Beat the Backlog
“Hello, my name is Drew and I have a problem.
I can’t stop buying games that I never play.”
And if I’m honest, this isn’t a new problem – it’s been going on for years. It started off pretty innocently – I just bought two new games that had the same release day; before I knew it a few weeks had gone by and one of those games was still in its cellophane and I was playing something else that had just come out. I didn’t worry about it really. I honestly didn’t think that it would end up like this. I’d tell myself anything to deny that something was wrong, but really, things were getting worse.
“I have loads of time – I’ll play that one next. This one’s only short. Won’t even take me a day to finish. It’s on sale – when else will I get the chance to buy it at such a low price?”
I’ve tried to stop before, and I can go months without buying a game and then, after a bad day, I find it so easy to creep onto the eShop with my Switch in handheld mode so that my partner doesn’t know. I’ll buy almost anything to scratch the itch. My bosses at VGamingNews know about my problem and are very supportive – but it’s a role that comes with a lot of temptation. Sometimes I might have to write up a digital games sale, or put out a news piece about a classic being rereleased on a new platform. Those can be difficult days.
And social media doesn’t help. I’ll be minding my own business, scrolling through twitter to pass some time and it’s just image after image of pixel art vistas, 3D character models, and WIP updates. I know that deep down it’s me that has the problem, so I’m here to try and start making some changes. The first step in my recovery is admitting the problem, so I’m making my ridiculous Switch backlog public to show how big the issue is. There’s a lot more on other consoles, but let’s tackle one problem at a time, eh?
Jokes aside, my Switch backlog is pretty out of hand. I absolutely love reviewing games, but doing so over the last year has meant that I only made time to play two games in my backlog while probably adding another ten to the pile. Beat the Backlog is going to be an ongoing feature where I’m hoping to play something off my backlog alongside my usual review schedule, in the hopes of publishing a review at the end of my playthrough. Some of these games might be ancient and have been reviewed a million times over the years, and some of them might be plain awful, but I’m hoping that committing to writing about whatever I’m playing will encourage me to get things done.
I’ve collated my backlog on the incredibly useful HLTB (HowLongToBeat.com), and you can find the full list here.
As I finish and write up each game I’ll hyperlink it below so that we can track my progress without backlog games getting lost amidst all the general reviews. I’m going to regularly ask for votes over on our social media accounts about what to play next – it’d be awesome if you could head over there and send some encouragement! Wish me luck everyone!
Games completed so far:
(Click on an image to read the review)
While the intro above is written with tongue firmly in cheek, we at VGamingNews know that gaming addiction is a real problem some people struggle with on a daily basis. We’ve included some resources below to help if you think you might be suffering from gaming addiction.
https://www.addictionhelper.com/addiction/gaming/
https://www.ukat.co.uk/gaming-addiction/
Follow us on…
