How do you tackle your backlog?

[longshadow11]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

And if you also enjoy reading you can add a huge backlog of books as well. I have about 30 games to get to/finish and over 40 books I want to read. It is pure idiocy on my part to buy another book or game, but sometimes the hype gets to me. I buy much less these days, mostly because I can't afford games now that I'm single.

[TheDutchDad]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

As a 32 year old full time worker, kids, wife etc, it's become incredibly hard to play all the games I want. I have sort of adopted the same mindset as others. I buy the games I want, sometimes a little after release to save cash, but I buy only digital now, and so many games just get set on the back burner until I feel the itch to play it, and I need a break from current game.

SP games don't take precedent as much as some games like Division, R6, etc that rely on a good online community. I still have the last two AC's to play, the last Far Cry that came out, I'd love to finish Metal Gear, never finished Fallout4 and I really want to pick up where I left off there, stopped playing Mafia once WD2, Skyrim, etc came out and I feel like I need to start over completely in Mafia as I can't remember anything that happened or the controls.

Basically, play the game(s) I want to play right now, and not stress over trying to rotate too many games at once as it gets too confusing and I feel like I'm forcing myself to play one game this evening when I really want to play another game.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

I used to stress a lot over this, but have changed my mindset and now just adopt a strategy of playing games when I want to play them. If I get into a groove with Madden or MLB The Show, I don't want to feel guilty about not playing Horizon for a week, ya know? Conversely, if I'm locked in on Horizon, I shouldn't feel bad about setting Tomb Raider aside for a month.

It sounds bad, but I have so many games spread across multiple systems that I likely won't get to fully experience all of them, and I'm OK with that. I have stopped buying as many games so my library isn't growing by leaps and bounds.

Yeah, that is exactly what I am doing as well. I have a huge.....huge backlog. But I have been playing whatever floats my boat until....it is played out.

I am playing Horizon right now and I already know it will be finished in the next 2-3 weeks for me. It has totally sucked me in and I want to finish this.

Far Cry Primal took me months upon months....I would play for 2-3 weeks, then give it a rest, start again, give it a rest.

Same thing happened with fallout 4. I played that for 50 straight hours and have not touched it since. But I know when I get the itch to finish it...I will knock it out inside a month.

I am just playing whatever I am in the mood for. As far as sports games.....I am almost done with my 4th season on Madden 17 and will start a 5th season with my Raiders CFM.....that is a game I play once a week these days and make each week an event.

The Show 17 will suck up 90% of my playing time so whatever non sports game I play it will be to get away from baseball for a few hours a week. I will finish my back log....whenever I finish it.

I actually cancelled my Mass Effect pre-order, I can play that next year if need be. I have plenty of other single player games I want to crack open and play all the way through. But I could not resist Picking up Horizon Zero Dawn.

[Smallville102001]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

Easy question. When I win the lottery, I am going to quit work and instead of going on a vacation around the world, I am going to finish my backlog. Should take about a decade.

lol this it just keeps getting bigger.

[Americas Team]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

Im terrible at attacking my backlog, I had no plans on playing Mass Effect 2/3 but here I am with all the backlog I have playing old games from Xbox 360. Also Quantum Break just went on sale for 24.95 on Xbox Live so im going to buy that too.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Operation Sports mobile app

[JMD]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

I retire in 8 more years. I plan on taking care of my unfinished games then.

[Bigg Cee]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

Hard copy sell to my uncle and my nephew. Digital i only buy games I know I want and if there buggy I just let them sit there for a few months till they get patched to death then I play.

(Mafia 3 for example)

[NINJAK2]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

This is a problem a lot of people (including myself)face. Pk500 had the only real solution and that is to stop buying games for awhile (atleast until you finish a few).


