Author Topic: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...  (Read 4530 times)

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Svejk

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The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« on: January 08, 2019, 03:49:21 PM »
In this day and age, being a family man for over a decade with 2 small children, my gaming habits have been drastically cut down from daily playing to weekend nights only, usually starting around 10-11pm-ish till 3-4am-ish. (not sure how I function during the day, tbh.. and it will catch up with me sooner or later)

Going full digital (except for Astrobot, which the case just sits on top of my PS4 driving me nuts), along with the plethora of weekly sales, topped off with the sheer amount of games that get released daily, …it’s gotten to a point where the backlog is simply getting overwhelmingly bigger and bigger… 

I suppose it’s great to have options, but what with so little time now, I have to REALLY be more critically choosy on what I play.  I usually lean towards bigger openworld type, so called “AAA” titles.  And not that they’re all particularly good, but it’s easier and easier to overlook “quality”, smaller studio/indie releases unfortunately.   

Atm, some of my backlog consists of…

-ME: Shadow of War (about 5 hours in)
-AC: Odyssey (about 60 hours in/ half way through)
-DA: Inquisition (about 60 hours in/ halfway through)
-Dark Souls 3 (about 15 hours in)
-Yakuza 0 (about 15 hours in)
-DQ: Builders (about 50 hours in/ on chapter 3)
-MH: World (about 30 hours in/ bout half way through story)
-Alien Isolation (about 6 hours in)
-Kings Quest (about 30 hours in/ on Chapter 4 of 5)
-Transistor (about 4-5 hours in)
-Bayonetta 2 (about 4-5 hours in)
-SP: Stick of Truth (about 6-7 hours in)
-Warframe (not even sure how many hours, but I've only recently gotten to Europa, iirc)

Just to name a few of the games with longer play times.  Plus, I just got a PSVR with a handful of titles too, including Moss, Astrobot, RE7, Wipeout Omega and Raw Data.

And with the current forecast of game releases for 2019 and the inevitable dawn of “nex-gen”, it’s getting a bit too much, from a certain point of view.   The blues comes from the thought of missing out on the diamonds in the rough.  Granted, the elephant in the room type issue is, I love playing openworld, cinematic, action/RPG doused games…  which in this day, get larger and larger in scope too.  (which I’m starting to NOT enjoy of late)

What I’m regurgitating all this for, is to contemplate changing my gaming habits this year.  That being said, would it be so crazy to literally hold off buying any more games this year and just chip away at my backlog till it’s complete?  Or should I just drop half of them and just move onto other titles with the chance of really missing out on a quality title?

With the exception of Shenmue III and Bloodstained, which are already pre-purchased, I think my backlog could literally be up and played through come Fall, if my progress in the games are consistent.   But that would be me holding off getting the likes of possible choice nug titles, like Ace Combat 7, Resident Evil 2, Sekiro, Dreams, Anthem… and that’s just in the next 2 months… and just PS4.  I’m not even gonna go into Steam and see what other cool looking titles are coming, like The Eternal Castle for example… that looks like a cool little game that should really be experienced. 

Anywho, any suggestions on whether any games (on the list or no) should be dropped and/or prioritized. (Like Monster Boy.. it's a shame I haven't gotten that game yet)  Or if I’m seriously thinking too much into this and should just play whatever is felt like being played at any given time and quit worrying about my first world problems. lol



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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #1 on: January 08, 2019, 04:00:25 PM »
Let it go man

Just play whatever you feel like playing at the time and don't fret ovet finishing stuff

I struggle with this too sometimes but at this stage in life (free)TIME is too precious to do waste on doing stuff you don't enjoy

That said DA:I is a fucking abomination and you should feel ashamed for playing it or any other post DA/ME2 Bioware game

Great Rumbler

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2019, 04:11:49 PM »
I've made peace with the fact that I'll buy way more games than I'll ever play [much less actually finish].
dog

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2019, 05:33:52 PM »
Let it go man

Just play whatever you feel like playing at the time and don't fret ovet finishing stuff

I struggle with this too sometimes but at this stage in life (free)TIME is too precious to do waste on doing stuff you don't enjoy

That said DA:I is a fucking abomination and you should feel ashamed for playing it or any other post DA/ME2 Bioware game
Funny, because I've had a strange love/hate relationship with DA: I...  I get in a mood and start playing it; get so far... then start questioning whether it's actually a good game or not...  I've literally deleted and re-downloaded the game about 3 times now... Just deleted it a few days ago again...  probably the nail in the coffin.  And 100% agree... Bioware has pretty much sucked major puckered asshole since ME1, imo.  ME2 was good, but not good enough to warrant me to play through the third.
I've made peace with the fact that I'll buy way more games than I'll ever play [much less actually finish].
Ya'll right.. I think I'm having some kind of weird, digital separation anxiety with my backlogged games since the new year.

CatsCatsCats

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2019, 05:50:11 PM »
Falling behind on games is the best thing that ever happened to me. Imagine getting a game with the depth and richness of The Witcher 3 with the expansions for like $20

Nintex

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2019, 06:49:39 PM »
My backlog stopped making sense ages ago.
I have bought Steam games I haven't installed ever, picked up Wave Race for GameCube around 2012 and never got around to playing it.
These days though I usually finish the games that I'm playing 100% (aside from grinding and sidequests maybe) before moving on to the next one.

