I'll join this one, hoping to combine it with the 52 games challenge for a backlog annihilation. Bought a lot of stuff just before new year's so I'm good.
Neverending Nightmares
Stikbold
Avalance 2: Super Avalanche
Nova-111
The Magic Circle
Renowned Explorers
Nuclear Throne
South Park: The Stick of Truth
This War of Mine
SUPERHOT
Samorost 2
Dreamfall Chapters
Grow Home
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut
Defender's Quest
Else Heart.Break()
Door Kickers
Broken Age
Beat: 12
Consortium
Dyscourse
PLUG & PLAY
One Finger Death Punch
D4: Dark Dreams Dont Die
Doom
Apotheon
Out There Somewhere
Psychonauts
Binary Domain
SUPERHOT
Samorost 2
I'm hoping you guys are okay with my switch thing I do sometimes. Or at least this is how I did it before joining this kind of thing. So now I feel I have to ask what you all think.
I just bought Dragon's Dogma for PC and I don't count it as a minus, but I will count is as a plus when I finish it. This is because I've already had Dragon's Dogma in the backlog for 4 years and now I sold the old one and got a "new copy" of the "same game", just for another platform. I usually just switch the platform on backloggery in these cases (like remakes that replaces old unplayed games) but I don't know if you think it's fair.
I'm hoping you guys are okay with my switch thing I do sometimes. Or at least this is how I did it before joining this kind of thing. So now I feel I have to ask what you all think.
I just bought Dragon's Dogma for PC and I don't count it as a minus, but I will count is as a plus when I finish it. This is because I've already had Dragon's Dogma in the backlog for 4 years and now I sold the old one and got a "new copy" of the "same game", just for another platform. I usually just switch the platform on backloggery in these cases (like remakes that replaces old unplayed games) but I don't know if you think it's fair.
I actually had kind of a similar situation to you, though it was last year. I sold some of my PS3 Atelier games cuz NIS made a bundle version of three of the games and selling the separate limited editions earned me money. But instead of deleting them off my backlog and readding them, I just rebranded the titles under the bundle and made no actual additions/subtractions to my backlog. If I beat Atelier Meruru this year, I'll count it as +1.
So in short, I more or less have done the same thing as you in the past. I personally don't see a problem in it if it was already in your backlog and you're just moving it about.
I'm hoping you guys are okay with my switch thing I do sometimes. Or at least this is how I did it before joining this kind of thing. So now I feel I have to ask what you all think.
I just bought Dragon's Dogma for PC and I don't count it as a minus, but I will count is as a plus when I finish it. This is because I've already had Dragon's Dogma in the backlog for 4 years and now I sold the old one and got a "new copy" of the "same game", just for another platform. I usually just switch the platform on backloggery in these cases (like remakes that replaces old unplayed games) but I don't know if you think it's fair.
Every year I say it will be better than last year and then around summer I splurge on some sale.
Anyway...
Bought in January
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam [Nintendo 3DS] (1/17) **Pre-order**
Final Fantasy Explorers [Nintendo 3DS] (1/17) **Pre-order**
Final Fantasy Tactics [PS1 on PS Vita] (1/19)
Final Fantasy VII [PS1 on PS Vita] (1/19)
Xenogears [PS1 on PS Vita] (1/19)
Breath of Fire IV [PS1 on PS Vita] (1/19)
Bravely Second [Nintendo 3DS] (1/22) **Pre-order**
Total: 7
Beat in January
Bravely Default [Nintendo 3DS] (1/15)
Total: 1
Score: -6
Did I say I splurge around summer? Fuck I already did that.
My thoughts on Bravely Default:
+ Fantastic presentation, excellent visuals, possibly the best OST I have heard. Revo is amazing.
+ I quite like what they did with the story concept-wise. It starts off as classic Final Fantasy fare, you go to awaken the four elemental Crystals while a group of bad guys attempt to stop you. Then it twists the story a bit and you arrive at a bunch of moral dilemmas, ultimately wondering if you are doing the right thing. The
ending twist
is pretty cool too. Those who think it has a bad story should refresh their memory on how barebones the stories of late 80's - early 90's JRPGS were.
+ Addicting battle system with lots of customizations available. Just having a boatload of jobs was enough to scratch my itch, throwing in extra abilities and second jobs to mix and match made for an amazingly fun experience and I spent hours trying to find the best / most game-breaking combos for my characters.
