The moment you’ve been waiting for is here! It’s been a long month of dusting off old backlog games, and it’s been amazing hearing from all of you about the games you’ve been playing (you’ve definitely put our own progress to shame), but it’s time for us to wrap things up and pick a winner in our backlog contest.
If you haven’t been updating your comment on the original post, make sure you leave a reply here with your final tally of completed games. We’ll be looking at these to determine who’s achieved the greatest feat of backloggery. The winner will be contacted sometime later this week.
To everyone who’s participated: It’s been inspiring to watch you get through so many amazing games, and thanks for continuing to listen to Video Game Hangover!
My tally of completed games are as follows:
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (finished the last 12 hours or so to completion)
Ratchet and Clank (100% and platinum’d, 20 hours or so)
Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando (100% and platinum’d, 25+ hours or so)
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal (100% and platinum’d, 25+ hours or so)
Eternal Darkness (completed in around 15 hours)
Crysis 2 (SP campaign, completed in around 12 hours)
I could have done another game or two, but had other things going on. Feels great to finally clear some of the games in my backlog, thanks!
We should do some rankings for what we enjoyed most 🙂 I was seriously considering the Ratchet & Clank trilogy after playing full frontal assault. How do you think they rank? Well done too!
Thanks, your list looks excellent as well! If I had to rank this Ratchet trilogy, it would be ‘Going Commando’ first, followed by ‘Up Your Arsenal’ a very close second, and the first Ratchet game being last.
I bought that Ratchet trilogy when it first came out and I haven’t touched it since! Definitely need to play those before the PS4 tempts me. I’m hoping that they make a Vita version of the trilogy…so I can buy it again and still not play it. 🙂
Final list:
Darksiders,
Rayman Origins,
Runner 2,
Mark of the Ninja,
The Cave,
Persona 4 Golden, and
Thomas Was Alone.
(Playtime and other details: http://dontjudgemyadd.no-ip.org/backlog/ )
Was a fun ride. This was seriously the most I’ve gamed in a single month since college (and I mean summer breaks, not during classes). Hope everyone else got a similar feeling of accomplishment. Good luck!
P.S. and my wife still loves me *wipes brow* 😉
Persona 4 is so rad. Great job on your list!
Yeah, it was fantastic. I loved having an excellent go-to RPG with me at all times. I hadn’t played any Persona games before so it was a really unique and enjoyable experience 🙂
Since I’m asking others, If I’m to rank my favorites it probably goes:
Persona 4 (epic RPG),
Mark of the Ninja (ingenious stealth mechanics)
Runner 2 (great trance out, rhythm game and humor)
Rayman Origins (tough but enjoyable platformer; beautiful atmosphere)
Darksiders (gritty Zelda, imperfect but enjoable)
Thomas was Alone (short, but clever and a good bit size game)
The Cave (not fantastic, but humorous and no complaints at the PS+ free tier)
Mark of the Ninja showed up on both your list and Trace’s, I think. That’s a killer game, too. Did you guys place “silent pacifist” or “murder everyone” style?
Very silent in the beginning, and then more and more willing to dispatch select enemies I knew would give me troubles… oh and I tried to do the kills that were worth scrolls and luring the cyber-ninjas into traps at the end 🙂 Dogs were 100% off limits (don’t even know if it was an option, actually)
I tried to enjoy the best of both worlds. =D
My list of finished games:
Borderlands 2
Darksiders 2
Fire emblem: awakening
Battle block theater
Castle crashes
Mark of the ninja
Saints row the third
Dead rising 2 case zero
Binary Domain
Unfinished games:
Deadlight got 2 hours in. I was just not feeling that game.
Dead rising 2: I got about 10 hours into the game with my fiance before she marched on while I was at work. Ten hours is all I call take credit for but hey, at least I found a game she liked right?
Batman AA I got about 8 hours in.
Xcom enemy unknown. Roughly 5 hours but I’m taking that game at an enjoyable pace 🙂
Overall this had been a great experience! I played through battle block theater and castle crashes with my son and we both had a blast! Even my fiance found a game she liked 🙂
The sad thing is there are still a lot of games in my backlog. But tonight I’m going to celebrate finishing the contest with some saints row 4. Congrats to everyone who attacked their backlog! You guys rock =D
Solid list! Care to rank the must plays for the rest of us? 🙂 Cheers!
Of everything on my list playing saints row the third filed me with pure joy. That is hands down most fun I have had playing a game in years!
Mark of the ninja is a close second. That game is doing with style. I see myself going back to that game over and over.
Fire emblem is a great game but I don’t recommend getting to burn through it. The characters are well designed and the way they interact with each other is enchanting. Truly a on the 3ds.
I should consider SR3… I played just a tad of SR2 when it was free on PS+ but just didn’t like the atmosphere and all the shanking of prison guards on the way out.. SR3 is maybe more my speed, but the dumb slapstick of SR4 may be best suited for me 🙂
Battleblock Theater! I completely forgot that game even came out. I think I have a copy of it sitting on my 360’s hard drive, even! I’ll have to make time to dig into it soon.
