Gaming backlogs

[Dominus Atheos]

I just realized how many games I buy but then never finish. It nearly made me .

Not even started:

American Mcgee's Alice
Dawn of Discovery: Venice
Dragon Age Origins Awakening
Grand Theft Auto 4
Mass Effect 2
Real Myst
Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity (free)
Sol Survivor
Star Wars the Force Unleashed
Supreme Commander 2
Cities XL
Eets
Far Cry 2
IL-2 Sturmovik
Left 4 Dead 2
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Fallout 3 (free)
Viva Pinata
Age Of Empires III
F.E.A.R. 2

Games I started but never finished:

Europa Universalis 3
Fallout New Vegas (free)
Galactic Civilizations II (free)
Napoleon Total War (free)
Star Wars Empire at War
Elder Scrolls Oblivion
The Guild 2
The Settlers VI
The Settlers VII (free)
Battlestations Pacific
Bioshock 2
Crysis
The Last Remnant
Majesty 2

It's just... every week Steam or Direct2Drive or Impulse or the EA Store or the Games for Windows Marketplace has some unbelievable deal for some game and I can't not but buy it. Help me.

Which game should I start first?

[Chardok]

Mass Effect 2, you goon. (Assuming you have a save from 1)

Then Far Cry 2, asshole.

Then Viva Pinata as a Palette (That's funny - and you'll see why when you play it) Cleanser

[Phantasee]

How much do you think you've spent on all those games you haven't finished?

[Chardok]

How much do you think you've spent on all those games you haven't finished?

He probably got them all on ridiculously awesome sales. I'd say he paid an average of 10 bucks apiece. so, the non free ones total 30...

300.00...that's about right for 6 months gaming budget - actually, that's a pretty damn goodly amount of games for 300.00 Well done, sir!

[adam_grif]

Mass Effect 2, you goon. (Assuming you have a save from 1)

Even if you don't, it's still a great game.

You can also download an ME1 endgame save from here if you want to get import bonuses and decisions but don't want to play the monotonous first game.

[Stark]

Someone needs to get the impulse-buying under control.

And seriously, AMG Alice? What a fucking horrible game.

My Gaming Backlog

Gundam Musou 3 (not out yet)
Gears of War 3 (not out yet)


uhm... that's it.

[Chardok]

Mass Effect 2, you goon. (Assuming you have a save from 1)

Even if you don't, it's still a great game.

You can also download an ME1 endgame save from here if you want to get import bonuses and decisions but don't want to play the monotonous first game.

Good point. I'd for sure start with ME2, then. I didn't think about the fact that it's the superior PC version that you can get cool save files for feebie anywhere. Yeah - save yourself from 1 if you can, unless you're a big fan of...you know...Mass Effect...I played 1 because I was naive. I played 2 because I was hooked.

[Chardok]

Someone needs to get the impulse-buying under control.

And seriously, AMG Alice? What a fucking horrible game.

My Gaming Backlog

Gundam Musou 3 (not out yet)
Gears of War 3 (not out yet)


uhm... that's it.

Fucking liar - You've never once played Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts so you're wrong.

[Stark]

If you bought a Banjo Kazooie game and then never played it, I think the two decisions balance each other out.

[Dominus Atheos]

Someone needs to get the impulse-buying under control.

And seriously, AMG Alice? What a fucking horrible game.

My Gaming Backlog

Gundam Musou 3 (not out yet)
Gears of War 3 (not out yet)


uhm... that's it.

You do realize you game your xbox live account linked in your sig, and we can see every game you've ever played right? Let's take a look:

The Lord Of The Rings Online: 25 hours spent playing.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad: 14 hours

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2: 8 hours

Dance Central

Kung Fu Panda

Transformers the Game

Avatar The Last Airbender: The Burning Earth, which you got every single achievement for.

50 Cent the game, which you gave 5 stars, have 40 out of 45 achievements, and actually wrote a review for saying "Outrageous and over-the-top romp through xyz-stan in pursuit of a plot. Its fast, features hilarious dialog from 50c and his G-Unit crew, and can be finished in about 3 hours. "

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 28 of 47 achievements

Alan Wake, 42 of 67 achievements

Rumble Roses XX

STRAK FAIL

[General Zod]

Rental != Impulse Buy?

[weemadando]

Dude I want to get BitS because it's all of the things STRAK said it is. And when I can find it for 10, then I will.

[Stark]

You do realize you game your xbox live account linked in your sig, and we can see every game you've ever played right? Let's take a look:

Man that's pretty relevant to people so stupid they buy games that they never even play.

50 Cent the game, which you gave 5 stars, have 40 out of 45 achievements, and actually wrote a review for saying "Outrageous and over-the-top romp through xyz-stan in pursuit of a plot. Its fast, features hilarious dialog from 50c and his G-Unit crew, and can be finished in about 3 hours. "

50 Cent BitS is a great game, and its a blast coop. Somehow, this is relevant to you buying games you never play?

STRAK FAIL

One of us thinks playing a dancing game is some kind of mistake. Maybe you'd be better at it if you pulled the stick out of your ass? I know its unlikely that you'd ever host a party, but some of us do.

