Wanting some Backlog Moral Support

Prioritize the shortest games. Anything under 8 hours should jump to the top of your list

Sniper Elite 4 - Bounced off this one pretty hard. I liked Sniper Elite 3, which in addition to shooting people in the balls, was actually a better stealth game than you might expect, but 4's giant maps just made the game tedious. Also, it looks like ass. Probably pass on this or maybe get 10-15 min of fun out of the dumb/gory kills.

L.A. Noire - Worth a play, IMO. It's a rad setting with a decent enough story, and it also features one Daniel Ryckert. It would help if you're "into" that era, but it's one of Rockstar's better games.

Shenmue - I haven't played Shenmue, but don't play Shenmue. It broke Vinny in the ER. Enough said. You mentioned Yakuza 6, and those games are a MUCH better realization of the few things Shenmue did well at the time. "At the time" also being a key phrase there, as about the only redeeming quality of that game is its ambition in its day. Pass.

RDR 2 - My RDR 2 experience mirrors Dan's. There's a good game somewhere in there, but the game doesn't want you to experience it and instead wants to waste your fucking time on annoying survival mechanics and sluggish controls. I've tried to revisit it several times and still nope.

GTA V - It's an incredible world, but the campaign and the Rockstar "humor" has aged like milk. It's worth some time just driving around and getting up to your own dumb shenanigans a la Crime Crew (do NOT play online with GTA's awful community under any circumstance), but I can't say the campaign warrants a playthrough. Franklin is basically the only character that I didn't completely hate by the end of it.

AC Odyssey - Black Flag is generally considered one of the best AC games, so it maybe doesn't bode well for you playing Odyssey. Then again, Odyssey is maybe the least "AC game" of the AC games, and a bunch of people seemed to like it for that, so maybe?

That's all the advice I've got.

Just a heads-up, but Days Gone is supposed to be pretty long. I recall Mahardy saying it was something like over thirty hours in length on a Beastcast/QL or something back around that game's launch window. I was also somewhat interested in it, but that information caused me to take it off my own backlog.

Make sure to jump around from genre to genre, as you go through it (if you're not already). The variety should help you from getting burnt out on anything. Anyways, best of luck getting through your list.

@ginormous76: Well don't go crazy, Push too hard and it turns into a job and you could burn out. Plus as you mentioned you got a family.

I think as long as you meaningfully decrease the size of your backlog, that's a win.

Here's what I'd suggest you tackle off your list based off your comments

Since you are already midway or playing these, First finish (either credit roll 'em or drop 'em if so inclined) these would be my suggestion

1. Plague Tale
2. Modern Warfare 2019
3. Final Fantasy 8 Remastered
4. Telltale Batman Season 2

Then I'd suggest only doing 2 maximum games at any given time. 1 for your Switch 1 for XB1/PS4. Dunno if your wife is into co-op plays, but a lot of what you have on PS4 are games I know a lot of couples like to play together (LiS, Walking Dead, Detroit). Might be worth considering

I'd suggest going in order something like this for your next switch games

1. Pokémon Shield
2. River City Girls
3. Resident Evil 4

For your next PS4/XB1 games I'd suggest an order something like this

1. Onimusha: Warlords
2. Final Fantasy XV
3. Walking Dead Michonne
4. Double Dragon Neon
5. Walking Dead Season 3

Taste is subjective but I'd suggest considering Bailing or at least tabling on these right now, can reassess after RE3 remake

1. MGSV
2. Witcher 3
3. Shenume I&2
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. AC Odysssey
6. Gears 4&5
7. RDR 2
8. LA Noire
9. GTAV
10. Soma

To me your stated interest in the above games sounded half-hearted or your already played them and they are long. Just chucking them off your to -do list will help it feel more manageable. You can always add them back in later if you really feel strongly about them.

What I'm trying to here is give you a mix of stuff so you get to some of the longer games you want to play, but also get some easy clears so the stack decreases. And also frontloading the 2 biggest games so that you've got time to finish them before your deadline. If you get 10+ off your backlog with only playing 10-20 hours per week (ontop of playing MP games) I think you are doing great.

Whatever you end doing I hope you have fun!

