LOCKDOWN: THE BACKLOG KILLER

Quick Note: This article was written back in August 2020 for a separate project. Because of this, some information discussed may be outdated. However, with the UK recently put back into lockdown, much of the information and advice can still be useful to help pass the time playing through your backlog during these trying times. Hope you enjoy the article and stay healthy!

The unfortunate impact of COVID-19, and the lockdown that has come from it, has left the majority of us with a ton of time on our hands. In the case of the gaming community, many of us have been playing games for the majority of our time as a way to make the lockdown as tolerable as it can be. On Statista.com, Christina Gough, a sports and video game researcher, has stated: “While cinemas and theatres closed their doors to try and stem the threat of the disease, many people turned to home entertainment and esports during periods of self-isolation”. Since March 2020, for example, Steam, a popular service for PC gaming, has reached up to 20 million concurrent players, and 6.2 million in-game users.

For many gamers, lockdown has become the perfect opportunity to work on something that has been looming over many of us since we started collecting and buying: the backlog. However, with games coming out at a consistent rate, or hovering over our radar for a long time waiting to be played, a backlog can become huge. Before we know it, it can feel intimidating to simply sit down and play them. However, it is possible to defeat your backlog and make space for new games. Here are some tips on how you can tackle your backlog, without being consumed by the amount of games that could be a part of it.

STEPS ON TACKLING BACKLOG

CUT BACK ON SPENDING

With COVID affecting the entirety of the world, many businesses have had to make changes to their plans for releasing and selling their products. The video games industry is no different. Release dates have been delayed, and announcements to fans have been put on hold. Launches for games have been smaller and more abrupt, with Nintendo being an example of this, as Nintendo Direct rumours have appeared online in full swing, as well as games such as Paper Mario: The Origami King simply announced via Twitter with barely enough time to advertise the game before release.

However, this can be seen as a blessing in disguise, too. If there’s one thing that games are becoming, it’s that they’re becoming more expensive. So, use this as an excuse to cut back on buying new releases, or collecting older titles (some older games are priced in the triple digits, Fire Emblem Path of Radiance for example is priced at £160 at the lowest), so that you can dedicate time to playing the games that you do own, without having your backlog pile growing bigger and bigger.

Use your time to lower your backlog and save your money for more games later on. It’s a win-win situation as far as I’m concerned!

DEDICATE TIME TO GAMES

Even with the lockdown, some people can be busy with their day-to-day lives, whether they’re raising children, or are recognised as an essential worker. Because of this, it would be your best bet to reserve some time to play the games you want to conquer. Many bigger games can be whittled down if you spend around three to four hours per evening on them, but for smaller games you can dedicate an hour or two instead. Go for a time period that you can fit into your schedule, and one that feels appropriate for the length of the game.

To know the length of a game you want to play, I highly suggest using HowLongToBeat.com — check to see the average play length for a game and use it to plan accordingly!

ONE AT A TIME

Confronting the size of your games backlog can be intimidating, and you might think, “Y’know what? I’m gonna play all these games at once to get through them quicker!”. Here’s the blunt truth to that — don’t. With genres such as RPGs (Role-Playing Games), which often feature hundreds of hours of content, as well as being very story-driven, it can be very easy to get lost in these worlds if you’re dedicating time to a large number of games. When you return to a longer game, after juggling a bunch of others, you may forget how much progress you made, and forget what you have to do next to proceed, and so on.

For situations like this, take a deep breath and remember these three words. Take. Your. Time! These games aren’t going to pack their bags and fly back to their developers after a brief period of time, they will always be there for you, ready to play! Play one game at a time, and treat your games like a shopping list, getting what you need out of the way and crossing it out when you’re done. In other words, play through one game at a time and enjoy what you’re playing — that’s the point of playing games, after all.

Saying that, there can be some games, especially longer ones, that can lead you to burnout if you play them consistently without a break from them. In that case, play through a much smaller game and beat that before going back to bigger ones. Think of them as palette cleansers so that you can feel refreshed and ready to tackle your favourite games again.

