Good luck, Dan. I'm in a similar boat with regards to being irresolute on whether to buy a PS4 or XB1, so I've pretty much been going through my own backlog for the past year. I'd recommend alternating big retail games and Steam/PSN/XBL games: the smaller Indie types work as palate cleansers.

Sounds like you'll be just fine with MGSV at the moment. It's what everyone seems to be playing right now, and you'll probably want to stay ahead of MGScanlon V when it starts tonight/tomorrow.

@mento: My plan is to try and wrap up MGSV before the end of the month, so I can go into Backlogtober with a clean slate. I've spent a lot of time messing around with Side Ops and the metagame, but I'm hitting the point now where I feel like I should be main-lining some story missions, especially now that the Side Ops seem to be repeating and most of my base staff are either A or B rank. I'm currently on Episode 17 after around forty hours investment, but if I start taking the route-one approach I should be able to press on at a decent clip.

Thanks for your advice about alternating, too. I try and mix things up by default, but that's usually just in terms of game length and genre rather than price point or 'AAA versus indie', for lack of a better phrase for that dichotomy. Given most of what I play in October will likely be shorter titles, it's good to have some input on maintaining variety.

@dankempster: Yeah, "alternate short games and long games" would've been a better way of phrasing that. The divide between AAA and Indie is getting more and more blurred each passing year.

I think I'll join you in playing a bunch of shorter games next month. I've just beaten my seventh 30+ hour RPG of the year and those things tend to go on and on, for as much as I enjoy the time spent with them.

I might join you and Mento too. The back end of October is a loaded time for me, with Disgaea 5, Tales, and Wasteland 2 all hitting within a week of each other, but I plan on buying two of those over Black Friday. Since there's not much out that interests me between now and then, it will be the perfect time to knock out some of the smaller games I've picked up.

Best of luck with this endeavor, Dan! My own backlog has recently spiked to 213 games, so I know the feeling. Though I've also conceded that I'll never play every game on that list. I have a natural curiosity to see all different kinds of games out there for myself (something we may share), ranging across periods of time, genres, etc. But one man simply can't play every game out there. I, like you, also tend to be pretty methodical when I do sit down and play a game, which makes it take longer to get through games. I've let some of that go as I've gotten older and have less free time, but it still runs against my nature to do so :)

I also echo @mento's advice on alternating long/short games. It's easy to get bogged down by the big ones; there are numerous games on your list that could easily take the entire month by themselves. Speaking of, I feel your pain on long games this year Mento. I feel like every "AAA" game I've played that came out this year has been a 50+ hour open world game and/or RPG, which seems to be the way such games are trending. Those can be fun, but they tend to drag, and make playing a large variety of games a lot tougher...

@sparky_buzzsaw: Hot damn, those are some hefty time investments on your horizon. Any one of those could probably see you comfortably into the New Year, never mind all three. If I do end up investing in some current-gen hardware before 2015 is out (and right now it's looking like a PS4 in November is the most likely outcome), I'll then have a glut of 'new' games vying for my attention. Here's hoping we both manage to clear a decent number of smaller games before then.

@majormitch:Thanks Mitch. I'm pretty sure the first step of cutting the list down will be a permanent 'cull', in which I admit that there are some of these games that I will never beat, and sever all ties to them (by which I mean hide them from my Steam library so I can't see them any more). I'm pretty sure rogue-likes like Binding of Isaac and FTL will be among the first to go - they're fun games to dabble with and jump in and out of, but I'm not sure I have the skill or the patience to see them through to 'completion'. We probably do share that common ground in curiosity for the history of the medium - it's the main reason why series like Doom, Broken Sword and Baldur's Gate all feature on the list, as I never owned a PC for gaming purposes when growing up and wanted to see what I'd missed out on. That fear of missing out on something truly great is probably what's driven the majority of impulse purchases on the list, truth be told.

For playing the small games I'd suggest trying out the score attack / arcade games and starting off a gaming session with a round or two of those. Inspired by your post I'll also start my beating the backlog event earlier in October as well - blog wise its looking to be a very busy month for myself...

That's the point I reached with my steam and GOG libraries a while ago and I recommend doing that as a way to keep your sanity intact. I think I've gotten over some of that backlog anxiety that you mention. There are about a dozen games I can rattle off that I'd like to play in the relatively near future (a lot of them being lengthy-ass RPGs that I sunk some time into before getting distracted by something else.. like The Witcher 3, which I understand is quite popular with the kids) and a few dozen more that I want to get to at some point in my life (I really want to play Arcanum from start to finish, for example). However, I've come to terms with the fact that I'm never going to play most of the crap in my steam library and that's ok.

