Will you ever catch up?

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kamikazekyle

Senior member
Feb 23, 2007
538
0
0
I was making pretty good headway in my backlog (it's still significant, mind you). Most new releases nowadays aren't all that interesting to me and the only multiplayer stuff I play is the occassional MMO. There are a good bit of games that I bought and had some fun, but it wore off maybe midgame or something and I never bothered to finish.

Then, I found some console games I had been putting off on sale on Amazon. My friend wanted to pick up an MMO since my schedule changed, and my girlfriend wanted to pick up a different one at the same time. Toss in some nifty indie games that I've been grabbing as well as a lot less free time at home, and, well, my backlog will probably never go down.

Meh. I can't wait till I'm done covering these shifts. Six straight days of 18 hours of uninterrupted gametime every other week from then on out. Heeeeloooo catchup time.
 

Arg Clin

Senior member
Oct 24, 2010
416
0
76
It's easy to get lost in a huge backlog. There has to be a reasonable and realistic flow, otherwise the games just becomes obsoleted faster than you can play them.

Here's what I do:

1) Quality only please. Have to be a rough here - I will not spend my time on games of lesser quality in terms of coding, game mechanics, story execution (where applicate) and so on.

2) Cut your losses. I spend a lot of money on games that became dull after a few hours. It's a shame to have thrown that money away - but even worse getting stuck in a stubborn attemt to get value, instead of just moving onto something more fun.

3) Hold back on MMO. I rarely play MMO, and only with a few good friends from old times. MMO really reuires a lot of time if you are to realistically keep up. A realistic estimate of your game time avalible and willingness to do MMO is key.

Just some quick thoughts.
 

PrayForDeath

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2004
3,478
1
76
I am waaaay caught up on the games I know I want to play. (I think the last PC game I picked up for myself was CoD4.) The question is the games I don't know if I want to play. I've had Black and White 2 and Command and Conquer: Generals sitting here for years (part of a strategy pack) and I don't know if I want to install them. I don't know what kind of gameplay the former has, and as for the latter, after Total Annihilation, Command and Conquer (and Tiberian Sun), Homeworld, AoE 1+2, Starcraft, Warcraft 2+3, and Dawn of War, I'm not sure I can be arsed to pick up another RTS.

I had to check the date of your post cause it seems to have come straight out of 2003. lol
 

Sulaco

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2003
3,825
46
91
2) Cut your losses. I spend a lot of money on games that became dull after a few hours. It's a shame to have thrown that money away - but even worse getting stuck in a stubborn attemt to get value, instead of just moving onto something more fun.

Very good point.

I do this a lot, unfortunately. I'll start a game, get a few hours in, not really enjoy it but figure I'm nearly half way through, and force myself to keep playing because I don't want to "waste" the time I've put in already. And I'll end up hoping it gets better.

It rarely does, and so a game will go 40-75% of the way completed before I get too bored and move on.

Other times, it's not so much that its the game's fault, but another, more engrossing game will come along, and the original game is left unfinished.
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
I don't play MMOs.. games made by EA and UBIsoft, and still have a lot of games to catch up. Right now I have.. GRID, STALKER series, SW: KoTOR on my playlist.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
Will you ever catch up?

And by the time I'm retired there'll be 40+ years more to catch up on. And then everyone will tell me I'm too old to play anyway D:
You aren't supposed to catch up. Developers are going to always be making new games that you want to play and if you get old, you will be playing games targeted for your age group.

How about the game we are all playing right now? Is there an endgame? How do you "win"? Do you ever catch up?

:whiste:
 

DeathReborn

Platinum Member
Oct 11, 2005
2,786
789
136
I've probably got between 100 & 200 games I have either never tried or never reached half way through (or even past 5 minutes). I don't think with my work schedule i'll ever catch up, especially not TF2 or Borderlands, there's just something about 3D games with cartoon graphics that makes me angry...
 

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
I've probably got between 100 & 200 games I have either never tried or never reached half way through (or even past 5 minutes). I don't think with my work schedule i'll ever catch up, especially not TF2 or Borderlands, there's just something about 3D games with cartoon graphics that makes me angry...

Borderlands is all sass and no substance. When I finally realized it was a mediocre sandbox with limited quests and a clunky interface I gave up.
TF2 is fun just for the violence, but that gets tiresome after a bit. Also with the influx of new players, veterans are quick to permaban people from their servers. I got locked out from quite a few just cuz I died within 5 minutes.
 

Phobic9

Golden Member
Apr 6, 2001
1,822
0
71
I'll be spending the next 6 months in Africa thanks to a military deployment.

Yeah, I'll catch up... even though I'll have the ability to still buy games from Amazon thus extending my backlog
 

paperfist

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2000
6,539
287
126
www.the-teh.com
I hate life sometimes. When I was a kid like most of you I had time on my hands, loads and loads, but no money :( Now I have money and no time on my hands :( So basically I will never catch up to half of the games I own.
 

ibex333

Diamond Member
Mar 26, 2005
4,094
123
106
Much as I love games, I really don't think I will ever make it through everything I actually want to play. Ever.

Between getting caught up in MMO after MMO and other multiplayer games and games getting bigger and deeper and indie production becoming more and more impressive, I think it's a losing battle :(

Off the top of my head I've got dozens on Steam I'd love to play through not to mention a few titles on almost every system dating back to the NES (the PSX especially, I think playing everything I missed on there alone would take ages) that I'd like to experience as well as games that I've beaten that I even want to replay now that I'm older and wiser.

And by the time I'm retired there'll be 40+ years more to catch up on. And then everyone will tell me I'm too old to play anyway D:

Haha.. I feel ya. I'm in the same shoes. but I keep telling myself that one day I will say: Enough! No more buying games. I have more than I will ever need. Now it's time to sit down and play them all! But then a new game comes out, and Steam drops it's price to something ridiculously low, and everything goes to hell...

During this summer sale I kept telling myself. "No.. No more games. I bought more than enough!" But then the voice in my head kept saying.. "BUT IT IS A REALLY GOOD DEAL!"

About $200 later, I still have to admit that if I had to do it all over again, I probably would still buy all those games. Why? Because IT WAS A REALLY GOOD DEAL! ;)
 
Dec 28, 2001
11,391
3
0
Not particularly; but I tend to be picky on games that I want to play and normally there's a lull where I can catch up on the games that I have/want to play.
 

motsm

Golden Member
Jan 20, 2010
1,822
2
76
I pretty much only buy old games, so while I have a rather large backlog, I look at them like a supply of canned goods that will keep me alive while I wait out the ****storm.
 

greenhawk

Platinum Member
Feb 23, 2011
2,007
1
71
has the same issue several years back. Ended up only playing games that grabed my attention as they were something new. While a few games come along and I think "should I", I hold out and wait for user reviews and generally find the games I was thinking about did actually suck enough that I did not bother with them. Then their are some games worth getting that I have played the crap out off. Team fortress 2, left 4 dead 1 just ate huge amount of time. No idea what games came out during that time as I did not buy any.