With that said this is the upcoming play list after I wrap up Mass Effect: Andromeda which should be at about 50%.
- AC: Oddessey
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Final Fantasy XV

But I also still want to finish Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the last world of Mario + Rabbids, my second playthrough of Breath of the Wild and the DLC and do a replay of both Quantum Break and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
On top of that last week I picked up Maffia 3, Evil Within 2, Tekken 7 and Wario Ware Gold from the bargain bin.

I usually keep 2 or 3 games on rotation, sometimes 4.
- 1 multiplayer game to play with my online buddies (currently: Battlefield V)
- 1 Switch game (currently: Smash Bros. Ultimate)
- 1 big RPG/action adventure game (currently: Mass Effect: Andromeda)

That way if I'm stuck or bored on the big game I can rotate to my Switch game. But there's just so much to play  :o
🤴

Bebpo

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2019, 07:26:58 PM »
Every once and a while I get OCD about my backlog and stop playing anything else and just focus on getting a clean slate (which takes a few months) and then starting some new games. I'm in the phase now.

Hitman 2 - I'm like 82 hours in and on the last stage. I do everything each stage so they take me about 15-20 hours each. Once I beat this one I'm pretty much done until the DLC stages come out.

Monster Hunter GU - At G2 rank. Might try to get to G4 and finish G-rank. Or at least fight and beat every monster at least once.

Xenoblade 2 - I've been halfway through the final dungeon for 9 months  :lol was underleveled and couldn't beat it without doing questing but all the questing would either be low level quests and wouldn't level me or DLC quests that were post-game levels and I was underleveled for. Finally just going to turn it to easy mode and watch a million cutscenes to see this through. I started it up again the other day and made some progress and I have no clue what's going on and don't remember the plot.

City Shrouded in Darkness - The Raw Danger/Zettai Zetsumei Toshi where you run from Godzilla and Evangelion and Ultraman and Patlabor. I think I'm like 75% through and it's a short game. Just gotta sit down and finish this.

Bravely Default - Like 30 hours in and about halfway. Gotta get back to this and finish it up at some point.

Dragon Quest XI - Same. Like 30ish hours in. Debating whether to just restart the whole thing when the Switch version comes out with full Japanese VA.

Monster Hunter World - Left it off right before reaching Nergigante in High Rank. At some point before the expansion need to at least beat the main story and fight the couple new monsters they've added at least once.

11-11 Memories Retold - Started playing this but it's short and good, so wanna get through it.

AC Origins - Started playing this, but it's long and good, so will probably keep playing this for 50-60 hours until I finish it.

Smash Brothers Ultimate - Played it for the first weekend it came out, unlocked like 15 characters. Haven't touched it since. Would like to unlock everyone at some point.

Monster Boy - Started playing this, will keep playing it.

Hollow Knight - Got through the first 2 world sections. Want to get back to this.

Chuchel - Short little puzzle game, need to sit down and finish this.

House in Fata Morgana Gaiden - Read all the short side stories, just gotta read the long side story that makes up the bulk of this expansion.

Pillars of Eternity II DLC expansions - Beat the main game when it came out. Now that the 3 DLC expansions are out I need to go back and play them.

FFXIV Patch 4.4 and 4.5 - 2 patches behind now. Need to sit down for 20-30 hours and catch up on content before the next expansion.

Red Dead Redemption 2 - Played for a few days and got to the first town after the snow about 6 hours in. I want to clear up a lot of the above stuff and then I'll sit down and play this for real.


I think my goal for the first half of 2019 is just getting that backlog down. Only new games I plan to add to that in the first half of 2019 are RE2 (short), Kingdom Hearts 3 (long), and Sekiro (probably medium length) and DMCV (probably medium length). I have confidence I can get through all of those by summer!

bork

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2019, 09:06:19 PM »
I've made peace with the fact that I'll buy way more games than I'll ever play [much less actually finish].

Yeah.  And it's time I really addressed this- canceled some more pre-orders earlier today.  Why the hell was I going to buy Tales Of Vesperia for $50 when I have all these other RPGs sitting here that I'll probably never play.  Gone.  Will check it out when it's on sale.  I pre-ordered Kingdom Hearts III, but...why?  I need to play the other ones first, so...canceled.  Shit's gotta stop and Amazon taking away that 20% discount has made that decision a lot easier.
ど助平

chronovore

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2019, 09:22:52 PM »
My PS Plus backlog snickers at me.  :-\

My Steam backlog laughs outright at me.   :'(

I'm sure you peeps understand the feeling.  :-*

Olivia Wilde Homo

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2019, 09:36:38 PM »
I’ve cut down on buying Switch games impulsively but I do keep track of games I’d eventually like to buy, just in case it ends up out of print and $150 like Pikmin 3 was for a while.  Other else than that, I don’t mind being behind the curve when it comes to new releases.
🍆🍆

Svejk

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2019, 11:03:51 PM »
Just in my PSN account, I got 30-40 games on my wanted list...  and I have this constant feeling that, yeah, I'll eventually get them when they're dirt cheap... but recently I've had to stop and ask myself.. will I really play it?? Or will I find a weird comfort just knowing that I have the game at my disposal if I go ahead and buy it?  Maybe that's another thing too with sales and whatnot... When a game FINALLY goes on sale, it's like,... should I get it now? Or wait till it's even less?  I waited for well over a year till Yakuza 0 finally dropped to like $40.  I picked it up then, and come to find I didn't even enjoy it as much as I anticipated.  Still enjoy it, but not blowing me away exactly... when should the trigger be pulled on certain games?  Rhetorical question there, but that's another minor struggle here for me.  My cheap-ass-ness, along with time sensitive sales, conflicts with my gaming log.

