GAMINGbible’s Pile Of Shame, AKA The Games We Still Need To Play

We all have them: so-called classic video games that, despite our very best efforts and all the will in the world, we simply haven't got around to playing yet. And that's fine! It's not like we don't have a bunch of time right now to pick through our piles of shame, and pull out a handful of titles we should have, probably, played through years ago.

Ewan Moore hasn't played... Half-Life

I know. But look, I've never owned a PC. Well, that's not true. I've owned PCs in my time, just not ones that were capable of running games without making funny wheezing noises and bursting into flames. And by the time I did get my hands on a machine that could run Half-Life? Well, I had absolutely zero interest in playing it.

Do you ever hear people go on and on and on about something until you find yourself actively rooting against that thing? That's kind of where I ended up with Half-Life for a while. I've no doubt it was a revolutionary title, and one of the finest examples of immersive storytelling ever developed. But good lord can we talk about anything else for five minutes? No, not Half-Life 2. Which, by the way, I've obviously never played either.

I'm thrilled you Half-Life fans are finally getting a new game to play in the shape of Half-Life: Alyx. Maybe one day I'll play them all through in order, and I'll probably really enjoy them. But for now? I can't help but feel like I missed the boat on the Half-Life hype, and I'm not sure I'll ever really be able to catch it.

James Daly hasn't played... Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

When GTA: Vice City landed on PlayStation 2 back in 2002, it blew everybody away. Everybody but me, I mean. I was a kid who didn't own a PS2 because I leaned more toward Nintendo at the time, so I didn't think about PlayStation games for a minute.

The GTA franchise had taken a huge stride forward, and although there has since been plenty of opportunity to get back into the franchise with San Andreas and more, I don't feel any real desire to be part of it. The fourth numbered game didn't interest me, and I didn't really click with GTA V.

They're all clearly great games, but not for me. I was just too late to the party. It doesn't mean I don't respect them, I just played L.A. Noire instead. Which is better, right?

Julian Benson hasn't finished... Bloodborne

This isn't because it's a game set in a city where everyone has locked themselves inside to stay safe, I swear. But despite loving what I've played of Bloodborne, I've never completed it.

The problem I've had is that after playing for a week or two, some other game comes along and distracts me. When I come back to Bloodborne, I've lost all the muscle memory for the combat and have to start again. I've reached the fourth boss multiple times now, but never pushed through to the end. I think that's top of my list in these dark times.

Mark Foster hasn't played... Final Fantasy VII

I was going to start off by apologising for this. But you know what? I'm not actually that sorry.

Final Fantasy VII was just one of those games I never played as a kid, so I don't have that nostalgic love for it that most people have. I didn't get a PlayStation until pretty late into its lifecycle because we weren't made of money in our bloody household, and the games I did get, I just sort of stuck with them. Tekken 3, Die Hard Trilogy and Tomb Raider came with it, and when my dad brought it home from his mate's house, with a couple of demo discs thrown in for good measure, that was sort of our lot.

Don't get me wrong though, I love other games in the Final Fantasy series, and I even thought Advent Children was a revelation when I first saw that. Games eight and 15 are highlights, and Final Fantasy XII was one of my favourite games of the PS2 era, but I just don't really have that love for VII that other people do.

I know the story, the style and the cultural impact of it, and I appreciate it in that way. But at this point it just feels too far gone and I have no desire to play it in its current state. I will 100% be jumping into Final Fantasy VII Remake, though, at some point. Probably.

Actually, thinking about it, I guess I kind of have nostalgia via osmosis. I remember other people remembering it fondly. If you get what I mean? No? Leave your hate in the comments, cheers.

Mike Diver hasn't played... Final Fantasy X

I've got this, and its sequel, on PlayStation 2 and on Switch, and to date I've played neither much beyond the title screen(s). I've smashed untold hours into Final Fantasies seven, eight and nine; I cracked on with Final Fantasy XIII and really didn't hate it, at all, and even tickled its sequels. The fifteenth game scratched an itch for a good 30 or so hours until something else got in the way; and the sixth game has been started, and stopped, and started, and stopped, several times now. Enough times to know it's a classic.

But the tenth one? The one that everyone loves, that pops up in so many people's favourite PS2 games lists, not to mention rankings of the Final Fantasy series, itself? IDK, for whatever reason, I've just not got there yet. I'm looking at the Remaster again, right now, on my Switch - but what to delete, to archive, to free up all those gigabytes? It's a kind of option paralysis, isn't it? A very First World Problem. But maybe if I finish Luigi's Mansion 3, I can turn my attention to Tidus and Yuna and company, and finally cross this X off the list. Yeah. Maybe.

Phil Boon hasn't played... Fable

I've got to hold my hands up and say it: I've not played a single game in the Fable series, aside from a brief encounter with Fable Legends at Gamescom 2014, which ultimately led to nothing following the game's cancellation in 2016.

But it still baffles me how I've managed to miss experiencing a Fable title, especially since Xbox was my main console during the series' glow up. I appreciate that Fable is much loved by many, and the continued calls for another instalment in the series shows that the hype for the game, for the franchise, is still strong. Hopefully I'll have a chance to visit Albion before it's too late.

Sarah James hasn't played... The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The game that never seems to quite make it to the top of my pile of shame is, shockingly, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I say shockingly because I've watched the Netflix series and loved it - despite getting a bit confused with the timeline - and I now own the first three Witcher books, thanks to enjoying the show so much.

But the game is sat there in my PlayStation 4's library, all neglected and un-downloaded at the time of writing. In my defence, it has been downloaded in the past, but freeing up HDD space won out over good intentions. So here we are.

Tom Ryan-Smith hasn't played... Uncharted

I was an Xbox kid, plain and simple. During the PlayStation 2 era I spent my days mowing down grunts in Halo and grinding vertically up rails in Jet Set Radio Future. So when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were revealed, I was just naturally drawn to Microsoft.

Because of this, I totally missed Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and in turn the entire bloody franchise. I know so many people who talk incredibly favourably about the adventures of Nathan Drake, how amazing the John Williams-like score is, and how the series was one of the first real cinematic gaming experiences. But for some reason, I've just not got around to jumping into the series.

Maybe one day I'll dive in - but working as a video editor in gaming, it's hard to not know every story and plot beat of each AAA game we cover, so I have no real desire to follow through a story when I already know how it ends. So sorry about that, Naughty Dog. I did play The Last Of Us Remastered on my PS4 though, so I'm not a total failure.

Will McCue hasn't played... Batman: Arkham Knight

You know that one game that sits in a drawer somewhere in your home collecting dust, but you keep telling yourself you'll get round to playing it eventually? Yeah, that's Batman: Arkham Knight for me.

I adored both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, so I immediately picked up Rocksteady's third Batman instalment when it came out in 2015. However, for whatever reason I never jumped back into Gotham City. This, despite loving my time roaming the dark setting as one of my favourite superheroes, and the fact that the previous games had some of my most memorable boss battles in gaming. Who could forget the Poison Ivy fight, or even beating the huge titan Joker at the end of the first game? The more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm remembering how good these games were.

I will play Arkham Knight one day, I just don't know when that day will be.