Backlog Anonymous - The event to end all backloggery (Year 1)

[Moosbert]

I finished The Inner World and got the Platinum. I also purchased The Crew 2 from the current sale. This makes 13 completed games and a score of 3 points remaining.

 

edit: I just spent the 3 points for Dragon Quest 11. Down to 0 again.

 

original post

Edited September 23, 2018 by Moosbert

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Played all cups!

 

 

After playing card and dice games yesterday (Boonanza, Qwixx, Cards Against Humanity), and starting today with some PS4 gaming (Life Goes On, trying to beat the times/deaths/Jeffs, and How We Soar, getting through the story/levels), I switched to retro gaming. Going to play a longer game later but first I wanted to get through something quick, which became Mario Kart 64.

 

Contrast to Super Mario Kart, which I like less now, I still enjoy Mario Kart 64 a lot. I think the only thing it did less than Super Mario Kart was the music, which was lacking in tracks like Donkey Kong's Jungle Parkway and Koopa Beach and some others.

 

I guess 100% for this game would be getting gold on all cups on all difficulties (as in this game they didn't stack yet), which I'll get to... At some point. Going to do some other stuff first.

[SonneeD]

I finished Hotline Miami 2.  Honestly didn't enjoy it very much compared to the first so I had to force my self to finish it, though it isn't a very long game.  It felt like a lot of what made the first game fun was changed in order to fit the larger level designs.

[gladiatorrrrrrr]

Finished Claire on the PSVita. Nice Indie Horror, little buggy now and then.

 

First trophy: 18 January 2018

Last trophy : 24 September 2018

 

Gave myself just 1 point (instead of 1 1/3) works better for me. So that is number 2 of the backlog list ready. Off we go to finish #3 ?

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Finished the story!

 

 

The retro streak continues!

 

After playing Mario Kart 64 yesterday, I started on Super Mario 64, getting 58 stars. Today, I did another 12 stars and the final Bowser fight.

 

... It's hard to choose between the SNES and the N64 as favourite console ever for me. I always think it's the SNES, because it was the last hurrah for 2D gaming and 16-bit is awesome, and I feel like the N64's graphics look more dated than the SNES's because it was 3D gaming at its infancy, but then I play stuff like Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64, Rogue Squadron, Lylat Wars...

 

Playing Super Mario 64 again was a blast. As much as I love my Switch and as much as I love the new games I'm playing on it, I think Nintendo's a bunch of fools for not whopping the entire VC library on there. Then again, there's something awesome about holding an N64 controller again that a brand new handheld doesn't replicate.

 

Also, devs don't make endgame music like they used to. I'm struggling to think of any current gen game which endgame music I still remember. 

 

 

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Finished the story!

 

 

The streak continues!

 

Figured I might as well keep playing on the N64. I'm getting Valkyria Chronicles 4 this week, Assassin's Creed Odyssey the week after that, Starlink: Battle For Atlas the week after that... My retro gaming will be done for a while.

 

Speaking of Starlink: Battle For Atlas, I'm very excited for that game, and I've pre-ordered the Switch edition. I would've gotten it on Switch regardless, but getting an Arwing statuette would've sealed the deal otherwise. With Starlink in mind, I played Lylat Wars today (also finished Super Mario 64, see above, and did a bunch of tests in PilotWings 64). Lylat Wars is what Star Fox 64 was called over here (like how Star Fox on the SNES was called Starwing), and right in the first mission as I was flying my Arwing close over the water and saw the reflection, I felt some pain about how long it's been now since there was a proper Star Fox game. Star Fox on the SNES was pushing boundaries graphically, Star Fox 64 upped the ante in a remake kind of way, and afterwards... Well I don't know, I barely remember the later games, if at all.

 

I hope a month from now I can happily say I consider Starlink a great new Star Fox game. We'll see, I guess.

