2019 - 12 Month Pile Program

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Welcome one and all!

This is the umbrella thread for those of us looking at living with our piles.

We don't hate them, they don't define us. We walk along side them, drawing comfort from our bulging collections of impulse purchases, bargains too good to pass up, and nostalgic purchases that we've promised ourselves "we'll get to one day".

This is a support group for people who just need to maintain momentum with their collections. I'll be updating the OP to cover other threads around here that might help you tackle specific genres, be they the RPG thread, Adventure Game threads, Monthly Pile threads, or Achievement Focused game of the month threads.

Check back shortly for an updated list of links, but for now, let's get stuck into 2019's potential for fun and engagement in our shared love of games and gaming.

Ah, that new thread smell!

I think starting next month I may have a lot of entries to work on. Many games picked up in the last 2 months.

The unfinished and unplayed backlog as of now

PC

  • American Truck Simulator
  • Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition
  • Else Heart.Break()
  • Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood
  • King's Bounty: Crossworlds
  • King's Bounty: The Legend
  • KOTOR II
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
  • Observer
  • Pillars of Eternity
  • Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition
  • Quarantine Circular
  • Subsurface Circular
  • Tyranny
  • Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II: Retribution
  • Warhammer 40K: Space Marine
  • Watch Dogs 2
  • Yakuza 0

PS4

  • Assassin's Creed Odyssey
  • God of War
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • SOMA
  • Yakuza Kiwami

I’m going to make more of an effort to drift between games rather than obsessively play one thing to completion. With the number of utterly massive games on my list to play, I’m hoping this prevents burnout, and promotes the idea of playing what I’m in the mood for, rather than feeling like I have to finish one thing before moving on to the next. We’ll see how it goes!

Will have to make a plan in early January. I think I did quite well with my 2018 plan. At least early in the year until all planning falls apart.

Will have to make a more detailed post when I'm not on my phone, but looking forward to implementing lessons learned in 2018 for a better 2019.

Buuuut I’m not reaaaadyyyyyy!!!
Thanks for the nod to the adventure game club, m0nk3yboy!

No worries at all E, and if there are any other clubs anyone wants me to add in, just let me know.

So over in the Gaming Goals of 2019 thread I effectively listed out what are more accurately described as guidelines for game purchases. I also came back from my own hiatus with some revelations regarding the silliness of rushing to beat a game by the end of the month. As of December, I've finally settled into a position of comfort regarding my creative impulses and a motivation to do them for myself, but also with less stressful pressure for the sake of a non-existent audience or goals of gaining a greater audience.

What this means is that 2019 could be a phenomenal year for me and this hobby. In fact, while there were some periods in 2018 where I sunk into funks where I was more concerned with watching anime or something, it was never as strong as it had been in prior years. Looking back on 2018, August is the month in which I played the fewest games, and that's largely due to my herniated disc.

Nevertheless, I still want to be careful with purchases in 2019, and those opening months are looking tempting. There are a lot of titles I'd like to play in January, but I think I'll stick to Resident Evil 2 and No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again. Even then, I'm really beginning to wonder if I want to grab Travis Strikes Again, which means if I follow my guidelines I won't buy it. I really dug No More Heroes 1 and 2, but the trailers for this new one haven't grabbed me.

And maybe that's the first "test". I have loyalty to the franchise but if this game isn't really exciting me then I shouldn't be buying it.

Regardless, I've actually made another sort of breakthrough: I may not love Destiny 2 anymore, but I still enjoy it. I've kind of made my peace with what to expect of it. Right now I have no plans to grab the annual pass, but there's still enough for me to enjoy for free every so often.

Perhaps what's new for 2019 is a sort of "pile of old games". Titles I'd like to return to and replay just for the fun of it. On that list:

  • Bioshock 1, 2, and Infinite
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess*
  • Metroid Prime 3: Corruption*
  • Vanquish
  • Brutal Legend
  • Gears of War
  • Dead Space

* Technically already started on WiiU earlier this year.

Those last few games are likely due to the fact that I'll be hooking my Xbox 360 up, as I'll be starting my series of video analyses on the Halo franchise this year. I've already begun my recording of Final Fantasy VI for an analysis, and have a couple other games in mind. Nevertheless, I view those differently since they're not entirely leisure projects.

On top of this, I'd like to give World of Final Fantasy a go on the Switch, but at the same time my friend and I were interested in going through Valkyria Chronicles simultaneously. I'm expected a slew of Spring announcements to begin filling the release schedule of the April-through-June window, and the next Nintendo Direct to start filling my calendar in as well.

I've no shortage of games, but certainly a potential shortage of time. We shall see how things go.

Plenty to enjoy, regardless.

I've finally settled into a position of comfort regarding my creative impulses and a motivation to do them for myself, but also with less stressful pressure for the sake of a non-existent audience or goals of gaining a greater audience.

I just wanted to highlight that sentence, because I couldn't have said that any better.

Already excited for the games I may play and, perhaps, finish in 2019. Will post a detailed plan and strategy of how I intend to continue my siege on the pile... which may or may not be thrown out the window within the first few weeks of the year, never to be taken up again.

Thanks M0nk3y.

brokenclavicle wrote:

Already excited for the games I may play and, perhaps, finish in 2019. Will post a detailed plan and strategy of how I intend to continue my siege on the pile... which may or may not be thrown out the window within the first few weeks of the year, never to be taken up again.

This'll be me

Double tap = 2 X post.

My pile has gotten small now, since I have been more disciplined over the last few years about buying fewer games I want to play, and only games I will play. And only buying newer games 1) at full price if I am going to play them in the next week, or 2) half off or less otherwise. I have also sorted my backlog by games I really want to play, and those that interest me that I may get to eventually. Suffice to say, the latter option category doesn't get looked at very often, until my high priority games get played. And I only have a few high priority games left before I am caught up. I track them on the sticky notes on the taskbar of my computer, and can watch the list get shorter for each game I beat and delete. Here they are:

XCOM 2 (30 hrs) (Vanillla first, then WOTC) (Steam)
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (100 hours) (Switch)
Fire Emblem Echoes (40 hrs) (3DS)
Divinity OS 2 (100 hrs) (Steam)
Fallout 4 (80 hrs) (Steam)

Of course, the problem is these are all big games, so getting through them will take awhile. And I'll occasionally mix in a run of a strategy game to do something different. But I still think I can get almost all of them done in 2019. I'm also limiting myself on new purchases; the only games I think I would get new this year are Pokemon 2019, and Persona 5 if it comes to the Switch (I think it's going to at some point). I also track game sales for games I want to get in the future on isthereanydeal.com, but most of the ones on my list left aren't hitting the deep discounts I'm looking for before I pull the trigger, so I can avoid buying games when they go on modest sales. Also, since an email gets sent when one of my games hit my threshold, I spend less time trolling the stores for deals, which means I'm much less likely to make impulse purchases.

I just sorted a bunch of the games I had in my room and stumbled on Valkyrie Profile, Valkyria Chronicles II, and Trails in the Sky on PSP.

I may have to find the PSP and make some time to RPG on it. I'll probably start with Valkyrie Profile, but I dunno how many games I can do at once. I've basically decided on Devil May Cry 3 as my main PS4 game until RE2, I'll be working on FFVI on the SNES Classic, and I'm thinking I'll snag I snagged Valkyria Chronicles Remastered on Switch. Given that Switch is a versatile machine, it's hard to consider time I'd jump onto the PSP and play it instead.

Ah well. We'll see what happens.

My pile has continued to grow and likely will still grow in the foreseeable future, but my goal for 2019 isn't really to reduce the pile, as I like having the option to walk into a virtual library full of all sorts of games and go "shopping" for what I want to play! However, a pile is still a problem if it is rarely or never used, so I do have upcoming plans for this pile.

My goal then is progression, and maybe here I can keep track of how I'm coming along with what I'm playing and *maybe* just maybe even complete a game once in a while, or if it's one of those games without end, be able to look back and see that I did a whole lot of stuff in it.

So for this week, I'm starting out with a bunch of phone games and a couple on the Switch since I'm currently living in two different places at once and am not always near a TV or my main computer.

SWITCH

Stardew Valley: I've played this one for a good bit on my laptop, but started a fresh new game on the Switch. Haven't gotten too far, but did manage to attend (and lose!) the Easter Egg hunt. Also just started working on rebuilding the old community center. (I keep telling myself I'm going to make a Joja company character, but I never seem to do it!) My new character's name is Jada and she likes cats a lot, so chose a cat instead of the dog. Her farm even has the name "cat" in it. (In real life, I'm more of a dog person, though I like cats too as I do all animals, but I got the dog on the last farm, so wanted to do something different!)

