Community Backlog Blitz Season 3 - Runs April 1 through June 30 with a raffle at the end

[Wibblewozzer]

15 days into April, I haven't started any of the games, and I want to change all 5 of my selections.

No one will stop you! My only suggestion is that people don't swap out games with stuff they've completed already as that sort of defeats the purpose of setting goals and completing them. Instead, it's just listing five other games you completed!

I've been close to changing a game or two. I may still. We'll see!

 

[Futaleufu]

Completed Homefront The Revolution and 1 of the DLCs. 2 DLCs left, MP is dead.

 

[Ascheroth]

I finished Remember Me a while ago.
Very pretty, pretty interesting, god awful camera.

And yesterday I finished The Surge, which I added to the list after kicking out Machinarium because it was just too short as I mentioned earlier.
It's good. Massive improvement ofer Lords of the Fallen, which I couldn't even stand for an hour. There are some annoying parts and most bosses are a mixed bag.
The first boss is pretty good, nothing to say here.
The 2nd is probably my favorite. It's really cool. But the combat arena has one corner you can stand in where none of his attacks can reach you. Yeah.
The 3rd boss is conceptually very cool, but the 2nd phase has an incredibly awful camera. You also need to disable "Auto lock-on on hit", which is on by default and is just fine for the rest game, if you don't want to be driven insane in this fight.
The 4rd boss is also cool but after doing some damage he runs off to heal and spawns a beefed up version of the first boss for you to fight instead. After you defeat that one he comes back and spawns another one after you do some damage. He does this 3 times apparently, and needless to say that doesn't make things easy. However there is a way to prevent him from spawning more than 1 sub-boss by having the sub-boss destroy 2 objects in the arena. Of course nothing in the game points to this being possible, unless I just completely missed some hints. The boss itself is also extremely easy to exploit.
The first phase of the 5th boss is visually very cool. I found its moveset a bit annoying but at this point you can just power through with heals.
The second phase of the 5th boss, which is also the final boss, shares the same easy exploit as boss #4. Lol.

Overall I had a good time most of the time though and am looking forward to playing the sequel eventually.

 

[Parsnip]

I may end up swapping something out and that new XCOM in, when it releases.

 

[BlueOdin]

Gonna change Rehtona in my blitz since I played a bit of it and the type of game isn't for me sadly. Extra bummer because it was a gift. Will look for something else and then update my sheet

 

[Deku]

Finished Aegis Defenders. It was fun castle defense game. I didn't want to grind to upgrade my units so I cheated a bit to upgrade them to max level

 

[C-Dub]

The game I picked for winning the last Blitz was Death Stranding. I'll be getting to that in June when it releases! Thank you again!

I've also sent £20 to Wibblewozzer to pay it forward. I think that comes to about USD$23. Good luck to everyone participating this time around.

Also, here's my five this time around:

1. Fatal Twelve
2. Hypnospace Outlaw
3. Resident Evil 3
4. Abode
5. Horace

Edit 2: Felt like playing different games after finishing FF7R and Persona 5 Royal, so I've rejigged my list.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

The game I picked for winning the last Blitz was Death Stranding. I'll be getting to that in June when it releases! Thank you again!

I've also sent £20 to Wibblewozzer to pay it forward. I think that comes to about USD$23. Good luck to everyone participating this time around.

Also, here's my five this time around:

1. SOMA
2. Late Shift
3. Shadowrun Returns
4. Space Pirate Trainer
5. Moss

Can confirm, received the money for the prize pot. Came through as $23.88 so I'll add that to the spreadsheet right now. That puts us up to $44.71 already for this Blitz! Hopefully we can get to $60 again for another full priced game or go higher and have multiple winners.

 

[Deku]

Finished Aegis Defenders. It was fun castle defense game. I didn't want to grind to upgrade my units so I cheated a bit to upgrade them to max level

lol, I forgot that Aegis Defenders wasn't part of my Blitz games

 

[Kurt Russell]

I forgot to sign up until today that wibble posted the link again on discord, so here's my list:

Mortal Kombat 11
Strange Brigade
Terminator: Resistance
Gears Tactics
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts

I hope this time around I'll finish more than 2/5

Edit: I took out Devil's Hunt because it's not very fun so far and I'd rather play gears tactics.

