My video game backlog is certainly not the worst, given that I have largely avoided the mad world of Steam sales and Humble Bundles. Strangely though, over 2014/15 I have found myself purchasing new games and playing them for no more than thirty minutes, then telling myself I'll get back to them at a time I can give them my full attention (aka marathon them). Sadly this time never seems to make itself available.

It's 2016 now though and all that shit has changed! I'm going to make a list, write a blog - play some video-games; no sweat. I honestly don't know where I'll get the time from but I know I love video games and therefore have to ask myself why I'm not making more time for them in my mundane and questionable existence.

Before I get to the list, as an aside, I'm also going to spend a lot more of my effort getting involved in the Giant Bomb community. I really don't have many people to talk to video-games, particularly with my penchant for RPGs and story-driven games. It's kind of a bummer but that's my own fault - there's a huge community here to engage with - time to stop feeling sorry for myself!

SUPER 2016 Backlog Resolution List:

Anachronox

I randomly purchased Anachronox as a 14 year old and I absolutely adored it. It was hilarious, beautiful and was the first time I had seen the JRPG styles of Final Fantasy VII mixed with Western stylings. For some reason the game would always bug out and crash about 5 hours in and I never figured out how to fix it. Some ten years later I bought a copy of the game and felt very excited about it, but neglected to even install it. What a fool. 2016 is the year though; this feels like a nice cup of coffee and mindful play style kind of game.

Half Life 2; HL2: Episode 1; HL2 Episode 2

The only reason I've not played the Half Life 2 collection is because I fucking hate head-crabs. The set-up and subsequent falling to pieces that opens Half Life 2 is incredible, but at the time of its release I was just sick of shit jumping in my face randomly in every FPS game going. I am ridiculous susceptible to jump-scares and it seriously hampered my enjoyment of the game. In hindsight that seems ridiculous. It's been a few years now but I feel I owe it to myself to experience these games as the classics that they are now viewed as. Not sure I've gotten any better at jump scares though...

Bloodborne

I've never played a Dark Souls game. They always sounded unappealing, until it was too late; by the time I was talked into intrigue a whole culture of immense depth had arisen around the game I was a little intimidated. Purchasing Bloodborne was a pure hype-move. Everyone was talking about it, I have a PS4 without any games, so why not? I haven't put the disc into the machine once. It's about time to Bloodborne.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Despite it's obvious problems, I managed to get lost in the world of Dragon Age 2. I appreciated that the game could tone-down the world ending scenario from Origins and do something more like a soap opera dripping with the lore and world-depth of the Dragon Age universe. I'm not at all interested in the gameplay of Inquisition, but I'm surprised I didn't clamor to play this one. A great world to get lost in.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D

When I was a kid I had a friend that was obsessed with this game. I used to stay at his house for a week and would just sit and watch him play Majora's Mask on the N64, baffled by all the time-limit mechanics and weird masks. He adored it and through osmosis I took it to be an incredible game; not until recently did I find that it was quite polarizing and viewed by some as a bad experiment. Approaching release of the 3DS release I was desperate to play the game; I pre-ordered it and watched every trailer. The game arrived, I played it for thirty minutes and lo-and-behold, never touched it again.

To The Moon

This made quite a splash when it was released in 2011, and it sounded very much like my kind of game. I read an awful lot about the game, listened to a lot of the soundtrack and bought the game - never played it though! Another 'cup-of-coffee' kind of game, I'm looking forward to playing this late at night with headphones on and finally seeing what it's all about...

Six games.

My actual backlog of unplayed games is a lot bigger than this but going off past performances and a lot of 2016 releases that sound awesome, six is a realistic number. I don't know what order I'll play these games in or if I'll ever write/post anything about doing this ever again but hey, it's been fun...