Gaming Backlogs

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Gaming Backlogs

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

So I did a recce of my gaming backlog the other night. It’s massive. Essentially I could not buy another game for around 3 – 3.5 years based on my current completion rate of around a game a month-ish (2015 – 12, 2016 – 16, 2017 – 11).

I didn’t include absolutely everything from Xbox Live Gold and PS Plus in this of course, only games I genuinely really want to and will play. I also didn’t include my Saturn (c.30 games) and Dreamcast (c.25 games) collections or the SNES Classic. While I’ve completed much of what I have on these systems already, there’s still a good number of titles I haven’t, but for some reason I see them as separate from the current gen set. Don’t know why – games are games after all. Perhaps it’s because it makes the backlog even more terrifying if I do include them…

So this is what I’ve got sat waiting in cases and on hard drives around my home:

Xbox One
Assassins Creed – Origins (started!)
Wolfenstein 2
Doom
Destiny 2
Metro 2033 Redux
Metro Last Light Redux
Battlefield 1
Deus Ex - Mankind Divided
Lego Jurassic World
Gone Home
Grow Up
Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris
Life Is Strange
Shadow Of Mordor
Ori & The Blind Forest
Oxenfree
Ryse
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition
Wolf Among Us
Bayonetta
Child Of Light
South Park The Stick Of Truth

PS4
Prey
Horizon Zero Dawn
Call Of Duty - Infinite Warfare
Infamous - Second Son
Killzone - Shadow Fall
Alien Isolation
Robinson - The Journey (PSVR)
Eve Valkyrie (PSVR)
How We Soar (PSVR)
Rez Infinite (PSVR)
Tethered (PSVR)
Thumper (PSVR)
Until Dawn - Rush Of Blood (PSVR)
Street Fighter 5 (want to play the arcade mode!)
Ratchet & Clank
The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture
Metal Gear Solid 5 - Ground Zeroes
Metal Gear Solid 5 - Phantom Pain
Flower
Grow Home
Never Alone
Tales From The Borderlands

Switch
Snake Pass
Snipperclips (halfway through!)

So how does this compare to other people’s? Not necessarily in terms of specific titles, but really scale. Are there others in the same boat as me? Are some of you in an even worse hole?? Or am I particularly terrible offender that needs to have a harsh word himself???

PS. I of course realise this is a truly wonderful problem to have ;)
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ADumican83
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by ADumican83 »

Mine is similar. Then when I add the stuff I've bought in Humble Bundles and Steam sales it's truly disgusting. I'm never going to play the majority of them. I can't speak for anybody else, but my problem with having so many games is that I want to play them all at the same time so never end up making past a couple of hours into each. I've decided this year to play more current releases. And stick to one at a time. I've said this many times before though haha
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Flabyo
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by Flabyo »

Not quite as big as that, but still pretty hefty. Most of mine is ps+ and games with Gold stuff that I’ve not started yet, but there’s a few things I’ve bought but not played.

Most notably Persona 5, Catherine and Assassins Creed Rogue.
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Chopper
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by Chopper »

Sinclair Gregstrum wrote: January 3rd, 2018, 11:57 am I didn’t include absolutely everything from Xbox Live Gold and PS Plus in this of course, only games I genuinely really want to and will play.
I think this is key - you have to be ruthless in deciding you're never going to play that game you bought in 2010 (hello, Kings Bounty Armoured Princess and Space Rangers Reboot). Similar to ADumican, I find that having a huge number of games in the backlog means that sometimes I won't persevere past the first few hours of a game which has say, a wonky control scheme or something offputting. So I've tried to power through more recently.

Your big issue is not volume, but that a lot of those games are massive! You could knock off the shorter ones but then that would remove the palate cleansers from in between the big games :)

I'm not too bad. I carried forward 9 console games and 6 PC games from last year. Then I went and bought 10 games in the January sales :? . I expect to finish or give them all a fair shake.
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Stanshall
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by Stanshall »

After a few weeks of reflection, these are my conclusions about how to deal with my backlog albatross:

1. Eat fewer carrots

Too many games have an illusion of progressive enjoyment by gating 'fun' behind skill trees and crafting and RNG whereas their gameplay involves little more than running from A to B not engaging with the environment. With that in mind I've uninstalled AC: Origins, Tomb Raider, FFXV, Sunset Overdrive, Dishonored 2 et al. Horizon has enough to offer with the story and basic combat that it stays for now.

