Confessions of a Backlogged Gamer, Week 1: The Beginning

I’ve mentioned previously that I have something of a problem with buying games and then not finishing them, or at least delaying them until they’re practically relics.  Now that I have a space where people can publicly judge me, though, I’m thinking that maybe I can use it as incentive to push my way through my backlog a bit and get down to experiencing more of the stuff I keep compiling.  Did I just complain that I’m not playing enough video games?  Damn skippy I did.

I don’t really have a concrete goal in mind here; it’s outright silly to think that I’m going to get through the entire list in any kind of reasonable time frame, and I’m certainly not going to stop buying games (perish the thought!), but seeing as many of us have similar issues, I thought it might be interesting to track my own progress and see what kind of patterns emerge, if any.

With that in mind, then, I’ll be attempting to update this particular feature weekly or so to let you, gentle reader, in on what I’ve been doing game-wise to dent the stack, as it were.  For reference, here’s a link to my backlog as it stands now.  120 games.  120.  That’s a big number.  Three digits, even.  Ridiculous, right?  Right.  Each week, then, I’ll post a new total (for better or for worse) and updates on what’s changed since then.  I’d also like to enlist help!  Take a look at my list and tell me what you think I should be playing.  I can’t promise I’ll listen, as I am admittedly willful and obstinate, but I’ll at least take it into consideration.  And if you feel like berating me because I haven’t played Shadow of the Colossus yet (I know, I know, I KNOW!) then maybe that’ll light a fire under my ass too… who knows?

Alright, so I guess that means it’s time to start.  At the moment I have three games in progress: Patapon (PSP), Ninjatown (DS), and Tales of Vesperia (360).  I’m not counting Final Fantasy X, because I’ve already played it to completion several times, and besides, that’s for another column altogether.  I’m getting frustrated with Patapon, to be honest, even though I really love the concept.  The game started out fantastically, but it’s slowed to a crawl; I’m stuck on a big boss fight (the one with the giant desert worm thing) and even though I’ve been trying to hunt, as the game suggests, to beef up my squad before going back in, I just don’t seem to be seeing any real results from that.  Maybe I’m just not very good at hunting, though.

I started Ninjatown on a whim; I don’t generally like to be playing more than one console game and one handheld game at a time, but as I said, I was frustrated with Patapon and wanted to take something with me to play in the waiting room of a recent doctor’s appointment.  I never actually got around to playing it while waiting, but I was bored and sleepless that night, so I decided to fire it up.  It is, in a word, ADORABLE.  I’ve only played the first couple of missions so far, but the gameplay is simple enough to get your head around (even for me, and I am no good at all when it comes to the RTS genre, which is what this is at heart), and… you’re controlling little ninjas.  Ninjas!  *I* want to live in a town full of adorable ninjas.  Even if they killed me, at least they’d probably give me a hug while they were doing it.

I love the Tales series.  However, when I first started Vesperia, waaaaay back in October or November, I was kind of disappointed.  I don’t know whether it was just that I had to get the hang of it or that the difficulty is a little skewed at the beginning, but I thought it was really hard.  Then I quit playing for a long while due to being sidetracked by other stuff (read as: Fallout) and didn’t pick it up again until the end of last month.  Since then, I’ve been totally hooked.  I don’t know what it is exactly that’s got me so entranced, but I get so sucked in when I’m playing this that hours just go by without me even noticing.  I’m about 22 hours in at the moment, and I’m not sure how far into the story that puts me, but I’m guessing maybe halfway.  I expect to be fixed on this one for a while, but that’s not a bad thing at all.

Recap:

Current backlog total: 120

Now playing: Patapon (PSP), Ninjatown (DS), Tales of Vesperia (360)

(After this week, I’ll also include “new games added” and “games completed.”)