Wow, you have some long games on that list! Lots of good stuff, but if I were tackling a backlog like this, I would be happy getting through just a handful of these games. (I'm in a similar boat, but my deadline is Animal Crossing, and I somehow got myself sucked back into Indie Animal Cros- Stardew Valley).

Dunno how you feel about scary games, but I couldn't get anywhere into SOMA. I hear it's much more palatable for us scaredy cats when you toggle the monsters idle, turning basically into a walking sim. Haven't tried it myself, but I intend to one day!

Final Fantasy XV can be a long or short story, depending on how much side content you do. If you wanna play in the spirit of the game, it'll probly tend toward the longer end of kinda just doing whatever until you figure "that was fun, lemme go wrap this thing up!" Of course, like plenty of open world games, dropping it partway works fine, but I did enjoy the mainline story even if it isn't particularly mind-blowing.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is longer than I thought - I haven't finished it a decent number of chapters after I thought it would wrap up - but it has a really good momentum to it to carry you to the end.

Play River City Girls on Normal! Like most beat-em-ups, the increased difficulty is just number tweaking to artificially make fights longer and has actively been pushing me away from the game! Must. Drop. My. Difficulty!

I bet a low number, because some of those games are quite long, so if you start one of those it’ll eat up weeks of times unless you bail on it (Days Gone, RDR2, Phantom Pain, etc.)

But if you prioritize the fairly short, fixed length narrative games, you could probably cover a lot of ground (TellTale stuff, Detroit: Become Human, etc.).

Fly through those Walking Deads. The third season is a god damned trainwreck of poor writing. Michonne is a short style over substance side-story with great music (which may have been removed). The final season is seriously great and may be as strong as the first, glad it ended up getting finished.

Oh, and yeah...Days Gone is SUPER LONG, and takes awhile to really get interesting, but it was definitely one of the most underrated titles of last year.

Fuck your backlog.

Mine’s a mile long, too. It’s a mile of mistakes. Only buy what you truly intend to play now. Only play what you enjoy. Don’t worry about missing out.

It’s entertainment. Play what you have time for. Buy what you can afford. Be entertained in the now. Stop playing games that don’t do it for you.

That’s how I’m living these days, and it’s a better way to do it, as far as I’m concerned.

Mix up long and shorter games. You don't want to get burnout by playing long games like Phantom Pain and Red Dead Redemption 2 back to back. Heavy Rain or the Telltale stuff could be decent starters for you. Don't feel overwhelmed though. Just play what you really feel like and don't play something just because you feel like you have to.

My backlog is pretty ridiculous at this point. I tend to buy these 30+ hour games and then give up on them after a few hours. Even if I really like them, I lose steam with them for a while and then it's hard for me to go back to as I've lost track of the story. Examples include Persona 5, Planescape: Torment, Spider-Man (PS4), Divinity: Original Sin, Witcher 3... all great games, but not ones for which I have strong desires to return to. These days I'm more likely to play something if there's not that much story so that I can listen to a podcast while I play. Tetris 99 and Slay the Spire have been my go-tos.

Looks like I should have grabbed the second post, as I can't find an edit button for my OP. SO, guess I'll start here. Played Sonic Mania, turns out I didn't want a new Sonic game after all.

Total 29

Finished (6)

1) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

2) A Plague Tale: Innocence

3) Shenmue

4) Onimusha: Warlords

5) River City Girls

6) Soma

7) Telltale Walking Dead Season 3

Bailed (22)

1) Sonic Mania

2) Double Dragon: Neon

3) Life is Strange 2

4) Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled

5) Gears of War 4

6) Gears 5 (interesting that they dropped the "of War")

7) KOTOR

8) Batman Season 2

9) Telltale Walking Dead: Michonne

10) GTAV

11) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)

12) Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter

13) Darksiders 3

14) Sniper Elite 4

15) Days Gone

16) The Surge

17) Nioh

18) Shenmue 2

19) That Dragon, Cancer

20) Final Fantasy XV

21) MGSV

22) Call of Cthulhu

For those interested, I have started a list of pre-2020 games that I played in 2020 and how I have ranked them. https://www.giantbomb.com/profile/ginormous76/lists/ranked-pre-2020-games-played-in-2020/367747/

@ginormous76: Yeah, I believe the first post of a poll is locked from editing, because of it were editable it would allow you to add/remove poll choices, which would mess with the results.

