Changing the Backlog: Unexplored Series (Reason 1)

So what is a good reason to scavenge through the backlog?

To those that didn't read, go here,
http://thirdkoopa.blogspot.com/
I'm also lazy, so that's your link. Sorry. Zelda isn't included either. I also will be structuring these differently, so I hope people like the new structure?

You can find gems everywhere. Gems galore. People say when they scavenge through their backlogs, they find garbage, but frankly? I disagree. Scavenging the backlog has been the number #1 way I've found series that I've been missing out. I literally kid you not.

"But how can that be?!" one might ask. It's ten times easier to binge buy all of the Ty games and Half-Life games than actually *playing* them all. How else will I get around to series like this and discover them? Waiting for people to recommend me it? Not going to happen. Waiting to play them at a friend's house? There's so many multiplayer games that that doesn't happen. Wait to meet a fanatic? Yeah, maybe I am better off purchasing.

It brings me to my first victim of the backlog. Tales of Hearts R.

Tales of Hearts R was recent, but the Tales Of games have existed in my backlog and my to-buy list for an atrocious amount of time. What's my excuse every time? "Well, I'll play them with others!" - It's a valid point for someone like me, I mean, they're lengthy games. Tales of Vesperia still (which I did do co-op tho, but wasn't there for all of), Tales of Xillia 2, Tales of Hearts R. It keeps going.

Really, one of the reasons that sold me on doing this whole idea* was the prospect of actually getting around to series I've been missing out on. I won't cheat and list directors, but just to name a few big offenders: Mass Effect, Ty, Half-Life, Devil May Cry, Uncharted, Dead Space, Fable, Prince of Persia, the Department. of Heaven series, Phoenix Wright.

* = and making terrible blog posts at 1 AM

Okay, wow, that's a lot. For a disclaimer, I've played through most of these, just never finished. Some I don't even have data anymore for! That's tragic.

I have a few series that are strange to handle as well. Horror games such as Silent Hill and Fatal Frame have been a big miss on my plays of game series (in-which I've finished most prominent stuff out there. *most*. Keyword on that is still finished.) and Gears of War I've been planning on playing it with my best friend that "I don't need to mention because he'll be mentioned later in this not witty blog".

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Backlog Actual Progress:

Tales of Hearts R.

Literally the only game I touched all this week. I mean, yeah, I grinded in Dust some, but Dust has just demotivated me. So Tales of Hearts R...

I jumped from like, level 15ish range to the level 40ish range. What the heck is going on? Bus time and other various sources of time has given me time to actually play through this, but that's all I had.

Portable is definitely great still, and it'll be pleasant to get a 40 hour game off. It's honestly really enjoyable, and to some degree, I'm taking my time with it.

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I did think a little bit more of how to tackle it, though

I think the summer is meant to get all of the short games out and clean up the trash along with cleaning out what I've really wanted to play. I'm going to clean out the Vita and 3DS library still along with a few others that leave themselves open. I only need to finish one SNES and Wii U game, 4 GBC games, and 8 GBA games to complete all I currently own, so that's actually cool.

To be honest, it's actually not that bad. The only one that circulates triple digits of uncompleted is PS2 (Technically, not even my Steam Library does, but I'm sure I'll have a blog post counting that later). Many beyond that land closer to single digits, or at least on a more manageable scale. I was even shocked to see that the GCN only hit to 43. What? I have 118 games for that thing!

Yeah, that's what I'll do. After that, I'll hope that the long games get me through this year. I am going to make it through even if it kills me.

NEXT WEEK: Depending on what happens with the backlog, next posts could get highly entertaining. Stick around! I'll be talking about Reason #2 as well, "The Game within a Game", or something.

It's time to change the Backlog

warning note: i am still not use to blogging so i hope i have kept attention span and not made this too long

I'm going to attempt the impossible.

I'm going to do this.

I'm going to cure cancer.

...

Okay, maybe not as important, but I'm going to cure my cancer, which is apparently this [url=this thing called a backlog]thing called a backlog[/url] and I also seem to have some sloppy seconds over here. Some guy that I totally don't know told me I should write more as well. Or something. So here it is.

This whole backlog has been kind-of crazy and kind-of on it's own level. I mean, how did this happen? As someone who directs games (the plural may be a bit too kind) and works on music for games, I always expected to have some sizable backlog. Ever since the release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door I always expected backlog to play a part in my life.

But... Somewhere down the line it just got not manageable at all. I have an entire FILE just for all of my games split up into separate categories. These categories are kind-of absurd to, ranging with...

-Soon to Beat (haha... haha... haha), Not Even Time Needed, Co-Op with a friend of mine/other possible people, Sub 5 hours, Sub 10 hours, 10-15, 16-20 (seriously, why is this section a thing), 21-25, 26-30, 31-40, 41-50, 51-60, 61-100, and one game that ranks 100+ hours (what am I doing with my life)

And... it gets worse. I've been ignoring digital games or something in that which is a shame because of the amount of titles I've missed. Seriously, what? My two top games at least of last year were both Digital releases (Child of Light and Transistor). It gets worse still. Steam just piled up. The deepest irony? Of my backlogs, it probably takes the least time. What the heck is happening.

But, why is this whole backlog thing so important? I mean, it's obvious I'm never going to be back up at my old speed given all my commitments, and that's probably for the better. Honestly? I don't have a good answer for that. What I do have a good answer for, is other things that have seemed to disinterest me in the process of this.

This is Child of Light. AKA: I stop making excuses to myself and play a video game. I've seriously come up with so many excuses at this point. "But I'll play it with my best friend" "I'll wait for a Steam Sale" "I'll get it when I'm closer on my backlog" "I'll get it when I feel like playing" etc.

I did it though. I went out and got it along with a few other Vita games because I was tired of making these excuses. Guess what? I loved it. It motivated me to write about Video Games.

The excuses have seemed to generally roll in into other responsibilities of my life and I don't like that tenancy it's creating. I have writing projects I "owe" sites and not just a petty explanation (I've definitely been writing, I've just been bad about posting, for any site administrators reading on this). It's actually kind-of amusing to me that Racketboy, a site I was excited to be a part of (and still am) took me six months to go through.

Again, priorities take place. It's good that I have them, but before I stumble into rant mode, my reason to stop putting excuses for at least 30 minutes to an hour a day into it is because exploring new things is good for new inspiration so I stop making these excuses. Letting excuses roll into the rest of my life isn't good, or something.

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So this whole thing is kind-of incoherent but I have red eyes at the moment. Basically, I'm going to begin posts on tackling the backlog on here.

But "Why blogspot" to those wondering? Well, I'll still definitely have pieces for other sites in the works until I inevitably get bused so hard that no one even notices. Here is just a good place to write whatever. It's similar to my soundcloud - I can put whatever the hell I want and chances are nobody will complain about it.

Up on next week: Complaints about how lazy I am with Half-Life, Devil May Cry, and other series. Stay tuned for more entertainment with no wit!