Skyrim: Just started a brand new game for Switch and it's a triple dip from having it on both PC and Xbox. I haven't gotten much past the tutorial, only having made it to the first town of Riverwood and picked up some of the quests there. I left my character having a zen moment chopping wood to sell for gold. I'm thinking she will specialize in spells and sword, light armor, and no bow, but who knows what she will decide to do when I'm not looking. It's been a few days since I played, so can't remember what I called her offhand, but I'm sure she'll be reminding me about it soon!

ANDROID

(Hard to believe all of this is packed into a tiny little $30 phone. )

Microsoft Solitaire Collection: Been playing this on Android for a few months and just got the Go for the Gold achievement for reaching gold by playing all the daily games for at least 8 months. I missed a few days of playing this month and have been catching back up with them today. Goal is to get the silver and bronze achievements and play 100 games of FreeCell for another achievement (24 games so far), and then focus on completing all of the Star Club collections.

Candy Crush Saga: Overall level 28. At #397 and have been stuck on it for a while. I keep coming very close to getting the greens and blues I need, but not close enough. At some point, I'll get lucky and get it!

Candy Crush Friends: At #179. Been stuck at level 179 for DAYS. In the other Candy Crush game I'm playing, you can win free boosters each day that can help with levels. In this game, we can level up the "friends" but it just seems to give them different costumes rather than any upgraded abilities, so I may end up stuck on this level for the entire year since I've tried all the friends that it makes available numerous times to no avail!

Township: Current town level is 20. Not currently in a co-op, but may join one in the future. (If anyone here is in an open Co-op, and it's pretty casual, let me know.) Working on expanding my town and farms, and helping people with things they need for their trains. (Planes require too much for me to complete at this time for either me or for other people, but maybe in the future once my barn and fields and factories are more expanded.)

Fishdom: Level 110 and have the Tropica (2 stars), Greece (3 stars), and Farm (0 stars) aquariums. Holiday event over and was able to get at least one of every item, including all three holiday fish! The stars of my Greece aquarium will go down soon because much of it is because of the holiday items I put into that aquarium, which I will soon remove.

Gardenscapes: Level 164 and about to make topiaries!

Homescapes: Level 163 and about to start improving the garden area.

Empires & Puzzles: Level 7 with watchtower at level 6. Working on upgrading all buildings on my base to level 6 as well before upgrading the watchtower again. Upgrading my main set of heroes as I complete training and missions. Team power is at 1297. Running low on iron reserves, so will need to play missions/raids soon to build that back up.

Will see how much progress I make in these games the next time I report in, which may or may not be next week!

Here I am again with some January goals, most likely never to return until about 12 months time, with my goals unfulfilled and my tail between my legs. Maybe this year will be different? 2018 was certainly a wake up call once I'd totted up my expenditure on games for the year. It was an unsustainable amount, made all the more galling because it would have been impossible to play it all, even if I hadn't kept moving on to the new shinies. Something I'm going to do this year is to keep a diary, just a basic Excel sheet with the games I play each day and roughly how long for. If, at the end of 2019 I can see I spent 400 hours gaming, then I know it's not going to be vastly different in 2020, so there's no point me buying 600 hours worth of games in the winter sale!

The pile is long but I've listed my priorities. The first 4 are pretty much a fixed order. Origins and Sonic are new purchases from the sale, Andromeda and Tyranny I need to beat before my Origin subscription expires in May.
- Assassin's Creed: Origins
- Sonic Mania
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Tyranny
- Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC
- Mad Max
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Steamworld Dig
- Civilization VI (finish at least one campaign)
- Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
- Moss
- Dark Souls

Stretch goals. Not sure I'll get to these, and to be honest they've been on the pile for so long, with multiple attempts and false starts, that I will consider just permanently deleting them if I don't get to them this year.
- Pillars of Eternity
- Metal Gear Solid V: TPP
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Cuphead

If I can finish two thirds of all that and get away with not adding too much, then I'll be happy. But, I also have to recognise that the above games are going to be played alongside long time favourites that don't have an end, and I'm likely to continue to put time into. Heores of the Storm and Euro Truck Simulator 2 are probably the main ones, but there is also my new addiction to Beat Saber to contend with.