I’m surprised I did as well as I did on the Backlog challenge. I beat a LOT of stuff that had been nagging on me forever. Although I obviously didn’t get through everything, I’m really happy with what I was able to do.
BEATEN/COMPLETED GAMES:
Mother 1 (Beat 7/26)
A pretty good RPG but it kind of just became a grind (literally) trying to beat it. Not bad, necessarily, but I can already tell that Earthbound is better in every way. Easily comparable to the time I beat the original Dragon Warrior.
Chrono Trigger (Beat 8/2)
I’m so glad that I decided to play this this Summer. It was amazing.
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (Completed 8/6)
One of the only Mario games sitting on my 3DS that I realized I hadn’t beaten. One of the best games on the original Gameboy.
Ys 1 (Completed 8/8)
Another retro RPG that I decided to play through. Surprisingly easy but I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Beat 8/22)
After getting a PS3 this Summer I went straight for one the most highly praised games on the system. The story was pretty dry and the gameplay started to wear after me after a while but I left with generally good impressions.
Max Payne (Beat 8/23)
A game that I’ve tried to beat 3 or 4 times, this Summer I finally cracked down and decided to kill it off. Definitely one of the best shooters I’ve ever played, albeit some pretty horrible design flaws.
Heavy Rain (Beat 9/1)
I really wish they would make more games like this. A fairly generic mystery story, but the fact that you controlled everything (and I mean everything) that the characters did really made it unique and interesting. (Although I wish there were a few more possible endings)
The Walking Dead (Episodes 4 and 5) (Completed 9/2)
Playing the through the last two episodes at 1 a.m. really took a toll on me. The ending was really hard to watch, but Telltale really carried the quality of the series all the way to the end.
UNFINISHED GAMES:
Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
I beat the first two areas, but it was a bit hard to keep going. There is a pretty good amount of variety to each of the levels, but the sheer amount of collectibles really adds up.
Resident Evil 6
I spent more time laughing at how cheesy the game was than actually playing this one, to be honest. It’s an okay FPS but a horrific Resident Evil game. I’ll probably finish it eventually. DEFINITELY co-op.
Earthbound
I didn’t really want to just power through this one because I can tell it’s going to be an amazing experience and want to savor everything
Picross DS
I put about 110 hours into this game over the Summer, but I just couldn’t finish it in time. I have about 40 puzzles (and around 10 hours) left before I can mark this as beaten. It was a bit presumptuous to try beat this game in 2 months, but I’m surprised I made it this far.
~ Pastry
Well Done! You’ve piqued my interest for Picross DS, and I’m jealous you got to experience chronotrigger for the first time 🙂
How would you rank the RPGs you finished off between 7/26 and 8/8? I know Chronotrigger is right towards the top of my all time best RPGs. I haven’t played any Ys games yet but have Ys origin in steam. Cheers!
I loved Chrono Trigger, obviously. I really liked Mother, although it was slightly too open-ended. I always found myself wandering around for an hour or two before finding my next objective. I’d recommend that you play it if you liked Earthbound, but don’t expect something mind-blowing. The first Ys seemed, like the original Dragon Warrior, like an RPG with absolutely no bells and whistles. I definitely had fun playing it, but I can’t really whole-heartedly recommend it unless you just want to relax with a classic.
Out of all of the games that I played for the challenge, here are the absolute MUST-PLAYS:
Chrono Trigger
Heavy Rain
The Walking Dead
Picross DS
I’d like to say that Uncharted was a must-play, but I’m really not a huge shooter fan. I loved the rest of the game, but due to the fact that I rarely play games with any shooting in them, they were huge roadblocks in the story.
I loved Chrono Trigger, obviously. I really liked Mother, although it was slightly too open-ended. I always found myself wandering around for an hour or two before finding my next objective. I’d recommend that you play it if you liked Earthbound, but don’t expect something mind-blowing. The first Ys seemed, like the original Dragon Warrior, like an RPG with absolutely no bells and whistles. I definitely had fun playing it, but I can’t really whole-heartedly recommend it unless you just want to relax with a classic.
Out of all of the games that I played for the challenge, here are the absolute MUST-PLAYS:
Chrono Trigger
Heavy Rain
The Walking Dead
Picross DS
I’d like to say that Uncharted was a must-play, but I’m really not a huge shooter fan. I loved the rest of the game, but due to the fact that I rarely play games with any shooting in them, they were huge roadblocks in the story.
EDIT: SORRY about the post made by Guest. I realized that I wasn’t logged in after I posted it, and apparently deleting posts doesn’t actually do anything. Feel free to delete it, mods.
Thanks for the detailed reply 🙂 Chronotrigger was one of my favs back in the day (hopefully I have the attention span to replay sometime in the near future) but I never got to play Heavy Rain so I should probably move that up my list! Also never played earthbound or Mother… wanted to in recent years, but don’t use emulators and, as yet, have not purchased a wii-u.