Akala

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2019, 11:39:19 PM »
I am set for a while, currently try not to buy anything day-one unless I really want, but am even trying to curb that some as the two I got recently (DQ XI and SC6) we didn't even really play much and put on the back burner...could have gotten for like half price during BF. I did end up getting a bunch of stuff for cheap on BF anyway.  :lol

I want RE2 and AC7 but will wait till summer maybe.

The trick to playing shit is to avoid MMO's.

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2019, 12:58:28 AM »
Thats a funny sentiment: avoiding mmo's (and other endless games)

Some parentborean once wrote they only play endless games because that way even if they only have 30 min they can make somw progress.

Im in between, sometimes I think they are a waste of time, but its fascinating I can easily sink 30-40 hours into warframe or diablo without blinking but struggle to finish 10 hour games like RE Revelations.

I havent even finished a game since like April(?) and meanwhile put in like 350 hours into Fortnite, Warframe, Diablo, Civ6, Into the Breach, Paladins and Arena of Valor.

These games are like comfort food in between games I really want to play which this year will be Metroid (lol) and the new Pokemon so far (or Captain Toad, Donkey Kong Freeze, Dark Souls if I can find them cheap)

Akala

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2019, 09:42:53 AM »
Thats a funny sentiment: avoiding mmo's (and other endless games)

I love (soloish/themepark/group finder) MMO's, it's just that they can be so self-contained...if I am into one then I tend to not play a lot of anything else. Not necessarily a bad thing but dumb to not be aware of it while it's happening...especially buying other games at launch, it's just a total waste of money.

Some parentborean once wrote they only play endless games because that way even if they only have 30 min they can make some progress.

I can see this.

Im in between, sometimes I think they are a waste of time, but its fascinating I can easily sink 30-40 hours into warframe or diablo without blinking but struggle to finish 10 hour games like RE Revelations.

Pretty much. It is strange, I hate the feeling of having my time wasted, but I play a lot of time wasters.  :doge

Svejk

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2019, 10:47:17 AM »
Im in between, sometimes I think they are a waste of time, but its fascinating I can easily sink 30-40 hours into warframe or diablo without blinking but struggle to finish 10 hour games like RE Revelations.

Pretty much. It is strange, I hate the feeling of having my time wasted, but I play a lot of time wasters.  :doge
Yes and yes.. that being said, as much as I want to play Dark Souls, if I die and DON'T retrieve my souls...  there's no greater feeling of time wasted than that, for me. 

And I'm right there with Warframe too...  not sure how many hours I have sunk in that game, but with it's hours combined, I could've finished several other games. lol

chronovore

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #15 on: January 09, 2019, 05:49:51 PM »
That's me and World of Tanks. I've probably sunk another  30+ hours into it instead of finishing any number of singleplayer games.

kingv

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #16 on: January 09, 2019, 08:31:12 PM »
I've made peace with the fact that I'll buy way more games than I'll ever play [much less actually finish].

Yeah.  And it's time I really addressed this- canceled some more pre-orders earlier today.  Why the hell was I going to buy Tales Of Vesperia for $50 when I have all these other RPGs sitting here that I'll probably never play.  Gone.  Will check it out when it's on sale.  I pre-ordered Kingdom Hearts III, but...why?  I need to play the other ones first, so...canceled.  Shit's gotta stop and Amazon taking away that 20% discount has made that decision a lot easier.

Been the same way for me. I was happy to preorder shit when I was getting it for 20% off at Best Buy with 6% back in rewards + a $10 rewards credit on top. Take away that 20% off and I’m way more hesitant.

I’ll just sit and wait until I can get most games st $30 or less, unless I literally plan to play it day 1.

I might go ahead and play some more red dead tonight, stopped somewhere in chapter 3 and haven’t touched it in a month. Or I could play the messenger in bed, but honestly it kind of bogged down for me once it opened up. I liked the tight levels, but as a metroidvania it’s not a great one.

Eventually I want to start Yakuza kiwami 2 since I’ve loved the other 3 Yakuza games I’ve played... 🤦‍♂️

Edit: ended up playing none of these and instead played the final dlc for spider guy.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2019, 05:08:37 AM by kingv »

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #17 on: January 10, 2019, 02:28:03 PM »
What time u get up B?

That's me and World of Tanks. I've probably sunk another  30+ hours into it instead of finishing any number of singleplayer games.

Which tier/tank?

Svejk

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #18 on: January 10, 2019, 03:02:53 PM »
In this day and age, being a family man for over a decade with 2 small children, my gaming habits have been drastically cut down from daily playing to weekend nights only, usually starting around 10-11pm-ish till 3-4am-ish. (not sure how I function during the day, tbh.. and it will catch up with me sooner or later)

- 2 kids
- gaming from 23:00 till 03:00 - 04:00

AHAHAHAHAHA this is me.

