How do you guys go through your gaming backlog?

It seems to me that most gaming people out in this world have a backlog of games they have bought and started playing and then put down, or they just haven't bothered to start the game. I am currently faced with that same dilemma. Just last summer I bought a vita and some games, then at the beginning of last fall I got an xbox 360 just for gta 5 and also a ps4. All of this is added to all the stuff on my gaming PC and now I dont know what to do. I feel like I bought all these games on different sales and Im never going to play them because they are so many and I dont have time. I am currently in a summer college class and I got invested in watching the world cup and mexican league soccer again. Im still watching wrestling because I cant stop and Im starting to watch that anime stuff people like.

On xbox 360 I bought skate 3 and forza motorsport 4 and only played 2 hours of each. I got Gears of War but i haven't started it yet. Also bought Viva Pinata and played it for 30 minutes and got tekken tag 2 and havent made it past the tutorial but I did beat Mortal Kombat.

My PS Vita has been totally forgotten, I still have to beat Little Big planet, Metal gear solid 2, zero escape virtues last reward, Crash Bandicoot, FF X hd, FF 8, Syphon Filter, Mega Man, MGS Peace Walker.

On my sega dreamcast I have to beat Sonic Adventure and Shenmue 1.

On PC in my steam library I have these games to finish or start : Alan Wake, Assassins creed 2 and Assassins Creed Brtotherhood, Bioshock 1, Call of Juarez bound in blood, Crysis 2, Deus Ex HR ,Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Fable Lost Chapters, Half Life 1 and 2 ( I tried to finish 1 but got bored),Hitman 1,2, and Blood Money, Just Cause 2, LA Noire,Legacy Of kain Soul Reaver 1 and 2, Mafia 2, Mark Of the Ninja, Mirrors Edge ,Portal 2, Prince of persia sands of time, Psychonauts, Saints row 4, Sin, Thief Deadly Shadows, Tomb Raider Anniversary and Underworld,Vampire the masqurade bloodlines.

Origin: Battlefield 4 single player, Dead space 1,2,3, Crysis 3, Need For speed most wanted.

Not on Steam but PC : Final Fantasy 7, Need For Speed Underground 2, Jump Start 1st grade( Never beat it when I was a youngster).

I make a list of 10 or so games that I want to play and tackle them about 2-3 at a time.

Totally haphazardly. When there's nothing new out that I desperately want to play I look through my options on my various console hard drives and the discs I haven't played and pick one that I'm in the mood for. Or I pick up something I started awhile ago but never finished. I would probably be better off putting the games in some kind of order so I don't end up burning 2 gaming weekends (each about 3-4 hours) on Medal of Honor: Warfighter (as happened in June) but I get all kinds of weird impulses when it comes to games, and sometimes I just want to play something mediocre and brainless.

I just pick a game I want to play and play it. I don't force myself to finish a game if I'm not enjoying it.

As of right now: in order of release date. Oldest first.

I do what I do when I'm looking for a girlfriend, I stare at the games/girls in my vicinity as I'm too scared/overwhelmed to make a move, then get black out drunk and commit to whoever/whatever I find when I wake up in the morning.

@pyromagnestir: :)

I just make a list of all the games I own that I haven't finished, and then I go through it one at a time. There's usually no order, just whatever I feel like playing after finishing the last one (usually it's something different).

Although you do have a lot more games to get through than I ever have (ignoring my steam library, because that's 95% Humble Bundle stuff that I never had any intention of playing), so getting through all of that without dedicating an unhealthy amount of time to it is definitely going to take a while.

It's got to the point for me where I have too many games that even thinking about what to play isn't possible. With over 800+ games on steam, about 100 physical games on Xbox 360/PS3, 100ish XBLA games and then a further 100 ish games on PS3 (from PS+). This doesn't even get a start on handheld games.

Just get overwhelmed with it now, when I only had a few I'd play them all but now I have a whole bunch I play almost nothing. It sucks :(

I make a list and see what I feel like playing at the time. I know from experience the worst thing you can do is force yourself to play something your not that interested in just for the sake of crossing it off the list.

And sometimes I'll literally just pick a game at random and see if it sticks.

I'll pick a game I feel like playing and then finish it. I don't try to force myself to play things I'm not in the mood for.

