Tildes’ 2023 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion
Two weeks down! Update your bingo cards and tell us about what you played!
Q: I missed the beginning of this event. Can I still join?
A: Of course! It's open all month.
Topic etiquette:
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It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week if you play multiple games.
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It is fine to respond to yourself with updates if you're continuing a single game and walk to talk more about it as you go.
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If you are playing Backlog Bingo, feel free to make a top-level post with your card that you edit as you go, while making new posts underneath that to talk about the games as you play them.
Gameplay guidelines:
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Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.
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You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.
Backlog Bingo
Thanks to the amazing efforts of our very own @Wes, we are debuting Backlog Bingo! This is a completely optional way to participate in the month.
You can generate a unique Backlog Bingo card from a collection of 73 different categories. Choose the ones you want in your batch, and then use Wes's custom-made online tool to automatically create your own individualized bingo card.
Wes's tool automatically assembles the markdown for your table, so it will paste beautifully into comments here on Tildes. For example:
Bingo Card Example
| Bingo! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not super popular (e.g. <50 user reviews on Metacritic) | Is one of the oldest games you own | Arcade game | Has DLC | You own on physical media |
| You have to tinker in order to get it running | You got from a bundle | You wanted to play it when you were younger but never did | Owned for more than five years | Has cute, feel-good vibes |
| Co-op game or campaign | From now-defunct dev studio | ★ | Has a non-human player character | Owned for more than one year |
| Not found on any distribution service | You can save/pet/care for animals | Begins with one of your initials | You paid full price for it | Solo-dev project |
| Has an animal player character | From a series you have played | Has number somewhere in the title | Owned for more than three years | Came out more than 5 years ago |
Play games throughout the month to check off categories in the Bingo card. The ★ in the middle of every card is a free space -- there are no requirements for that square and any game you play fits there!
The most basic win condition is five-in-a-row, but, if you're feeling really wild, you might go for a win pattern that's a little more involved. Your choice!
Here's an example of someone "winning" the card above:
Winning Bingo Card
| Bingo! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not super popular (e.g. <50 user reviews on Metacritic) | ✅ Terminal Velocity (1995) |
Arcade game | Has DLC | You own on physical media |
| You have to tinker in order to get it running | ✅ World of Goo |
You wanted to play it when you were younger but never did | Owned for more than five years | Has cute, feel-good vibes |
| Co-op game or campaign | ✅ Blur |
★ | Has a non-human player character | Owned for more than one year |
| Not found on any distribution service | ✅ Super Metroid |
Begins with one of your initials | You paid full price for it | Solo-dev project |
| Has an animal player character | ✅ Rise of the Tomb Raider |
Has number somewhere in the title | Owned for more than three years | Came out more than 5 years ago |
Bingo Golfing (thanks @Wes and @aphoenix!) is also an option: trying to clear a pattern by counting multiple categories for a single game, thus “winning” with as few games as possible.
Step 3 of Wes's tool includes instructions for checking off games, which has to be done manually. If you need an in-thread guide, you can use the following example below:
Filling in a Square
This markdown:
||
|:-:|
| ✅ ~~Struckthrough Example Category~~ <br> **Bolded Game Title** |
Gives this completed square: (ignore the header row that markdown requires for its tables)
| ✅ Bolded Game Title |
If you can't figure out how to check off categories or you break the Markdown for your table, feel free to ask for help in the comments or PM me and I can help you out!
FAQs
What is this?
Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences!
How do I participate?
Choose a game (or several) from your backlog and play it/them. Then tell us about your experiences in the discussion thread for the week! If you're not sure what you might write, take a look at our 2022 or 2020 events to get an idea.
Do I need to finish the games I play?
Nope! Not at all. There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game. Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!
What's the timeline?
I will post an update thread weekly, each Wednesday, all through November. At the end of the month, I think it would be neat to tally how many collective games we all removed from our backlogs, as well as what the best finds were from our collective digging into our libraries. I expect we'll turn up some good hidden gems, as well as interesting insights.
Do I need to sign up?
You don't have to do anything to officially join or participate in the event other than post in these threads! Participate in whatever way works for you.
But November has `Big Name Release` coming out. Why *this* month when people will be focused on that new game?
I'm doing the best that I can! A "problem" with 2023 is that it has been an absolutely stacked year for gaming releases. There simply hasn't been a "slow" month. With limited time left, I figured November was at least better than December. Think of this as an opportunity to cut down on your backlog before all the end-of-the-year sales hit.
Just popping in to say that I love this idea, but I like to take my time with games and think that a month is not enough. (Plus, I'm trying something new this month - it's called 'buy 5 games during the Halloween sale and then play them all before playing anything else'.) However, the bingo looks amazing - I think I'll make myself a bingo card for 2024 :)
Earlier this month I purchased a month of PS Plus (mostly so I could finally try the new Ratchet & Clank game). But now that I have the subscription, I decided that I might as well use it to check out some of the other offerings in the PS Plus catalogue, which aligns rather nicely with this month's theme.