BTW our health is fucked Svejk, you know this? Cardiac arrest/ cancer incoming any day now and even if not our life expectancy just got shorter about 5 years!
What time u get up B?
Get to bed around 4, kids wake me up around 9-9:30 the latest... to play games. lol  (we only let them play on the weekends usually too)  Sometime they let me play a kid friendly game, sometimes they play their own thing.  They LOVE playing Lego Worlds together.  I feel I usually balance out/catch up on my sleeping throughout the work week..... but I do drink while I play in the late nights too :D ...  surely that subtracts to my life expectancy...  but YOLO I guess.  :doge 
« Last Edit: January 10, 2019, 03:09:44 PM by Svejk »

chronovore

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #19 on: January 11, 2019, 05:27:43 AM »
What time u get up B?

That's me and World of Tanks. I've probably sunk another  30+ hours into it instead of finishing any number of singleplayer games.

Which tier/tank?

On the PS4 version, I'm up to Tier VI tanks in USA, German, and French lines. I'm getting close with the Japanese line, but it's so narrow.

On 360, I'd researched and bought my first Tier IX, but was still months away from being able to rock a Tier X when I got my PS4 and basically switched platforms, starting over. :-/

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #20 on: January 11, 2019, 01:02:37 PM »
Dang thats a lot of time played.

I got stuck on Tier IX Heavy German, but that E75 is slow AF and the initial gun is just garbage

chronovore

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2019, 07:47:28 AM »
Dang thats a lot of time played.

I got stuck on Tier IX Heavy German, but that E75 is slow AF and the initial gun is just garbage

There are a few tanks with garbage initial guns. Jeez it makes progression a bear.

tiesto

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #22 on: January 12, 2019, 10:22:19 AM »
Wow, I don't remember DQ Builders taking all that long, I think around 35 hours... I didn't go back and try to speed run the chapters for the trophies though. Fantastic game, I'd say finish that up and then Bayo 2 since Bayo 2 is really short. Take a bunch of short games on first - I will be trying that strategy this year instead of concentrating on super long ass games.
^_^

Svejk

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #23 on: January 12, 2019, 12:19:12 PM »
My kids play some too, along with watching me play... I get requested to build/decorate to thier liking, so that's what's been stretching out my playtime for DQ Builders. Lol

Finished Moss last night!  A whopping 5 hour game!  Dat progress!

benjipwns

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #24 on: January 16, 2019, 02:27:32 AM »
I had been thinking about this from a different approach related to how much I've wasted my blog to date, along with some rabbit holes I've headed down. Been thinking about ways to approach a similar concept where I target a franchise, or a platform, or a game-type, or a company, and realized, picking one is silly. I should just pick one randomly until it has fallen beaten and bloodied.

One that did kind of pique my interest, especially from looking at the old magazines, were licenses. Stuff like Batman. There's all kinds of platforms, game-types and companies over the years. There's also the LORE factor, where in recent years people were throwing tantrums online about a Batman who's vehicle fires guns. And yet in the games for the 1989 Batman film, not only does the Batmobile have machine guns, but the gameplay of most of the Batman games themselves involves Batman platforming around stages shooting people with a gun. :lol

It's really when the licenses of Batman shift away from generic Batman or film Batman to mostly being based on The Animated Series (which didn't let Batman use guns or kill anyone and was even leery about letting him punch people) that you start to get to use his gadgets and the games try to do a lot more than beat-em-up tropes. (Except SEGA, who infamously made the near impossible shooter for the Genesis.) Though most of these never really figure out the gadgets until the Arkham games did. There's also some interesting BTS stories behind some of the games.

Basically I'm strongly suggesting I may start with Batman games. Although the drawn to disasters part of me says "naw bro, try Superman first."

Similar things that have piqued my interest are like how (and I didn't intend this example to also be about comic heroes) Neversoft is best known for Tony Hawk, but yet they equally produced Apocalypse (the engine of which led to Tony Hawk), Spider-Man (arguably the first good 3D comic based game) and lastly, the epic-Western, GUN before they were subsumed completely into the Activision borg.

I also have some amusement at looking at something like Red Dead Revolver which Angel Studios worked on for seemingly years, originally as a modern-day update of Gun.Smoke, bounced around the schedule as Angel was making games for almost everyone at the time, was all but left for dead twice by Capcom, before Rockstar finally said "yeah, go ahead and finish that" before they subsumed them as Rockstar San Diego a few months after Capcom finally cancelled it for good...and now it's one of their largest franchises. (While Midnight Club and Smuggler's Run are...)

It's also fun to look at a developer like that before they got subsumed. DICE, for being known so much as the Battlefield guys, have a similar weird list of titles they were putting out for lots of people, especially early on for Xbox. Including picking up the Midtown Madness series to do 3 on Xbox from original developers Angel Studios who did the first two games before releasing the "third" game as the first Midnight Club (it even has the cut city from MM2) all while working on Red Dead since 2000, just for Neversoft to drop GUN out of nowhere first, with "the real" Red Dead taking another half decade to show up. (Just before a Batman game that finally put all the pieces together showed up out of nowhere.)

See I tied it all together. Even though this post continues to make absolutely zero sense if read through. And even less sense in terms of how it's responding to the topic.

