Sometimes I wonder why I have trouble starting a new game. Why my backlog – this absolute privilege, full of amazing games that I desperatly want to play – sometimes feels so overwhelming that in the end I don’t play anything. So I started investigating.
One way that I tend to sort out my brain overflow is getting everything out into lists. GG App is my website of choice for this, and it has categories of Wishlist, Backlog, Playing, Beaten, Completed, Shelved and Abandoned. For this thought experiment, rather than looking at the Backlog section, I decided to take a look at my Shelved games.
I like to finish games. Whether finish means complete to 100%, or play enough that I know I am not coming back varies, but both count. For this reason, no matter how indecisive I am, I don’t think it is the choice of my backlog that is the debilitating part. I have plenty of methods of dealing with that. The part that gets to me is knowing that I have other games sitting there unfinished, waiting for me to get back to them. And now that I have looked into my Shelved category, I can see where that weight is coming from.
Here are 10 games that I found in there that I would really, really like to finish.
Games are in the approximate order of when I started them.
Red Dead Redemption 2 [PS4]
I started Red Dead Redemption 2 so long ago that I can’t even remember when it was. What I do remember is that I was loving it. I was in no rush with the story, preferring to be immersed in the world. Going back to camp to see the crew, attempting to get materials for upgrades, riding into town for a haircut and taking photos with the little in-game camera were all favourite activities.
I believe I was in Chapter 3, and this is what makes picking the game back up so difficult. I barely remember what happened, but it isn’t only that I had made it half way through the game so much as I did a tonne side content along the way, I have no desire to start from scratch. Luckily, the game does have an in-game journal, so I do believe that after a session of getting reacquainted I would be good to go.
The roadblock for getting back to this game is going to be a pattern with many below. Once I do go through the re-familiarisation period, I would like to continue the game to completion, without stopping and going through this whole phase again, but without rushing which would compromise the experience.
Dragon Age: Origins [PS3]
I got this second hand on the PS3 for a quid or two. The only experience that I had with this kind of lore filled fantasy world was the Lord of the Rings movies, Skyrim, and Elder Scrolls Online. I had heard this game was good so I thought I would broaden my horizons.
I got really into it. I loved my characters opening sequence and was reading every single codex in a way that I never had before. I was slightly dissapointed that it wasn’t open world in the way that I hoped but at the same time, it is a good job or it would have taken me even longer to do anything.
I love the way the characters interact, the freedom to do things in whatever order I would like and just being in this new world. I didn’t however get on with the combat. I don’t know how I made it as far as I did without knowing what I was doing. It is just too confusing for me. The first thing I am going to do when I get back to it is lower the difficulty the lowest it can go and I think that will help me finish the game with a lot less friction.
This game has the same road block as RDR2, a road block that I have passed one or two times already to get back into the game. Unfortunatly I ran into a second roadblock, and that is playing on a PS3 in this day and age. It is painful.
Shadow of the Colossus [PS4/PS5]
In my defence, I am not doing a regular playthrough of Shadow of the Colossus. The gameplay is just a necessity, with my main quest being photo shoots of every single colossus.
I have completed this for 10 out of 16 Colossi and certainly want to do the rest. I think I spend around 2-4 hours per colossi learning their moves and trying different things to get the pictures that I am after. Some are easier than others, with the main difficulty being that the camera is attached to the player character or your horse, meaning you have to get creative if you want to fit these giant beasts in the frame.
I have 2 road blocks for this one. The first is that I worry about getting no good pictures. To which I say “shut up and get on with it you fool, you will have zero pictures if you never do it”. The second is the sorting of the pictures afterwards. It was always a multistep process of uploads and downloads and juggling storage space that took forever. I got a USB SD card adaptor for Christmas so theoretically, this should be a problem no longer. I had best have a photography session to test it!
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild [Switch Lite]
Of all of the games so far, Breath of the Wild is the one that I got the least into. I seem to think I played for about 6 hours. The thing is, the game was not hooking me. I don’t know whether it was the gameplay, the controls, my headspace or what, so I would like to give it another try before I can say that I am done with it.
