Playing games we want to play for a change.

One of the best things about having a YouTube channel over a certain number of subscribers is all of the free games we get sent to play that we may never have tried otherwise. One of the worst things about having a YouTube channel over a certain number of subscribers is not having time to play the games you bought for yourself because of all the free games you get sent.

I definitely don't want to sound ungrateful here. Lots of great companies send me lots of good to amazing games to play and I definitely appreciate them for it. It's just that sometimes I feel like the games I need to play on game night were already chosen for me before game night starts and that can tend to ruin the spontaneity. I do feel a bit of an obligation to get the games I'm sent for free played and reviewed as soon a possible.

Once in a while, It's really nice to be able to catch up on my review copies and get to play some games that have been lingering on my shelf of shame for far too long. Today we got to do just that.

I realized this weekend that I have an entire month's worth of videos filmed and waiting to be released and I have only a few games waiting to be played that I was sent for free. This was helped greatly by a couple of companies sending me a bunch of RPG books recently, which as long as I'm already very familiar with the system, I only need to read before reviewing.

So, Lynn and I decided to play a couple of games today that we've been waiting to try for over a year. We each picked one, and coincidentally we each picked one that the other had bought for us as a holiday gift two Hanukahs/Christmases ago.

Lynn picked Gizmos which she had wanted to buy when it was originally released at GenCon, but was unable to do so before it sold out. I had made note of it and then got it for her as a gift the following holiday. I picked Gearworld which Lynn had bought for me for the holliday after correctly predicting that I would really like it both for its game mechanics and steam punk, post apocolypse aesthetics.

It was nice to be able to take a break from playing games that I need to play for the channel and just play what we wanted to. Both games were really fun. I have no plans to review them but they may show up in some top ten lists in the not too distant future.

Next week, I'm back to playing games that I need to review, though there're only a few left outstanding right now. I'm definitely going to do my best to do another game night like this as soon as possible.