There was a stretch that it seemed like there was a great game being released every other week and I was going crazy. Some of the games I bought months ago I haven't even installed yet..LOL


Backlog includes:
Witcher 3
DA:Inquisition
Arkham Knight
Division
Metal Gear
Tomb Raider
Mass Effect 1-3(They are old but I still want to finish them)
SC:Blacklist.
WatchDogs2
New Hitman


Games like W3 feel like you aren't getting anywhere unless you put in 3-4 hours at a time.

[Americas Team]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

A lot of times if a game get's too hard or if I get stuck, Ill just quit playing the game all together, I may come back to it in the future.
I've already conceded that my backlog will run into the next generation of console gaming.

[woodjer]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

This is a problem a lot of people (including myself)face. Pk500 had the only real solution and that is to stop buying games for awhile (atleast until you finish a few).


There was a stretch that it seemed like there was a great game being released every other week and I was going crazy. Some of the games I bought months ago I haven't even installed yet..LOL


Backlog includes:
Witcher 3
DA:Inquisition
Arkham Knight
Division
Metal Gear
Tomb Raider
Mass Effect 1-3(They are old but I still want to finish them)
SC:Blacklist.
WatchDogs2
New Hitman


Games like W3 feel like you aren't getting anywhere unless you put in 3-4 hours at a time.

Not only were great games being released every week for a while but then PSN would have some crazy good sales on games that I had been wanting, too. That and the "free" PS+ games account for pretty much all of my backlog.

And totally agree on W3 (same goes for DA:I). I think that's the really overwhelming part of it all. I have that time MAYBE once or twice a week to dedicate (and some weeks, not at all) so the real challenge for me is following the story and trying to remember what my goals were when I do pick it back up.

Also, just to clarify my OP...I was more asking what strategies people use for knocking games off the list once they commit to eliminating it. Of course "play them" is the easy answer but do you start with the shorter games first? Best reviewed? Do you intentionally budget time in your day/evening to attack it? That kind of thing.

For what it's worth, I think I might start going the "shorter games first" approach so I can feel like I'm making progress. I even was able to cross one off my list this weekend (Journey)! Woo-hoo!

[Armor and Sword]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

Not only were great games being released every week for a while but then PSN would have some crazy good sales on games that I had been wanting, too. That and the "free" PS+ games account for pretty much all of my backlog.

And totally agree on W3 (same goes for DA:I). I think that's the really overwhelming part of it all. I have that time MAYBE once or twice a week to dedicate (and some weeks, not at all) so the real challenge for me is following the story and trying to remember what my goals were when I do pick it back up.

Also, just to clarify my OP...I was more asking what strategies people use for knocking games off the list once they commit to eliminating it. Of course "play them" is the easy answer but do you start with the shorter games first? Best reviewed? Do you intentionally budget time in your day/evening to attack it? That kind of thing.

For what it's worth, I think I might start going the "shorter games first" approach so I can feel like I'm making progress. I even was able to cross one off my list this weekend (Journey)! Woo-hoo!

Playing the shorter ones is a smart approach. After I finish Horizon Zero Dawn I will attack the Telltale games in my backlog as well as Life Is Strange. I want to knock out the story based 15-20 hour games and move on to other titles in my backlog.

The real mother of them all will be The Witcher 3, a game that I really really want to sink into. But it is going to be tough. Because like I had stated before Once MLB The Show 17 drops....that will get 90% of my gaming time.

I estimate I play games about 12-15 hours a week. 12 of those hours will be playing baseball. So that leaves 3 to 4 hours tops for any other game.

