#greatbacklogchallenge

Originally published September 06, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Yes, I know.  You are probably reading this article shaking your head from side to side.  The answer is yes; I do dare resurrect this feature.  For those of you reading this and are unfamiliar with the backlog challenge, I’ll summarize it briefly:

I will not buy any new games in 2012 and I will try and finish games from my backlog.

The challenge was started back in January of this year.  I started with a few set of rules and some exceptions.  Some of these have been upheld and others have been broken.  I kept posting about this challenge roughly in a monthly basis; then the summer came.  Summer put a big dent on my available time, since I decided to go to summer school while working full time.

This was a blessing and a curse.  Because I had limited free time, I never had a chance to pay attention at what was being released during the summer.  However, this also meant that I had less time to sink my teeth into my backlog.  This was rather unfortunate because since the beginning of the year, I had been finishing games at a rather sluggish pace.  I had planned to finish at least one game per week for the entire duration of the summer.  This, of course, did not happen.   I ended up finishing two games over the summer:  Bioshock and Portal 2.   Both games are amazing experiences from beginning to end.

I wish I had invested the little time available I had into comparable experiences.  Unfortunately, I was playing 3 MMO’s at the time.  First up was my return to Final Fantasy XIV, which reminded me why the game is getting a reboot.  The original build of FFXIV was so atrocious, it will be remembered as one the worst MMO’s releases in videogame history.  Then was the death of Star Wars:  The Old Republic.  This MMO falls into the category of “gaming wounds.”  It is one of those games that you want to be successful, but ultimately they fail.  I knew it was over when I decided to take the game for a spin and my game character “woke up” to find a deserted capital city.  Every player was gone.  I was completely alone.  Last but not least is the original Guild Wars.  When Arenanet announced that they would be releasing Guild Wars 2 in August of this year, I was flabbergasted.  I simply had to get more points into my Hall of Monuments; and with that the grind for Hall of Monument completion began.

It is now early September and I do not play FFXIV or SWTOR.  Even Guild Wars has been cut from my gaming list.  Now I only play either Super Monday Night Combat or Guild Wars 2.  Currently SMNC is only used as a palate cleanser for those rare of occasions when I get temporarily tired of Guild Wars 2.  The challenge now is not to avoid buying new games because, quite honestly, I have enough games to keep me entertained.  The challenge now lies in leaving the wonderful world of Tyria to play any other game.  The Gauntlet has been thrown!

Originally Published March 03, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Let me start by saying that I am well aware that the last entry was in February.  I know, I’ve been slacking it.  A lot has happened in the past month:  from personal, to professional to the site being hacked.  This includes my first game purchase.  Yes, you read that right.   I’ve fallen off the band wagon.  But I’ll leave the juicy bits of this entry until the end.  For now, I give you an inventory of my Wii/PS3/PC.

As noted on the last inventory entry: If the game’s title has a normal font, then the game has been played, but not finished.  If the game’s title has a bold font and has an asterisk next to it, the game is brand spankin’ new.  If the game’s title is scratched  off, then I have completed the title.

Retail Wii Games

*A Boy and His Blob*

Animal Crossing: City Folk

Blastworks

Bully

Mad World

Mario Kart Wii

Metroid Prime: Trilogy

*Metroid: Other M*

Monster Hunter Tri

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Rayman Raving Rabbids

Rockband

Super Mario All Stars

Super Mario Galaxy

Super Smash Bros Brawl

TLoZ: Skyward Sword

ToS: Dawn of the New World

Trauma Center: Second Opinion

Wii Play

Wii Sports

Wii Sports Resort

Zack & Wiki

Downloadable Wii Games

King of Fighters ‘94

My Pokemon Ranch

Ninja Gaiden

Pokemon Snap

SSFII: The New Challengers

Super Mario Bros

Super Mario Bros 3

Super Mario World

TLoZ: Majora’s Mask

The list of Wii games is not as imposing as the Xbox 360 one.  I don’t have a huge collection of Wii games and I also tend to avoid the Wii shop.  Most of the downloadable titles are old favorites, so I don’t feel too bad about not finishing them. The same applies for the PS3 list:

Retail PS3 Games

Demon’s Souls

Disgaea 4

Dragon Age Origins

God of War III

Heavy Rain

Little Big Planet

Portal 2

*The Sly Collection*

*Uncharted 2*

Downloadable PS3 Games

Grimgrimoire

*Infamous*

Pixel Junk Shooter

SFIII: 3rd Strike

Wipeout HD/Fury

I had never realized that I had a decent amount of PC games until now.  This is quite interesting since I’ve haven’t owned my gaming desktop for very long.  The idea of owning a gaming computer first came to me when I wanted something powerful to run World of Warcraft and Guild Wars at max settings without lag.  This doesn’t take a lot of power, but at the time the only thing I had was my laptop (which was decent, but nowhere near a gaming laptop).  I started thinking about buying a gaming PC.   However, paying thousands of dollars for more gaming hardware was out of the question.  Shortly afterwards I bought Final Fantasy XIV, which wouldn’t even install properly on my laptop.  So I built my own gaming desktop, which was an experience on its own.  I reworked some wiring around the house to get a wired internet connection to my room.  The first things that I installed into “my baby” were Final Fantasy XIV and Steam.   A few Steam sales and humble bundles later, and you’ve go this list:

PC Games

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

And Yet It Moves

*Atom Zombie Smasher*

*BIT.TRIP RUNNER*

*Braid*

Breath of Death VIII

Cave Story+

*Cogs*

*Crayon Physics Deluxe*

*Clthulhu Saves the World*

*Dead Space*

*Dead Space 2*

Demigod

*The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion*

Final Fantasy XI

Final Fantasy XIV

Frozen Synapse

*Gratutious Space Battles*

Guild Wars (+ Expansions)

Hammer Fight

*Jamestown*

Machinarium

Magicka

Mass Effect 2

Metal Dead

Monday Night combat

*Night Sky*

Nuclear Dawn

Osmos

Portal

Portal 2

Prey

Revenge of the Titans

Shadowgrounds (+Survivor)

*Shank*

Steel Storm: Burning Retribution

Super Meat Boy

Super MNC Invitational

Terraria

TRAUMA

Trine

VVVVV

This brings the count of the Wii/PS3/PC inventory to a grand total of 87 games.   Combined with the Xbox 360 titles, the inventory list is bumped up to 177 games (not standalone titles, as there are some duplicates due to console/PC versions).  That’s a lot of gaming to be done.

Now it is time for full disclosure.  As I had mentioned earlier in this entry, this month I succumbed to the temptations of buying games.  Based one of the previous backlog challenge entries, I honestly thought I would not be able to resist Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.  But then I decided to pick up one of the most beloved RPG’s of all time:  Chrono Trigger.  This kept Amalur at bay and gave me the RPG fix that I needed, but it didn’t prevent me from spending money on games.

The first game purchased this year is Final Fantasy XIV.  Yes, the MMO with one of the worst possible launches in gaming history.  You see, I didn’t subscribe to FFXIV because I wanted to buy a new game.  I subscribed to FFXIV because I wanted to be a part of their community once again.  I’m not a MMO veteran, but I’ve played a couple dozen hours of WoW, Guild Wars, LORTO and SWTOR.  Presently I divide my “MMO time” between SWTOR and FFXIV.  While SWTOR is a vastly superior game, the sense of community is still “young.” The Old Republic lacks a distinct maturity present in other MMO’s.  In this case FFXIV, the game is still very young, yet the game inherited a lot of the community from FFXI.  Overall the community in FFXIV is very helpful.

Originally published February 04, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Another week without new games equals one more penny in my pocket.  It hasn’t been easy, but it hasn’t been excruciatingly hard.  I’ve come to realize that, partially, the reason that I own so many games is because I made a habit of going to gaming retail stores and hunting down bargains.  The same goes for online websites with their perpetual ‘limited time offers’ to one genre or another.  In the case of retail hunting, it was as simple as stopping by that gaming-retail-store after the gym, on my way home.  It was quite relaxing, like a post work-out cool down.  When it came online shopping, gamers are constantly bombarded with legitimately good offers. If you own a gaming PC, it is not a question of if you’ll buy online, but when.

