Recently I've been playing Far Cry 2, and because part of me really hates the other part I've been trying to do as much as humanly possible with it. That means finding all of the suitcases with diamonds, completing all cell tower missions, destroying all weapon convoys, rescuing all buddies, unlocking all safe houses, scouting all guard posts, and, when I have time for it, completing all story missions. But really, who has time for that? You know, doing the part of the game that is necessary to completion.
What has curbed my progress in Far Cry 2 more than anything is the knowledge that once I wring all content out of the nine square kilometers of beautiful hi-def Africa in which I am currently operating, there is another nine square kilometers of beautiful hi-def Africa yet to come. And then this whole sick dance starts all over.
It's not that I don't enjoy the game; it's just that there's so much of it. And for some reason when I have too much I can do, I end up not doing anything at all. This is one way that open-world games result in paralysis. The other way is through the fear that despite all of my hours of toil, no matter how many maps I print out and mark with elaborate runes, no matter how painstaking my notes and methods and reading of FAQs gets, I will miss something. Something small. And then I will have to start all over again. I will become Sisyphus, except without all the exercise.
I could move on to one of the other games in my Pile, but guess what they are? Grand Theft Auto 4 and Mass Effect. And they come with exactly the same problems. And hey, guess what? I'm planning on getting the Game of the Year Edition of Fallout 3. Why do I do this?
Because I enjoy it, that's why. I don't know if I have OCD or just straight-up hate myself, but I actually like games that demand so much of my attention and require me to do the same thing over and over for 100% completion. If you look at my Gamercard (MUEvan), this point is proven again and again:
1.) All achievements in Bully, even after I spent three days riding around on my go-kart trying to activate errands before I realized that I needed to go and spend fifteen minutes doing boxing matches.
2.) All achievements in LEGO Indiana Jones; LEGO games are the epitome of lather, rinse, repeat.
3.) 100% completion in LEGO Star Wars; see above.
4.) Found all 300 flags in Assassin's Creed.
5.) Found all 1001 Light Seeds in Prince of Persia, AND fought the same guy five times in a row to unlock all of the combos.
6.) Unlocked all combat-based achievements in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed; this involved, among other things, Force-Choking Wookiee after Wookiee for upwards of thirty-five minutes, and then switching to Saber Throws. And then Force Pushes. And so on.
7.) Completed the "Little Rocket Man" achievement in The Orange Box, which involves playing through almost all of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 carrying around a garden gnome without losing it. And, like the One Ring, the little bastard wants to be lost.
I share these things not to impress anyone (because they won't), but because they illustrate half of my problem: the half in which I feel compelled to do these things. The other half is that I don't want to, and I think this is where the Paralysis sets in; it is a mechanism through which I attempt to keep myself from spending my life hunting down Agility Orbs.
And of course, it doesn't work all the time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go play Far Cry 2.
This post originally appeared at Inside the Console.