 

[Madventure]

I beat Mad Max!
I haven't decided if I want to put more time into it to "Clear" everything with all the camps and get all the collectibles since that seems sort of boring as shit but I liked the game overall
Plus I haver 48 hours into the game so lol

 

[Futaleufu]

I beat Mad Max!
I haven't decided if I want to put more time into it to "Clear" everything with all the camps and get all the collectibles since that seems sort of boring as shit but I liked the game overall
Plus I haver 48 hours into the game so lol

I think I did everything in that game except the challenges. 67 hours according to Steam.

 

[Madventure]

I think I did everything in that game except the challenges. 67 hours according to Steam.

Yeah I just sort of found things kind of getting tedious? It's not that I found the game boring its just that every time i started up the game it was kind of like a feeling of going to work as opposed to doing something fun which is probably why I kept putting off actually playing it

 

[Nzyme]

We just finished a successful first season of the Backlog Blitz. We had 27 participants with 132 game goals set and 71 of them were completed. Congrats on clearing out those backlogs! C-Dub was the big winner this time with winning the first draw of the prize for completing Job Simulator. Make sure to congratulate them here or at the previous thread.

But that means it's time to start anew. The spreadsheet has been updated, the prize pool has been reset, and for whatever reason they keep releasing more games so you'll probably be able to find five more you want to complete.

It's in the thread title but take note that we're now running it for three months instead of four like the previous one. Pick your games accordingly!

What it is:

It's a simple way to clear out some backlog games. You select a number of specific games you want to complete and if you complete them in a set time frame you have a chance to pick a game of your choice within the prize limits.

Rules:

Everyone shares the same rules so an agreed amount of time would be set (three months this time) and then a set amount of games you want to complete in that time (been using five games). You then pick your specific five games with the intention that you don't go changing it all the time. The idea isn't that once you beat some game you go and list it and mark it complete. Instead you pick five games to complete at the start of the Blitz and ideally you complete them as well as anything else you want to finish in that time.

Prize:

In the end I suggest a prize pool and a simple raffle done. I always chip in $20 to start it and accept any other additions. Raffle winners must use at least half but can go up to the full price of a game (capped at $60 if the prize pool gets large enough). Leftover goes to the next drawn winner until it gets down to $0 (or close enough at which point I'll just add it to the next Blitz).

Thoughts?

There's no entry fee or anything so there's really no loss for taking part or starting it and then ignoring it. It's just a fun way to clear out backlog games and have discussion about what you're completing. And commiserate if you pick a game you don't enjoy and sour one of your spots on your list.

I created the Google Sheet so feel free to add yourself and games:

[Hidden content]

I changed to a hide until replied as I think some people had issues with the hide until reacted. Ask any questions and sorry for those that already posted their new lists in the previous thread. Feel free to just post it again here as we continue for the next three months here.

Good luck, everyone!

Got Doom Eternal churned out. It was a ton of fun, not only as a fan of Doom since the old days, but largely because the game got me playing in a way I rarely play... possibly because it feels too stressful or energetic than normal. But with Doom Eternal it's been awesome. Played on Ultra Violence, and 100% all secrets, challenges etc - but there is still plenty to do, including Master Levels, other challenges, Nightmare, Ultra Nightmare, extra life modes, Battlemode and so on.

I'll take a break from it though to move onto the next game!

 

[Deleted member 113]

OK, so I think I finally have my "final" list. (EDIT: Or not, since I made some changes yet again )
I ended up changing 80% of my original list. (EDIT 2: make that 100%!)

I'm not sure how successful I will be, because there's some great upcoming releases, and a few recent ones I bought, that will surely take my time, and considering the amount of time I usually play there's no way I'll be able to tackle new titles like Streets of Rage 4, Dragon Marked For Death, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, Cloudpunk, The Complex, and other recent or upcoming purchases, with the five games I selected.
And for me, clearing the backlog is about playing "older" games (like, at least a few months old, not games that were just released).

But anyway, here's my (hopefully) final list of titles to play:

Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Blaster Master Zero
Blaster Master Zero 2
The Shapeshifting Detective
The Church in the Darkness

 

[bobnowhere]

Finished my 2nd one yesterday, Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7. Good fun but with no achievements I have no real interest in doing anything more than the story.

 

[Rockin' Ranger]

Just realized I hadn't posted my blitz list yet.

Broken Sword 4 - the Angel of Death
Hypnospace Outlaw
LISA: The Painful
The Complex
Greedfall

Hypnospace Outlaw and Lisa are both holdovers from my unfinished games last period. Greedfall I'd started but after finishing the opening area I've put on hold while playing Code Vein.

