Day two: Foul weather has inched in. I walk to the con as the sky decides whether it wants to rain or not. I overhear some authentic Boston chatter (“I remember the first packa cigarettes I ever stole from the Easy-Maht”). It grows steadily colder. ‘Tis a good day to spend indoors.
Dawn of the first day. Weather in Boston is extremely pleasant (for once). There’s a distinct lack of Super Mutants and airships, but I chalk this up to it being early in the weekend.
Considering how much of a Metal Gear Solid fan I am, I’m surprised how long it’s taken me to finally start playing MGS V: The Phantom Pain. I didn’t even touch Ground Zeroes until I knew I was going to be playing The Phantom Pain right after.
I could easily blame the backlog for this, but the truth is that I think Metal Gear has had a lot of weak entries since the release of Snake Eater. I was personally unimpressed by Guns of the Patriots. The pacing made it feel like more a guided tour rather than actual game. The story also tried to tie up way too many loose ends before it could conclude the series, on top of needing to bring back everyone’s favorite characters so that it could feel like a “proper ending”. Peace Walker seemed like a true return to form for the series, but watching Andrew play it gave me the impression that it was simply recycling old mechanics and motifs from the previous games just to churn out a new title. And I won’t even dignify Portable Ops with a comment.
Thankfully, The Phantom Pain (and by proxy, Ground Zeroes) has been a breath of fresh air for me, not just in terms of Metal Gear Solid, but in terms of games themselves. The Phantom Pain is one of the best games I have ever played. Period. The move to open-world gameplay has given new life to the series in a way that not only revitalizes the series, but also makes The Phantom Pain a supremely addictive game.
I’ve been putting this off several months now, but with the new year it felt like the right time to make the announcement: I’ve finally finished my backlog.
Well, I actually finished it back in November, but I haven’t said anything about it until now. I originally wanted to review my last two games as a sort of farewell, but that opportunity has passed by now. Black & White managed to be the final holdout, with Dead Rising not too far behind it.
Looking back, it’s hard to believe that I spent a year and a half deliberately trying to beat all of my old games. A year and a half is a long time to do anything. Most people don’t even keep their New Year’s resolutions past February. But I managed to stick to my goal, and honestly, it feels good to be done.
Next on my countdown of “games that I avoided playing” is Grand Theft Auto for the PlayStation. No, not Grand Theft Auto V. Just Grand Theft Auto.
At 185 million total sales, GTA may be one of the most beloved game series out there these days, but it’s come a long way since its debut on the PlayStation. Grand Theft Auto may have been the first game in the series, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it catapulted the games to greatness; that award goes to Grand Theft Auto III, arguably one of the most important games of all time. The first two games were a tad more… forgettable.
Today we take a detour from our regularly scheduled backlogging to check out Far Cry 3. Up until this point, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the Far Cry series. The first Far Cry was so frustrating that it led to vein-popping outbursts of violence against my dormitory furniture. The second game was a lot better, but it got bogged down by its lengthy collection quest for war diamonds (yea, I’ll admit it… I collected them all anyway).
In Far Cry 3, you’re dropped into the war-torn and exotic Rook Islands, a lush archipelago in the South Pacific. American tourist Jason Brody and his equally privileged pals end their vacation with a skydiving trip over a supposedly uninhabited island, only to discover that the island is in fact very inhabited, and by bloodthirsty pirates nonetheless. You alone manage to escape, and are predictably expected to rescue your friends, kill a bunch of evil drug-lords, and drop some straight-up fucking democracy on everyone’s heads. Ooh rah.
Wow, I’ve done a pretty bad job of reviewing the last couple of games left on my backlog. Nevertheless, I’m pleased to say that there are only two games left between me officially completing my backlog of games. The two lucky winners are Black & White for the PC and the classic Xbox 360 game Dead Rising.
So far, Tim Lee and I have been having a good time making progress through Dead Rising. As difficult as it is, it’s actually very satisfying making progress through the game. We’re at the tail end of 72-hour mode, and chances are that we’ll be making more progress in it shortly this week. As for Black & White… well, it’s not exactly a short game, and I’m still slogging through the tutorial isle for now.
Deep down, I would love Dead Rising to be the last game I beat on my backlog. Compared to Black & White, it feels like a meaningful game to finish this project off on. So many memories are tied to this game – whether it’s remembering Alfred trying to get all of the endings, or my brother playing through the game on his original 360. I would really love to leave it for last on my backlog. But considering how little I want to trudge through Black & White, I’m not sure long it will be until Dead Rising is finally crossed off the list.
As Professor Farnsworth would say: Good news everyone! After a year of keeping this site on the free WordPress servers, I’ve finally made the jump to paid hosting services.
When I started this blog just over a year ago, I didn’t want to commit to paid hosting until I knew it was something I would need. However, as I continue to update this blog it’s becoming obvious that I can only do so much within the limits of WordPress.
For example, I’ve wanted to add sub-headings to my article titles for quite a while now. Not possible before. I knew that if wanted to try out bigger things, I would have to move away from free hosting.
Beat That Backlog is still a “WordPress blog” in the sense that I use their editor to manage the site and create posts. Paid hosting simply means I now have complete control over the look and feel of the website. That means lots of new possibilities:
What does this mean for you guys? Not much for now. The site still looks basically the same. But expect to see some cool things added to the site as I explore the new tools at my disposal.
I don’t normally take the time to report on industry happenings, but this story wound up being too entertaining to pass up. We’ve all done some pretty stupid things to cover up our failures. However, it’s hard to imagine what developer Lord Kres thought was going to happen when he sold a comically incomplete game on Steam, and then tried to hide the fact by making the first level impossible to finish.
Journey of the Light, released on Steam on May 22, follows the odyssey of a ball of light on his way home. Advertised as “the hardest game on Steam”, it supposedly contains 8 impossibly difficult puzzle levels for the player to solve.
The reality: Journey of the Light contains only one level, and it cannot be beaten. Period. There’s no actual solution to it.
It’s been roughly one year since I started this blog. Back in March I was asking myself if I could finish my backlog by my 25th birthday. It looks like those estimates were a bit too bold. May 22nd is now a month behind us, and I’m actually barely halfway through the list of games I thought would be done by now.
Fear not, though. As many times as I’ve promised myself I would drop this whole blog if I got past a certain date, I seem incapable of giving up on projects once I’ve started them. I feel doomed to finish my backlog, for better or worse.
