take you 6 hours max unless you really stretch it. The story worked for me, and I liked the unique control scheme.
5) Infamous 2 4/5 - The game does a great job of letting you feel you are in control of a superhuman, badass, free-running, American Jason Statham. The gameplay can be varied if you work at it, but the negatives are that there is a lot of repetition and the story, while somewhat compelling, isn't anything you are going to care about once the PS3 is turned off.
6) Haunted Adventure Trilogy 4/5 - While HA1 is a very obvious hack, HA2 is an almost completely unique game. Forgiving the core gameplay mechanic of maze memorization, the only real knock on these is the dependence on the easter egg triggering pixel and the fact that the randomizing enemy really turns up the challenge level (sometimes past fun).
7) The Stanley Parable 2/5 - The game works as a vehicle to deliver a lecture on game design. I think when it came out people were hungry for self-aware indie games, but I think its moment has passed.
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