Svejk

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #25 on: January 16, 2019, 09:17:14 AM »
I mean... I noticed the past few years I tend to lean more towards certain/genres/themes depending on the time of year.  When it's usually cold and dreary in the Fall and Winter, I gravitate towards my fantasy/gritty/D&D/LotR/Skyrim-esque games.. 

Come warmer Spring and Summer, I tend to want to play more sci-fi/modern day/even more cartoony (like Mario) games.....
....
...
If that's what you were kinda talking about.
 :whatisthis

chronovore

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Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #26 on: January 16, 2019, 06:25:22 PM »
I had been thinking about this from a different approach related to how much I've wasted my blog to date, along with some rabbit holes I've headed down. Been thinking about ways to approach a similar concept where I target a franchise, or a platform, or a game-type, or a company, and realized, picking one is silly. I should just pick one randomly until it has fallen beaten and bloodied.

One that did kind of pique my interest, especially from looking at the old magazines, were licenses. Stuff like Batman. There's all kinds of platforms, game-types and companies over the years. There's also the LORE factor, where in recent years people were throwing tantrums online about a Batman who's vehicle fires guns. And yet in the games for the 1989 Batman film, not only does the Batmobile have machine guns, but the gameplay of most of the Batman games themselves involves Batman platforming around stages shooting people with a gun. :lol

It's really when the licenses of Batman shift away from generic Batman or film Batman to mostly being based on The Animated Series (which didn't let Batman use guns or kill anyone and was even leery about letting him punch people) that you start to get to use his gadgets and the games try to do a lot more than beat-em-up tropes. (Except SEGA, who infamously made the near impossible shooter for the Genesis.) Though most of these never really figure out the gadgets until the Arkham games did. There's also some interesting BTS stories behind some of the games.

Basically I'm strongly suggesting I may start with Batman games. Although the drawn to disasters part of me says "naw bro, try Superman first."

Similar things that have piqued my interest are like how (and I didn't intend this example to also be about comic heroes) Neversoft is best known for Tony Hawk, but yet they equally produced Apocalypse (the engine of which led to Tony Hawk), Spider-Man (arguably the first good 3D comic based game) and lastly, the epic-Western, GUN before they were subsumed completely into the Activision borg.

I also have some amusement at looking at something like Red Dead Revolver which Angel Studios worked on for seemingly years, originally as a modern-day update of Gun.Smoke, bounced around the schedule as Angel was making games for almost everyone at the time, was all but left for dead twice by Capcom, before Rockstar finally said "yeah, go ahead and finish that" before they subsumed them as Rockstar San Diego a few months after Capcom finally cancelled it for good...and now it's one of their largest franchises. (While Midnight Club and Smuggler's Run are...)

It's also fun to look at a developer like that before they got subsumed. DICE, for being known so much as the Battlefield guys, have a similar weird list of titles they were putting out for lots of people, especially early on for Xbox. Including picking up the Midtown Madness series to do 3 on Xbox from original developers Angel Studios who did the first two games before releasing the "third" game as the first Midnight Club (it even has the cut city from MM2) all while working on Red Dead since 2000, just for Neversoft to drop GUN out of nowhere first, with "the real" Red Dead taking another half decade to show up. (Just before a Batman game that finally put all the pieces together showed up out of nowhere.)

See I tied it all together. Even though this post continues to make absolutely zero sense if read through. And even less sense in terms of how it's responding to the topic.

It's worth noting that the Midnight Run license involves the logistics and royalties of sharing with dozens or hundreds of auto manufacturers and parts suppliers. This means Rockstar has not only overhead, but limited control over the content in the long run.  I shipped a race game once which was about 1/100th as complicated as MC:Dub Edition, and it was a giant pain in the ass for each license holder.

On Smuggler's Run, that gameplay has been integrated into GTA Online, and I think is even referenced by name in the update which included it.

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #27 on: January 16, 2019, 07:41:26 PM »
Smuggler's Run 2 pulled off the clever slight of hand of changing their Afghanistan set levels to be "Southern Russia" after 9/11 and the invasion. :rollsafe

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #28 on: January 31, 2019, 01:33:31 AM »
Every once and a while I get OCD about my backlog and stop playing anything else and just focus on getting a clean slate (which takes a few months) and then starting some new games. I'm in the phase now.

Hitman 2 - I'm like 82 hours in and on the last stage. I do everything each stage so they take me about 15-20 hours each. Once I beat this one I'm pretty much done until the DLC stages come out.

Monster Hunter GU - At G2 rank. Might try to get to G4 and finish G-rank. Or at least fight and beat every monster at least once.

Xenoblade 2 - I've been halfway through the final dungeon for 9 months  :lol was underleveled and couldn't beat it without doing questing but all the questing would either be low level quests and wouldn't level me or DLC quests that were post-game levels and I was underleveled for. Finally just going to turn it to easy mode and watch a million cutscenes to see this through. I started it up again the other day and made some progress and I have no clue what's going on and don't remember the plot.

City Shrouded in Darkness - The Raw Danger/Zettai Zetsumei Toshi where you run from Godzilla and Evangelion and Ultraman and Patlabor. I think I'm like 75% through and it's a short game. Just gotta sit down and finish this.