[Asvinia]

Finished The Hidden Ones DLC, pretty cool. It was nice to see what happened after the main game.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

8 hours ago, Asvinia said:

Finished The Hidden Ones DLC, pretty cool. It was nice to see what happened after the main game.

 

If you already liked The Hidden Ones (which, while not bad, is essentially just more of the same), then you're going to LOVE The Curse Of The Pharaohs. Best Assassin's Creed DLC ever and great value for money.

 

Psyched for Odyssey! It will probably be the first time I buy an Assassin's Creed season pass in advance since it has so much single player story/mission content in it.

[Caju_94]

Hey there, long time no see!

 

I have some updates to do, even though they are not that much, but I might do the game reviews later.

 

So, I finished the main story of Rayman Legends (PS4) and Senran Kagura: Estival Versus (Vita).

 

Additionally, I also got the platinum for Valkyria Chronicles Remastered and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm which leaves me with 3 NG points that I spent with Gravel for PS4 (a racing game). I already started Gravel, even though   game it is not one of the best titles out there, but still it is a racing game and I like racing!

 

Now, I am working on Borderlands 2 (whose story is almost finished), Gravel (which as quite the short campaign), Sly 3 (Halfway there!) and Senran Kagura's platinum! Since now I have less time for gaming, my progression will get a little bit slower, but still, I am happy with my progress and have great expectations for 2019's version of this event!

 

 

Edited September 25, 2018 by Caju_94

[ExHaseo]

So, I'm getting a Switch this weekend, because my mother found out I was going to buy one soon, and had gotten me one for Christmas. So instead of making me wait another 3 months, she's just giving it to me now. I'm going to be making sure I control my backlog for it though. I'm vowing to never have more than 3 unplayed games for it at any given time.

 

Anyway, in the spirit of shrinking my backlog, I went through and removed another batch of games I know I'm not going to ever beat. Because the more I get through my backlog, the more I look at it and just know that a lot of games are on there just because I feel obligated to play them, not because I want to. And I really hate that feeling. So anyway, here's the most recent batch.

 

Super Metroid

I just don't like this game. I don't know why. Maybe because by the time I had played it, I had just played better versions of the same formula, or maybe Metroid Prime just destroyed my expectations of the series. But either way, I just can't seem to enjoy this game. I've tried so many times, but I just can't. It's so slow paced, so easy to get lost, and the complete lack of direction is really annoying. I can understand wanting the player to find their own way, but at least give some kind of hint as to what to do.

 

Prinny 2 Dawn of Operation Panties, Dood!

I really liked the first game in this series. And because of that, I don't really like this one. It's just literally the same thing. A crushingly difficult platformer. The controls are the same, the stage layouts are the same, the characters are the same, and just everything is too much of the same. It made me feel like I've already played it, except I had to start over. So I could just never get into it.

 

Legend of Dragoon

This might be a really good game, but I'll never know. The loading times in this game are completely unbearable, and the flow of battle is painfully slow. I'm talking full minute long loading times. Which when the game came out was still long, but not that much longer than normal. So I'm sure most people didn't notice it. But I did. And it makes the game unplayable for me. Maybe if they release a version like FFVII on PS4, where it's the game running on better hardware, instead of just emulated, I'll try it again. But I can't play the PS1 version.

 

Okami HD

I love the Zelda series. The first game is the very first video game I ever played, and my very first memory is of playing it. So when I heard there was a game like it that had a Japanese ink art style, it sounded pretty awesome. But I just did not like it. the graphics felt more muddy than anything, and it was pretty distracting. It felt like everything took too long to get to as well. Which made the game feel like a slog. Given that I have the PS3 version, and it doesn't work with the PS4 controller, I just know I'm never going to go back to this game for any reason other than because I feel like I have to. So I don't want to force myself into it just because it's a popular game.

 

Knights of the Old Republic II

I just do not like the gameplay in this game. I've heard it has a great story, but I'm not about to force myself to play a game I don't like playing for the story. I'd rather just read a wiki or watch a Let's Play of it instead. Which is exactly what I'll do.