So I generated a bingo card. And hey, I nearly have a bingo!
I think I could complete my card by playing Guardians of the Galaxy (developed by Eidos-Montréal, who apparently also developed Shadow of the Tomb Raider and a few Deux Ex games), but I might first return to Devil May Cry 5.
Bingo! card
From a developer in a different countryStar Ocean: The Divine Force
Won an awardDevil May Cry 5
Has a non-human player characterRatchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Has creepy, unsettling vibesReturnal
You can save/pet/care for animalsMonster Sanctuary
Monster Sanctuary
Status: dropped
This is a game that sounded excellent in theory (a JRPG-like monster-collecting game with Metroidvania elements), but in practice I found the monster-collecting to be rather tedious. In a game where any monster is viable given the right setup, what's the point of collecting any monsters at all? I found a team that worked fairly well for me (Spectral Toad + Ice Blob + Yowie), but after a while all battles began to feel the same.
I suppose one could have different teams for different regions, but then I'd have to constantly juggle accessories, which, simply put, is not fun. Unsolicited advice for developers: consider making accessories usable for all members and balancing your gameplay around that.
On the other hand, I really did enjoy the Metroidvania/platforming elements. But monster battling is half the game, so I dropped Monster Sanctuary after about 10 hours.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Status: completed
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was one of the original games that launched with the next-generation consoles. Now that we're a few years in, the selection of must-have this-generation games is rather slim, as evidenced by the OpenCritic listings. However, I think that Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart might be one of those titles.
Graphically, the game is perhaps overstated. As one of the first next-generation games, it was meant to demonstrate the capabilities of the PS5 hardware, and to that end the game supports raytracing and 4K and all those other buzzwords. And sure, the game looks good, and I think it will age timelessly, as cartoon-inspired games tend to do; but the graphical improvements are rather subtle.
So I don't think the selling point of this game is the graphics; rather, it's the gameplay. And the gameplay loop here is quite satisfying: you go to a new planet, and you shoot things using your ridiculously cartoonish weapons. Maybe you want to freeze your enemies. Maybe you want to zap them with your lightning gun. Or maybe you're a just simple-minded person like me who just wants to blow things up with a bazooka. And rather than punish you for your single-minded obsession with a few weapon types, the game actually rewards you: the more you use a weapon, the more it levels up, allowing you to unlock further upgrades for it.
But Ratchet & Clank is not just a third-person shooter; it's also a platformer of sorts, having clearly taken some inspiration from games like Banjo Kazooie. And to some extent, it almost feels like a Dynasty Warriors game, given how much stronger you are than the mobs who swarm you. But it's a nice combination of mechanics, and while some might describe the game as too easy, I might instead suggest the adjective cozy.
As I previously wrote, I purchased a month of PS Plus specifically to play this game. And I'm happy to report that the purchase was well worth it.
Guardians is extremely good if you like story driven games! The combat is fairly simple and can be repetitive but the writing is top notch.
Bingo Sheet
Begins with one of your initialsWall World
Has number somewhere in the titleCHR$(143)
You can save/pet/care for animalsSonic Adventure DX
From a studio you haven't heard of beforeMain Assembly
Considered a “cult classic”Okami
In a genre you don’t normally playForgetful Dictator
Forgetful Dictator - In a genre you don't normally play (Educational Games)
Oh my god this game made me feel dumb. Geography has always been my worst subject, so I figured, what better opportunity to embrace the unfamiliar?
I focused on the Americas, which meant I could promptly identify myself and my immediate neighbours. The US, Canada, Mexico, and Greenland - easy peasy. And then... things got a little more difficult. Some countries I could determine by context, like Panama acting as the land bridge between North and South America. Some I made educated guesses on: "Cubas a big island, right?". But honestly, it was rough. I failed the first round very quickly.
But I started getting better. After failing my first game, I started remembering a few of the countries that surprised me ("Oh, that's Honduras!"). It didn't happen all at once, but after a few attempts I found some names started sticking for me. I got better at identifying those especially around Colombia for some reason.
It took me about five games to get a victory. I should explain, you have a set number of lives and lose one on each incorrect guess. You can earn back lives or hints (the first letter of a country) by guessing random trivia questions correctly. It felt good to get a win, considering just how terrible I was when I started.
I played for almost two hours. I don't know if I'm just storing these countries in short-term memory and they'll all be gone tomorrow, but I hope at least some of it will stick. I'll try again in a few days and see how I do.
Forgetful Dictator is free on Steam as of a few weeks ago. So stop relishing in my second-hand embarrassment and go try it yourself.
Week 2 came with a new Bingo Board for me, on which I am attempting to get a line.
Bingo Sheet
I played Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, and that has kind of derailed my progress on the bingo card. Between that and Dungeon of Naheulbeuk from the previous week, I've found or refound two games that I've been pretty interested in, so for me this backlog burner has been a wild success! My son also noticed me installing several new games, and got me to install or reinstall some others, which I'll have to figure out how to slot in: