We talk a lot about backlogs here at GamerSushi, as some of us (mainly me) have an annoying tendency to buy games and then let them sit on the shelf for weeks and months at a time as we get distracted by something fresh and shiny. It’s funny because gamers complained for years about the Fall Onslaught of games, but now instead of a sudden rush, we have a year-long trickle that makes finishing a game before the next one you want comes out tough, not to mention making a dent on the backlog.
This is something I’ve been confronted with since I received Ni No Kuni on my birthday back in February. My goal was to put a dent in it until Simcity came out and then play Simcity until Bioshock Infinite was released. From there, I had no real idea what I was going to do after I beat Bioshock Infinite; likely go back to Ni No Kuni and split time with that and Simcity until Ni No Kuni was completed and I was sick of Simcity.
But as you may have heard, those plans were derailed as Simcity ended up taking far less of my time than expected. So, sooner than anticipated, I found myself playing Ni No Kuni again after a short break. I was afraid it would be tough to get back into, but for such a long game, it is surprisingly easy to play in smaller chunks. I’m not sure; perhaps it is the ability to save almost anywhere or the helpful indicators of where you should go next that allow me to pick it up again with almost no momentum lost. Either way, I am glad for it. However, I am probably only halfway through the game. There is no way I am going to beat it by Tuesday’s release of Bioshock Infinite. So what to do?
Well, I looked at a walkthrough of the game to see what would be a decent stopping point and my goal is reach that by Tuesday, which I should do. I have been letting most of the sidequests in the game fall by the wayside, probably to the detriment of my party’s development. The reason for this is it is a royal pain to backtrack back and forth completing the Errands the game puts in front of you. I read about the Travel spell, which allows you to instantly transport yourself to any place you have already visited. So I have been waiting to obtain that before hitting the sidequests in earnest. My goal is get it before Bioshock comes out so that when I come back to the game, I can have a clear goal and get back into the swing of things easily. It seems like a good place to halt for a week or so.
What about you? What do you do when you are in the middle of a lengthy game and something you are dying to play is about to come out? Do you finish the one you are playing before picking up the new one? Or do you stop and come back? Am I the only one who stresses about this? Speak now, GamerSushi Nation!
When I’m in the middle of a game and something I want to play comes out, I just drop it. Usually after that shiny new game is done I’ll hop back into the other game and work on it. Of course, because my backlog is the size of the Paul Bunyan’s big toe, it’s not always effective, but it works. This happens a lot near Christmas, as I’ll be playing some random game, and then once the 25th strikes, I’ll just drop that game and play the cool games I got that day. I remember back in November 2011 when both Skyrim and Zelda: Skyward Sword came out. I had been playing Skyrim for a little while (I’ve hardly invested any time into it, which is shocking), but I had Skyward Sword pre-ordered, and once that shrinkwrap came off, Skyrim took a backseat. I didn’t try to plan out a stopping point; I just stopped.
I wanted to beat Far Cry 3 before I beat Hitman: Absolution before I beat Tomb Raider but it didn’t happen. The other day I finally went back and finished Far Cry 3 (God the last few hours were a struggle) and I think I’m close in Tomb Raider but I’m actually kind of sick of it. Now I got all those games with Infinite’s pre-order so last night I started playing the Darkness II… Ah well, they’ll all get finished eventually.