As I mentioned before, habit was partially responsible for the expansion of my small collection.  However, a great part of my buying compulsion stems from what I call “the Christmas morning feeling.”  When I buy a new game, there is anticipation and angst.  Will it be good?  Will it live up to expectations?  Will I enjoy it as much as I think I will?  Will it be completely different, yet surprisingly enjoyable?  Unlike other media, video games continue to evolve as you play them.  A DVD or CD will always play the same movie or play list no matter what.  Video games on the other hand, have the potential to change your perspective during the course of a play session.  There is always a new weapon, new area or a new person to play with.  In games such as Skyrim, the potential for deviation between characters/sessions is so deep, you could be playing two games entirely.  Add the element of fun to that equation and you have a recipe for something great.  Every time I would acquire a new game for my collection, I would treat it as a potential bundle of video gaming ecstasy.

With such potential and excitement contained within a video game title, more titles should equal to more fun right?  Wrong.  With so many games available to me at any given time, I started to “sample” games instead of playing them.  I ended up playing through a game only if its first impression was a good one, otherwise it went back to the ‘video game pile.’  Even though I’m only one month into the year, I think I have gained my sense of appreciation back.  I try to stick to a game for a while before putting it back on its case.  This sense of appreciation along with avoiding gaming retail stores have paid off.  It is, however, impossible to escape from the internet.  Which is why I’ve come across several games that I was/am in the verge of buying.  I have decided to catalog these games.  As time passes, I think it will be fun to analyze games that I should buy along those that would have been a terrible disappointment.

Pushmo

This cute little game really sneaked up on me.  When the 3DS launched, I was very skeptical of the launch games and the system itself.  When the ambassador program was announced, I regained a little hope as this move indicated a strong retro library for the handheld.  Slowly the system started to gain titles and a strong retro background, but not enough strong downloadable titles.  I consider Pushmo to be the first major release for the Nintendo eShop.  This little sucker has been built from the ground up for the 3DS and uses 3D as a vital component for its game play.  Add to this a cute visual aesthetic and the ability to create your own puzzles and share them, and you’ve got a winner.  One day you will be mine Pushmo (just not today…).

Final Fantasy XIII-2

As linear and at times dull as Final Fantasy XIII was, it was still a great game.  It had an amazing battle system and (some) characters that I genuinely cared for.   Yet the game sacrificed too much for too little, and while not a bad game by any means it lacked that Final Fantasy feeling.  Square Enix then announced Final Fantasy XIII-2, and the bad memories of FFX-2 instantly started to flood my mind.  Why? I thought.  Why can’t they just let them be?   I had the lowest expectations for this game, until I saw the battle system in motion at PAX Prime 2011.  I found myself at a crossroads:  Will this game actually improve on the previous one or will it fall victim to the final fantasy sequel/spinoff curse?  Based on the various reviews that I have read, it seems that it has a little bit of both.  I get the feeling this one is more of a rental.

Kingdoms of Amalur:  Reckoning

As I try to think of something, anything, to write about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning all I can think of is this: “Don’t pre-order, don’t do it.”   But I’m afraid that is what I’ll do.   This is game combines enough gameplay elements from other titles, that is succeeds in wooing me into its world.  I love RPG’s and especially love the ones that can make me feel powerful but vulnerable at the same time.  The thing that sold me on KoA was its combat system, which is surprisingly deep for an RPG.  The cherry on top of the cake was the Mass Effect X Kingdoms of Amalur promotion.   At the beginning of this challenge I stated that ME3 was the only game exempt from this challenge and now this promotion comes into play.  I think this is a sign.   It must be the gaming gods telling me I must buy this game.

Originally published January 23, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Apologies for posting so late!   But here it is:  This is the first part of my gaming inventory.  I decided to start with the Xbox 360, because it is easily the largest library of the systems that I own.  It is also the system that I play that most and therefore I’d like to finish as much as possible from that library before moving on to the other systems.