Broken Sword 4 I just finished and it was terrible but I've finally make it to Broken Sword 5 after backing it on Kickstarter and hopefully with that the series is finally good again.

 

[BlueOdin]

Finished Batman: The Telltale Series over the weekend. Was alright. Started strong but then lost me a bit along the way.

Now onto the Saga Scarlet Grace

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider and after a break from Blitz games I started up Strider (2014) from my other Blitz. That's a good time! For fans of Metroidvanias I'd recommend it. It won't become a new favorite but it's on the good side of them. Also, if you're remotely decent at the genre play on hard. I'm about halfway through and have died only two or three times. I imagine on normal I wouldn't have died at all.

 

[freshVeggie]

Played 12hrs of Nioh. Done one tutorial boss and a real boss. Plus 2 missions.
It's a meaty game.

Thinking of sprucing things up by alternating between an easier to digest game from my list.

 

[gabbo]

And thanks to my wife powering through 2 (+brotherhood and revelations)-3 in just over two weeks, I finally finished Assassin's Creed 2. I want more Desmond, but want less of the way missions are structured which by the end got repetitive and felt like padding. Fun otherwise.

 

[Parsnip]

Finished Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the main game anyway. Will dig into the DLC next but it seems like they are really short.
Kind of left a real meh taste in the end. It drags on for far too long and the end-game, even at its shortened version is just a terrible mess.

 

[bobnowhere]

3rd one down, The Evil Within. Didn't have to restart at least. Decent fun but another main character that runs like a 90 yo with only one lung. That shit is getting old.

 

[Deleted member 113]

Ok, it's been 24 days since the start of the month, a lot of you are already halfway through your lists, and all I did was change my selections, yet again.
I'm an embarrassment.

And so, I ended up changing all of my original selections, and this is my final list:

Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
Deliver Us The Moon
Blaster Master Zero
The Swords of Ditto: Mormo's Curse
The Church in the Darkness

I'm not changing it any more, even if I end up playing something else (most likely I will ).
Not sure how doable that list will be. I know the games are not terribly long, but I'm playing so many other things (Dandy Dungeon, Dragon Marked For Death, plus other recent titles I want to play), I'm not sure when I'll be able to squeeze them in.

I finally started my first game, Blaster Master Zero. So, I hope I may be able to complete at least a couple of entries from my list.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

For the other Blitz I'm in I finished Strider (2014). Played through on hard, which was mostly a fun challenge. That puts me at 4 of 10 completed overall, but still just 2 of 5 here. The three games I have left for this Blitz are Yakuza 4, Zone of the Enders 2: The Second Runner MARS, and Ys: Oath in Felghana. The latter two aren't terribly long, from what I recall, but Yakuza 4 I've started but know I've got like 20 hours for that one. I'll probably aim to complete it in May to leave time for the rest easily.

 

[Parsnip]

I'm making a few changes to mine.

Yakuza Kiwami -> Trials of Mana
Broken Sword 5 -> XCOM: Chimera Squad

 

[Madventure]

I just beat Butcher! The guy who made Soldat made this game, it was pretty fun and overall it wasn't horrible just it's sort of biggest problem would be that the difficulty scaling was kind of ass. They basically make you want to memorize where every enemy spawns/location in order to do the game properly

I enjoyed it but as far as repeatability it's basically just speedrunning achievements which I have 0 interesting in playing through the entire game multiple times again

 

[Madventure]

Just want to get it out of the way Abzu is fucking stupid

 

[Futaleufu]

I took a "quick" detour playing a game I had installed since last year: Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods. Kind of OK, not bad, not great either.

Now I should start Telltale Batman anytime soon...

 

[gabbo]

Scanner Sombre down - doubt I'll end beating Dead Rising: OTR unless I only play that game, and that is unlikely to happen

 

[Spamlynguist]

Beat Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled! I left it yesterday to come back to it today and finish it, only to realize I only needed to beat Nitros Oxide in Adventure Mode... whoops.

Also switching Dragon Quest with Spyro the Dragon. Not really feeling JRPGs at the moment.

 

[Madventure]

Alright I changed my mind.