Makes sense. Other forums I'm on have the poll separate from the post, so you can edit the post.

Well said. Don't cripple your enjoyment by playing games and then being anxious to finish games because of the girth of your backlog. Just try to enjoy your downtime and relax.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and advice so far (even the drop everything and move on). I did attempt to organize my lists in a way that varies the types and lengths of games. I also do think there will be a number of games that I mostly want to just sample out of curiosity more than anything. I will say from about 2007-2011 I was an achievement hunter and it did become like a job and burnt me out. That was part of the reason I switched to PS4 (to abandon my high gamer score and not feel a need to achievement hunt). Every game on this list I spent money on, I am genuinely interested in at least playing a bit. The stuff I got free is mostly things I want to sample and might get surprised by and love. I do abandon games when I'm not having fun any more (unless I know I'm really close to the end). If I just need to know how the story ends, I'll watch it on youtube.

Specifically for Nioh, you're going to have a better time if you disassociate it from Dark Souls. The superficial similarities, but the coverage of that game was extremely reductionist by describing it as "Samurai Dark Souls."

Play the games you enjoy and move on from the ones you don't. I realised that the reason I had a backlog is because I didn't like those games very much or shouldn't have bought them.

I would say put off Red Dead and Witcher until after your deadline. Those games (especially RDR 2) are long and languid so trying to rush them will just make you frustrated.

I would also scratch anything you've already touched off the list and just get back to them another time, but I may be saying that because I think I voted too high; oh god why did I put so much money down on this.

Anything short or with a really comfy easy mode. Mine's approaching the mid 30s now which is nicely cut since last year I was around the 50 mark.

I limit mine to games I've spent money on (so no PS+ or other freebies). When it comes to RPGs, if I have the option to play it through an emulator, I do it so I can speed up grinding. With my older PS2 titles, I'm allowing myself to use gameshark cheats if I just want to content tour.

It ain't honest but it's only seen me through Killer7 (I like looking at that game but maybe not playing it) and God Hand (I ... scuffed the disc up in chapter 7 so just restarted on PCSX2 and made myself invincible).

Backlog woes are universal, you aren't alone. Prioritizing is the key for this stuff.

I'd say pick the ~5 games that most interest you and focus on them. Pace yourself and trust your moods. I really like having a roguelike or multiplayer game in the rotation for when I don't feel like playing something story driven. You mentioned COD and Madden so that's good and fine, but I'd also recommend something like Slay the Spire or Enter the Gungeon on Switch for some before bed roguelikes (actually I believe EtG is on Game Pass).

Right now I'm staring down Lightning Returns, Shadows of the Damned, Slay the Spire, Ys VIII, and Darkest Dungeon. That'll probably hold me until mid February and then I'll see what interests me after that. You can do it! Just remember to have fun :)

I would just recommend not stressing over it. I sometimes get this backlog anxiety where I feel I need to finish everything and that's just bad for you. This is entertainment, it's OK for you to have games that remain underplayed or not played at all. Just don't buy loads of games in the future.

Just go w/ your gut. Really, play what you feel like and try not to burn yourself out. It’d be a shame if you got to April and was gamed out when REmake3 comes out.

So much this. And maybe work on not buying games for the sake of just buying a game. Play what interest you now, and focus on that.

@notnert427 said:

Don't listen to this person! ;-P The game is amazing!

Nah, I get it. It's... an acquired taste. I can't stop playing it, though (playing the pc version). I'm not a fan of survival mechanics at all, but I feel like most of the mechanics in this game don't require a lot of time (similar to GTA San Andreas). You can't actually starve and I'm really only eating to keep my cores up and refill my dead eye bar. The camp stuff I'm simply buying my way out of whenever the icons turn red. Also, I'm really enjoying the hunting, so that helps with managing the survival mechanics. Still, as with all survival mechanics, I just can't consider them fun or see the added value, so I could totally do without them.