2. Indie schmindie

I got a bit too excited with the Switch releases last year and my conclusion is that unless it's absolutely top tier indie, I'm not going to play it ahead of top tier Nintendo. Obviously. In fact, aside from Isaac and a couple of good twin stick shooters, I've barely put half an hour into most of the indie stuff I bought. It's not even that they're not good games, they're just not as good as the top ten games I have on it, and so I would very seldom choose to start them up, though they're a distraction every time I turn on the Switch. I spent more time considering, deleting and reinstalling than playing them. I'm not joking.

3. Gameplay as reward

From going back to Splatoon and ARMS and playing a good chunk of Rocket League and PUBG and GT Sport and even FIFA, I've found that these games are the most fun for me because they reward you with a deeper understanding of their own systems and mechanics, and so you experience the game in a deeper, more varied way. The game itself doesn't inherently change, but you change how you play it and you get exponentially more out of your time with it. That's what I used to adore about SF4 and ARMS in particular has given me some of that this year, with Splatoon not too far behind.

4. Choose your weapon

There have arguably never been so many well-produced games released week after week. You can't play them all though, lest you only have a very shallow engagement. With that in mind, I'm limiting my picks from each genre and committing to it. Yeah, I'll miss out on Battlefield 1, Destiny 2, Battlefront, Battlefield 4, Overwatch, Doom and more but Titanfall 2 has been the most fun I've ever had with an FPS so that's the one for me. Likewise, my JRPG is Xenoblade Chronicles 2, goodbye Persona and Yakuza. GT Sport beats Forza 7. FIFA wins. Skyrim Switch over Witcher. PUBG over Fortnite. And so on. These are all brilliant games but I'd rather get a lot out of one than a little out of many.

The exceptions are the misfits which will always have their place as long as they are inherently fun, to me. Splatoon, ARMS, Rocket League, Puyo Puyo Tetris, even Bomberman. They have no direct competition and no obvious comparison. They're also brilliant (local) multiplayer games (with the exception of Splatoon).

5. Less is more

A summary of the previous points, perhaps, but from uninstalling about 80% of my games a few weeks ago, and then trimming even further over the last week, I've found that I spend more time playing and enjoying games and a lot less time flicking through the dashboards across my consoles feeling like I should play this or that because I feel guilty about buying it.

From a list of about three hundred across four consoles, I'm down to six PS4 games, ten XB1X, twelve Switch and a Wii U full of virtual console goodies for whenever the mood takes me.
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by kintaris »

Mine is maybe a little bigger.

Somewhere around the 250 mark... and most of those games are not small.

Part of the reason I barely played any new games last year! Trying to address it...
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Nice topic idea! I'll try and draw up my own shameful list later on.
Stanshall wrote: January 3rd, 2018, 1:41 pm After a few weeks of reflection, these are my conclusions about how to deal with my backlog albatross
Great write-up, really. And I wish I had the kind of discipline that would allow me to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. With that being said...

...Yakuza isn't a JRPG, at least not in the sense that it should have any business competing with Xenoblade for some playtime. Stanshall, buddy, what the hell am I reading? :lol:
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Stanshall
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by Stanshall »

Haha. You've got to be absolutely brutal with the cull, no matter the cost - or rationale!

When the going gets tough, a Japanese action-adventure game becomes a JRPG. If you hesitate for a moment, suddenly you're reinstalling and deleting The Flame in the Flood, Shantae and thirty-eight Neo Geo games every week.

(Also, I lost about an hour of progress in Yakuza 0 because I hadn't saved so I stomped my little feet and deleted it. That's the real reason!)
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Unacceptable! ...I-I hope someone comes in here and tells the story of how they gave up on the entire Souls series to make way for Soul Calibur to see how you like it, mister! :lol:

(Spoiled by autosave, huh? Scrub.)
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DomsBeard
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by DomsBeard »

I got rid of my xbox one for a switch so that helped clear my backlog extensively! :)

My main PS4 ones are:

GTA V. I have bounced off this so many times as I hate Trevor as a character.
MGSV. Bought it in the sale a week before it was announced as PS+
Deus Ex Mankind Divided. Bought the limited edition and it is this months PS+
Mass Effect Andromeda

They are not going to get a look in until I have got through Zelda I imagine.
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James
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by James »

Definitely too many to list here. A quick count says that my backlog is about 196 games strong. That's at least 100 down from the start of last year, and I'll be hoping to scratch the same number off this year.

It's no miracle strategy, but I've adopted a 1-hour trial approach to playing games on my backlog. I figure that throwing down a couple of quid in a Steam sale 5 years ago shouldn't override not wanting to continue playing a game after an hour of my already-strapped free time.