Wish me luck, have a fun 2019 folks!

Edit: Forgot to add DA Trespasser to the list. Also, I remembered I bought Conan Exiles (le sigh), which I don't think should really be on the 'finishable' pile, but will be played alongside them at some point.

This'll be my first full calendar year with GWJ, and the first year that I can start fresh with my pile. Time to take stock of things:

The State of My Backlog, as of Dec. 31, 2018:
IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif)134 games unfinished
IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif) 52 games unplayed
Backloggery Progress Index: -2
This doesn't tell the full story, however, because Backloggery does not count games the 41 games removed (sold or "nulled") as part of its progress index progress.

Games finished in 2018:

Spoiler:

Persona 5 (PS4)
Epistory (PC)
Secrets of Raetikon (PC)
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC)
Guacamelee! (PC)
Qube (PC)
Potatoman Seeks the Troof (PC)
Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS)
Shovel Knight (3DS)
Pillars of Eternity (PC)
Pushmo (3DS)
Donut County (iOS)
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
Girls Like Robots (PC)
Age of Empires: Mythologies (DS)
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (PS4)
Hollow Knight (PC)

Games added in 2018:

Spoiler:

God of War (PS4)
Hollow Knight (PC)
Dragon Quest XI (PS4)
The Last Guardian (PS4)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS4)
Donut County (iOS)
Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts re:Chain of Memories (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (HD Remastered Cinematics) (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts re:Coded (HD Remastered Cinematics) (PS4)
Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (PS4)
Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4)
Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4)
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4)
Soulset (PC)
Algobot (PC)

So yeah: now that I own a PS4, I've gone hard on buying games for it.

Games Removed (Sold or "Nulled") in 2018:

Spoiler:

AI War: Fleet Command (PC) - Looked up information; not my kind of game.
Ballistick (PC) - Tried it briefly; hated it.
Banjo-Tooie (N64) - Sold this. Played through most of it back in the day, but can't see myself going back.
Beat Hazard (PC) - Looked it up; not my kind of game.
Citizens of Earth (3DS) - Spent a few hours; don't see this as enjoyable.
Champions of Norrath (PS2) - I can't picture going back to this, when there are newer and better games.
Daggerfall (PC) - Played this back in the day. Have bad memories of getting lost in randomized dungeons with nonsensical layouts. If I want to play an Elder Scrolls game, I'd go with Morrowind, Oblivion, or Skyrim (probably Skyrim).
Dark Cloud (PS2) - Sold this. Tried it back in the day; it didn't click.
Dark Cloud 2 (PS2) - Sold this. This one didn't click, either.
Donkey Kong Classics (NES) - Can't really beat this game.
Dungeons of Dredmor (PC) - Tried this, and found the whole concept kind of tiresome. Not for me.
Dustforce DX (PC) - Tried this; didn't like it much.
Dusty Revenge (PC) - Looked this up, not my kind of game. Eador: Genesis (PC) - I might have liked this 10+ years ago, but now I want something with more variety that I can finish, rather than a bunch of randomized worlds where I do the same thing over and over.
Earthworm Jim (SNES) - Sold this
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes (PC) - I gave this one, and Stardock, too many chances to get it right.
F-Zero X (Wii VC) - Tried this, didn't like it.
Galaga (NES) - Can't really beat this one, either
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS) - Man, I really hoped to like this, and was very disappointed. Too much dialogue that wasn't very good or interesting, and a battle system that felt super bland. I know some people love this series, but I found nothing special about it.
Gratuitous Space Battles (PC) - I'm looking for games I can actually finish. Pass.
Guns of Icarus Online (PC) - Looked this up; it's not for me.
Icewind Dale II (PC) - A rare "null" that I could see myself going back to, but not now. I'd sooner play BG:EE than this.
Limbo (PC) - What a creepy little game. Even with the lights on, I can't handle it.
Prince of Persia (PS2) - Sadly, the disk doesn't read
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) - An eventual play, but also a gift for my wife, and I agreed to let her have first crack at it.
Mario Paint (SNES) - Can't beat this game, so it doesn't belong on the backlog.
Majora's Mask (N64) - If I want to play this, I'll get it on the 3DS.
Monster Love You (PC) - Looked up information, and this didn't appeal to me at all.
Nier: Automata (PS4) - Same as Horizon
No Time to Explain! (PC) - Tried it; didn't like it
Perfect Dark (N64) - Sold this
Pilotwings (SNES) - Sold this
QuestRun (PC) - Tried this back in the day, and remember it being very, very hard to finish a run, and that the end wasn't especially enjoyable.
Rogue Galaxy (PS2) - I had this from way back, and it never connected. The world seemed quirky for its own sake, but not cohesive. Realistically, I'm never going to go back and play this instead of something else.
SimCity (SNES) - Can't beat this game, so it doesn't belong on the backlog.
Skuljagger (SNES) - Sold this
The Stanley Parable (PC) - Nothing I've read about this makes it sound interesting.
Star Wars Episode 1 Racer (N64) - Sold this
Streamline (PC) - I'm not a streamer.
Super Hexagon (PC) - I am terrible at this game, and not a masochist.
Time Frame (PC) - Don't remember why I nulled this, to be honest.
WizOrb (PC) - Tried it; didn't like it. And I like Arkanoid! For some reason, this doesn't gel and I find it too difficult.