As for the controls, to me they were only annoying when I was caught by surprise. But yes, they are very sluggish and deliberate and I can totally see why it would infuriate some people. For instance, the fact that you can't cancel out of the skinning animation is just dumb. Stuff just takes forever after you hit a button, but I guess when you're immersed, that doesn't matter as much.

As for the topic, I'll just echo:

My suggestion is that you ignore games you've already finished on other systems, focus on the ones you haven't completed.

Yakuza 6 - is awesome but takes a long time to complete, there's lots of fun things to do in the game-world, for me at least.

Detroit - loved the game, the pace was good, the story and gameplay kept me engaged throughout my playthrough.

Call of Cthulhu - really liked it, it has mixed gameplay elements, with stealth, action, puzzles. It kept me engaged, especially as I went for a "doomed" approach in my in-game choices. Played through it twice. If you didn't like Soma I don't you'll like this one though.

AC Odyssey - plays more like a Soulsborne game than the classic AC, if that helps. Personally I prefer the old-school AC. Odyssey a long game though.

Sniper Elite 4 - one of my favourite style of shooter, slow-paced and tactical. Not everyone's cup of tea.

The Surge - the only Soulsborne type game I enjoyed, very tactical and slow-paced .... more so than Dark Souls in my opinion. Not as lengthy as Dark Souls. I'm not naturally drawn to the Soulsborne formula so I played The Surge on and off until completion.

You know the best way to make playing games not fun? To make them into a list of chores and pressure yourself into checking them off one by one.

Play whatever you want and forget about trying to clear an arbitrary list. Just because a game is in your Steam or PSN library doesn't mean you have some obligation to play it.

If you want to play a game, play it. If you don't, don't. Forget about trying to clear a list and just play games to enjoy them.

I completely understand this from my achievement hunting days. However, every game on my list I have an interest in playing. I have time until a game I REALLY want/need to play comes out, so I'm trying to play through games I already own instead of spending more money.

Update time! I finished A Plague Tale: Innocence and my goodness is that a fantastic game! Definitely in my top 3 for 2019 games now (RE2 was number 1 by far).

Started Double Dragon Neon, and after about 30 minutes I'm done with it.

Started Life is Strange 2, and I'm not connecting to these characters. I connected with the Dad (even though I don't have kids) and he's dead now. I connected with Chloe and Max in the other LiS games, so just going to move on.

I started Days Gone, and am about 30 minutes in (I play games while on the treadmill a lot, so 30 minutes is an exercise routine). So far, I'm enjoying it. I figured this would be a game I enjoyed for about 1-5 hours and so far so good.

I feel this topic in my bones. I've got 55 games on my Switch that I've played only a little or not at all. Any time something on my wish list goes on sale for 30-50% off I buy it almost without thinking.

I've decided not to buy any new ones until I can clear at least three or four from that list. It sounds like you're doing a good job so far, just keep doing what you're doing.

I disagree with II_exile_II here: for some of us, checklists are a way to motivate us to do something and a reward for finishing that something. Making a couple of spreadsheets to show me the scale of my "problem" was what made me decide to "fix" it. I don't see it as a chore, really. I'm not staying with something longer than it entertains me just because it's on the list. Taking something off the list feels good!

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

@laughingman: I love making spreadsheets. A few years ago, I decided to start keep tracking of games I finished/long accomplishments (like prestiging in CoD since there is no end game or getting a platinum trophy). I wish I had been keeping this since I was a kid, because it's really interesting to look back and to see how many things I finished each year.

I also started Shenmue. About 2 hours in and enjoying it so far. I may end up sticking with this.

I have a spreadsheet for mine. I've bought these games with the intent to play them so, one way or another, it gets done.

Updates! I started Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled (or whatever the subtitle is). Turns out, I enjoy Mario Kart World Tour on my phone WAAAAAAY more. So, I'm going to leave the good memories in the past and not ruin them.

Played through the first two acts of Gears 4 and hated it. Started Gears 5 (which had a nice recap of Gears 4). Enjoyed the first act, but didn't want to play any more. I might be done with Gears of War.

I am booking it through Shenmue though. Thinking I might finish it this week.

