Mastering the Backlog of Games

With the latest collection of part two titles coming out this year or early next year, your backlog list of games might have seen a huge jump in games to be played now.

 

If you’re anything like me when it comes to gaming, then you’re wanting to finish the earlier versions before moving on to their sequels. At least that is what I’ve tried to do with most of the video games in my collection.

 

I don’t always succeed in this though, but I at least try and give the first title that good ole college try at beating the game first. But it’s not just the sequels that will add to my backlog of games; wave after wave of new releases slowly adds up quickly.

 

Now I’m very much interested in Modern Warfare 2, Crackdown 2, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, and Assassins Creed 2; just to name a few of the upcoming sequels. Since I’ve already beaten Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, that has now cleared my way for the storyline in Modern Warfare 2 coming out later on this year.

 

I’m also closing in on the completion for Assassins Creed, so I should be ready for the release of its sequel. That leaves me to get back into Mass Effect & Bioshock once again and to finally beat those games. Hopefully I’ll be picking up a copy of Crackdown, having only played the demo and it sounds like the first game is a real blast to play.

 

But how can anyone stay on top of these ever growing lists of games coming out? Just one game at a time and staying away from some of the online action would be a great start. Set yourself a goal and then stick with that goal to help you beat and clear out those backlog titles from your list.

 

Make sure you’ve finished a previous game before you even think about cracking into that sequel could be another way to master the backlog. It could also help in knowing that you have from now until a certain release date to actually beat those first games. Those next waves of games have already been announced and a good portion of them are sequels.

 

For me though I’m still needing to finish some of the games that I’ve already started. That means games like Assassins Creed, Bioshock, and Mass Effect, are higher on my list of games to beat the main story lines and to have a better grasp of what has already happened before moving on to their sequels.

 

Perhaps I shouldn’t even purchase the sequels until I’ve beaten the previous games. If I don’t even buy it… then I can’t be tempted to play the game then. I can tell you this as well, I’ll personally go broke if I have to purchase every new title as soon as it comes out and have one massive backlog of games for sure. So waiting and picking up some of these titles used or at a reduced rate from the retail stores can also help on my pocketbook and without adding to my backlog.

 

I also don’t think that you need to get every single achievement before moving on to a new game, but at least beat the main story and enjoy what has been created. You can always go back later and find every single Flag or Orb right? For me the easy way to beat a game is to not even go on Live and avoid the temptation of joining my friends in Team Death match games at times.

 

Games that have co-op can also help you out some and will allow you to enjoy things as a group too, but sometimes it’s still best to just go in solo and beat that game all on your own. Mix it up a little bit perhaps and try playing portions on solo and later in co-op. Playing through some in co-op can also help you with some parts of a game that you might be stuck on.

 

Leave those Friday and Saturday evenings for any of the on-line Team Death matches with friends and set some of the other evenings aside to focus on your backlog list. If you want to chat with your friends and play, you can always create a party to stay in touch… well you can at least do that on Xbox Live and then if you need to focus on a certain portion of the game, simply say, “I’ll be right back” and  turn the volume down on your headset to focus on the story or cut scene.

 

In the end the only way to really deal with any backlog is to simply play the games until you’ve reached your goals and beat the game. I currently have about fifteen titles in my backlog and a good portion of those are in various stages of game play. I’m just glad that a few of these new titles are not coming out for a few months at least.