Goals for 2019 [these backlog-specific goals are a little different from my overall gaming goals]:
1) Finish the stuff I started in 2018

Spoiler:

Etrian Odyssey IV (3DS)
Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
Dragon Quest XI (PS4)
Ellipsis (PC)
Final Fantasy XIII (PC)
Invisible, Inc.
JumpJet Rex
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (DS)
Song of the Deep (PC)

2) Play and finish the CRPG Club and JRPG Club games.

Spoiler:

Right now, that's just:
Dragon Age: Origins (PC)
Persona 5 (PS4)

3) I was thinking of setting a category for some white whale games and some short games that I want to finish, but those lists don't feel useful right now: make the list too short, and it feels limiting, make the list too long, and it feels either overwhelming or unhelpful. Either way, not fun. I'm going to save this category for later consideration.

Tentative plan for January

Spoiler:

Dragon Age: Origins (PC) - Finish 1-2 of the four main quests, after Lothering
Dragon Quest VII (3DS) - Finish
Persona 5 (PS4) - Finish Palace 2
Song of the Deep (PC) - Finish

EDIT: Added a section for games nulled in 2018, and also added a few games I started in 2018 but forgot to include. I never made an end-of-2018 post in the other thread, so I want to make sure I had all this stuff in one place, so that I can go back and reflect at the end of 2019.

I got my Backloggery all cleared off and my new pile added on. I expect there'll be some churn in those as some of them I haven't tried before and might just dislike.

Me in Jan 2018 wrote:

2017 was a bad year for me in terms of the pile (among other things). I bought a lot of games and played a lot less so I want to change that in 2018. Initially, I thought about limiting my purchases to X amount of games but I don't think that's ever worked for me. What I am going to try is to beat 3 games for every new game that comes in. We'll see how that goes.

Yeah, uh, no, this didn't happen at all. I think I'm just going to concentrate on buying things that I intend to play right away. It's hard when there's a good deal going on but honestly, any game on sale will probably be that price again if not cheaper so I might as well wait.

Planning on picking up Kingdom Hearts 3 on release since I've spent the past few years catching up on the series and it'll be fun to be part of the current conversation for that. I also want to pick up Assassin's Creed: Origins and Odyssey at some point since I feel like 2019 is the year that I finally get up to date with the series. Other tempting things on the horizon might be some of Sony/Nintendo's big exclusives (Last of Us Part 2, Death Stranding, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Metroid Prime) but it's still a huge question mark if we'll actually see any of them this year.

Finally, I've made a new list of games that I'd like to get to this year.

Spoiler:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (3DS)
Banjo Tooie (X360)
Persona 5 (PS4)
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth (PS4)
The Witness (Steam)
God of War 2018 (PS4)
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
The Witcher 3 - Blood and Wine DLC (PS4)
Resident Evil HD remaster (PS4)
Black Mesa (Steam)
Firewatch (Steam)
Paper Mario: Color Splash (Wii U)
Star Fox Zero (Wii U)
Star Fox Guard (Wii U)
Subnautica (Steam)

And the first game of the year off the backlog is Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood. Saw credits roll, anyway. There’s a year and a half of patches to catch up with, of course, but there’s plenty of time for that before Shadowbringers comes out this summer.