 

Space Channel 5: Part 2

I am straight garbage at this game. The timing between it telling you what to do and actually doing it just seems weird and a little off. I had the same problem with other old copy style rhythm games, like Parappa the Rapper. It just made the game frustrating.

 

Strike Suit Zero

For basically the same reason I took off Infinity, I'm taking off Zero. They did a lot to improve over Infinity, but it still just feels like more of a simulator style game than anything. Which I'm just not into.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

5 hours ago, ExHaseo said:

So, I'm getting a Switch this weekend

 

Welcome to the club!

 

5 hours ago, ExHaseo said:

I'm vowing to never have more than 3 unplayed games for it at any given time.

 

HAH! Good one. I remember when I said something like this for the Switch.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Finished the story!

 

 

I played Runner2 to death on X360 and PS3, to the point I really don't want to rebuy it for PS4 any more. Hearing about a sequel was good news though, and I bought Runner3 day one.

 

Somehow forgot about it thanks to all the other games I was playing too, dropped out halfway through. Finished the other half yesterday/today (it's not that long a game).

 

I like Runner3 for trying to mix things up and adding a lot of different types of stuff to the game, making it much more varied than Runner2. I could've done with more main levels though. I know there's loads of extra content, with alternative routes and extra hard side levels and such, but that's not the way I play. I feel like one additional world wouldn't have hurt its total package.

 

 

Got Valkyria Chronicles 4 collector's edition today (didn't have time to pick it up yesterday), so I'll be playing that mostly, at least until Assassin's Creed Odyssey arrives next week.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Spawn
Douchebag site I linked the image from took it down so I picked a different site to link to

[ExHaseo]

11 hours ago, Spawn said:

 

Welcome to the club!

 

 

HAH! Good one. I remember when I said something like this for the Switch.

 

Haha, well, being broke will definitely help me keep it under control. I'm just getting Bayonetta 2 for now, and then The World Ends With You Final Remix in a couple of weeks when it comes out. After that, I'll probably just get Smash when it comes out. Luckily there isn't much else that I want that's out right now. Just Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. But I'm not sure I'll like BotW because of all of the hype and ridiculously high praise, so I'm kind of avoiding it for now, and I've already played most of Mario on a friend's Switch. So I'm waiting until it gets a price drop, or I'll just try and borrow it from my friend to finish it up.

Not having flash sales all the time will help a lot too. I had kept my backlog under 20 games for as long as I could remember, until I started trophy hunting and Flash Sales started happening. And it just destroyed me. It was just too good a deal to buy 5+ games for like $10-$20. So I kept buying faster than I could beat anything. x_x

 

 

Finished up Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

 

It wasn't bad. There honestly isn't a whole lot that stood out to me as notable good or bad, but it was an overall fun experience. It was so weird playing a Marvel game that was based on the comics instead of the MCU though. When it was released, just Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk had come out, so the MCU wasn't the monster that dominated all of Marvel like it is now. Which made for a nice change of pace for a Marvel game. Super weird seeing the old comic book designs for the characters, but still nice.

 

Back up to 3 points now, so I can get my Switch and Bayonetta without any worries. I'm going to try and get through as many games as I can, to get as many points as I can in the next couple of days though. Just in case something I didn't know about jumps out at me.

[Psy-Tychist]

Quick update towards the end of September.

 

(PSV) Sound Shapes - Completed 30/08/18

(PS4) Jazzpunk - Completed 07/09/18

(PS4) Lara Croft GO - Completed 13/09/18

(PS4) Orc Slayer - Completed 17/09/18

 

4 Games completed from the backlog, none overly long but I am supremely thankful that I never have to play Orc Slayer ever again.

 

37 games completed 100% now.

[Dessane]

I've been away for ages, I'm sure you all missed me  I ended up picking up Spiderman the other day and have been smashing that out, should pick up the plat in a couple of days. So that puts me at 2 points at the moment but should be back up soon, i hope.