Stumbled across a KOTOR stream on Twitch. That was all I needed to decide to leave my KOTOR memories in the past. Still working on Shenmue. I have a job now! You might say I'm in the end game now.

Also realized that I don't want to play Batman Season 2 and Michonne is not tied to the rest of the Telltale Walking Dead games. So, bailing on those two. Up to 11 total crossed off.

Finished Shenmue! I'm not going to hop right into Shenmue 2, but hoping to play through it before RE3 drops. Probably start in a week or two. Maybe this weekend. I am thinking I will hit up the Modern Warfare campaign next though.

Also, started playing Onimusha: Warlords. I'm really enjoying this game after a couple hours. Trying to decide if I'm done with Days Gone or going to play some more.

I started GTAV, because I wanted to do some GTA stuff. Got bored shortly in, so I'm bailing. Up to 13 games knocked off the list.

Interesting. I had in my notes that Onimusha was around 20 hours. I looked up a bunch of my games on howlongtobeat.com. I just checked again to get a better sense and it says it's 4.5 hours (given that I like to explore, I'll call this 5-6). So, I might finish this game this week if I sit down with it.

Just do what I do mate.

Agonize for 4 months over what order to play them in, spend another 2 months organizing them, and planning time on a calendar when you're gonna commit time to each game

Then launch 6 games for 8 minutes each, realize you can't be arsed, then go back to watching youtube and twitch for another year

Started Modern Warfare's campaign and played a couple levels. Maybe I'm over this type of game.

I'm down to 34 on my list. The slow start to the year is really helping.

Started and bailed on Sherlock Holmes.

Started Darksiders 3. Played the first boss using both hack & slash mode and Dark Souls style mode. I guess Darksiders 1 just hit at the right time in my life and gaming log, and it's successors will never find that timing again.

Started Sniper Elite 4. I exploded some Nazi brains and testicles. After doing this a few ties, I was bored.

I'm getting close to finishing Onimusha and I'm a couple hours into Shenmue 2.

Finished Onimusha: Warlords this morning. Thinking I'm gonna go back to Days Gone.

Honestly, I wasn't too hot on Darksiders. Around the Portal dungeon it just seemed to drag. Maybe I'm just not that into Zelda.

Bailing on Days Gone.

Bailing on The Surge. I was hoping it was going to be more like Cyborg Justice for some reason. Probably because of the taking enemy parts and using them aspect.

Played a little Nioh. Was enjoying it, then got to an armored enemy and realized, "I don't want to play this any more."

Bailing on Shenmue 2 for two reasons: 1) It's leaving Xbox Game Pass soon. 2) I got to a part where I have to raise $500 (well, $370 from where I am) and just thought, "Nah. I don't want to do that. You already took all my money to start the game, screw you."

I'm really enjoying Soma right now though. I think I'm somewhere around 60% through it.

Bailing on That Dragon, Cancer and Final Fantasy XV.

TDC was not what I expected. I know it's only about two hours, but an hour in and I feel like this game would make more sense if I did drugs. I'm sorry for the creators' loss and glad they could find some relief in making this game, but not for me.

FF15 is like what happens when a company that's good at telling a story through dialogue tries to make a game that tells a story through the atmosphere like Fallout/Elder Scrolls. Except, they don't know how to do atmospheric story telling, so the game just feels like a game where you just mindlessly follow the quest marker.

Finished River City Girls. That was a lot of fun and a great modern-take on River City Ransom.

Bailing on MGSV. Just don't want to play it any more. I tried when it was new and just ran out of drive. Started this and realized there was a good reason I already quit.

Finished Soma. That was the second walking simulator (and much longer than Gone Home) that I actually got into. I enjoyed it.

Bailed on Call of Cthulhu. Got a few chapters in and it just wasn't what I wanted to play.

Amateur!

But seriously, go with whatever you feel like. I bought Deus Ex Mankind Divided in 2017 because I loved the previous games. I played it for ten minutes then didn't really play it again last week. 19 hours in so far.

@ginormous76: dang man, you are doing a great job with this!

I think your willingness to bail on things has been really helpful, in keeping it fun but also reasonable

What do you have left?