Bravely Default - Like 30 hours in and about halfway. Gotta get back to this and finish it up at some point.

Dragon Quest XI - Same. Like 30ish hours in. Debating whether to just restart the whole thing when the Switch version comes out with full Japanese VA.

Monster Hunter World - Left it off right before reaching Nergigante in High Rank. At some point before the expansion need to at least beat the main story and fight the couple new monsters they've added at least once.

11-11 Memories Retold - Started playing this but it's short and good, so wanna get through it.

AC Origins - Started playing this, but it's long and good, so will probably keep playing this for 50-60 hours until I finish it.

Smash Brothers Ultimate - Played it for the first weekend it came out, unlocked like 15 characters. Haven't touched it since. Would like to unlock everyone at some point.

Monster Boy - Started playing this, will keep playing it.

Hollow Knight - Got through the first 2 world sections. Want to get back to this.

Chuchel - Short little puzzle game, need to sit down and finish this.

House in Fata Morgana Gaiden - Read all the short side stories, just gotta read the long side story that makes up the bulk of this expansion.

Pillars of Eternity II DLC expansions - Beat the main game when it came out. Now that the 3 DLC expansions are out I need to go back and play them.

FFXIV Patch 4.4 and 4.5 - 2 patches behind now. Need to sit down for 20-30 hours and catch up on content before the next expansion.

Red Dead Redemption 2 - Played for a few days and got to the first town after the snow about 6 hours in. I want to clear up a lot of the above stuff and then I'll sit down and play this for real.


I think my goal for the first half of 2019 is just getting that backlog down. Only new games I plan to add to that in the first half of 2019 are RE2 (short), Kingdom Hearts 3 (long), and Sekiro (probably medium length) and DMCV (probably medium length). I have confidence I can get through all of those by summer!

Update:

in January cleared 8 games from that backlog reducing it now to:

Bravely Default - Like 30 hours in and about halfway. Gotta get back to this and finish it up at some point.

Dragon Quest XI - Same. Like 30ish hours in. Debating whether to just restart the whole thing when the Switch version comes out with full Japanese VA.

11-11 Memories Retold - Started playing this but it's short and good, so wanna get through it.

AC Origins - Started playing this, but it's long and good, so will probably keep playing this for 50-60 hours until I finish it.

Smash Brothers Ultimate - Played it for the first weekend it came out, unlocked like 15 characters. Haven't touched it since. Would like to unlock everyone at some point.

Monster Boy - Started playing this, will keep playing it.

House in Fata Morgana Gaiden - Read all the short side stories, just gotta read the long side story that makes up the bulk of this expansion.

Pillars of Eternity II DLC expansions - Beat the main game when it came out. Now that the 3 DLC expansions are out I need to go back and play them.

FFXIV Patch 4.4 and 4.5 - 2 patches behind now. Need to sit down for 20-30 hours and catch up on content before the next expansion.

Red Dead Redemption 2 - Played for a few days and got to the first town after the snow about 6 hours in. I want to clear up a lot of the above stuff and then I'll sit down and play this for real.

Also added KH3 and RE2R and originally forget to add 2 titles that I was playing Astrobot VR and Guacamelee 2

I think I'm gonna drop Smash unlocking from my list because no one locally is playing Smash anymore and I haven't touched it since launch week and unlocking is frustrating so just gonna give up on that. Not picking up anything in February, so depending on when I finish KH3 and RE2R I might knock another couple off that list in Feb. Then March adding DMCV and Sekiro, but April/May might be able to clear that list completely and be generally caught up with active backlog games I had started, but not finished, in the last year.

Generally I'm working on clearing the shortest games first so I've only got a few long games left. Next up will probably be Astrobot, 11-11 Memories Retold, and Fata Morgana Gaiden and maybe Guacamelee 2 but I dunno if I'm ready for another Metroidvania for a bit after 99.9%-ing Hollow Knight.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #29 on: January 31, 2019, 09:06:29 AM »
I managed to playthrough most my PSVR stuffz this month so far; Finished Moss, Astrobot and RE7.  Albeit shorter games, but it's still something. 

I picked up Monster Boy, but started going back to AC: Odyssey, because of how far I am in it.  The game is so massive, it looms a shadow over my backlog. lol   As bloated as the game is, I do enjoy playing it.... but I'd like to move on to other games too!! 

It's felt good to pass on launch games of late though;  I'm content with not getting RE2 and Ace Combat 7 right away and continue to pluck away at the backlog....  Until Sekiro rolls around... if the hype really hits, it'll hit.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #30 on: January 31, 2019, 09:50:22 PM »
Gonna start on Monster Boy and Kingdom Hearts 1 HD, then I'm gonna try going through one or two games per system in chronological order... so I'll start with a NES game (thinking Radia Senki), move on to SMS, Genesis, SNES (BOF2), etc.
^_^

Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #31 on: January 31, 2019, 11:18:42 PM »
I've cut back significantly on the number of games that I buy and just focus what little time I have on them. It's nice letting go and not caring what is hyped and popular, what matters if I actually want to play it.
野球

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #32 on: February 01, 2019, 12:02:36 AM »
I've cut back significantly on the number of games that I buy and just focus what little time I have on them. It's nice letting go and not caring what is hyped and popular, what matters if I actually want to play it.
:respect

Speaking of just playing what one wants to play, I want to get back to Horizon Zero Dawn.

