![Update](https://gamingbacklogjournal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/update.jpg?w=300)
I’ve received a couple of comments concerning the Backlog Gaming Journal, so this is a quick post to let everyone know what I’ve been doing, which games I’ve been playing, what topics I’ll be covering soon, and how my progress is going.
Some of you might have noticed that I don’t post every day, like I used to. That was a conscious decision I made to prevent myself from running out of material. I’m not out of material – far from it, actually – but I wasn’t making much progress with the actual act of GAMING when I was writing about it every day. It was hard to keep up with. Don’t get me wrong, I could probably write about gaming every day for the rest of the year and still have plenty to write about, but writing takes time, and so does gaming. I started this blog to talk about my experience taking on my library of backlogged games and to make good use of my console before jumping to current gen technology, not to aimlessly talk about video games (a lot of people already do that, and that’s fine, but it’s not what I want to do).
I was going to write one blog post a week, but it’s turned into a maybe just when I feel like it kind of thing. That might seem like a bad thing to some people (and if it does, I love you for caring so much!), but I like it this way. I have a full-time job, and a writing gig that pays. I have to prioritize, but this blog has been way too much fun to give up on it. I wish I could get paid to do this, but even if I can’t, it’s still worth writing for just so I can meet like-minded people, and share experiences with them.
Onto the gaming portion of this post!!!!
Even though I recently beat it, I’ve still been playing Grand Theft Auto V. The game is amazing, and I’m not done talking about it, yet. Expect to see some posts about it very soon.
I’ve been enjoying Square Enix’s Life is Strange, and I’ve completed the first three available episodes. For some reason, I thought I had already made a post about the second episode, but NOPE, not yet. I started writing a post for episode 2, and quickly realized I was writing something that would be better split up into two, separate posts, so be on the lookout for those. My very next post will most likely be about Life is strange.
I’ve been playing Epic Mickey, but I’m not exactly thrilled with that game. For anyone who’s read basically ANY of my Epic Mickey posts, you probably already know that I’m not a big fan of the camera angles. Expect another HUGE FREAKING RANT about that game. I’ll probably wait until I’ve completely finished the game, and I’m not sure when that will be. It’s getting close, though.
I’ve been playing TellTale’s The Walking Dead: Season Two, and I’ll be talking about it, too. I’ll probably wait until I’m finished with it, especially since adventure games are fairly simple to get through. This game is old news for most people, just like most of the games I’ve been playing, but I’ve really been enjoying the point-and-click adventure game genre. I guess I’m just a fan of a good story, and these games deliver what I’m looking for.
L.A. Noire is still on my radar, and now that I’m technically done with Grand Theft Auto V I can get around to finishing it. It used to be the case that I’d always choose GTA V before playing L.A Noire, but now it’s calling my name again.
Final Fantasy III is still useful as my portable game of choice, but I’ll admit to having reached a part in the game I’m a little bored with. I haven’t really tried hard at getting past the specific point in the game I’m at, but I just kind of understood what I was probably supposed to be doing (trying out different job classes), and decided I wasn’t in the mood for it… That was a while ago, but I’m still not in the mood for it. Maybe later.
As far as my overall gaming progress, I’m pretty happy with it. I know that some of you might be able to burn through my stack of games in a month or two, but not me. I first decided to get serious about gaming (serious gaming = oxymoron?) in the fall of last year… When I started this blog this year I’d already set a goal of beating 35 games (now 50), and had beat 4 of them (Super Mario Galaxy, Red Dead Redemption, Brothers, Final Fantasy IV). Since then, I’ve beat 2 more (The Walking Dead: Season 1, and Grand Theft Auto V). I’ve made a lot of progress and some others. Epic Mickey is almost a check mark, and so is L.A. Noire. It won’t take long to beat season 2 of The Walking Dead, and I’ll probably beat Life is Strange a week after the last episode comes out. Having all those games beat will put me at right around 20% of my goal… Holy crap, that’s not much, is it?… Eff it, that still a lot better than I was doing last year!
I’m still tweaking the way I take on my backlog. For example, trying to play GTA V while I was still playing L.A. Noire turned out to be a bad idea. They were too similar (in terms of gameplay), so I played the one I liked best, instead of finishing the first one I’d started. On the other hand, I decided to incorporate the point-and-click style adventure games (The Walking Dead), and a mobile game (Final Fantasy III) to my currently playing list. This is what my currently playing list looks like now:
L.A. Noire (sandbox game), over 75%
Final Fantasy III (JRPG/Mobile), about 50%, I think
Epic Mickey (Platformer), near the end
The Walking Dead: Season Two (Adventure), episode 3/5
… also, Life is Strange (Adventure) episode 3/5, but the other episodes are still unavailable.
This seems to be a pretty decent strategy for me. I have enough variety to keep me interested, but not so many games that they start falling to the wayside. I had to identify the problem I was having when it came to actually finishing games, and I feel confident that it has a lot to do with the increased difficulty/frustration at the end of games, paired with the boredom of playing the same game for too long and the large amount of other available games. With the right amount of games, and a good variety, I’ll be able to resist the urge (hopefully) of starting other games out of boredom.
I don’t see a problem with playing two adventure games at the same time, though, because they’re VERY story-driven. It’s almost like watching TV, instead of playing games. Also, since the last two episodes of Life is Strange still haven’t been released, I think it’s fair to have a separate adventure game to play while I wait.
This is all based on my own, personal assessment of how many games (and what types) might create an overload situation where I, personally, fail to complete my goal. I’ll have to continue to ignore, for example, that I have Fallout 3 and New Vegas waiting for me to play. I’ve been looking forward to playing them for a while, and the news about Fallout 4 coming out was a tempting reason to give in to my own impulses. However, I know that starting a game like Fallout 3 would probably cause me to postpone games that I’ve already been struggling with (like L.A. Noire and Epic Mickey).
I’m not sure which games I’ll start playing when I’m through with the ones in my currently playing list. I’ll probably add Fallout 3 to the list when I finish L.A. Noire. When I get done with Epic Mickey, I WILL NOT go directly to the sequel… unless the camera angles are better in Epic Mickey 2, I might not even play that one. I think I said something of that nature out loud the other day in front of my daughter. I couldn’t help it, though. I’ll try to remember to bring it up when I talk more about the game in a later post, but I… was… so… FRUSTRATED! That game could have been so much better! I’ll probably start playing the sequel to Super Mario Galaxy, instead. After I beat the second season of The Walking Dead I might go back and play the “400 Days” episode from the first season. Other than that, I’ll keep waiting for the remaining episodes of Life is Strange. I’ve also thought about downloading the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption. I wouldn’t count “400 Days” as part of my backlog tally, but I’m not sure about Undead Nightmare. DLC has become such a big part of gaming, that some of it qualifies as a game in itself. In most circumstances, it wouldn’t matter if someone considered DLC as a complete game, but it might be more “important” when it comes to defining games that count toward completing my goal (at least for some readers, and for myself).
I’m not sure if I should go over anything else, or not. I started rambling, and now I’ve written a post with over sixteen hundred words. Are there any specific topics that you guys want me to talk about? I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but I TAKE REQUESTS. I write this blog to share experiences and have discussions, so feel free to let me know what you’d like to read more about.
Thanks for reading!