ABZU isn't shit, I beat it yesterday. The camera is shit. The story is pretty neat, I like the music and general feel but every time I started to get involved and engaged in the game I just yoinked out of the experience by the fucking stupid camera because I kept fighting with it. So a fairly great experience was just kind of not per-say ruined just very hindered by the horribly controlled camera.

Maybe it was just entirely my own fault but the next game I started playing has a similar sort of Floaty flying/swimming camera experience AER: Memories of Old and it has a way better camera system and my first thought was I wish i could put the camera in that game into ABZU.

Regardless my overall experience was saved because:

Spoils the game basically don't read it if you want to play it

The Great White shark is awesome, I love Great White Sharks I was taking 0 Screenshots of the game until that point and when I saw the achievement involving him I got super excited

 

[Parsnip]

I need to play ABZU at some point, it's killing me not to be able to click that spoiler!
It's only couple of hours, so maybe I'll actually do that this month as one of my side games.



Anyways, I started Trials of Mana, it's fun.
But SE really skimped on some of the voice work, can't decide if I want to go full weeb and use japanese voices.
But that's tomorrow's decision.

 

[Spamlynguist]

Another game bites the dust, Spyro the Dragon! (via Reignited Trilogy)

Never played the originals back in the day so this was a nice introduction. Looking forward to play the rest of the trilogy!

 

[Deku]

I started and beat Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Didn't expect that the game would be less of a metroidvania and more of a platformer game (although you have to revisit stages to find items that were unreachable at first.. But it's not something bad. I really liked the game. It was fun.
I only beat the main game, there are a lot more modes in the game. Will try them too

 

[MegaApple]

We just finished a successful first season of the Backlog Blitz. We had 27 participants with 132 game goals set and 71 of them were completed. Congrats on clearing out those backlogs! C-Dub was the big winner this time with winning the first draw of the prize for completing Job Simulator. Make sure to congratulate them here or at the previous thread.

But that means it's time to start anew. The spreadsheet has been updated, the prize pool has been reset, and for whatever reason they keep releasing more games so you'll probably be able to find five more you want to complete.

It's in the thread title but take note that we're now running it for three months instead of four like the previous one. Pick your games accordingly!

What it is:

It's a simple way to clear out some backlog games. You select a number of specific games you want to complete and if you complete them in a set time frame you have a chance to pick a game of your choice within the prize limits.

Rules:

Everyone shares the same rules so an agreed amount of time would be set (three months this time) and then a set amount of games you want to complete in that time (been using five games). You then pick your specific five games with the intention that you don't go changing it all the time. The idea isn't that once you beat some game you go and list it and mark it complete. Instead you pick five games to complete at the start of the Blitz and ideally you complete them as well as anything else you want to finish in that time.

Prize:

In the end I suggest a prize pool and a simple raffle done. I always chip in $20 to start it and accept any other additions. Raffle winners must use at least half but can go up to the full price of a game (capped at $60 if the prize pool gets large enough). Leftover goes to the next drawn winner until it gets down to $0 (or close enough at which point I'll just add it to the next Blitz).

Thoughts?

There's no entry fee or anything so there's really no loss for taking part or starting it and then ignoring it. It's just a fun way to clear out backlog games and have discussion about what you're completing. And commiserate if you pick a game you don't enjoy and sour one of your spots on your list.

I created the Google Sheet so feel free to add yourself and games:

[Hidden content]

I changed to a hide until replied as I think some people had issues with the hide until reacted. Ask any questions and sorry for those that already posted their new lists in the previous thread. Feel free to just post it again here as we continue for the next three months here.

Good luck, everyone!

Hey peeps.
Just wanted to ask how do you get motivation to .... complete?
Because I want some of that...

 

[Madventure]

Hey peeps.
Just wanted to ask how do you get motivation to .... complete?
Because I want some of that...

I don't know about anyone else but I chose a couple of games that I knew were like "easy" in the sense of like the game length isn't that long but I knew had a good enough story from feedback from other people. So It had been sitting in my game library for a long time and I was like okay XYZ looks nice, I'll do that one!

I mean I have games that I REALLY REALLY want to play but I see them and people say I got like 70+ hours from them! I'm like... I usually end up taking longer than most people with games because I want to enjoy the enviroments or look or corners or take lots of screenshots and that 70+ hour game balloons to 150 or more and then it's like I need a break from something im supposed to be doing as a break you know?

So my view was kind of like stepping stones to go from short to a little bit longer to medium to ehhh mediumish
It also depends a lot on what clicks with you.

