Backlog Burndown
Backlog Burndown #17 – Telltale Texas Hold’Em
Greetings Backloggers! It’s always interesting to me to see the history of how something has come to be. Fallout 4 wouldn’t be the game it was without Fallout 1 & 2, for example, nor would The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild be what it is without a history of Zelda games stretching back over twenty years and across every Nintendo platform.
Backlog Burndown #16 – To Infinity and Aveyond
Greetings Backloggers! This week’s game, Aveyond: Lord of Twilight represents the beginning of an interesting take on the episodic game formula. While most common in the adventure game genre, developer Amaranth Games, LLC (now Aveyond Studios) took a unique approach to the Aveyond series and broke what would normally be a massive 30-50 hour RPG down into four 7-10 hour chunks.
Backlog Burndown #15 – Stranded
Greetings Backloggers! This week is going to be a little bit difficult to explain. You see, Stranded is something of a minimalist art game, and I can’t really find a good way to talk about it without spoilers. So, if this is game is in your backlog, you may want to just skip to the verdict rather than risk learning about the big reveal. For everyone else…
Backlog Burndown 14 – Takin’ It To The Streets
Greetings Backloggers! This week’s entry is an odd one: a game that feels like it should be a mobile app, but which seems to have only ever gotten a PC release. Streets of Chaos appears to have arrived in my inventory via a long-forgotten bundle purchase, and there it has sat for nearly two years.
Backlog Burndown #13 – Ghost in the (Steam) Machine
Greetings Backloggers! Welcome to the thirteenth iteration of this column. Thirteen is often considered an unlucky number, and perhaps this week’s game is unlucky as well. At the least, it’s a ghost, a dead game pulled from Steam and existing solely in people’s accounts, and lurking in the forgotten depths of Steam traders’ inventories.
Backlog Burndown #12 – Space! Harrier!
Greetings Backloggers! An eventful PAX South kept me from completing anything, although it did convince me to move one game to the “Retired” list. However, this week I’m back to checking another SEGA classic off the list.
Backlog Burndown #011 – Not a Happy Ending?
Greetings Backloggers! After a few weeks of old school console gaming pain, I needed a break. Something simple. Something that wouldn’t challenge my reflexes. Something cheerful and uplifting.
Backlog Burndown #010 – SHMUP To You
Greetings Backloggers! I guess I didn’t learn my lesson from Super Thunder Blade, because up next on the list was another SEGA classic: Bio-Hazard Battle.
Backlog Burndown #009 – Holiday Hangover
Greetings Backloggers! I hope everyone had a good holiday season. My backlog may have taken a bit of a wrong turn thanks to the Steam Sale, but it’s a new year, and a new chance to get on track. I’m not much for official New Year’s Resolutions, since those are far too often derailed almost before they’re begun, but I do believe in building on success, or at the very least, working on improving whe...[Read More]
Backlog Burndown #008 – Gaming Like It’s 1989
Greetings Backloggers! Welcome to 2017! Sometimes there’s no school like the old school. Games were tougher. There were no “Press A to Win The Level” prompts or “Hide here for 30 seconds to regenerate health” options. On the other hand, things like limited lives, limited continues, and unsavable progress belong in the past as artifacts of cartridges and consoles without hard drives.
Backlog Burndown #007 – Episodic Gain, Old School Pain
Greetings Backloggers! Welcome to column 007, where if I were planning better, I would have gone and played one of the various James Bond games lurking in my backlog. Instead, I set out with a plan to knock out a seemingly easy SEGA classic that’s been in my backlog in one form or another since picking up Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for my PS3 back in 2009.
Backlog Burndown #6 – Victory Volvos?
Greetings Backloggers! A confession: I love free stuff. Free t-shirts? Got to get one. Free taco day? I’m there. Free donuts? I’m there a lot faster. Free games? Obviously. What, it’s not like I have a giant backlog or something.