This final list totals to 56 retail games (I own the physical disc) and 36 downloadable games (this includes Arcade, Retro and Indie games).  At first I couldn’t believe that I had bought so much and played so little.  I certainly have my work cut out for me.  Some of these games, like Bayonetta, I did play extensively, just didn’t get the chance to finish them.  Other games, I quit out of frustration: is the Devil Bringer supposed to be fun DMC4? Really?  Don’t get me started on the game’s protagonist, Nero.  Last but not least, there are games that I own that just plain suck.  I keep these games only because I couldn’t trade them in or the value of the trade was incredibly low. Instead of letting that gaming-specialty-store-that-shall-not-be-named get their way, I decided to keep the game (DDR Universe 3, I’m looking at you).

How to read this list: If the game’s title has a normal font, then the game has been played, but not finished.  If the game’s title has a bold font, and has an asterisk next to it, it has never been touched.  Ever.   If the game’s title is scratched off, then I completed/finished the title, automatically making that game not part of the great backlog challenge.

Alan Wake

Assassins Creed

Bayonetta

Bioshock

Bioshock 2*

Blue Dragon

Borderlands

Bulletstorm

Child of eden

CoD MW2

Dance Central

Dance Central 2

DDR U3

Dark Void*

Dead Island

Devil May Cry 4

Dj Hero

Duke Nukem Forever*

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Eternal Sonata

Fable 2

Fallout 3

Final Fantasy XIII

Gears of War

Gears of War 2

Gears of War 3

Golden Axe: Beast Rider

GTA IV

Halo Wars

Kinect Adventures

Lego Batman

Lost Odyssey

Mass Effect

Mass Effect 2

Mirror’s Edge

MvC3

Naruto SUN: Storm 2

Ninja Gaiden 2

Phantasy Star Online Universe

Project Sylpheed*

Pure

Rage*

Rockband

Rockband 2

Rockband 3

Skyrim

Splinter Cell Conviction

Super Street Fighter IV

Table Tennis*

Tales of Versperia

The Lord of the Rings Conquest

The Orange Box

Vanquish

Your Shape Fitness Evolved

One of the biggest improvements of this generation was the start of digital distribution.  I love that small gaming studios can put out a great product while cutting back on cost.  Downloading a game from XBL is fast, easy, and therefore a very dangerous practice for this challenge.  The following list contains some big Arcade releases as well as some Indie titles.  You’ll see that some of these titles are followed by question marks (???).  This indicates the impossibility of finishing these games.  This can be due to the nature of the game or a specific condition.  For example, the game Totemball requires the original vision camera for the xbox 360.  I’m not going to go hardware hunting in order to play totem ball (I downloaded it for the achievements!).  There are also the other games that are giant turds.  I will probably play these games once again to confirm their turd-tastic status and then I will permanently delete them from my hard drive.

Aegis Wing

Asteroids & Asteroids Deluxe (???)

Breath of death VII

Castle Crashers

Catan (???)

Chime

Comic Jumper

Deadliest Warrior: The Game (???)

Defense Grid

Doritos Crash Course (???)

Duke Nukem 3D*

Game Room (???)

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2

Get To Tha Choppa!!1 (???)

Harm’s Way (???)

Hexic HD

I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMB1ES!!!1 (???)

LIMBO

Lone Gunner

Marvel vs Capcom 2

Megaman 10

Megaman 9

Monday Night Combat

Pac-Man CE DX

Plants vs Zombies

Raskulls

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game

Shadow Complex

Shoot1UP

Soul

‘Splosion Man

Super Meat Boy

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai

Totem Ball (???)

Unbound Saga*

WinterBottom

Originally published January 09, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

It is not uncommon to hear “New Year, New You” around this time of the year.  It is the time where many resolutions are made, some only to be broken.  This year I decided to do something I have never done before, and stick to it.  My new years resolution is to clear out the tremendous backlog of games that I have accumulated and to avoid buying any new video games.   There is a set of rules that I will follow, but before I go into detail, here is a recollection of events that lead to the creation of this challenge:

It is Mid November, I wait in line at that-gaming-retail-store-that-shall-not-be-named after going to the gym.  When it’s my turn to go up to the counter, I purchase a brand new copy of Super Mario 3D Land for my 3Ds.  I’m excited, it is my first ‘quality’ title for the system.  I currently have a lot of games on my plate but I don’t mind.  Enjoying new systems and their new games is one of the many pleasures of being a gamer.