 

I'll chuck up some thoughts on the game when I finish it later in the week  

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Say, @Paleblood, I've been thinking... For the next iteration of the event, it might be fun if we have a point counter based on pricing.

 

... As in, we now have to do three stories from any games, big or small, but what an alternative could be is looking at the price. For instance, completing Spider-Man after buying it for €60 would net you an allowance of €20 and its platinum would net another €7, finishing Hollow Knight after buying it for €15 would net you €5 and getting the platinum (or just total completion if you play it on Switch) would net another €2. In other words, you'll get a third of the buying price back for the story and a third of that for platinum/100%, all would be rounded up to full Euro's or whatever currency you use. This would be in line with the current point system, but it would reward 'bigger' games (more expensive ones) more than the small (cheap) games.

 

We could do a minimum, like €5 for a 'full' game (original price €50 or up), and €1 for smaller games. That way getting them on a huge sale won't mean they're hardly worth anything for the event, and we immediately have a way of pricing PS+ games.

 

Speaking of, I once again forgot to check the PS+ list for next month, should have been revealed by now.

 

8 hours ago, ExHaseo said:

 

Haha, well, being broke will definitely help me keep it under control. I'm just getting Bayonetta 2 for now, and then The World Ends With You Final Remix in a couple of weeks when it comes out. After that, I'll probably just get Smash when it comes out. Luckily there isn't much else that I want that's out right now. Just Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. But I'm not sure I'll like BotW because of all of the hype and ridiculously high praise, so I'm kind of avoiding it for now, and I've already played most of Mario on a friend's Switch. So I'm waiting until it gets a price drop, or I'll just try and borrow it from my friend to finish it up.

 

You're new to the Switch, so you haven't realised yet that next to these big attention-getting titles, there's many smaller titles on the Switch that are interesting too. World Of Goo, Runner3, Agatha Knife, Picross S, West Of Loathing, Captain Toad, Fast RMX and Golf Story, just to name a few.

 

8 hours ago, ExHaseo said:

Not having flash sales all the time will help a lot too. I had kept my backlog under 20 games for as long as I could remember, until I started trophy hunting and Flash Sales started happening. And it just destroyed me. It was just too good a deal to buy 5+ games for like $10-$20. So I kept buying faster than I could beat anything. x_x

 

Yeah, back on X360, sales were my weak point.

 

Talking about sales, Yoku's Island Express is 40% off on the Switch, and it's already a great game when played at full price!

[Paleblood]

6 hours ago, Spawn said:

Say, @Paleblood, I've been thinking... For the next iteration of the event, it might be fun if we have a point counter based on pricing.

 

... As in, we now have to do three stories from any games, big or small, but what an alternative could be is looking at the price. For instance, completing Spider-Man after buying it for €60 would net you an allowance of €20 and its platinum would net another €7, finishing Hollow Knight after buying it for €15 would net you €5 and getting the platinum (or just total completion if you play it on Switch) would net another €2. In other words, you'll get a third of the buying price back for the story and a third of that for platinum/100%, all would be rounded up to full Euro's or whatever currency you use. This would be in line with the current point system, but it would reward 'bigger' games (more expensive ones) more than the small (cheap) games.

 

I like this a lot in theory.

However, I thought of something similar and, at first, wasn't sure how to implement it. The conclusion to which I came was that I'd just buy a bunch of small games then and would still have a massive backlog with no outlook of a backlog-free future.

 

I think your system is great if you have a reasonable backlog size anywhere from 10-50 games, but becomes almost an activator for buying more games for addicts like me. And you can honestly call it an addiction at this point, I'm not even joking.

 

Because let's say I bought the Darksiders 3 'I have too much money to spend special edition' for 399€, then I'd get 133€ for that. Well fuck me, time to go shopping boys.

Or let's say you bought The Witcher 3 GotY Edition for 15€ on one of it's numerous sales. So you'd get 5 bucks for a 150h game. That would also be shit.