I tend to get a little more judicious about games I own physical copies of, however. I'm sure there's some psychological explanation about why owning a physical disk of something on a console makes me more likely to complete or put significant time into something, but I will almost always give something I bought on disk an honest shot, as opposed to all the digital games I've never touched.

That said, I wish you the best of luck and I'd be willing to try to coordinate some sort of Backlogtober write-up with you, though maybe I'm not the right person to promise anything. I still have a half-written google doc for my "Heroes of Month and Magic" series that I was going to do this month in commemoration of the franchise's 20th anniversary, but it turned out to be more difficult to do than I thought it would.

My backlog is getting quite large, to the point where I might just have to drop some of them. I only count games I really want to play as backlog games though, because if I just counted games I own that I have not played, it would be a thousands long backlog.

I'd like to say I'd join you in this, but in all honesty I'm just going to continue to play Metal Gear. Man the Phantom Pain is awesome. Never thought Metal Gear would hook me again.

I struggle with this problem too, really badly and been trying to tackles this over the last couple years. Digital is kinda bad thing man. Here's some things (mindsets, realizations etc) I personally find helpful. YMMV

1. Focus on what you've accomplished as opposed to what you have left to do - What I try to do is basically beat a good number of games every year. e.g. I have my own lists here and here. Did I hit my goals? Nope. But both years I've cleared more games than I ever have before by a decent margin. That's a win in my book. The problem with focusing on the backlog itself is well it gets discouraging and it turns into work. You are going to need emotional wins to fuel you to keep going.
2. Play what you are inspired to play. Games are meant to be fun, you'll get more done if you do it in a way that you enjoy it. Even if that means leaving some behind to chase the shiny new acquisition. Nothing wrong with playing Metal Gear in the moment,
3. Tier your backlog by games that excite you. I see you rated your lists that way, I actually recommend separating them into their own lists by your priorties. While I haven't explicitly told myself that it won't ever happen, games I personally put in my tier 3 I know have a low chance of ever getting played. But by doing this you make the list appear smaller and less intimidating.
4. Take breaks if you need it. I'll take 2-3 weeks off from games if I feel stressed etc if need be. You want to stay hungry, don't burn the candle at both ends.
5. As @mento said, it really helps me to vary game length, genre and even aesthetic to keep it fresh and not get bogged down. You don't necessarily have to do it after every game (e.g. I'll have months where I just feel like Adventure Games) but variety is the spice of life.You'll stay in the groove longer and avoid hitting the wall if you keep it fresh.
6. The number of games you buy isn't as important as how much you spend - I'm buying way too many games, but when I look at how much I'm spending. I'm still within my annual entertainment budget which I lowered this year, so not playing everything I get isn't materially harming me financially. But if you are over your number stop the intake of new to you games until you get back under. If the number of unplayed games still bothers you that much, cut your budget and stick to it.
7. Tied into 6. Your time is valuable, if you are not having with something you shouldn't feel forced to play through it. If you feel wasted money on a purchase, don't compound the error by wasting your time by forcing it.
8. The price you paid should factor into your decision into what to play. I just bought Persona 4 today for $2.50, (I've seen the endurance run so was in no hurry to get it) that's going on the backburner, possibly indefinitely. $2.50 is far less than what I used to play for a rental back in the day, and I didn't feel obligated to beat those. I suppose you could make the argument that all digital games are long term rentals fwiw. Whereas Metal Gear I paid near full price, I really don't want to have blown that much money on a game I never play. So I'm playing that now (and really happy I am)
9. It's ok to move on from a game if you feel satisfied. I do this more than I like, but like point 7 it doesn't benefit me to grind out if I'm not having fun anymore. I'm one of those S-rank achievement nuts, so I tend to box myself into bad situations kinda like you probably do by taking 10 hour games and turning them into 30 sometimes. Or say in the case of Deadpool, since I refuse to let myself play on anything below Hard, I hit a point I just can't beat on the final level (holy balls is that game brutal)
10. Give Bundle Games you never really intend to play away - If you are like me you may buy Humble Bundles an such basically to get one or tow specific games for cheap. Don't feel obligated to play what you basically got as a bonus. If you don't have a friend to dump a game on the Giant Bomb Steamgifts group is a great way to do something nice for somebody else.
11. If you want a quick shot in the arm, I'd start with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. You ranked it a high priority and you can power through it in an afternoon.
12. Have fun man! You've got some really really fantastic games on there man. Good luck duder!