So attacking the shorter ones will be the play. My backlog is steep...here it is LOL


Telltale Games:
Batman
The Wolf Among Us
The Walking Dead Season 3 Episode 2 (need to play it this weekend)
Tales From The Borderlands
Life Is Strange
Game Of Thrones

The Witcher 3
Hitman Season 1 (been playing this on and off)
Deus Ex Mankind Divided
Dishonored Remaster
Dishonored 2
Mad Max
Batman Arkham Knight
AC Black Flag
The Evil Within
Valkyrie Chronicles Remastered
Hero's Of The Pacific


PSN Sales and PSN Plus (PS3 and PS4):

Call Of Juarez Gunslinger
Crysis 3
Tomb Raider Digital Edition
Remember Me
Binary Domain
Yakuza 5
Metro Last Light/Metro Redux
The Warriors
South Park The Stick Of Truth
Red Dead Revolver
Bloodborne
Tropico 5



The bolded games I fully plan on playing and finishing in 2017. I have truly put a self imposed no new games for 2017 (other than Horizon, MLB The Show 17 and Madden 18). I have absolutely no reason to get any. I have plenty of great games to keep me going well into 2018. I am even going to pass up on Red Dead Redemption 2, and I also cancelled Mass Effect 4.

I just can't rationalize it anymore. I have too many games to play as you can see. And a ton of goodness in there.

Let's knock these out!!!

[daniel77733]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

I try to complete one game at a time before moving on to the next game simply because if I start playing more than one game at the same time, all I end up doing is losing interest in all the games completely and end up increasing my backlog. I traded in six games (COD: IW, For Honor, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ghost Recon Wildlands, Mafia III and Watch Dogs 2) yesterday to Best Buy and was able to get back $179.20 in credit. I completed Horizon and Mafia III.

Currently waiting on For Honor from GameFly and after that, I'll get GRW from them. Would have held on to them but couldn't pass up getting $40 each for these two games as well as Horizon. After GRW, I'll rent COD: IW so I can finish it up and once the three expansions come out, I'll rent Mafia III so I can go through all three expansions.

Majority of my backlog for this gen is from 2016. For 2013, 2014 and 2015, I have a total of three games and one DLC. 2016 is over ten total.

Thankfully thus far, after Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 on April 25th, I'll have until August 22nd to catch up on my backlog.

As for past gens, forget about it. If I was to go through every past gen, I would have hundreds of games in my backlog but that's why once I move on to the next gen, I simply don't go back.

[JoshC1977]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

I've got SO many games on my PS3/PS4 that I haven't finished...don't even mention the slew of games on Steam I haven't touched since my primary game storage hard drive pooped-out a few months ago....

So what happens....I wind up playing the same games over that I finished before because I love them so much

I'm seriously done buying 90% of open world games that come out....I never finish them (though Horizon is seriously challenging me there). I just don't have the hours to invest....

Horizon, ME: Andromeda, The Show, and Madden 18 will be my big ones I buy this year (possibly FIFA 18). Frankly, there aren't too many more coming out this year that pique my interest. I'll probably impulse-buy a couple more (such as the new Shadow of Mordor game and FFXII remaster)...but as I look at the game release calendar, very little excites me.

What this means....time to start tackling the backlog.... and I think the shorter games route is the way to go....

[ZB9]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

Ive got Dying Light and Metal Gear Solid 5 in my backlog but i doubt i will finish them any time soon with the Show17 coming out soon.

I finally finished Bloodborne which was backlogged for a while. Now Im trying to finish Mafia 3 and hopefully i can in the next week before the Show release.

[woodjer]

Re: How do you tackle your backlog?

Playing the shorter ones is a smart approach. After I finish Horizon Zero Dawn I will attack the Telltale games in my backlog as well as Life Is Strange. I want to knock out the story based 15-20 hour games and move on to other titles in my backlog.

The real mother of them all will be The Witcher 3, a game that I really really want to sink into. But it is going to be tough. Because like I had stated before Once MLB The Show 17 drops....that will get 90% of my gaming time.

Yeah, I gotta admit that it felt pretty good to get Journey done. Like you, I think I might tackle my Telltale games next. I have only played Tales from the Borderlands but, if they all have a "catch-up montage" at the beginning like that, it's perfect for me. I can go a few days or a week between episodes and not feel like I'm completely lost when I get back to it.

Witcher and Dragon Age are the two big ones that I'm stressing over. To a lesser extent, Fallout 4. I think I'm going to tackle at least Uncharted before I try those.