How Do You Tackle Your Backlog? (Plat Cast Topic)

[Hunter226037]

The biggest thing for me is trying not to get sidetracked by other games. Focus on 1 at a time. My backlog is so big that at times I will just put 10-15 of them in a wheel randomizer and spin it then work on the game it lands on.

[hotdog_president]

I have a pretty in-depth excel sheet that keeps me in line with what I want to tackle next. Of course, I change it up sometimes based on my mood, but for the most part I follow it pretty well. It's done wonders for me in regards to having a plan to tackle my backlog!

 

 

[AfraidOfTheFolly]

I have a list on my phone and I'm relieved some people above have mentioned lists or spreadsheets so I don't feel like I am completely crazy.

 

Just for a bit of background I am a dad of 3. Thankfully they are all young enough to have an early bed time so there isn't a battle for the TV (God help me in a few years).

 

I really struggle as at most I will get maybe 10 to 12 hours of gaming a week (That mostly involves 2 nights of staying up way later than I should) so once a game feels like a grind or if I get super frustrated I find myself thinking "Yep that's me done screw this" but after moving on I do return after a while for another shot.

 

I should also say I only got my PS4 back in July after a pretty big hiatus with gaming which is A). Why I don't have many platinum's and B). Why my backlog is so small.

 

Told myself at the start of the year that with the exception of Mortal Kombat 11 I wasn't going to buy any games in 2019 but then early this week I ordered Assassin's Creed Origins as I had a 20% discount from Ubisoft and today I got the Hotline Miami Bundle because........well just because.

 

Fingers crossed these are the last games I buy in 2019 (Although I doubt it).

Edited February 1, 2019 by HolteEndHero88

[colia100]

At the last count, i have 78 games on my shelf that i still want/need to complete, so my newfound method to deal with this is to just to eyeball them from my couch and gently cry myself to sleep ?

 

On the pro active side, i have decided to not to buy any new games for the next six months (yeah like thats gonna work )

 

 

[grifteskymfning]

How do I tackle my backlog?

 

Not at all, it would seem...

 

[darkjian92]

My backlog tends to be addressed in little doses - ordinarily I’ll keep at one game until it’s 100%, so there are normally extenuating circumstances for a game I’ve started to fall into my backlog.

 

Of my current set of incomplete games:

• Mighty No. 9, Onrush, and Rayman 3 I only play in small doses because of the focus required to advance. I tend to play these in one- or two- level bursts once every few days.
• I started Just Cause 3 for a trophy competition, and I plan on playing the earlier games in the series before continuing it.
• Portal Knights, Warframe, and Red Dead Redemption (PS3) I tend to only play with friends (or in the case of RDR, boosting groups) so they get relegated to pretty much weekends only.
• The other games in my backlog are either excessively grindy (Tetris Effect, Big Bash Boom, and also Warframe to a lesser extent) or lacking motivation on my part to finish a second play through to mop up (Bastion) - these tend to get an hour’s attention here or there when the whim takes me.

Every now and then I get on a roll with a backlogged game and manage an almighty push to get it done - probably my proudest to date was Wipeout Omega Collection. I swear I was twitchy for days after that.

[DarkSoleride]

Quite easily like this.

 

1. Difficulty & Multiplayer Evaluation 

Look at games i have played that have easy to moderately challenging platinums / 100% then start with finishing those off first. If the game has multiplayer i usually boot it up do the multiplayer trophies then leave it for another day this way it reminds me to go back to it if i do not have all the time to do it there and then. Kind of like a reminder.

 

2. Time Management 

With work and social life being the ever ending defeatism of my gaming time i look at what games can be finished around that so i play 1 PS Vita game on the go and one game on my PS4 in the evenings i have more or less abandoned the PS3 at this stage going to finish Uncharted 1 but that is about it probably do that tomorrow.

 

3. Swapsies 

Only buy one game when i have finished two titles on the same format to avoid clutter on memory space and real life storage space.

 

4. No More Cheap Easy Plats

This was a killer on the backlog in the past i bought many cheap games with easy platinums, like Murdered: Soul Suspect, Little Adventure on the Priary, My Name is Mayo Vita stack etc these games i have still but refuse to boot up because my priorities have shifted to games i really enjoy and want to platinum, instead of just a number increase on my profile.

 

This is pretty much how i manage my gaming time and backlog this way i do not get tempted, 

Edited February 1, 2019 by DarkSoleride

[FawltyPowers]

I was a completionist up until I started my PS4 in 2017 getting up to 99.68% on the PS3 over the course of 7 years (could never get 100% because of closed servers) just playing a game at a time.