Wando, don't bother buying BitS, it's too short. Just rent it (although its pretty rare at EB these days due to the hilarity factor).

[adam_grif]

Rental != Impulse Buy?

Stark doesn't rent games, he buys them and then returns them.

Although tbh I don't think some of those games listed could be considered "good value", even at zero dollars.

[Stark]

Tell me how much value games someone buys AND THEN NEVER PLAYS are, in comparison.

PS, even the EB staff call the return procedure 'rental'.

[General Zod]

Stark doesn't rent games, he buys them and then returns them.

Same difference.

[adam_grif]

Tell me how much value games someone buys AND THEN NEVER PLAYS are, in comparison.

It's only a waste if he never plays them. Fortunately, the future still exists, so we won't be able to judge how wise of a purchase those were until he's dead

Same difference.

Nah, if he rented games he would have actually payed money for them, whereas with the return policy he gets all of them for free except the last one he ends up buying.

[Stark]

You can get cash refunds, dude. There's never an obligation to keep a game; there's only an obligation to ACTUALLY PLAY THEM within a week.

I'm curious if many people do this with boxed games. Obviously Steam profits from people with low impulse control, but guys like Vympel seem to buy actual games and then not play them for months, which is bizarre (and even costs money, since if you bought it later it'd be cheaper).

[adam_grif]

Yes, people definitely do that with real games. I have a buddy who has more money than sense, and he had a backlog of over 20 (retail) games. One or two he never installed, the rest he did but got bored of them a few hours in. In my experience, you enjoy games more the fewer you have competing for your attention. If you've only got one or two games on your list of things to do you're much more likely to get around to it than if you have five or six, at which point you start getting more selective about what you're going to finish and what you think isn't worth your time.

It's the "oh my god I've got so much food but nothing I want to eat" dilemma.

You can get cash refunds, dude.

Is that at the discretion of the store in question? I seem to remember being told I couldn't get a cash refund and had to deal with store credit, but this was many a year ago; I haven't returned any games in quite a while. I might be confusing it with trade-in games?

[Stark]

If you pay more than one way (ie, a trade and cash, or whatever) they generally try to give you store credit or a gift card or whatever, but they have giant signs up saying REFUND OR EXCHANGE IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT.

It's a surprise to me when people have not-RPGs on 'backlogs', because things like shooters or RTSs really aren't hard to 'see everything' in.

[Freefall]

Hm, I actually started to seriously go through mine. Let's see what I've got left. Sorting by system:

PS1 Classics
Suikoden
Oddworld
Legacy of Kain
Bloody Roar 2

PS2
Xenosaga 1 (actually started this one months ago, but stopped about 10 hours in)
Xenosaga 2
Xenosaga 3
Wild Arms 3
Silent Hill 3
Persona 3 (currently working on this one)
Nocturne

PSP
Warriors Orochi 2
Currently working on Phantasy Star Portable (slowly)

DS
Infinite Space
Etrian Odyssey II
Megaman Zero Collection (got to Zero 4)
Contra 4 - sort of. I actually put a lot of time into it, but beating it on normal difficulty may be beyond me.
SMT Strange Journey - Got to the last dungeon months ago and just stopped.
Valkyrie Profile: CotP

GBA
Final Fantasy VI - Got well into World of Ruin, but couldn't decide which subquest to do next.
Phantasy Star Collection - I have played PS 2 & 3 on Genesis though.

Yeesh, 21? And to think I was considering taking advantage of Gamestop's buy 2 get 1 free sale this weekend. The PS2 games alone are probably going to take a while to get through.

What's worse is my backlog of books is probably a few times larger, and that's just the physical ones. If you include e-books, then it's more than a factor of 20 greater (thought many of those I don't even expect to read in their entirety).

[General Zod]

You can get cash refunds, dude. There's never an obligation to keep a game; there's only an obligation to ACTUALLY PLAY THEM within a week.

I'm curious if many people do this with boxed games. Obviously Steam profits from people with low impulse control, but guys like Vympel seem to buy actual games and then not play them for months, which is bizarre (and even costs money, since if you bought it later it'd be cheaper).

I'll pick up the occasional Steam game on impulse but that's usually when they hit the $15 and under mark.

[Stark]

I'm curious - do people count any game they ever started as on a 'backlog' until they finish it? I tried to finish Witcher at least 3 times, always got distracted and gave up, and will probably never finish it.

[General Zod]

I only count it as a 'backlog' if I actually intend to get around to finishing it eventually.

[Stark]

Of course, but maybe 'backlogs' exist because people don't often decide to put a game aside. I mean, there are plenty of NES, Mega Drive, Saturn, PS1, PS2 games I never finished, but I have no intention of ever doing so. Since the PC market is mostly strategy games, and you can't really 'finish' a strategy game, they're not on there either. I guess I don't understand the criteria for having a list of games you haven't finished or played but intend to do so ... but don't intend to so much that you actually do.