It is Late November and ‘Black Friday’ is taking place.  I’m in the middle of my work week, it is early in the morning and I just got home after working all night.  I’m tired, I want to go to sleep.  I start to regret that I won’t be doing any Black Friday shopping. I always go “early bird” shopping during Black Friday.  I should go to sleep so that I can be well rested for the next workday.  Instead, I get up and go to a mall near my house.  I buy a new copy of Gears of War 3 (to replace my scratched one) as well as RAGE for a relatively low price.  I’m satisfied with my savings.

It is Mid-December and I lay on my bed talking to my cousin on Facebook.  He was a “hardcore” gamer before me, but I have continued to devour games long after his present gaming hiatus.  We discuss everything from work to gaming.  He cuts our current conversation abruptly with “By the way are your downloading SWTOR?”  I’m shocked.  He is the guy who really got into World of Warcraft and for a while it consumed him.  Later on, he quit and vowed to never touch WoW again.  I tell him that I will probably wait until SWTOR’s retail release, since I do not like Origin’s monitoring policies.  We then engage into a conversation about Star Wars, video games, and why I should buy SWTOR.  A few minutes later, I do some research and realize that I do not have to download the Origin client to play SWTOR, I only need to purchase the game from their website.  It wasn’t long before I purchased the Deluxe Digital Edition and stared the download process.

It is late December, I’m at a lesser known retail store with my father.   He is looking for a good deal on a flat screen t.v.   I’m there to decipher all of the tech-geekery-slang that is sure to boggle the mind of the most naive customer.  Essentially he is there to buy and I’m there to make sure it is a good buy.  In the end, he gets his flat-screen, and I take a look at the video game section.  They have a sale.  Most of titles are the usual rejects of bad games or sports games, but there are a few gems hidden in-between the trash.   I see Okami and A Boy and His Blob both for Wii.  Both of them for less than 15 dollars.  I have Okami for PS2 and despite my inability to play it (dam you PS3 Slim), I know that I should get A Boy and His Blob.  So I do and it feels good.  So very, very good.

It is early January, a copy of RAGE (still in the shrink wrap) sits next to a dozen other games, untouched.  I’m not gaming, instead I’m looking at my laptop, reviewing my savings account online.  I notice that my 2011 savings pale in comparison to the ones of the previous year.  In a separate tab of my browser I have my email open. In my inbox, there are emails from amazon regarding my Mass Effect 3 pre-order as well as other ‘amazon suggestions.’  Even though the thought of ‘maybe I buy too many video games’ had crossed my mind, it had never been as crystal clear as that point in time.

As I mentioned earlier, I will try to play through the majority of my backlog.  Currently  I have over 200 titles in my gaming collection.  This is includes everything from NES titles, handhelds and present generation games.  By doing so, I hope that I can achieve a few goals:

Play or complete games that were purchased but never played.

Finish the majority of games that I have started but never completed.

Restrict the amount of game purchases made this year.

Cancel Downgrade my Gamefly account during the course of this year.

Naturally there are some rules to help me work towards my goal as well as to provide me with some leeway:

I will not buy any new or used video games ( Mass Effect 3 is the only exception to this rule)

I can use gift cards given to me during the holidays to purchase games.  This includes 1600 MS points and a 30 dollar gift card.

From time to time I review games, these titles do not count and are exempt from this challenge.

Free downloadable games are ok, since they do not incur a cost.

My subscription to Star Wars: The Old Republic is also exempt from this.  However, if for any reason I decide to cancel my subscription, I will not re-activate my account until 2013.

Vintage games and vintage gaming hardware are also exempt from this.  Unlike video games for the current generation, I tend to be very selective and picky about what I will buy, so my vintage shopping habits shouldn’t be a problem.