Poll: Back Log: How do you determine what to play?

[tippy2k2]

As usual with Christmas and my Birthday being virtually back to back, I have received a S load of vidja games to keep my tiny brain entertained for the next...well....year or so.

I have one hell of a back list going and that doesn't include what I'm inevitably going to be picking up with sales and whatnot throughout the year.

Spoiler: List if you are interested for some reason

Crysis 3, Saints Row 4, Call of Duty Ghost, Metal Gear Rising, Batman Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Sleeping Dogs, and SMT: Demon Survivor Overclocked

Note: This is not the order of the list; it's just random

Now personally, I play what I'm least interested in first (sorry Crysis 3...I am greatly enjoying you if that helps) to what I'm most interested in playing (Saints Row 4!!!!) but I got to wondering if I'm weird here. I imagine that most people would play what they're MOST excited for first rather than last. The only time this is broken is if I buy a game at full price (which means I'm stupid excited for it since I do that once or twice a year), in which case said game gets top priority (see "Mass Effect 3" or "The Last of Us").

Therefore, a thread must be created to decide!

So what do you do?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I mostly just go with my gut feeling. Right now it's a question of what's available since I'm away from home.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I get my brother to help. If they're all on the same system, he mixes the boxes up and I pick them while I have my eyes closed to pick the order I play them in. If it's on a mixture, he puts all the titles in a randomizer (random.org) and that picks the order.

Either way, he puts the disc in/loads up the guy while I'm not looking so I don't um and ah about if I really want to play it.

It's worked every time I've had a backlog so far. Although, I may need to do it again soon.

 

[T_ConX]

My backlog is in spreadsheet form. This means I have a problem!

I assign games a priority rating from 1-4.

1) Must play. Franchise loyalty. Loved other stuff from the devs. Ace AttorneyD and AC4 sit here.

2) Want to play. Good reviews lead me to believe it's worth a play, but I don't feel as strong about them as I do the games in category 1. Batman AO and Atelier Ayesha reside here.

3) Would like to play. Genuinely curious about game. Palette and The Stanley Parable sit here.

4) Feel obliged to play, but not eager. Buy when price drops. Developer/Publisher are ass-hats, or didn't like other games from them but everyone says this one is good. TLOU and B:2S sit here.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

It varies. I used to just go with whatever I wanted to play the most in a given moment, but that hasn't worked out very well. Quite honestly I feel it's become a bit of a chore to actually play all these video games I've bought...and it doesn't help that when I get home from work, all I want to do is stuff my face and watch Game Grumps until I feel too tired to keep sitting up. That's right, I've become too lazy to play video games.

Right now I'm employing a tactic of shortest games first, because I want to get a decent number of games completed before I move on to the newer ones I've purchased. Dishonored is at the top of my list, along with Persona 4 Golden (only because I'm close to the True Golden ending; P4 is NOT a short game by any means) and then I plan to follow those up with Dead Space.

But man, I'm already itching to get back to Tales of Xillia. :/ That being a JRPG and my work schedule being what it is, I'll be lucky to finish it along with everything else I've bought in the past couple months and don't have time to play by time PlayStation 8: Virtual Reality Edition comes out.

 

[Roxas1359]

My backlog is a bit weird, in mainly that I have to be in a certain mood to play certain games.
After that, the games I play are usually because I have to record them for my LP channels.

Although my current backlog is really big right now and is still growing. Although a lot of the games I bought were because I'm gonna LP them...soon it will be time for my first "Summer of Shit".

 

[Weaver]

I honestly just stare at how big it is, think of the impossibility of the task ahead and go back to browsing the internet.

Yes, you are welcome to take that out of context.

 

[Drummodino]

I just play whatever I feel like playing really, no complicated thought process. This does mean I buy some games, get distracted by a shiny new one and never go back to them though :/

 

[Dalisclock]

I recently had this issue, finishing SotC for the first time and trying to decide between ICO, God of War and Uncharted. I eventually went with Uncharted because I was told it was short, fun and sufficiently different then SotC.