And since we're on the internet everyone will just say anything anyway.

 

The main goal of this event for me was to lose my backlog indefinitely, not to find workarounds for buying more games.

I only sound so harsh because I need to be harsh to myself in order for this to work. Not that I think of you as someone who needs an explanation for my tone but I wanted to give one nevertheless.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

6 minutes ago, Paleblood said:

 

I like this a lot in theory.

However, I thought of something similar and, at first, wasn't sure how to implement it. The conclusion to which I came was that I'd just buy a bunch of small games then and would still have a massive backlog with no outlook of a backlog-free future.

 

I think your system is great if you have a reasonable backlog size anywhere from 10-50 games, but becomes almost an activator for buying more games for addicts like me. And you can honestly call it an addiction at this point, I'm not even joking.

 

Because let's say I bought the Darksiders 3 'I have too much money to spend special edition' for 399€, then I'd get 133€ for that. Well fuck me, time to go shopping boys.

Or let's say you bought The Witcher 3 GotY Edition for 15€ on one of it's numerous sales. So you'd get 5 bucks for a 150h game. That would also be shit.

And since we're on the internet everyone will just say anything anyway.

 

The main goal of this event for me was to lose my backlog indefinitely, not to find workarounds for buying more games.

I only sound so harsh because I need to be harsh to myself in order for this to work. Not that I think of you as someone who needs an explanation for my tone but I wanted to give one nevertheless.

 

I didn't think it was harsh until you said it was harsh ?

 

I wouldn't count collector's editions, to be honest. My big Assassin's Creed Odyssey collector's edition would just count as a €60 game.

 

Personally, I looked at it as saying I can't just go buy Red Dead Redemption II because I quickly played three €5 two hour games. But I see how this setup could be misused by people.

[gladiatorrrrrrr]

In itself it is a good idea. But we are all grown-ups (more or less...) for me this challenge is all about getting my backlog done. Current system is working for me.

 

 

[Asvinia]

I like the idea but it wouldn't work for me lol I'd have the same problem as Paleblood where I'd think that because I'd accumulated some monetary value that it would be time to go shopping. I've done well so far in skipping 2 sales because I don't have enough points

[thanatos_razl009]

I'm presently working on various games in terms of backlog, mainly PS3. Just it seems disheartening at times because my brother gave me Spider-Man. 

[ExHaseo]

10 hours ago, Spawn said:

Say, @Paleblood, I've been thinking... For the next iteration of the event, it might be fun if we have a point counter based on pricing.

 

... As in, we now have to do three stories from any games, big or small, but what an alternative could be is looking at the price. For instance, completing Spider-Man after buying it for €60 would net you an allowance of €20 and its platinum would net another €7, finishing Hollow Knight after buying it for €15 would net you €5 and getting the platinum (or just total completion if you play it on Switch) would net another €2. In other words, you'll get a third of the buying price back for the story and a third of that for platinum/100%, all would be rounded up to full Euro's or whatever currency you use. This would be in line with the current point system, but it would reward 'bigger' games (more expensive ones) more than the small (cheap) games.

 

We could do a minimum, like €5 for a 'full' game (original price €50 or up), and €1 for smaller games. That way getting them on a huge sale won't mean they're hardly worth anything for the event, and we immediately have a way of pricing PS+ games.

 

Speaking of, I once again forgot to check the PS+ list for next month, should have been revealed by now.

 

This is a great idea. If the event was just to limit games bought, this would be a good system. But like others have said, the main goal for most of us with this event is about eliminating the backlog, not just limiting it or the amount of money spent. That's why @Paleblood made it, and they did a great job making a system for doing just that. There's a great balance of still being able to get new stuff, but to always have more games leaving than coming in. With a money based system, it would be way too easy to always be throwing more games into the backlog.