I was having trouble getting into ABZU for example because I thought the camera was stupid, Was totally goingto give up on it but then I played it a bit more and hit a point in the game where it totally grabbed me in and I was hooked.

 

[gabbo]

Hey peeps.
Just wanted to ask how do you get motivation to .... complete?
Because I want some of that...

This time around? Much easier games (for me) to complete than last quarter are paying dividends. Instead of feeling stuck because a game isn't clicking these were more focused and a bit shorter. As callous as it might seem, there's a bit of drive to win that prize draw at the end. More likely to win if I can add more than an entry. wish I could add more entries to the list just to keep better track

 

[BlueOdin]

Thinking about changing Scarlet Grace to Batman: Enemy Within

Played a bit of Scarlet Grace and while I liked it I wasn't really in the mood for it. And I had Enemey Within installed for quite some time and uninstalling games from my SSD that are bigger than 20GB is oddly satisfying to me.

Probably gonna start Gothic 2 once I am done with Half-Life 2

 

[Parsnip]

I finished the main story of Trials of Mana.
Still thinking about whether to do the extra stuff, not exactly sure how much of it is there. But I'm marking it as complete for here.

 

[FeedMeAStrayCat]

Time for me to join in! I'm many hours into MHW as of starting it last week (I think?), but haven't actually completed the story yet or anything. Is it okay to add that one to my list?
Went with the following: MHW (as long as that's fine), MHW: Iceborne, Luigi's Mansion 3, Tonight We Riot, and Picross S

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Time for me to join in! I'm many hours into MHW as of starting it last week (I think?), but haven't actually completed the story yet or anything. Is it okay to add that one to my list?
Went with the following: MHW (as long as that's fine), MHW: Iceborne, Luigi's Mansion 3, Tonight We Riot, and Picross S

I stick by my standard rule that anyone could add any game they want and decide when something is considered complete. It sounds like something I'd consider fine for my own list as it's not complete, been playing it during this period, and it does have an ending to reach that you haven't gotten to yet.

My main thing is I just ask people don't swap out games at the end of the period with stuff they completed instead because that defeats the purpose of setting a goal if you still just play whatever else and then fill those in.

 

[BlueOdin]

Started Gothic 2. Have to actively pull me back to not fall into the loop immediatly. Have some problems with the mouse controls that I might play it exclusively with the keyboard again

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Gevin Just noticed you still haven't finished filling out your row. May want to get to that as we're nearing the halfway point.

And that said, between the two Blitz I'm in I'm only at 5/10 and I prefer to be ahead of the game. And that's only 2/5 for this Blitz. I really hope to knock out three more of my (ten) games before the end of the month but I may only get two more finished by then.

 

[Gevin]

Gevin Just noticed you still haven't finished filling out your row. May want to get to that as we're nearing the halfway point.

And that said, between the two Blitz I'm in I'm only at 5/10 and I prefer to be ahead of the game. And that's only 2/5 for this Blitz. I really hope to knock out three more of my (ten) games before the end of the month but I may only get two more finished by then.

Yeah I've been failing miserably at this because I'm playing exclusively MHW, so probably I won't even finish the games I have now. If by some miracle I get out of the hole I'll make sure to add more

 

[Futaleufu]

Finished Telltale Batman. A great start, a weaker middle part, a decent finish.

 

[Parsnip]

Yeah I've been failing miserably at this because I'm playing exclusively MHW, so probably I won't even finish the games I have now. If by some miracle I get out of the hole I'll make sure to add more

 

[Madventure]

I just beat AER Memories of old, pretty fun and was a decent length of game. Some of the puzzles started getting stupid. Not that they were difficult it just that there was a lot of back and forth, back and forth so it was like ugh.

Overall pretty alright.

 

[Madventure]

I want to change my one game Betrayer to Alpha Protocol because well I want to, I can do that right?

 

[Wibblewozzer]

I want to change my one game Betrayer to Alpha Protocol because well I want to, I can do that right?

Yes, you can change your list at any time. Sometimes people list games they end up simply not liking, others have other stuff come up in their life and have to pick shorter games, and others have started up a game not on their list that they end up really liking so they swap it onto their list since they know they'll go through it.

As noted above, the only thing I suggest people don't do is replace their incomplete games with already completed games at the end just to get more completed games in their row. The idea really is to set goals for backlog games and complete them. But some wiggle room is alright.