First of all, I make it a point to only own games that I want to play. After that, choosing what to play is cake.

I think the best way is to change your game purchasing habits so that you only purchase a new game once you've completed/bored of the last one you bought. With steam sales and deals like PS+ it makes it hard, but if you only bought games you were going to play right away, then it would be less about cleaning out a backlog and more about playing games for fun. You would be moving from game to game more naturally and it would make each game more special. I think that's the way I'm going to start living my life.

Simpler.

Yep. But I'm the kind of guy that sticks to the games he loves independently of having a huge backlog. ahah

I have a weird genre/category chain that I only keep in my head. It'll be like "I bought Metroid Fusion and the DS Castlevania I never played but no more Metroidvanias until I finish Harmony of Dissonance because even though it's convoluted and not very good I like the music" or "After I beat Mega Man 64 so I can finally understand that part of Mega Man history I'll play all the other N64 games I bought even though I don't want to play Mega Man 64" or "Finish Arkham Origins even though you don't really enjoy it before you play those other PS3 games" or "Put 60 more hours into Persona 3 to beat it before taking on a new JRPG you need to put that experience behind you first." All at the same time.

I just play whatever I feel like. If a game doesn't grab me within the first 4 or so hours I will probably never finish it.

I start about 20 different games and eventually finish 1. lol

I try not to spend money flippantly and I tend to monogame for long stretches, then balance smaller titles with a large one. I would never overstock on groceries just to throw most of it away because I can't eat it all. Why would I do that with games?

I have a massive backlog right now, so i'm playing as much of a single game each day as I can and then switching to another game the next day and repeating the cycle until I manage to beat one. I think I have about 20 games stacked up on my floor right now that need to be finished and 5 or 6 PC games I haven't even touched from the Steam summer sale.

I don't. The pile stares at me and taunts me until I curl up in a ball and cry.

I just pick whichever looks to be most enjoyable and weight that in with how my schedule is going to be looking in the near future. Am I going to be very busy? Arcade game (Bastion) it is. Am I going to have a lot of down time? Full game (Bioshock) it is! Am I going to be very bored? Older games (FFXII) it is!

The first and hardest part of whittling a backlog is to slow your intake . That's a hard thing to do especially in the age of steep digitial sales, where some games are more affordable than ever before. The only answer I know is to not look at sales and only allow yourself a few new preplanned purchases.

Then for tackling the backlog mountain, you just got to take on step at a time.

Instead focusing on what I have left to do, I focus on what I have done. Looking at a massive backlog list is depressing and paralyzing, so instead I focus on what I have done. I have a lot of games I've cleared this year here

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/slag/lists/100n365/90117/

I never try to look at the actual library/backlog itself until it's time to pick another game. And then when I do, I let my whims decide what it is. That way I'm not forcing myself to grind through something I'm not in the right mood to play which turns it into work.

I also try to rotate genres and game lengths to keep it from getting too stale, lately I've been trying to juggle a long game as I plow through several short games at the same time. So when I get home I've got a couple choices. That doesn't always work, I find if I set any game down for more than a week or so it becomes very hard to pick it back up.

anyway hope that helps and good luck duder.

Usually by adding more games to it.

Just play what you feel like playing.

I don't have much of an 'unplayed/unbeaten' backlog but I wrote a list (on paper with a pen!) of games I wanted to re-play before the new consoles really got going. So I've been playing some older favorites.

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Of your list, I would recommend go head first into either Alan Wake or Deus Ex: HR. Both are terrific games. Both also have slower starts so play for more than 30 min before potentially bailing. :P

Alphabetically.

I mostly tell myself that I'm going to start digging in to my backlog and then I just buy a bunch of new games instead.

I don't. Why force yourself to play games you don't feel like out of some weird sworn duty? I just play whatever I'm in the mood for. Gaming is way more entertaining that way.

I usually don't. I keep trying but these days I can't seem to muster any desire to play any video games at all. Nothing on the horizon interests me let alone a backlog.

Yesterday I put all the shortcut icons of the games I want to finish in a single vertical line. I'm going to try to force myself to continue them even if I don't feel like playing or doing anything, because sometimes that leads to fun.

I pick off the game I feel worst for having not played.

