Beating The Backlog

No matter who you are, if you play video games there is a high probability that you have a stack of games that you haven’t even finished.

I’m a sucker for a good deal, so any time a game I’m even remotely interested in is heavily discounted, I usually snap it up. I’m ashamed to say, there are quite a few I have not even played!

Alrighty then, let’s have a look at the titles I haven’t finished yet. (Don’t judge me!)

I’ve checked on howlongtobeat.com the average time to complete these games, and left out any that are basically unfinishable..

On PC:

1. Baba Is You (4.5 Hours) Puzzle
2. Borderlands 2 (30 Hours) FPS
3. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (18 Hours) FPS
4. Company of Heroes 2 (15 Hours) FPS
5. Dark Souls III (32 Hours) ARPG
6. Deus Ex: GOTY Edition (23 Hours) ARPG
7. Deus Ex: Invisible War (9 Hours) ARPG
8. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (23 Hours) ARPG
9. Deus Ex: The Fall (4 Hours) ARPG
10. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (15 Hours) ARPG
11. Dragon Quest XI (55 Hours) JRPG
12. Final Fantasy XV (28 Hours) ARPG
13. GRID 2 (17 Hours) Racing
14. Kingdom Come: Deliverance (40 Hours) RPG
15. NieR: Automata (20 Hours) RPG
16. No Man’s Sky (30 Hours) Adventure
17. Resident Evil Revelations 2 (10 Hours) Survival/Horror
18. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (29 Hours) RPG
19. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (25 Hours) FPS

Total: 410 Hours

On Switch:

1. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2 Hours) Metroidvania
2. Divinity Original Sin 2 (52 Hours) RPG
3. Doom (11 Hours) FPS
4. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered (42 Hours) JRPG
5. Golf Story (15 Hours) RPG
6. ICEY (3 Hours) Metroidvania?
7. Mario + Rabbids (21 Hours) TRPG
8. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (65 Hours) RPG

Total: 211 Hours

Together, that’s an average of 621 hours.. so all I have to do is stay awake and do nothing but play video games for about 26 days to finish all of them…

Unfortunately, I still have to go to work and do stuff that is generally required to survive, like eat and shower.

A much more manageable strategy would be as follows: if I play on average 2 hours every day, it will take me 310 days to get through my entire backlog. Some days I will play more, some days less, but I think 2 hours is manageable and achievable.

Another thing to consider is that in most of these games, I have made at least a bit of progress. Some are quite close to being finished.

Finally, the whole point of gaming is to enjoy it. I don’t want to trudge through all these games as if it’s a kind of chore, I bought these games because I like them and each of them are fun in their own way.

I have to come up with a system that allows me some flexibility and variety. Perhaps the best strategy, because I have the attention span of a flea sometimes, is to pick 2 games on each platform – one big, one small, and alternate between those. Preferably, with a variety of genres.

I will probably mop up the smaller titles pretty quickly so that will leave me with a bunch of 30+ hour games, but we will see how it goes.

For PC I will choose RE: Revalations 2 and Kingdom Come, on Switch I will pick Mario + Rabbids and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. I will review each game as I complete it as well.

Hopefully, with this strategy I will conquer my backlog before it gets any bigger. The only game I plan to buy this year is the Pokemon expansions, which hopefully won’t completely derail my project.

So, friends, what do you think? Any suggestions on how I can beat my backlog? How many games do you have in yours? Leave a comment below!