IT’S OKAY TO STOP PLAYING WHAT YOU DON’T LIKE

Let’s be honest — not every game is going to be a home run. In fact, there might be games in your backlog that end up being buggy, stressful and — worst of all — really freaking boring! It’s good to work on your backlog, but if a game from it ends up becoming a detriment to your enjoyment, then the best thing for you is to stop playing it. As I mentioned before, games are meant to be fun, and not a chore that you have to force yourself to take part in.

PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

Like a lot of other gamers, I’ve also been going through my backlog of games, whether they are big, new releases, or timeless classics. Here are some games that I’ve personally enjoyed playing during the lockdown.

Persona 5 Royal (PS4)

An enhanced version of the 2017 JRPG gem, Persona 5 Royal is a perfect mix of the turn-based battles that JRPGs are famous for, and the social aspects that can easily be related to real-life experiences.

One of the game’s biggest strengths is the Confidant system. This is where you spend your free time outside of dungeons and battling with demons, with the characters you come across throughout the game, with several of them being your fellow party members. During these moments of the game, you learn about each character’s problems and insecurities, with many being relatable for the player, depending on the individual. This can make this aspect of the game addictive to play as you want to learn more about these characters. With the dungeon-crawling segment of the game, you explore fully developed palaces which stem from an individual’s warped desires, and the battle system utilises the features unlocked via the Confidant system. The majority of the enemies you fight can also be recruited as personas you can use in battle, adding more options to your battle strategy.

Alongside the base game’s list of confidants, Royal adds two new characters who are exclusive to this version of the game, alongside a new section of the game which focuses on the game’s third semester. The clumsy, yet approachable, school councillor, Takuro Maruki, and the energetic, resilient, Kasumi Yoshizawa, with the latter of the two being a new party member available to use in your team.

With a social aspect that rewards you when in battle, to even a UI design that is so stylish to the point where it can make a graphic designer as giddy as a schoolgirl, Persona 5 Royal is a game that focuses on rebellion and cognition, with a story that will keep you gripped whilst also giving you the encouragement to be the person you want to be, regardless of what others think. It is an experience that any fan of JRPGs, or anyone that wants to get into the genre, should play!

On a side note, the equally fantastic predecessor, Persona 4 Golden, was recently rereleased on Steam. That also receives my extreme seal of approval!

Ring Fit Adventure (SWITCH)

One of my resolutions for this year was to dedicate more time to exercise, and get a lot more fit, so with the release of Ring Fit Adventure, I can proudly say that it was a huge contributor towards making that happen.

The game’s main story mode follows an RPG-type system, battling enemies whilst implementing different forms of exercise, with a colour-based system where enemies are weak to a certain colour, which focuses on different exercises aimed towards different parts of the body. Red moves are aimed at arm-based workouts, blue is aimed at legs, yellow is aimed at the stomach, and green is aimed at yoga.

The workouts themselves are actually very effective, fully utilising every muscle in your body, with options to change your move set and customise your workout to your liking. Do you want to focus on your arms for a day? Go for it! Do you want your play session to be leg day? Be my guest! Over time you’ll unlock even more exercises to try out, giving you a natural form of progression with your journey towards being fit, as they naturally get more and more challenging over time.

With the lockdown limiting people to their homes for a short while, Ring Fit Adventure can help with you with getting that daily dose of fitness, as well as introduce gamers to a fitness programme that they can take part in at home. It utilises mechanics found in RPGs in a simple way that can get anyone to join in, whilst also getting more fit and toned in the process. It’s like levelling up in real life!

Gears of War 1–3 (Xbox 360)

I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge fan of shooters in general. In fact, before I tackled this series, I would say I never found them interesting from a visual or story perspective, but Gears of War has quickly become an exception to that. With a post-apocalyptic setting, which focuses on the gritty side of war, (even though it’s against alien-like creatures), the characters develop, for better or worse, depending on the character. Saying that, the primary tones for the games can vary. The first game contains dialogue between the cast that can be seen as witty and silly, whilst the second game had a much darker tone in terms of the subject matter and the scenarios that the characters have to face.