As Leon has rightly pointed out, an hour may not be enough time for an 80-hour RPG (for example) to get going, but it's proving a great way of quickly identifying which games I'm feeling, and want to spend more time with. I can always come back to the others afterwards, but at least I've given them a go.

Here's to breaking the 100-game mark before the year is out!
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AndrewBrown
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by AndrewBrown »

I also recently cut out all my PS+ Instant Games Collections which really cut down my numbers, but my total is still at... 344? :oops:

https://www.backloggery.com/mrshotgun
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James
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by James »

Switching my PSN account a while back helped my backlog no end. I should probably be annoyed that Sony are finally getting around to allowing ID changes, but I'm actually thrilled to be shot of a bunch of PS+ games I had little-to-no interest in playing.

Possibly should take a look at my frame of mind, if I'm feeling honour bound to play PS+ games that I have no interest in, but instead I've resorted to not adding them to my account in the first place. I genuinely admire the perspective on grabbing all PS+/GWG/GOG/other "freebies" just in case, and being excited at the prospect of having literally thousands of games to play, but it gets on top of me to the point of feeling like an onus. I have plenty to play with new games and those I play for Cane And Rinse, and that's more than enough for me. :)
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Alex79
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by Alex79 »

Obviously I have so many games on my 'maybe one day' backlog, but here are the games that I own and actually really want to play through as soon as possible.

Final Fantasy X
Uncharted The Lost Legacy
Dark Souls 3
Metal Gear Solid 5
Just Cause 3
Infamous Second Son
No Man's Sky
Fallout 4
What Remains Of Edith Finch

That's pretty much my 'hopefully this year' list. No chance of getting all those done though.
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AndrewBrown
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by AndrewBrown »

Part of the reason my "backlog" is so large is for most of the 2000s I was explicitly collecting with little intention of actually playing. Most of my "backlog" is videogames from 80s and 90s consoles. I actually do a pretty good job of keeping up on new games as I buy them. Not great, but good. Since I started doing a Switch-focus podcast things have gotten a little off the rails there, though.
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seansthomas
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by seansthomas »

I've lent my Wii U out which I only had a few Indies unplayed on, so that leaves just my Switch.

Need to finish DOOM and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Ought to put more time into FIFA18, Stardew Valley and Picross. Yet to start 2 of the 3 Shovel Knight campaigns or Steamworld Dig 2.
kintaris

Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by kintaris »

My main issue is that I have a nasty habit of picking up consoles well after launch in a tasty sale. The problem is, if that sale is something like Black Friday, I then have that console's entire back catalogue of things I missed laid out in front of me with tempting discounts.

Now that I have a gaming laptop (ish), a PS4, Xbox and a new 3DS (as well as my old Wii U), I would hope that I have enough in those libraries to keep temptations in check.

God help me when I buy a Switch though. I've resolved not to purchase one until I've played the major Wii U releases.
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AndrewBrown
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by AndrewBrown »

You think a gaming laptop is going to help you when Steam Sales exist?
kintaris

Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by kintaris »

That's where the additional 100 games have come from in the last 3 months!

I'm reining it in now. Except where I've filled in the gaps ahead of Volume 7. That doesn't count...
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Gaming Backlogs

Post by ColinAlonso »

If I included the PS Plus and Steam library, bloated from old Humble Bundles, my backlog would be over 100 games. But there are many games on there that I have no intention of playing. As such my backlog is only those I know I want to play.

I said on the Anticipated Games 2018 thread that I make a list of games to play each year (well this is the second year of it anyway). It's split into 4 categories:

2018 releases (6 games)
Cane and Rinse Volume 7 (11 games)
Games I own to play (i.e. The Backlog, 10 games)
Games that I don't own yet (It isn't in the backlog if I don't own it yet, 6 games)

Now, I know I won't play all of the 33 games above this year but I'll focus on the games in that list. Also I control any impulse purchases as they would then have to go on the list and it makes me think again before I buy. This will hopefully prevent future growing backlogs.

Anyway my official backlog:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Currently playing
Undertale (No mercy run)*
Her Story*
Ori and the Blind Forest*
Tearaway*
Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice*
Firewatch*
Yakuza Kiwami
Super Mario Odyssey
Advance Wars: Dark Conflict
Horizon: Zero Dawn (The only CaR Vol 7 game that I currently own that isn't a repeat play)

* - These have been in the backlog for over a year now though.
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