I wrapped up Seers Isle, and immediately dove in again for a second playthrough.
Certainly helps with morale, doesn't it?

I was in the midst of putting together a list of pile games to play in 2019... A solid 3DS list for starters, but moving on to other platforms it was all looking rather unwieldy, daunting and to be honest unrealistic.

Instead what I'm going to do I think is take the year in little quarterly chunks. Rather than plan for the year just make a much shorter list of games to prioritise from Jan-March. Leaves some wiggle room for picking other bits up off the pile, another adventure club game or two, or even pick up something new if the mood strikes.

So Quarter 1

PS4
God of War
Persona 5 (jrpg club)
Rime (adventure club)

3DS
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns.
Pocket Card Jockey.

PC
Tacoma (adventure club)
A couple strategy games TBC

Another thing have been thinking about...
I'm not going to try and not buy this year, that just doesn't work for me. Instead I'm going and try to look more closely at what I do have each time I'm tempted by a new purchase. If I still want it, no worries purchase guilt free, but hopefully by browsing the backlog now and again before I click checkout I might spy an unplayed pile gem that will do just as well. This doesn't quite make sense, even to me yet, a real work in progress job

Saying that a few possible new purchases might be...
Ni No Kuni II
AC: Origins/Odyssey (I should give an AC game a proper chance really)
Spider-Man
The Division 2

This is ALL subject to change, or course!

A quick tier 1 list to start out with.
Had 23 games on my 2018 list, played 15, completed 14. I consider that an unfathomable success.

Assassins Creed: Odyssey [PC] - not exactly a pile game, but startting on it now, so might as well add it - Finished January
Rime [PS4] - Finished January
Xenoblade Chronicles: Torna the Golden Country [Switch]
Rimworld [PC]
Slay the Spire [PC]
Into the Breach [PC]
Detroit Become Human [PS4]
Darkest Dungeon [PC]
Endless Space 2 [PC]
Terraforming Mars [PC]
Underrail [PC]
The Bard’s Tale IV [PC]
Drox Operative [PC]
Surviving Mars [PC]
Homeworld: Desert of Kharak [PC]
Total War: Warhammer [PC]
Lightning Returns [PC]
Homeworld Remastered Collection [PC]
Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight [PC]
Europa Universalis IV [PC]
Chrono Trigger [PC]
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West [PC]
Jade Empire [PC]
King of Dragon Pass [PC]
Icewind Dale EE [PC]

Also adding my newly started replay of Dragon Age, to keep myself up on it
Dragon Age 2
Dragon Age Inquisition

Bubblefuzz, I used to keep a list of my "best backlog titles by genre".

Everytime I thought about buying new, I'd look at what I had, in the same genre, and if I already had a better title in my possession, I'd pass on the new shiny.

Not sure if that could help dissuade some of your future acquisitions or not, but it saved me a few times (especially when 'not so great, but OK' titles were on special and the lure of the bargain came into play).

Some updates since last week on my gaming progress:

SWITCH

Stardew Valley: Haven't gotten too much farther than last week, but did manage to get a few more tasks done for the Community Center pertaining to Spring crops, and made it down 5 levels in the mines. My primary goal is to be able to afford and to buy the backpack that expands inventory.

Skyrim: Haven't played since last week, so still chopping wood in Riverwood.

ANDROID

Microsoft Solitaire Collection:

Freecell achievement Alcatraz Escape with a goal of playing 100 Freecell games: Went from 24 to 28 games.

Also caught up on all my dailies and making progress towards the Go for the Silver achievement to have 9 months of silver daily challenge badges.

No Star Club games played this week.

Candy Crush Saga: Overall level 29 from level 28. Went from level #397 to #421.

Candy Crush Friends: Reached #189 from #179 after FINALLY getting unstuck!

Township: Really enjoying this game! Town name is Hope, named after one of the giraffes at Topeka Zoo. Went from town level 20 to town level 24. Opened up the mine and started to mine for ore to make ingots. Population at 910/1435. I'm most excited about getting a second feed mill that I can dedicate entirely to cows!

Fishdom: Level 170 from level 110. Tropica aquarium up from 2 stars to 3 stars. Farm aquarium up from 0 stars to 2 stars. The stars in my Greece aquarium did go down from 3 stars after removing holiday stuff, but after buying some Greece themed items to replace them, it is back up to 3 stars. I also moved my special cow fish, Maybelle, into the farm aquarium and bought a fish I named Earl to go in there with her. Lester will be the next fish I add once I can afford to buy him!