+ Very user friendly without getting hand-holdy. There's a menu with a bunch of "tutorial" mini-quests if you wish to familiarize yourself with the game basics, totally optional. You can set the difficulty and encounter rate at any point you like, turn on/off EXP or money gain, so to a great extent you play the way you want to play.
+ Can get decently challenging, especially on the latter chapters. By that point you are expected to have maxed most jobs and have a very high level, and even then if you don't think strategically and plan your moves ahead, you will get roasted. This definitely is not one of those "grind to level 99, steamroll everything" RPGs and I commend it for that.
+ Game is huge if you want to do everything, including post-game stuff. I am nearing 130 hours and I still haven't beaten most of the Nemeses on my village.
+/- Characters are a bit hit and miss. A lot of them have bad dialogue and are build out of stereotypes (e.g. Ringabel is your typical amnesiac and typical ladies guy). Most of them develop nicely throughout the game. Others, like Agnes, remain insufferable to the end.
+/- Regarding the Chapter 5+ part of the game ...
yes, having to do the same thing another 4 times is annoying, as it is supposed to be. On paper it sounds cool, but the execution is rather lacking. It's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be though. Chapters 7 and 8 have subquests that are worth it. Even if you don't want to do anything, you can rush to the four temples and be done with the entire thing in an hour. An hour out of a 60 hour game is not significant enough to sour the entire experience. My main issue with this design choice is that they could have merged Chapters 5 and 6 together.
- I understand the game is story-based, but I don't understand why they won't let me explore caves and areas not directly related to the story. It's not like the world is that big anyway, let me explore!
- Bland dungeon design. I imagine the process of making most of them was "we got a few corridors, that's the dungeon, done." That's not how it works. I'm not expecting Zelda-level dungeon design but please put more effort in it next time. Walking through a bunch of straight corridors with nothing happening is not exciting.
I honestly thought I would at least beat Lunar before buying anything, but when I saw Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light for a cheap price, I just bought it on impulse. Hopefully I won't buy anything else until Persona 5 comes out.
I'm in again. The Backlog Blitz is definitely helping to kill most of my impulse purchases. This year I want to have at least a +5 at the end, a double digit number would be awesome.
Beaten in January:
Until Dawn
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC
Sword Art Online: Lost Song
Ayakashibito
100% Orange Juice
Summon Night 5
End of January update post. Sadly I lost my momentum and it doesn't seem like I'll be able to complete any more titles this month. Still, 4 titles in 1 month is quite good.
January Beaten:
Just Cause 3 (01/01/2016)
Medal of Honor (2010) (01/03/2016)
The Last of Us (01/07/2016)
South Park: The Stick of Truth (01/18/2016)
Current Monthly Score: +4 Current Year Score: +4
I wanted to get a bit more clarification on a situation that may arise later this year, concerning games that you have (and owned before the year started), but didn't initially plan on playing and thus didn't put into your backlog. For me backlog = games I intend on playing, rather than all the games that I own. I have a copy of God of War 3 I got last year but wasn't planning on playing it, but have decided to play 1 and 2 when I can, but I'd need to buy them first. I also have a copy of God of War: Ascension from PS+. What would the counting be like, assuming I bought 1 and 2, then beat all 4 titles. Would that be -2 (GoW 1 & 2, with 3 and Ascension not being counted) for the acquired section, then +3 (GoW 1, 2, 3, with Ascension not being counted) for beating all 4 titles, or would it be -3 (GoW 1, 2, & 3, and Ascension not counted) then +3 (GoW 1, 2, & 3, with Ascension not counted)?
I wanted to get a bit more clarification on a situation that may arise later this year, concerning games that you have (and owned before the year started), but didn't initially plan on playing and thus didn't put into your backlog. For me backlog = games I intend on playing, rather than all the games that I own. I have a copy of God of War 3 I got last year but wasn't planning on playing it, but have decided to play 1 and 2 when I can, but I'd need to buy them first. I also have a copy of God of War: Ascension from PS+. What would the counting be like, assuming I bought 1 and 2, then beat all 4 titles. Would that be -2 (GoW 1 & 2, with 3 and Ascension not being counted) for the acquired section, then +3 (GoW 1, 2, 3, with Ascension not being counted) for beating all 4 titles, or would it be -3 (GoW 1, 2, & 3, and Ascension not counted) then +3 (GoW 1, 2, & 3, with Ascension not counted)?
I believe the consensus is... do what you yourself think is best, but just be consistent with the rules you place for yourself. So if you count your GOW example is -2 then +3, then for a random example... say you own Suikoden 3-5 already (but not technically have it on the backlog) then buy 1 and 2 and play though them all, it'd be a -2 then +5 when you beat them all.
Bought: -2
Mortal Kombat X, Guitar Hero Live Beat: +1
Psychonauts (I had already played it years ago but I'll still count it because I really wanted to play it again after the news related to its sequel) Score: -1
Currently playing:
Bloodborne (PS4)
Vermintide (PC)
Wasteland 2 (PC)
Got Atelier Escha and Logy Plus, Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel and Beat: Steins;Gate, Tales of Zestiria, Lost Dimension, Inazuma Eleven Go: Shadow
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC)
Uncharted (PS4)
Uncharted 2 (PS4)
Uncharted 3 (PS4)
Suikoden II (PSN)
Undertale (PC)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PC)
Always Sometimes Monsters (PC)
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (XBO)
Dying Light (PC)
Forza Motorsport 6 (XBO)
Dead Rising 3 (PC)
Final Fantasy VI (PC)
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PC)
Ryse: Son of Rome (PC)
Quantum Break (XBO)
Bloodborne (PS4)
God of War III Remastered (PS4)
Final Fantasy IX (PC)
Grandia II Anniversary Edition (PC)
Beaten in 2016
Batman: Arkham Knight (PC)
Call of Duty: Black Ops III (XB1)
NBA 2K16 (PC)
Until Dawn (PS4)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC)
Civilization: Beyond Earth - Rising Tide (PC)
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood (PC)
Quantum Break (XBO)
Star Wars Battlefront (PC)
End of January wrap-up time! Been able to get through quite a few games, mostly due to being out of work. That progress should be coming to a halt soon, since I'm probably looking at starting a new job next month and possibly relocating.
Highlight of the month was definitely Dragon's Dogma. I really got into the game, and I'm glad I was able to play it while I had the time.
XBox One
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty Ghosts
Assassin's Creed Unity
Gears of War Ultimate Edition
Halo MCC
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Limbo
Lords of the Fallen
Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments
Styx Master of Shadows
Sunset Overdrive
The Crew
The Wolf Among Us
Tomb Raider
Total = 14
XBox 360
Left 4 Dead 2
Pure
Burnout Paradise
Dead Space
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Fallout New Vegas
Grid 2
Just Cause 2
Tron Evolution
XCom Enemy Unknown
Call of Duty Black Ops
Total = 11
PC
Unreal
Unreal 2
Unreal Tournament 1999
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament 3
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
Metal Slug
Metal Slug 3
Metal Slug X
Portal
Portal 2
Need for Speed Underground
Counter Strike Global Offensive
Enclave
Hunted The Demons Forge
Pure
Skyrim
Split Second
Binary Domain
Condemned Criminal Origins
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
System Shock 2
Viking Battle for Asgard
Total = 19
Finished
Far Cry 4 - X1
Wolfenstein the new order - X1
Wolfenstein the old blood - X1
Unreal Tournament 1999 - PC (played all the maps and modes against bots, still a great game!)
Total = 4
Off to a good start, as usual. Hopefully this is the year I can actually keep it up. Three games to come in February, though, so that'll put a little dent in my progress.
----
Bought in 2016: 1 Finished in 2016: 5 Current Score: +4
---
Bought in January: 1 Finished in January: 5 January Score: +4
Bought:
Driveclub Bikes
Finished:
Kirby's Adventure Wii
Mad Max
Stasis
The Bridge
Until Dawn
---
Currently playing:
Dirt Rally
Lego City Undercover
Shin Megami Tensei IV
January/Q1 2016 Update (01/31/16): I did pretty decently handling the bulk of my newest purchases from last year with just a few points dipping into the red. It was mostly the result of earlier purchases for the PS3 back when the console wasn't immediately accessible from my initial dorm set-up. Now that I've graduated, I'm hoping to make a few hours available throughout the week to devote toward catching up on the latest works and older titles that I have nestled in my backlog. I probably won't be quite as successfully in my endeavors with the next eleven months primed with awesome properties, but I'll enjoy the process nonetheless! Without further ado...
