SweetieGames

The other day, I finally bit the bullet and said goodbye to my PlayStation 4. It was the first console I ever bought for myself with money I had saved from my first job, so saying goodbye felt weirdly emotional. Sitting in its place on my TV table is a shiny new PlayStation 5, which has quickly made me realise the lag and overall janky-ness I was tolerating with my old PS4. I’m still not used to how lightning fast everything is.

While I was transferring my data to my new console, I remembered that I could finally play the game I have had my eyes on for the longest time; Baldur’s Gate 3. My laptop is not built for running games, and it’s only available on the newest gen consoles. I added another £60 to my PS5 bill and downloaded the game. With everything I was downloading, it finally finished installing the last piece of data at 5am the next morning. As soon as I could, I was sat in front of my TV and designing my BG3 character. Then it hit me; I’ve just bought another game, but I have so many I’ve already bought and not played!

Not only do I have a backlog of nearly 20 games spanning across PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PC and Nintendo Switch, but I also have a backlog of books to read! Where am I going to find time to play and read these? I’m already one year late to the party with BG3, and if I take the time out to clear my backlog of games, surely I’m going to fall even further behind than I already am. I still want to play new stuff somewhat close to its release date, especially now I’ve upgraded to the latest gen console. When did my backlog get so full? Was it when Atlus started releasing all those Persona 5 spinoffs?

I’m sure anyone who plays games has had the experience of buying a game purely for the serotonin of getting a new thing. Everyone is talking about it, you pick it up to see what the hype is about and then remember you’re actually in the middle of playing something else. No matter, you can put that game on pause and start this one. Maybe even play them both at the same time. But then something else comes out, and you want to play that too. Fast forward a few months, and you have shelves of games you’ve played a little bit of and then got distracted by something else and put on hold. There may be games in there that you haven’t even started up yet as you wanted to finish something else first.

As I have a backlog nearing 20, you can tell I’m definitely guilty of this. I keep telling myself that I’m going to finish them, but some of my games have been on my shelf for years. I’ve seen backlogs even bigger than my own, and wonder if those people are going to actually play all of those games while keeping up with what’s new.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being late to a game but with social media being as prevalent as it is in everyone’s lives, it’s so hard to avoid spoilers. After a couple of months, posting spoilers becomes fair game as the expectation is that you’ve already played it. It’s been out for ages! You must have had time to sink 60+ hours into this brand-new game while balancing your job and personal life and the other games you’ve been playing before this came out!

I think the answer to this conundrum is that we need to be more brutal on the games we decide to spend time on; there isn’t enough time for us to play everything. There are some games that I know, deep down, I’ll never get round to. I should let them go. Maybe go through your backlog and think to yourself: “Am I really going to find time to play this?” If it’s been sitting on your shelf for months or even years, does it really excite you enough that you’ll sit down and devote the time to it? Some games are very long; that’s a lot of hours to devote to something for you to say “yeah, it was alright” by the end of it!

Maybe once I do a good Marie Kondo style clear out, I’ll have time for those Persona 5 spinoffs I’ve been meaning to get round to. Sorry Kingdom Hearts; I’m sure you’re great, but I don’t think I’m ever going to actually finish you.