Gardenscapes: Level 191 up from level 164.

Homescapes: Level 192 up from level 163. Still improving the garden area.

Empires & Puzzles: Still at level 7 with watchtower at level 6 and working on upgrading all buildings to level 6 as well. Team power up from 1297 to 1310.

So by the end of this year, I hope to be able to look back and see that I've made a lot of progress in the games I did play even if I typically don't seem to ever complete much of anything, which makes it seem like I've made NO progress because of the type of games I seem to spend the most time on.

Bought my first games of the year yesterday. Phew! Glad to have that done with.

This year, I've set three goals for myself: work on my "Goodbye, 3DS" pile; work on my "Adios, Wii U" pile; and play everything I buy in 2019, in 2019. As the year kicks off, where do I stand with that?

As of right now, I have five games marked as currently playing on Backloggery. Four of those are games from my Goodbye, 3DS pile. Thumbs up!

I'm not currently playing anything from my Adios, Wii U pile. Thumbs down!

I have purchased two games so far this year: Persona Q, and Devil Survivor 2. I have not finished either. I am currently playing Persona Q.

So after reading and commenting on The Year Ahead, I feel a need to try and document planned purchases. I never stuck to it too well before, but given my eagerness to replay games I'm hoping I can make do this year.

Not a lot I can plan on yet, however. So this will be a continually updated list.

Spoiler:

January:
Resident Evil 2 Remake

February:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

March:
Devil May Cry 5, Caligula Effect: Overdose, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Unknown Dates:
Final Fantasy VII (Switch), Final Fantasy IX (Switch), Final Fantasy X/X-2 (Switch), Final Fantasy XII (Switch), Babylon's Fall, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, A Plague Tale: Innocence, Catherine: Full Body, Concrete Genie, Control, Daemon X Machina, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Indivisible, Praey For the Gods, Judgment, Journey to the Savage Planet?, The Outer Worlds, Luigi's Mansion 3, Man of Medan, Psychonauts 2, The Pathless, The Ghosts of Tsushima, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3

Ideally I'd be limited to two purchases a month: a PS4 game and a Switch game. That's manageable, right? But that's an awful lot of releases without dates, and there's no doubt a whole bunch of unannounced titles that are bound to pop up... which is precisely why I'm also looking at that "Unknown Date" list and considering it a list of potential expendables as well. Once the release calendar becomes more clear, a lot of those will probably drop while others climb on top.

For example, I'd love to grab Tales of Vesparia, but I'm going to be working on enough stuff that I know it's better I only get Resident Evil 2 Remake in that time. February doesn't have anything that really grabs me, so I should have plenty of time to clear the backlog before the insanity that is March. Depending on what releases in April on Switch, Caligula: Overdose may get knocked out of the running. At the same time, Sekiro may knock new releases in April out of the running.

We'll see. I just want to better decide on purchases and control my spending and acquisition of titles.

Just want to ask (plead, beg) that people *not* go back and keep editing previous posts as this thread moves forward, unless they are correcting something they very recently posted. Completely messes up keeping track of new vs. old. vs. edited posts in the thread when suddenly a week old post is marked as "new" and then who knows where the actual new posts start! Please just post a *new* update!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Bought my first games of the year yesterday. Phew! Glad to have that done with.

And then that Target clearance sale on 3DS games got me. Ouch.

Edit: I had forgotten how demoralizing those Poisoned and Cursed badges are on Backloggery. One of my main complaints about that site was that it's a bigger fan of negative reinforcement than I'd like. I'm not sure why that bothers me, but it does.

Or, I just hate being reminded that I just bought a sh*t ton of games.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Bought my first games of the year yesterday. Phew! Glad to have that done with.

And then that Target clearance sale on 3DS games got me. Ouch.

Edit: I had forgotten how demoralizing those Poisoned and Cursed badges are on Backloggery. One of my main complaints about that site was that it's a bigger fan of negative reinforcement than I'd like. I'm not sure why that bothers me, but it does.

Or, I just hate being reminded that I just bought a sh*t ton of games.

I think during the times I use Backloggery, I am permanently stained green.

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