01/25 -- Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (PS4; PAL Import)
01/25 -- Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines (PC)
PO 02/09/16 - Gravity Rush [Remastered] (PS4)
PO 04/12/16 - Dark Souls III [Collector's Edition] (PS4)
PO 06/07/16 - Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir [Storybook Edition] (PS4)
PO 08/23/16 - Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [Collector's Edition] (PS4)
PO 03/31/17 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night [Alchemist's Treasure Edition] (PS4)
PO 12/31/17 - Shenmue III [Special Backer Edition] (PS4)
Beaten (2016):
01/01 -- The Order: 1886 (PS4; ★ ★ ★
Didn't have a great month. Probably not helping that I have these long rpgs like The Witcher 3 that I'm playing. Hopefully I'll be able make up for it in February.
Sorry, um, are you counting the retail version of Life Is Strange as a whole as -1, then every completed individual episode as +1...? That seems a bit disingenuous.
Bought: 6
1. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) - 02/01/2016
2. The Sly Trilogy (PSV) - 09/01/2016
3. Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call (NDS) - 13/01/2016
4. Grim Fandango Remastered (PS4) - 16/01/2016 * PS+
5. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4) - 16/01/2016
6. Life is Strange (PS4) - 22/01/2016
7. Zero Escape: 999 (NDS) - 29/01/2016
Beaten: 4
1. Lumines (PSV) - 02/01/2016
2. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (PS3) - 07/01/2016 * PS+
3. Kick & Fennick (PSV) - 10/01/2016 * PS+
4. Hotline Miami (PSV) - 15/01/2016 * PS+
5. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (PS4) - 19/01/2016
6. Driveclub DLC - Sakura (PS4) - 21/01/2016
7. Life is Strange (PS4) - 31/01/2016
Bought 7 games since January 26th, so completely destroyed the positive progress this month because of sales and new releases...again.
Bought in January: 8 games + 4 "free" games
Hardware: Rivals (PS+)*
Nihilumbra (PS+)*
Legends of War (PS+)*
World of Tanks (FREE)*
Goat Simulator PS3
The Witness
This War of Mine: The Little Ones
Wasteland 2
The Deadly Tower of Monsters
Murdered: Soul Suspect
Gemini: Heroes Reborn
BigFest
Beat in January: 9 games + 4 "free" games
Guacamelee! STCE (PS+)*
Assassin's Creed III (PS+)* - Removed
Nihilumbra (PS+)*
World of Tanks (FREE)*
LA Cops
NHL 16
Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power
Monster Jam: Battlegrounds
Goat Simulator PS3
Guacamelee!
Need for Speed
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes
BigFest
Score in January: +1 Bought in 2016: 8 games + 4 "free" games Beat in 2016: 9 games + 4 "free" games
A decent start of the year. I thought the first quarter would be completely barren of new interesting releases but I'm already planning on pre-ordering five games next month.
Added the following games to the backlog: January -10
Grim Fandango Remastered (PS4)
Hardware: Rivals (PS4)
Medal of Honor: Warfighter (PS3)
Nihilumbra (PSV)
Legends of War: Patton's Campaign (PSP)
History: Legends of War (PSV)
Starseed: Origin (iOS)*
Lifeline (iOS)*
Omikron: The Nomad Soul (PC)*
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. (3DS)
Completed: January +7
Technobabylon (PC) - Another great adventure game from Wadjet Eye Games. Even though the games are made by different developers they always end up being worth playing.
Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PSV) - One of the better rhythm games I've played and it was nice to see the P4 cast again. The plot wasn't good and it could use a larger track list.
Hardware: Rivals (PS4) - Not bad at all, but sadly inferior to many other multiplayer games.
Shadow Complex Remastered (PC) - One of the better metroidvania games I've played. It's generic with tight mechanics.
Lifeline (iOS) - Text adventure with the feel of chatting with a real person. It reminded me a lot of The Martian that I was reading at the same time.
Nihilumbra (PSV) - Solid indie puzzle platformer.
.NOON. (iOS) - Extremely simple and yet very fun. All you have to do is tap on the clocks when it's noon.
Removed: January +2
Starseed: Origin (iOS) - If I had a gamepad then this shoot 'em up would be a lot easier. It's easy to miss enemies and their bullets when you're covering half the screen with your thumb or finger.