So yeah, with my GOG/steam/PS3 backlog, the games I play tend to be kind of random. Generally, it's "What mood I'm in right now", as I finish a game and it's time to start a new one. Sometimes I'll play a couple of the same type of game, such as playing SR3 and SR4 one right after the other, or Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon back to back. However, I can take one type of game so much before I have to switch to something else. If play a 20-40 hour RPG, the next game I play is going to be something closer to 10 hours and likely a shooter.

 

[Jak23]

Oldest to newest. That way forces me to play the games I care less about, oftentimes I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

My backlog is in spreadsheet form. This means I have a problem!

I assign games a priority rating from 1-4.

1) Must play. Franchise loyalty. Loved other stuff from the devs. Ace AttorneyD and AC4 sit here.

2) Want to play. Good reviews lead me to believe it's worth a play, but I don't feel as strong about them as I do the games in category 1. Batman AO and Atelier Ayesha reside here.

3) Would like to play. Genuinely curious about game. Palette and The Stanley Parable sit here.

4) Feel obliged to play, but not eager. Buy when price drops. Developer/Publisher are ass-hats, or didn't like other games from them but everyone says this one is good. TLOU and B:2S sit here.

Oh this actually is a good idea.
I was thinking of going through them alphabetically.

 

[Yopaz]

I have a very simple system. I look at my backlog, pick up a game I feel like playing then I play that. Sometimes I pick games which has bad review scores just to see if it's as bad as the internet claims. If it really is a bad game then I can soon clear that off my list and move on. I have such a big backlog that I'm not hurting for games to play. I am hurting for the time to actually play them.

 

[Stryc9]

I do it in probably the worst way possible. I install a bunch of games and then start playing them. Whichever one grabs my attention the most is the one I'll play until either I finish it or get bored with it and move on. Unless there's a game I really want to play badly. The first game I installed on my new PC was Deus Ex Human Revolution and I played that fucker to completion before I installed pretty much anything else outside of a couple of casual time wasters.

 

[FPLOON]

Two little words: Time and Interest

But, then I break that down to "Game That I Might Ending Up LPing", "Game I'm Playing For Fun", or "Game That's More There To Pass The Time/Pointless Achievement Hunting For No Reason"... (and it just gets more complicated from there...)

This, in no way, include the games on my laptop, which I play them while waiting for videos to render and/or I don't feel like playing on my console that day...

TS;DC Edition: I... don't... know... (MAGIC!!)

 

[Vozati]

I try to have as few games installed on my PC as possible. When I buy a game I install, even if I'm not goint to play it just yet. Then I just scroll through my library pick a title and focus on it until I beat it so I can uninstall it.

 

[LookingGlass]

A little of each of the following:

1. If I paid full price for a game, I'll try to play it soon after buying it. I don't want to find that by the time I got around to playing it, it's dropped significantly in price.
2. Estimated time for completion. I usually finish games that I like, so I won't start an epic RPG or Total War game if I'm going to be busy for a while. I like to save the big ones for when I have some time off.
3. I try to mix up genres and settings so that I don't burn out on anything.
4. I try to mix up new games and stuff I picked up from GOG.com or a Steam sale.
5. Here and there I'll throw in a replay of a game I've played before and enjoyed.
6. Whatever I'm in the mood for. This could be as simple as "I don't feel like using a gamepad right now" or "I've been watching Rome on DVD... why not play some Rome: Total War?"

 

[MHR]

I have a chaotic system, and it doesn't always work the way I like it.

I decide I want to devote my attention towards playing a single game thoroughly, even if it's not the one I want to play the most, and complete a whole campaign or what-have-you, do all sidequests, but then like many people I get sidetracked and either decide to pause to tackle a new game or go off on a small visit to whatever game I decide I want to play most. Sometimes the game I get distracted away from I end up not playing for a long time. Sometimes after I haven't played a game for a long time, I start clean with a new file just for propriety's sake so that I know the playthrough I'm on is my playthrough and not the old me who was young and reckless.

One of these "fun" tangents has me leaving New Vegas on pause for most of a month to play some old Gameboy Advance games and an oldschool RTS called Total Annihilation, and boy can some of those missions run ON and ON if you let them....

And then of course a thithe percentage of my time always goes into playing Team Fortress 2 because it's just so much dang fun and I like trying to slooooowly accumulate the achievements legitimately. I'm currently at 416 out of 477 TF2 achievements.