 

I think the point system great the way it is, but if someone really wanted to rework the system, I think a time based system would work a little better than a money based one. You could basically just swap out money for time. Then everyone could use howlongtobeat.com as the judge of how long a game is, with the completionist stat as the plat time. Like let's say you get a game that takes 60 hours to beat. You could then get 20 hours into your backlog. Then you could use your 20 hours and do whatever you want with it. You could even get four 5 hour games, but since it's time based, you would never really be spending more time to beat them, than if you bought one 20 hour long game.

I only mention the time thing because I've been having a time problem recently, where my games are super long and it's kind of annoying spending 100+ hours on a game, and then getting 1 point for it. Even though it took me weeks/months to beat. Then having to move onto yet another 100+ hour game. It's making me hate those longer games, and it would be nice to have some more incentive to play them. That could be solved in the current by having an extra point for games longer than X number of hours, which I've thought about doing with my personal list. I'm just afraid it'll be too easy to abuse, and get me to bum rush through longer games if I want more points. Just finding a game that's X number of hours and then skipping all of the cutscenes and running through, making it take significantly less time.

 

Honestly though, doing a time or money based system would just make things even more complicated, and the point system can already get pretty complicated at times. A new system would likely just end up confusing people. And I feel like an event like this should be easily accessible to as many people as possible. Which is currently is.

[gladiatorrrrrrr]

Hmpf....the PlayStation plus games for October are not that great (lucky for my backlog!) but I will add 'The Bridge' for certain to my list. Wanted to buy/play that in the future anyway. So formally I didn't buy anything yet....these games kind of sneak into your list  ?. I am unsure about Rocketbirds 2: Evolution and 2064: Read Only Memories. Would play them both on the PSVIta.

 

So I added 1 one game to my PSVita list....

[gernboes]

I think i'll join this event!

 

I'll use the "Pale Mode" ruleset, with a few personal additions. I will not count PS+ games, because i have no control what games i get and when i get them, so even if im interested in them, i cant decide if i want to spend my points on them now or later... Also, i have a PS Now subscription, but i wont count those games either way. So i dont have to spend points to play them, but i also cant earn points by completing them with one exception: if i own a game outside of PS Now (for example i bought it for PS3), but complete it via PS Now (because i prefer to play it on my PS4 or on my PC), then i will earn points.

I will also not make a list of my backlog, because it simply is to big and it would be too much effort. I know that means i cant get the badge for completing 90% of my backlog, but i dont mind, and i think other than that it shouldnt matter if i do the list or not, right?

And lastly, i preordered RDR2, so i spent the money already, even if its not out yet, so i wont consider that game for the point count.

 

So, to the fun Part:

 

New Game Count: 1 1/3 Point(s)

 

Currently playing:

 

• PS4: 

 

Games finished: 1

Games bought: 0

Edited October 2, 2018 by gernboes

[SonneeD]

Spent the last couple of days finsihing some RPG's on Steam.

 

I finished West of Loathing.  A fun game with simple stick figure graphics.  Really the RPG mechanics aren't there to be challenging but to add a bit more actual gameplay to the game.  The game really shines in it's dialogue.  It's very funny and witty.  Though I did start to get bored with game near the end.

 

I also finished LISA.  All three of the LISA games in fact (The First, The Painful, and The Joyful), but I'm only gonna count this as 1 game as The Joyful is just DLC and The First is a free download.  I'm not gonna really say anything about The First since it's very short and honestly isn't super enjoyable.  The Painful, however, is an enjoyable RPG that is way more depressing than you would expect.  The parts of the game that actually advance the story more often than not just made me sad for the main character. But the parts of the game between those bits tends to be the complete opposite in tone.  I think that's what made the game charming to me.  Unfortunately, The Joyful pretty much completely removes the funny moments in favor of being a bit more serious throughout.

 

I think I'm gonna try and avoid RPG's for a little while now.  Just before I started participating I finished Persona 3 FES, and now with these I'm starting to get a little burnt out on them.  Probably gonna play some shooters next.