This is probably the one on the list that I am the least enthusiastic about, while at the same time a higher priority as I would like to sell the cartridge when I am finished.
The Cat Lady [PC]
The first shorter game on the list! The reason that Cat Lady is here is a real shame. I got 2-3 hours in and my game crashed, taking my progress with it.
I enjoyed what I played and at this point I would need to restart the game anyway to remember what happened, but I am finding the roadblock with this one is that I am frightened the same thing will happen again.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown [PC]
XCOM games are longggg. Me and a friend somehow managed to turn this one into a sort of co-op experience and it was so much fun. Our squad are based on video game characters and as far as I remember, they were kicking alien butt.
Yet another game that I imagine was about half way through, that I will find hard to pick up as I have forgotten everything about how to play. For the future, I think of all the games to fall off of, strategy games are the worst as you need the knowledge to be able to make your best plays.
Elden Ring [PS5]
Elden Ring is the first souls-like that I have really gotten into. I have been an enjoyer of the series for a while, but that was from a distance. I am not a person that has an interest in mastering a game and it always seemed like a series that required that. Elden Ring however is way more interesting to me due to the open world.
Exploration has been an absolute joy and if you get stuck on something, that is absolutely fine, just mark it on your map and go somewhere else. There is something to find around every corner and it was my game of the year without a doubt, despite not finishing it.
To be fair, I have made it way further than I ever expected. Last time I played I made it to the Mountain Tops, but before I continue there I have loads of catacombs and caves to go back and explore, enemies to rematch and items to collect.
My roadblock here is that I have reached a point where levels cost way more than the amount of souls I feel comfortable carrying around. This makes me too scared to do anything in case I lose them. Can’t lose them if I don’t play the game!
Skyrim [PS5]
One might ask, why the heck did you start Skyrim – of all games – when you are in the middle of playing RDR2, DA:O, SotC, BotW, Cat Lady, Xcom and Elden Ring. And my answer to that – I don’t know man.. I had an itch.
Like many others, I have played the intro to Skyrim many times. One time I actually got pretty far, residing myself in a city that I haven’t yet reached in this playthrough. The trouble is that it is yet again a PS3 situation. Since that old playthrough, I have had so much more experience with games and much better hardware, that seeing Skyrim enter Ps Plus felt like the perfect opportunity to do my definitive playthrough. Particularly as I have never touched the DLC before and this is the complete edition.
The game is surprisingly stunning. I was taking my time and having so much fun. Stopping to take photos, doing whatever I felt like with the intention of going back to the things that I skipped. My only regret was triggering dragons to start spawning. They are way too frequent for my liking and not very fun to fight.
AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES – nirvanA Initiative [PC]
I started AI: The Somnium Files – nirvanA Initiative late last year with the aim of finishing it before the New Year. I forgot how busy the month of December is so of course, that didn’t happen. Instead, I decided to wait until I could finish it in one go, as the story is getting way too complicated to stop and start.
Yet again I believe I am half way through, and all that I am waiting for at this point is to feel clear headed enough to be able to follow what is going on. All of my gaming time has been spent playing mindless games, gearing up for my return to this. Of all of the games on the list this will certainly be the next one that I finish.
The Talos Principle [PS5]
I had one very long session on Talos Principle with the idea that AI would be my PC game and this would be my couch console game. Unfortunatly, as with AI, I just haven’t had the brain capacity for it. December was busy and January has been taxing, and first person puzzle games always manage to trip me up.
I will certainly get back to it, I just think that my first session quenched my curiosity, and now I know what mood I need to be in to play.
To sum up, I appear to have issues with long games. Also, half way points of games.
When I was younger with less responsibility, less games and more time, I would spend so much time in the same game, not moving on until I completed it. Over the years as I have more available to me, I still have that old mindset but my actions no longer follow through.
One of the big factors is subscription services. I am always going to prioritise games on them as the time they are available is limited. Perhaps one day I will get over that mindset, but in the meantime these poor games sit there, abandoned, waiting for the day that I finally find the time to boot them back up.
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