This year I think I've done more damage to my backlog than any other year in recent history. What's helped me so far is doggedly sticking to one game no matter what. In the past (and even now) when I'm playing a game I'd think "Well, I could be playing this other game that looked neat, remember all those screenshots and that Quick Look..." and my attention would flit around like an ADD-riddled toddler on a 5-juice-box sugar high. Forcing myself to stick with one game to completion has helped with my "stickyness" for lack of a better term I can think of.

Also, quitting WoW helped quite a bit. Though I do have that Wildstar box sitting over there begging me to resubscribe... I think I need a Sponsor.

When I buy a game I play it to completion, then buy the next game I want to play.

I find that sticking to physical only on console and DRM-Free only on PC helps a lot. I don't have as many impulse buys as someone who buys every damned game on a Steam sale. I buy it, it's usually because I have interest in the game/s on offer. Only a few Humble Bundles have grabbed me, I do most of my PC gaming with GOG titles, and as I mentioned before, console is physical only. With those limits and a bit of fiscal responsibility, I then just play what I feel like at the moment.

That reminds me, I gotta send off my Master System to get repaired after my TurboDuo and Saturn get back. That's something else, I actually CARE about my older consoles after they're considered "old." Never know when you wanna play some Lords of Thunder, after all.

I don't have any sort of method or strategy. I just play whatever I'm in the mood for, and eventually the backlog begins to clear out. Or maybe it doesn't. GTA V taught me that playing games I don't like simply for the sake of finishing them is a very bad thing, so I'm done with that. If I don't finish everything, that's fine.

Wait until I have a weekend with nothing else to do and marathon through them. Just finished infamous: Second Son this weekend, and planning to play Vanquish on my next free day.

I mostly do PC right now, though I have TLOF and Resistance 3, plus 2/3 of Halo HD (X-B0x 360) and 2/3 of the MGS HD collection to still go through.

Mostly I just pick at my immense Steam library fitfully, and then I go back to games I have played. Feel bad about that. But I just got done with Stalker, Shadow of Chernobyl, and boy did I enjoy myself, what a great game with my new video card! It's time to re-do Portal 2 I think, also. I keep trying new games/games I have bought, and I should try harder. I have nothing but time. I am playing The Fall that Vinny liked so much. And a few other Indies. Burned out on Metro-Last Light .

When I have a day off from work, I'll try.

I only buy games if i actually want to play them, not just because i "might" and its on sale. Thus i dont have a backlog.

Self control is a great thing.

Eeh, slowly and whenever I feel like it. Maybe it'd bother me more if there would be a shelf full of physical games I have never played, but it becomes less of a bother when all of 'em are just digital and hiding on my HDD.

That said, a long vacation would do wonders to sort out that type of "problem".

@wjb: In theory that sounds like an excellent idea. In reality I would be stuck playing stuff like Spear of Destiny, Hexen, Rome: Total War & Stronghold for the next couple of years.

What I do is use some Buddhist methods by meditating in a way which trains my mind into thinking that I only have a few games. These "few" games are the ones which I will complete first and then move onto another batch.

Since my backlogs probably in the three digits by now, I just try not to think about it.

I also occasionally go back and play two or three random older games, which usually leads me to think "Oh well, I might get this done after all, so why not buy something new." It's an endless cycle.

I just buy new games and add them to the backlog!

Wonderfully, getting back into an MMO (FFXIV) means I'll buy way fewer games now,.

Make a list of the games I own that I want to try and beat/complete. Then stare at it for 20 minutes. Then cry uncontrollably.

I go with what I feel. Although, at some point I'll just have JRPGs left and a sad frown on my face.

poorly that's how I do it.

I don't have a lot of time to play games for 7-9 months out of the year, so when I do get to play I have a lot of games that I've been itching for so I decide what I feel most like playing when I sit down to play.

I don't. It eternally keeps getting bigger.

Even this year where i bought almost nothing and will probably not be buying anything other than Civilization: Beyond Earth i still didn't make much (none) progress clearing my backlog.

In general it goes something like this:

1. "I should play (insert game) i bought months ago and haven't played".
2. Boot Civilization 5.
3. Rinse/repeat.

I don't think Civilization: Beyond Earth will help with this trend!