Arkham Knight, it put me on a couple of dumb ass zeppelins which have stripped me of my sense of direction and where to go next. I'm just completely unenthused right now to go back to it. The car bullshit is clunky and doesn't make me feel like Batman. It makes me feel like a fucking chump with a heavy car. I might be done for now. Maybe permanently.

Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #33 on: February 01, 2019, 01:27:23 AM »
I've cut back significantly on the number of games that I buy and just focus what little time I have on them. It's nice letting go and not caring what is hyped and popular, what matters if I actually want to play it.
:respect

Speaking of just playing what one wants to play, I want to get back to Horizon Zero Dawn.

Arkham Knight, it put me on a couple of dumb ass zeppelins which have stripped me of my sense of direction and where to go next. I'm just completely unenthused right now to go back to it. The car bullshit is clunky and doesn't make me feel like Batman. It makes me feel like a fucking chump with a heavy car. I might be done for now. Maybe permanently.

The Batmobile sucked so much. I finished the game but holy fuck way to sully an otherwise awesome game.

I'm amazed that so far this year I've managed to beat Spider-Man and God of War.
野球

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #34 on: February 01, 2019, 01:59:30 AM »
I enjoyed the batmobile  :'(

I actually liked Arkham Knight a lot through and through. Asylum still my fav, but I thought Knight was a lot better than City and a bit better than Origins (which I generally liked too).

Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #35 on: February 01, 2019, 03:19:22 AM »
Driving around in the Batmobile was fun. All the stupid ass boss fights in the Batmobile was a really dumb decision.

Origins is my favorite of all the Arkham games, actually.
野球

Rahxephon91

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #36 on: February 01, 2019, 03:32:39 AM »
I just did'nt care for Knight. To me it wasn't just the BatMobile. It was also the lack of interesting boss battles, side stories thought felt cheap, a feeling that there were a lack of actual fights, and a lame story with a very obvious twist.

It was an amazing looking game though. Fantastic production values and amazing visual direction. They create so many amazing visuals and the game is still a marvel to look at.

But I still found it kind of week.

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #37 on: February 01, 2019, 05:49:33 AM »
According to my newest list, I own 1330 games.

I still have to finish 590. So yeah, probably not gonna happen. :P

Transhuman

  • youtu.be/KCVCmGPgJS0
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #38 on: February 01, 2019, 08:21:14 AM »
Why would you put a game in your "backlog" if it's so shit you don't want to play it immediately. The idea of backlogs is stupid.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #39 on: February 01, 2019, 11:34:09 AM »
Why would you put a game in your "backlog" if it's so shit you don't want to play it immediately. The idea of backlogs is stupid.

Because I like to focus on one or two games at a time, the games I play are usually very long, and are usually pretty niche that if you don't get them right away, expect to pay a lot secondhand. Not to mention I'm constantly discovering older games I missed back then, which adds to it.
^_^

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #40 on: February 01, 2019, 11:45:27 AM »
I basically just keep buying stuff at a higher rate than I finish them. From those 500 something games there's probably ones I drop, but there's absolute classics I never got around to as well.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #41 on: February 01, 2019, 11:57:58 AM »
Why would you put a game in your "backlog" if it's so shit you don't want to play it immediately. The idea of backlogs is stupid.

I'm with you on this.

At this point in my life the only way I'll keep playing a game that isn't fun is if it's like the 3rd game in a trilogy and I want to see how it ends (AC3 for instance) because I've been on board for the earlier games. I generally don't hate play stuff anymore.


Most of the stuff in my "backlog" are because I'm really enjoying a game (like DQXI for instance) and then halfway through another game comes out that's more exciting and new and I put it on hold to play the new game. If I don't have a lot of gaming time, even if I don't buy many new games, stuff still gets backlogged because videogames are long.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #42 on: February 01, 2019, 12:50:10 PM »
Me in the late 90's;

"Finished FF7...  Only took 4 days.  WTF... These games need to be longer!"  :maf

Me today;

"Finished Moss!..  Only took 2 weeks, but I made it!!"


Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #43 on: February 01, 2019, 12:57:03 PM »
Why would you put a game in your "backlog" if it's so shit you don't want to play it immediately. The idea of backlogs is stupid.

I'm with you on this.

At this point in my life the only way I'll keep playing a game that isn't fun is if it's like the 3rd game in a trilogy and I want to see how it ends (AC3 for instance) because I've been on board for the earlier games. I generally don't hate play stuff anymore.


Most of the stuff in my "backlog" are because I'm really enjoying a game (like DQXI for instance) and then halfway through another game comes out that's more exciting and new and I put it on hold to play the new game. If I don't have a lot of gaming time, even if I don't buy many new games, stuff still gets backlogged because videogames are long.

This is why unless its something I seriously have to have, I hold off on buying stuff until it's on sale and/or I've finished what I want.

The RGG developed Fist of the North Star dropping to $19.99 is a good example of that. Still waiting for Valkyria Chronicles 4 to do the same, cause it's not like I'm ready to start playing it.
野球

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #44 on: February 01, 2019, 02:01:55 PM »
Me in the late 90's;

"Finished FF7...  Only took 4 days.  WTF... These games need to be longer!"  :maf

Me today;

"Finished Moss!..  Only took 2 weeks, but I made it!!"