As for walking dead, I played it and enjoyed the experience for being so unique, but didn’t strike me as a fantastic “game”. Hoping for the same tension but a little more polish in season 2 :-). Still need to get 400 days, also…
Dang, is 110 hours close to how long it takes to beat Picross DS? I’m glad I wasn’t keeping track. Love that game, though.
After finishing spec ops, saints row 3, and Xcom, I hit a wall with the stupid spider in Darksiders. This fit perfectly with the rage quit discussion.
Spider in Darksiders 1? I do remember dying there alot, but I thin I eventually got passed it with the cowardly, hit quick and run away to the spot it couldn’t hit me from.
If you ever go back I thought DS was a fun, but imperfect game. the basic gameplay, items, combat, traversal was pretty fun, they just tried to get creative a couple of times with different play styles and they weren’t too polished so it detracted from the overall experience I think. 🙂
COMPLETED :-
Dead Space 3 [completed 9/8]
Finished on normal difficulty. Total time is 16 hours. Overall a solid 3rd entry into the series. Loved the first but was severely let down by the second. This one brings it back to more of what the first game was about. Enjoyed it a lot.
Hotline Miami [completed 8/27]
Finished on default difficulty. Total time was 6 hours. Soundtrack on this game is fucking mental. It’s like a action beat’em up puzzler on crack. Loved it. Took me a while to get used to the 8bit graphics tho.
Spec Ops: The Line [completed 8/17]
Finished on normal difficulty. Total time was 9 hours. Pretty solid 3ps. Game-play was solid, game location was fairly unique and production values were surprising for as little as I’d heard about this game. Recommended and a no-brainer at sub $20 price point.
Super Mario 3D Land [completed main 8/16, still on special 4]
So yeah, can’t give an accurate hour count as my kids play this also. Seems like I’ve spent 8+ hours on it though. First 3 worlds on main have all stars collected.
Sleeping Dogs [completed 9/2]
Finished on normal difficulty. Total time was 17 hours. You know everyone kept saying this was a great GTA type game but didn’t really pay much attention. After completing this all I can say is that this is the most fun in an open-world GTA type game since …. ever! Story line is great and seeing as I grew up on Hong Kong action movies that probably had a say in a lot of this game. Missions all felt fluid and purposeful. Soundtrack was surprisingly good too. Overall the best game of the backlog.
UNFINISHED (but still sank time into) :-
Torchlight 2 [towards beginning of 2nd act]
Playing on default difficulty.Total time so far is 18 hours. Having finished the 1st in less time than I’ve already sank into this, can’t help but think that TL2 is basically just some more of TL1 and there’s been a lot of times I’ve thought that some levels just go on waaay too long. That being said it’s a pretty good dungeon crawler and if you liked the 1st then 2 is a no brainer.
Bit.Trip Runner 2 [2nd world]
Playing on normal difficulty. Probably 3 or so hours played. I have over half the levels in the 1st world ‘aced’. A few levels into the 2nd ‘Caribbean’ world. All I’ll say is this game is the bomba. Didn’t think they could add more from the 1st game but this sequel is more than just a new coat of paint. There’s a lot more they’ve put into the game that makes it even more challenging/rewarding.
Need For Speed : Most Wanted.
Ingame tracker says I’ve played almost 18 hours and completed 42% of the game. Not sure I’ll ever beat this game although I do like it. I absolutely loved Burnout Paradise which this feels real similar too, but this game seems like it’s a lot more about the racing and less about the exploration and stunts and just messing around.
COMPARISONS :-
Animal Crossing
Start of contest = 55 Hours
End of contest = 68 hours
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Start of contest = 140 hours
End of contest = 142 hours D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D;
Finished Recettear, got a bit through System Shock 2, otherwise totally sidetracked by FFXIV. Feels like an appropriate amount of progress for a VGH summer backlog attack 😉
Hey wait a minute
PS3—-
Castlevania Lords of Shadow PS3 – X – 8/20 Platy!
UMVC3 – 100% Gallery [X] 9/6 1 AM EST XD Made it!
Warhammer 40K Hard Mode Story (X) – Online long ways off 8/30
Capcom Arcade Cabinet <3 deaths Black tiger [X] -8/29 SCRATCH THAT SON NO DEATHS GOLD XD!!
Xbox 360
Happy Wars (Lv 50 and Cleric/acheevo) [] Mage check 8/28
Defense Wars (Story) ( )
Man and no school 4 days a week, and a 8 hrs for the job, and the dog. I'll never get all my crap done XD
I kept my post on the original post up to date.
I wanted to tell you guys that I really enjoyed this. It provided some nice structure to clearing out the backlog that I had lacked before. I have probably max 4 hours a week that I can spend on gaming, so this really let me focus on a few titles I wanted to see cleared out.
Contest or no, I say make this a regular thing. Pick some date, pick five games and do your best. I had a great time looking at what others were trying, and I also was impressed-slash-a-little-scared of DontJudgeMyADD’s commitment.
Thanks!
“Commitment” is a nice polite way to refer to obsessive compulsive journaling 😉
And a nice job on your list! A good mix of game types 🙂
Cheers!