The Video Game Backlog
It used to be that, more or less, when I bought a video game I actually played it. It worked out well for me and I didn’t feel like I was wasting money either.
Well, those days came to an end pretty abruptly in 2004 when World of Warcraft first came out. I’m the kind of person who generally plays a video game obsessively (if I like it) until the day I beat it. Enter the MMO… which cannot be beaten. A game that never ends… knowing how I am, it was perhaps not entirely wise of me to start playing an MMORPG, but what’s done is done. I’m moving into my 7th year of playing World of Warcraft… and finally started to seriously re-integrate other games into a normal part of my day last year.
Now, that isn’t to say that I never played any games other than WoW – I just didn’t dedicate a lot of time to them and thus played a lot less than usual. I still got in a fair number of lovely gems – Shadow of the Colossus, the Phoenix Wright series, Fallout III, Oblivion, Mass Effect, and more. But I also kept buying other games, some of which I never even opened, at full price. Now I can usually find them in the bargain bin for under $20. Ah well, lesson (somewhat) learned. I finally stopped doing that unless I’m pretty sure I’m going to play the game.
Back to my original point – the video game backlog. Since my rate of acquiring new games did not really slow down for a long time, I’ve amassed a very long list of games that I paid for and still want to try. I’m still working on exactly what order I’m going to play them in… but maybe I can get some help from my (extremely small right now) readers for what to start next!
Well, it’s also almost the hope that perhaps if I put this in writing out for other people to say I will become really embarrassed about it and maybe actually make the lists smaller instead of larger.
- Uncharted 2
- Neverwinter Nights 2
- Tomb Raider Legend
- Final Fantasy XII
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Monkey Island: SE
- Amnesia: The Dark Descent
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat, Shadow of Chernobyl
- King’s Bounty
- Bayonetta
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Bioshock (1 & 2)
- Devil May Cry II (and beyond)
- Beyond Good and Evil
- Viewtiful Joe (1 & 2)
- Infinite Undiscovery
- Shadow Hearts 2
- The Last Remnant
- Metal Gear Solid 3 & 4
- Wild ARMs 2 (and beyond)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
- Xenosaga 2 (and beyond)
- Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (…yeah)
- Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life
- Harvest Moon: Magical Melody
- Killer 7
- Mega Man Network Transmission
- Metroid Prime 1 & 2
- Metroid: Other M
- Super Mario All Stars
- Skies of Arcadia
- Lego Star Wars
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
- Super Mario Sunshine
- Tales of Symphonia
- Atelier Iris
- Contra Shattered Soldier
- Digital Devil Saga
- Disgaea 1 & 2
- Dragon Quest VIII
- Ephemeral Fantasia
- Eternal Poison
- Galerians: Ash
- Grand Theft Auto 3
- GrimGrimoire
- Growlanser Generations
- Ico
- I-Ninja
- Jax and Daxter
- We <3 Katamari
- Kessen
- Kya Dark Lineage
- Odin Sphere
- Persona 3
- Psychonauts
- Radiata Stories
- Ratchet and Clank
- Suikoden Tactics
- Tsugani: Atonement
- Valkyrie Profile 2
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope
- Chocobo’s Dungeon
- Baroque
- Castle of Shikigami 3
- Animal Crossing: City Folk
- Metal Slug Anthology
- Super Paper Mario
- Resonance of Fate
- Resistance Fall of Man
- Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island
- New Super Mario Bros (DS)
- Suikoden Tierkreis
- Resident Evil DS
- Metroid Prime Hunters
- Lunar Dragom Song
- Heroes of Mana
- Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon
- Etrian Odessey
- Children of Mana
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, & Order of Ecclesia
- The World Ends with You
- The Dark Spire
- Etrian Odessey: The Drowned City
That’s only the beginning… unfortunately that doesn’t include the list of games I’ve started and still plan on beating (and just haven’t gotten around to it yet – some will need a full replay):
- Bulletstorm
- Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
- Half-Life 2
- Alan Wake
- Scott Pilgrim vs The World
- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
- 3D Dot Game Heroes
- Dead Space
- Resident Evil 4
- Brutal Legend
- Donkey Kong Country Returns
- Machinarium
- Okamiden
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- World of Goo
- The Witcher
- Koudelka
- Guild Wars
- Record of Lodoss War
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance
- Baldur’s Gate
- Baldur’s Gate II
- Oblivion
- Morrowind
- Ecco the Dolphin (Dreamcast)
- Eternal Sonata
- Titan Quest
- Shenmue
- Spyro
- Suikoden IV
- Suikoden V
- Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals
- Mirror’s Edge
- Panzer Dragoon: Orta
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
- Fallout
- Penumbra
- Aquaria
- Red Dead Revolver
- Alien Hominid (since this game is nigh impossible, this might be a dream)
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
- Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
- Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2
- God of War
- La Pucelle Tactics
- Onimusha
- Kartia: The Word of Fate
- Grandia
- Beyond the Beyond
- Threads of Fate
- Lunar: Eternal Blue
- Silent Hill
- Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
- Dino Crisis
- Primal
- Parasite Eve
Hey Cait! I’m in the same boat you are in terms of owning way too many games. Here’s a few I’d suggest going through that aren’t too insanely long if your looking for a few quick games to beat:
Parasite Eve (replaying this myself). I beat it under 10 hours first time, so it’s pretty short.
Rhapsody can also be beaten in 10 hours. If you have the PSX version your going to deal with some really poorly mapped dungeons, so keep that in mind.
Monkey Island SE is also super short. Can be done in a few hours easily.
So there’s a few I’ve noticed that I’ve beat that are super duper short. Now for some I think you should work on beating: Suikoden IV-V (both are great, a lot of people don’t like IV, but I do!), Lunar: Eternal Blue is fabulous, as is Grandia. I’d say the best way to play Scott Pilgrim would be to get a friend (or a few) as playing the game by yourself isn’t as fun. Persona 3 is amazing but very time consuming, though it’s easily one of the best games to come out in a long time.
I hope you accomplish your goals. Seriously, it may be wise to check out a faq and see how far your in some of those half-started ones and see if your close to the end or now.
There are an awful lot of good games on your list, but in keeping with your current blog theme of “hot Fenris love” I’m going to recommend that you play FF XII, since Gideon Emery voiced both him and FF XII’s leading man.
Alternately, if you just want to run through some great short games on here, play We <3 Katamari, Ico, and finish World of Goo.
That is quite the list. Some of the games at the top surprised, because I thought you would have played Bioshock at least! I never completed the first one, but it’s definitely a stellar game.
I would like to finish replaying KotOR, and play Fallout III, but as I don’t have a console nor am much into FPS, my selection of games I will play is a lot smaller than yours. I still haven’t even bought Starcraft II, though it’s on my list.