Legends of War: Patton's Campaign (PSP) - I'd rather play the Vita version that is either exactly the same or very similar.
* - free
- "free" from Playstation Plus
Currently playing
Company of Heroes (PC) - One of the best real-time strategy games I've ever played and I could never beat the campaign in the past. Now I'm trying again.
Beaten in 2016: 1: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Currently Playing: Yakuza 5
A slow start to the year perhaps, but Trails of Cold Steel took me over 100 hours, most of which came during this year. Now it's back to clearing out Yakuza 5, and hopefully another couple of games as well next month. I should be able to clear out a few more games before anything I really have a desire to buy is launching.
Well, I wanted to finish Katamari Forever in January, but I need to finish homework today, and I "wasted" my game playing time with Splatoon So here's my final count for January:
A very, very good start, and one that'll give me some leeway in the months where I lag most (typically the summer, and I buy a lot of games during November). I think I'll be able to keep up a decent pace until Fire Emblem Fates comes out later this month, and then I'll be playing only that, lol.
Bought in February (-)
Mighty Switch Force! Hose It Down
Fairy Bloom Freesia
Sorcery!
Sorcery! 2
Tearway Unfolded
Downwell
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest
Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation
February Bought Total: -9
Beat in February (+)
Katamari Forever
Sorcery!
Shock Troopers
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad
February Beat Total: +4
February Backlog Total: 4-9=-5
Removed in February (Net 0)
Sorcery! 2
The King of the Monsters
February Removed Total: 1
Other info
Pre-orders:
Dragon Quest VII
Dragon Quest VIII (Will probably be net 0, already beat and buying for collection's sake)
Zero Time Dilemma
Freebies:
Final Fantasy II (via FF Portal App)
Backlog notes (that don't count towards the total):
Nothing, yet
Bought 6:
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
The Last of Us Remastered
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India
Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands (Wii)
Assassin's Creed: Rogue
Saturday Morning RPG
Finished 4:
Life is Strange
MGSV
RotTR
Yoshi's New Island
Score for January: -2
February: apparently I pre ordered gravity rush remastered months ago and spaced it. So
Bought: 1
Finished: 0
Probably going to buy a boy and his blob very soon.
Finished in 2016:
1. Driveclub (PS4) - 7/1
2. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (PSP) - 20/1
3. Life is Strange (PS4) - 23/1
4. Shadows of the Damned (PS3) - 27/1
Total Score: +4
Pretty good month overall. A 60+ Hour JRPG and a game that has been in the backlog for more than 4 years finished.
Bought in 2016: 3
Beaten in 2016: 7
Current Score: 4
Beaten:
Child of Light (100%)
Hexcells Infinite (100%)
Murdered: Soul Supect (100%)
Obulis (100%)
The Trace
Escape Plan
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (100%)
Beat The Witness, but I'll still be playing that for a little bit, so not considering it "done" just yet. Also still playing Fallout 4. Finally made some headway in the story missions.
Feb 2016 update:
Bought in 2016: 12
Completed in 2016: 7
Score: -5
Brought in Jan:
Borderlands Handsome Collection (PS4)
Rebel Galaxy (PC)
Undertale (PC)
XCOM: Enemy Within (PC)
Guitar Hero Live (PS4)
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls (PC)
Life is Strange (PS4)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC)
Beaten in Jan:
Until Dawn (PS4)
Just Cause 3 (PC)
XCOM: Enemy Within (PC)
Anno 2205 (PC)
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls (PC)
Brought in Feb:
XCOM 2 (PC) (so don't have to add on friday)
Gravity Rush (PS4)
The Legend of Korra (PC)
Beaten In Feb:
Mad Max (PC)
The Legend of Korra (PC)
Currently Playing:
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC)
Borderlands 2 (PS4)
The Legend of Korra (PC)
Bought:
1 - Yoshi's Wooly World (WiiU)
2 - Picross e3 (3DS)
3 - Assassin's Creed IV (uPlay)
4 - Story of Seasons (3DS)
Completed:
1 - Dragon Quest VI (Android)
MONTHLY SCORE: -3 TOTAL SCORE: -3
Welp, not the best start. January has not been tremendously productive, "thanks" mostly to Fallout 4 and Skyrim, which has been in my PS3 backlog for ages now but I couldn't bring myself to seriously play it until I got it on Steam (that FPS on the PS3 version...)