(Image removed from quote.)

Is Moss even worth finishing? I played like 30 mins and it seems kinda like a generic platformer that no one would play if it's not in VR.

Sho Nuff

  • o/~ TOUCH ME AND I'LL BREAK YOUR FACE o/~
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #45 on: February 01, 2019, 02:07:27 PM »
Me in the late 90's;

"Finished FF7...  Only took 4 days.  WTF... These games need to be longer!"  :maf

Me today;

"Finished Moss!..  Only took 2 weeks, but I made it!!"

(Image removed from quote.)

Is Moss even worth finishing? I played like 30 mins and it seems kinda like a generic platformer that no one would play if it's not in VR.

The good news regarding Moss is that if you're 30 minutes in, you're halfway done with the game.

I am about 20 hours into Assassin's Creed Odyssey. I haven't played an AC game in 5 years so it's great seeing all the new shit. That being said it's TOO BIG. I got to Athens and was like "Welp ok, that's it for me".

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #46 on: February 01, 2019, 03:15:29 PM »
Yeah, Moss is super short and AC:Odyssey is super long.  I'm starting to feel the burn and understanding what folks have been saying about the later half grind being too much.    Moss is fun, once you start the multitasking of controlling Quill while you manipulate the environment and enemies simultaneously.

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #47 on: February 01, 2019, 05:30:56 PM »
After 80 hours or so the end of Mass Effect Andromeda comes in sight.

I think I'll dive into Resident Evil 2 after this to do something nice and short and then proceed with AC: Oddessey.
🤴

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #48 on: February 01, 2019, 09:20:19 PM »
Why would you put a game in your "backlog" if it's so shit you don't want to play it immediately. The idea of backlogs is stupid.

I'm with you on this.

At this point in my life the only way I'll keep playing a game that isn't fun is if it's like the 3rd game in a trilogy and I want to see how it ends (AC3 for instance) because I've been on board for the earlier games. I generally don't hate play stuff anymore.


Most of the stuff in my "backlog" are because I'm really enjoying a game (like DQXI for instance) and then halfway through another game comes out that's more exciting and new and I put it on hold to play the new game. If I don't have a lot of gaming time, even if I don't buy many new games, stuff still gets backlogged because videogames are long.

This is why unless its something I seriously have to have, I hold off on buying stuff until it's on sale and/or I've finished what I want.

The RGG developed Fist of the North Star dropping to $19.99 is a good example of that. Still waiting for Valkyria Chronicles 4 to do the same, cause it's not like I'm ready to start playing it.

I don't buy that much anymore, but these days I usually play games really really slowly because I work a lot more than I used to and I social a lot more than I used to (+ all the dating stuff). Like Sen 4 took me three months, Hitman 2 took me two months. But I try to play a few games at a time because the monotony of playing only 1 game for months straight is too much for me.  I can't even play Kingdom Hearts 3 which I'm loving non-stop. I do a few hours, maybe half a world and then I gotta pop in something else to play because I'm good on KH for the day.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #49 on: March 24, 2019, 03:35:13 PM »
Been making a lot of progress on my backlog! Down to only a few games left and being good about not starting new games like DMCV or Sekiro until I've caught up on this:

11-11 Memories Retold - Still great, in the backhalf I'd say

House in Fata Morgana Gaiden - Story's definitely nowhere as good as the original Fata Morgana, but still entertaining. Main story here is fucking long and padded. I'm in the back half though. I'll probably finish this and 11-11 this week.

Bravely Default - Once I finish those two I'll get back to this. I think I'm about halfway or a little under? I'm like at the end of the shield team vs sword team arc in the desert/mines.

Dragon Quest XI - After I finish BD, will try jumping back into this and play for a bit and see how I much I've forgotten in the year+ since I last touched this and decide whether to just bail out and start fresh with the Switch version later in the year. I was a little past where the dragonballs were revealed and the main characters lineage was revealed and was at the coastal town of the jester person in your team at around 35 hours in when I left it. I hate replaying games and 35 hours is a lot of time to replay, so if I can get back into it I'll probably just sit down and finish this up. Also will depend on if they've fixed the horrible motion blur in the PS4 version when playing on a pro at 1080p. I know the PC version doesn't have that and I'm guessing the switch version won't either since it was a byproduct of the fake 4k rendering on the PS4 Pro.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #50 on: March 24, 2019, 04:46:49 PM »
Same reason I haven't jumped on Sekiro as well.  Finally finished that beast called Assassin's Creed Odyssey.  Working on the end game portions of Monster Boy and Superhot VR, and have started to finally get back to Shadow of War, which I've put off the longest it feels.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: The new year and the ever growing backlog and backlog blues...
« Reply #51 on: April 27, 2019, 02:27:57 PM »
Hitting that slump again....  :goty. I've been glad there hasn't been anything needed to get Day 1 of late, so I wanted to chip away at the backlog.  Playing Shadow of War, and although fun, it's starting to get grindy.... Which has me questioning whether it's really worth my time. 
Jumped around between it, Warframe and Dark Souls 3 last night... Nothing was really grabbing me.  I guess I'm just in this poopie gaming limbo again.... Waiting for sales on other games...  :doge