Love your Backlog

Dear 12-year-old me,

One day you’ll have so many games that you won’t have nearly enough time to play them.

Yours in nostalgia,

Future Rob

I knocked Bendy and the Ink Machine out of the backlog recently. Go me.

It’s been said more than a few times in the past (by me as well) that the dreaded gaming backlog is an interesting beast. Some see it as a testament to wasted money, others as an insurmountable stack of games (the pile of shame if you will) that will never get completed. Personally, I see it as a stack of possibilities. Something to dip into when I don’t have anything else to play. If I pick out something I’m not enjoying, I like to set it aside and consider it a loss. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t get finished.

This has all come from something from a couple of months ago from Later Levels regarding backlogs. Now, I’m pretty late to the party considering I was meant to write something on this by the middle of February, but it’s better late than never I suppose. I recently went through my backlog and started deleting some games that I don’t really consider backlogged. These are mostly ones that came with Games with Gold or PlayStation Plus. With that said, I have added some from Xbox Games Pass as they are ones I have intended to play. I, therefore, present this badge!

Less than 100 games technically.

This might be far less than some, but the grand total of time in this list is somewhat insane. Things like Record of Agarest War Zero is listed as over 60 hours which is a lot for me. All things considered though, I’ve started going through games a little more readily. Recently I played through Halo Guardians which was…fine I suppose. It didn’t feel like the Halo games as I remember them. And the lack of split-screen is somewhat insulting!

Anyway. I intend to get on top of my backlog a little and work through some of the older ones on there. There’s a link to it right here, and if there are any games you see on there that are worth me getting straight into, I may well take your advice! Here are a few highlights though:

Longest Game

This would be the aforementioned Record of Agarest War Zero. I haven’t actually played the original game in the series, but this was on offer for around £3 so I picked it up as I fancied a game akin to Fire Emblem. I think I’m put off by the 65-or-so hour play time. Maybe I had more free time when I bought this, who knows!

Shortest Game

The Beginner’s Guide is only about 90 minutes long according to How Long To Beat. It’s a walking simulator of sorts and is something I’d probably really enjoy. I have no idea why I haven’t played it yet. I’ll get around to this.

Game Most Likely Never to get Played

I should like this far more on PC than I do.

Probably Sacred 2 Gold on PC. I actually played this through on Xbox 360 when it was first released and remember enjoying it. I picked it up pretty cheap on PC but haven’t really got into it nearly as much as I remember. The controls didn’t feel right (possibly because I last played it on a controller) and I only spent about 20 minutes before quitting. I don’t think I’ll be back.

Game That Has Spent Longest in the Backlog

ShadowRun: Dragonfall claims this category. I really enjoyed the ShadowRun reboot from a few years back, and quickly picked up the followup to it. I just haven’t got around to playing it, mostly because I’ve not been in the mood for a big beefy top-down RPG recently. Or indeed for the past three years, it seems. I’m pretty sure this one will get played.

The Person Responsible For Most of These Games

Me obviously. I’m quite guilty of getting swept up in suggestions I hear in podcasts and so forth. And in the past, the Steam sale was a horrible addiction for me. I’m much better for it now and only pick up games I intend to play soon. Curse my game buying addiction!

Well, that was somewhat cathartic. I might make use of How Long To Beat’s random selection feature to pick out what I get onto next. Maybe I’ll even write about it.