 

As I turned to the PS4 I said I wouldn't let this happen again, but right now I have 123 games I've not started yet and my habits have been trying to push me back to 100% completion. To give me a reality check I created a backlog spreadsheet. Here is the top of the list:

 

 

Everything in purple I own but haven't started yet. I have an estimated time and difficulty for each game unless they aren't available and only having around 2 hours a day my completion time for all games stands at the 11th April 2034. Just over 15 years.

 

My completed ratio is at 0.30%. Every time I earn a trophy the completed ratio goes up, but if I buy a game then that increases the trophy count and lowers the Completed Ratio. In the past year I've not got my completed ratio above 1.5% which is ridiculous, even after earning over 700 trophies.

 

The hard choice I have is either play a handful of games to 100% or play them all and forget about completion. The latter is the obvious choice, what is the point of owning these games and never playing on them just because of a profile.

 

I'm gradually pushing myself to forget about completion. I think the more incomplete games you have on your profile the easier it gets so that is how I'm trying to tackle the backlog.

[Willstown]

Every few newer games I get through I go back and pick something I've had for ages and get playing it.  I try to avoid starting games before I've finished the current batch.

I do love a good sale though so the backlog does spiral.  Occasionally blasting through a quick 100% or fast plat from the archive helps whittle it down as well.

 

To be honest I try not to worry about it to much, obsessing over it makes choosing the next game a problem.  As long as I've got plenty to play I'm happy.

 

I also don't consider Psplus games as part of my official backlog.

[Crazy]

I simply leave the abhorrent beast that is my backlog in the corner of the room. Once every blue moon, it howls in the middle of the night to remind me it exists. Eventually, it gets tired of being ignored and coerces me to pull one from its stack and pop a platinum. PlayStation exclusives and AAA games are the repellent I use to put it back in its place.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Crazy

[Lanky-Lemon]

I just kinda forget about it, then when I finish a game I scroll through my digitals or scan my shelf irl

[Bushido7745785]

Thanks for all the great and funny answers gang! I'm more determined to clean out my backlog now! We'll see how that goes though! ?

[AJ_Radio]

The PROBLEM is nowadays there are so many games that go on Flash Sales and whatnot that it's rather easy to just buy up 100 - 200 digital games. Before you know it you have a shit ton of games that you may never get around to playing, let alone finishing.

 

I find myself having less and less time than I did 10 - 15 years ago. I'm older now and I can't afford to sit around all day playing video games like I once did.

 

It's bad enough that I have over 100 games on my backlog, some of which are going to be quite time consuming. We'll see, maybe if I'm lucky I'll knock out a few dozen before this year's end.

[fbdbh]

Easy. 

 

Step 1: Organize trophy list by completion

Step 2: Look at all the E-ranks

Step 3: Get severely depressed and hate-buy a new game instantly

 

[Infected Elite]

since most of my backlog is RPGS. or lengthy games. I'm trying to go 1rpg- 1 short - 1 new release - 1 rpg etc.

 

backlog: (going for stories in most or at least 65%)

- Tales of Berseria (almost done final dungeon)

- Tales of Vesperia (I think this game is meh)

- Dragon Quest XI (REALLY WANT TO PLAY but so much else)

- Okami HD

- Far Cry 3 Classic

- Far Cry New Dawn

- Digimon Hackers Memory

- Yakuza 6

 

so I'll finish Berseria this week and then I'm playing DMC V.... then hopefully can fit in Yakuza 6 before Sekiro Shadows Die Twice and Trails of Cold Steel.

 

either way, to me this list is daunting as I dont have much gaming time during the week. I put 15hrs into Berseria on last weekend.. so if DQ XI is 80hrs story like people say, itll take me well over a month.. which is kind of why I'm hesitant to start it

[AmarisSkye]

Last year I made a spreadsheet of all of the PS4 games in my backlog that included the number of trophies I needed to get vs total trophies for the game, whether it had a platinum or not & how long the game would take to beat. This helped me better see what games I could get through fairly quickly to get them off of my list and also gave me a more realistic idea of the length of some of the longer games.

 

About a week ago, I did the same for my PS3 games. Just having all of that info all in one place has helped me decide what I want to play and when.

[willythom88]

My backlog is, like many other peoples, several hundred deep (games I've started, my non-started is probably under a hundred).  Something I've been working on besides participating in events where I need to clear my back log is focusing on my largest games first.  RPG's have been more or less my sole thing this year.I stick to things I actually want to play, which is a portion of why the events don't go better, but that's beside the point.  Another thing I try to do is when I'm not working on long games (in between them) I focus on the shortest games possible.  My new goal for this is to just play one thing at a time and not jumping around as much.

[Kevvik]

I deal with it as quietly as I can so that my wife doesn't realize just how big my digital backlog is while she complains about the 40-50 physical games on my shelf.

Otherwise, I try to tackle it the same way you deal with any monstrosity. A cheap shot to the knees, kick it a few times while it is down and hope it doesn't grow much bigger before the next time.