I'm not happy with my system because I'm never going to get through my backlog (even though I'm relatively controlled during steam-sale seasons) unless I stop taking my sweet time by making some big changes like forgoing sidequests, stop playing with hyper-granny strats, stop farming for the fun of it, or stop turning achievement tricks like the achievement whore that I am.

If some new great game came out, I wouldn't have much time to play it without dropping everything I was doing. Games I look forward to now I don't really want to see come out just yet because I'm not done with all the other stuff... except Half Life 3, that can come around as soon as it wants. It's played "hard-to-get" enough that I want it whenever I could get it.

There's just not enough hours in the day!

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

As usual with Christmas and my Birthday being virtually back to back, I have received a S load of vidja games to keep my tiny brain entertained for the next...well....year or so.

I have one hell of a back list going and that doesn't include what I'm inevitably going to be picking up with sales and whatnot throughout the year.

Spoiler: List if you are interested for some reason

Crysis 3, Saints Row 4, Call of Duty Ghost, Metal Gear Rising, Batman Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Sleeping Dogs, and SMT: Demon Survivor Overclocked

Note: This is not the order of the list; it's just random

Now personally, I play what I'm least interested in first (sorry Crysis 3...I am greatly enjoying you if that helps) to what I'm most interested in playing (Saints Row 4!!!!) but I got to wondering if I'm weird here. I imagine that most people would play what they're MOST excited for first rather than last. The only time this is broken is if I buy a game at full price (which means I'm stupid excited for it since I do that once or twice a year), in which case said game gets top priority (see "Mass Effect 3" or "The Last of Us").

Therefore, a thread must be created to decide!

So what do you do?

I'm with you... Although I also add an element of timescale to that too... If I know a game is a long epic, that will take hours of my time (I love RPGs, and have just started Neverwinter Nights 2) then I make sure I start it at a time that I can get into it properly (Not when I am going away with work a lot... although sometimes with my laptop games that actually helps!) and I will prioritise shorter games first.

But I will play the ones I am least looking forward to first (by the essence of the fact I own the game, least looking forward too doesn't equal a bad game... I won't play something I have no interest in!) This is part of the reason why I don't own GTA V yet, or a PS4! Too much back-log!

Also... the 'ask the internet' option is more me asking friends on the internet, not the masses! I am more likely to turn to the guys I know IRL from this site, than put it in a thread!

 

[LaoJim]

I have a tendency to flit from game to game, if I play the same game three days in a row I'd describe it as being exceptionally addictive. The other thing is I've spent a lot of the last three years abroad in a country where it is not easy to get console games. As a result I have to buy a ton of games (30-60) in the summer and then have to make them last a whole year. The temptation is to play all of them a little bit to begin with, but six months in there are going to be days when you really fancy playing something completely new, so I try to ration them.

My system is fairly nerdy.

What I do is: at the beginning of the year I fill my 60GB hard drive up with games (usually it'll fit between 7-9). Usually this will involve one F/TPS, one RPG, one racer, one fighting games and whatever else. Then I keep a record of my Gamerscore for that year. Once I hit an average of 200GS for all the games, I can delete one (either because I'm not enjoying it, or because I've completed it) and stick a new one on. I then add +10 required average score (note my current average has also gone down somewhat since the new game has 0GS) and continue. Generally when I complete a racing game I put another racing game on there.

Anyway that's what I was doing before.

This year I'm having a year trying to work through my backlog of unfinished/hardly played games, and I'm focusing more on score bands. For example a couple of months ago I was looking at my spreadsheet of games (yes as I say it's nerdy) and noticed I had 26 games between 100-200GS, 26 games between 200-300GS, and 26 games between 300-400GS so I decided to try and get all three bands down to 20 or less each. After playing for a month or so I'd got 100-200GS down to 19, but then noticed that 200-300,300-400,400-500 all had 25 games, so my new obsession is getting all of those bands down to 20 or less. I should add that I've gotten Xbox live for the first time, so some of the gaming involves trying out the on-line mode for some old games, seeing if there is still anyone playing and getting some of the low-hanging achievements, like "complete one on-line race" or "play each game mode once".