As a TPS (Third-Person Shooter), the Gears series has a feature where you must time when you press the reload button. If you time it correctly, you do considerably more damage to your enemies, which rewards the player for their attention on the game, and focusing on everything on the screen. The game also has a creative variety of weapons that you can pick up and use. For example, one of the default weapons, the Lancer, has a chainsaw attached to it, allowing you to saw enemies in half, giving you a mix of both ranged and physical attacks to work with. How many games can you say have a gun that’s also a freaking chainsaw?!

The game’s multiplayer modes are also addictive to play. Starting with Gears 2, the series introduces Horde mode, a mode dedicated to fighting waves upon waves of enemies, aiming to survive until the end with your team. In Gears 3, this mode added the ability to spend money earned by killing enemies in the mode to spend on barricades, turrets and other defence mechanisms, each varying in price. This helps add a layer of quick-thinking strategy to the mode, as you wonder whether it would be best to spend money on defences now, or save for higher quality items later.

If you haven’t been convinced by this series yet, there’s also a lot of blood… and gore… and people getting sliced in hal — -yeah, let’s move on to the next game.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (SWITCH)

As a full remaster that the original 2011 release desperately needed, Xenoblade Chronicles helps add many quality of life Improvements that help make the overall experience much more streamlined, such as adding full markers for quest locations, (trust me you’ll NEED to do quests in this game) and full control of the aesthetic of your characters. Introduced in the original, you can have your character look like a silly amalgamation of clothing, depending on the armour you equip.

As for the gameplay itself, the game follows a system very similar to that of MMOs. MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online) are games that can be played with thousands of players in one world, normally following mechanics similar to RPGs. MMOs involve you taking on quests, exploring and discovering new areas and fighting monsters, all with the goal of getting stronger via EXP (experience points) and equipment, as well as work together with other players, creating a community in the process. Alongside a huge expansive world, in this case the bodies of the Bionis and Mechonis, where you can explore and discover landmarks, it also has a battle system that, whilst you have an auto-attack, lets you use Arts to fight with much stronger attack. Enemies roam areas, with a variety of shape, sizes, species, and even levels. You can find enemies that are as high as level 80 in the early areas, encouraging replayability to fight them when you’ve gotten stronger. The game also has the Monado mechanics, giving you not only Arts that are exclusive to the main protagonist, Shulk, but also the ability to see moves of enemies in the very near future, allowing you to think on your feet and aim to prevent that move from being a detriment to your team.

Because of the game’s approachable, yet deep, battle system, expansive worlds and even a story with many twists and turns, Xenoblade Chronicles is a 100-hour journey that will keep you engrossed in the world that it presents to you, as you see yourself gradually getting stronger. It appreciates the effort you put in, and the game is now one of my favourite examples of how it gives something back for the work you put in to making yourself stronger.

The game’s dub is also 100% British. How many RPGs can you say have that going for them?

MAKE THE MOST OF THE REST OF LOCKDOWN

As the Lockdown continues, in various degrees, I hope these tips and tricks help you make your backlog less of a challenge to even think about. And who knows, maybe I’ve even introduced you to new games to check out for yourself. It’s always best to use the time you have to play the games you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Have fun with your backlogs and stay safe!

IMAGES SOURCES (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE):

Image 1 (Haru): https://www.flickr.com/photos/161227653@N02/48549286172

Image 2 (Kasumi): https://www.flickr.com/photos/161227653@N02/47703228811

Image 3 (Field): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ring-fit-adventure-switch/

Image 4 (Battle): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ring-fit-adventure-switch/

Image 5 (Marcus): https://www.trueachievements.com/game/Gears-of-War/screenshots

Image 6 (Cole): https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelspencer/3012901198/in/photostream/

Image 7 (Gaur Plains): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/xenoblade-chronicles-definitive-edition-switch/

Image 8 (Battle): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/xenoblade-chronicles-definitive-edition-switch/