Backlog Resolutions 2025

Dave 00:42

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Uh, we also have one of the hosts of fun and games and reignite podcasts. Welcome back. Matt AKA storm again.

Matt 00:52

Hi, I'm really happy to be back. I feel like we just talked about backlogs on some level.

Dave 00:56

We did. Yeah. Just a couple months ago.

Matt 00:58

Yes. Deja vu.

Dave 00:59

Yeah. Uh, funny. You're here to talk about backlogs again. It's so unlike you, Matt.

Matt 01:04

Yeah, never. It's not, I don't have any, what's a video game?

Dave 01:08

Exactly.

Jared 01:08

What's a video game?

Dave 01:09

And we are also joined by a returning guest, ah one of our community member and backlogger extraordinaires. Welcome back to the show, soccer.

soccr 01:19

Hi, I like video games.

Dave 01:22

Yeah, that's, I hope so. Cause we're going to talk about how much all of us, maybe how some of us like video games a little bit too much ah today.

Jared 01:28

Yeah, I was like, that may be a problem for some of us, but I'll get there.

Matt 01:29

yeah

Dave 01:31

Yeah.

Matt 01:31

yeah

Dave 01:33

So ah we're going to talk about what has become a yearly tradition in the Tales from the Backlog community, which is backlog resolutions. So what happened is at the beginning of 2024, we started up a new ah community event challenge type of thing where all of us, us here on the show and then um actually 20 other people made lists of the games that we promised.

Matt 01:53

Yeah. Yeah.

Jared 01:57

yeah

Dave 02:00

that we were going to play from our backlogs in 2024. And today we're going to talk about how that challenge went, what we learned, our successes, our failures, we'll laugh, we'll cry, and then we'll look forward to 2025 with all of the lessons, the myriad lessons that I'm sure that we learned along the way.

Jared 02:16

Mm-hmm, definitely learn lessons there, yeah.

Dave 02:19

So um Yeah. So before we get into it properly, I do want to say to anyone listening who didn't join us for 2024 and is not yet on board for 2025, we do have the challenge open. Um, you need to join our discord server to join in on the challenge.

Matt 02:35

Yeah.

Dave 02:36

We have a channel, we have a community spreadsheet where we all made our lists. If you're not in the challenge and you're thinking, Hey, I've got a bunch of games in my backlog. I need a little. peer pressure, a little kick in the butt to play some of these games. Come on and join us and ah listen further in this episode for um how you can learn from our mistakes. Well, some of our mistakes, we'll say.

So um Before we get started, some quick stats from the 2024 challenge. And these are current as of a few days ago. I didn't. I don't think anyone beat any games in the last couple of days in the challenge. ah So we had 24 people join the challenge. A total of 541 games were resolved to be played. and we completed as a community 238 of those games for a total percent of 43.99 completed. That's across the entire community.

soccr 03:33

I don't know.

Dave 03:35

I think that's pretty good. ah Yeah, especially

Matt 03:36

yeah Yeah.

soccr 03:36

That's better than I thought actually.

Jared 03:36

Yeah.

Matt 03:39

I think some of us, much higher, some of us much lower and it's trying to be evened out.

Jared 03:39

Yeah. um said It's pretty impressive.

Dave 03:43

Yeah, well, it's funny you say that because I have our individual stats here too. So for myself, I had 45 games on my list. I completed 23 of them for 51% completion. This is gonna be a little bit of a trend. um Matt here had 22 games on their list and completed 11 of them for 50% completion.

Jared 03:59

Yeah.

Dave 04:06

Jared had 30 games on his list, 15 completed for 50% completion.

Jared 04:12

Yep.

Dave 04:13

And now, soccer here, 14 games on his list, 14 completions, the only person in the challenge to complete every single game.

Jared 04:21

Let's go.

Dave 04:22

Let's give it up for soccer.

Jared 04:23

roundup Round of applause for soccer.

Dave 04:23

Let's give it up. There we go. Soccer.

Matt 04:26

Yeah.

Dave 04:26

Do you have any ah do you have any words as the champion?

Jared 04:29

Speech, speech, speech, speech.

soccr 04:31

Any word is the champion. I should have prepared. I should have prepared a speech.

Dave 04:37

Yeah.

soccr 04:38

I made it really easy for myself to win.

Matt 04:40

ah I mean, that's that's the tactic.

Dave 04:41

Yeah.

Jared 04:43

Hey.

Dave 04:44

Yeah. So generally we'll, we'll start out the episode by just talking about how, how did the challenge go? Um, I mean, soccer completed every game. The rest of us were around 50%. Um, I thought this was a lot of fun.

Jared 04:55

Yeah.

Dave 04:57

I had a lot of fun doing this with the community.

Jared 04:57

Yeah.

Matt 05:00

Yeah, it's nice to have a reason to play games. I find that as I continue to make more friends with podcasters who have guest slots on their podcast, it has pushed me to play some games.

Jared 05:03

yeah yeah

Matt 05:12

I mean, actually, Jared's own podcast pushed me to play one game from my backlog.

Jared 05:17

Hmm.

Matt 05:18

Oh, my God, I'm going to forget the name of it now. um um

soccr 05:21

Not that memorable.

Matt 05:23

No, I guess not. um it was the French game.

Jared 05:26

Playtale, there we go.

Matt 05:26

I can't remember the name of it um with the play Plague Tale.

Dave 05:28

Oh, playtale?

Matt 05:29

Thank you.

Jared 05:30

I was also trying to remember too, and I was like, there's a list of games in front of me.

Matt 05:30

Just fell out of my brain. Yeah.

Jared 05:33

There's so many games in my brain. and I was like, I just, let's forget.

Matt 05:34

Yeah. Uh, it's been a long year.

Dave 05:35

Yeah.

Matt 05:38

Um, but yeah, I, uh, I played playtale to do, uh, get wrecked on, on play alone.

Jared 05:42

yeah

Matt 05:43

And it was a lot of fun because I'd wanted to play it for ages, and knew a lot of people liked it. And this gave me a reason to do it as well as the podcast. And it's just, I was very lucky that the game that got picked was one of the games on my backlog, my backlog list. And, uh, yeah, I mean, I, I really enjoyed it. And I think like ah we're going to get into it a bit more later, like what we played, but I think. ah ah jane I think everyone on this call on some level has the same amount of brain poison that, like, we need a reason to play a game.

Like, yeah, yeah.

Jared 06:13

It's Exactly what I was gonna say.

Matt 06:15

Like, I think some of us will play games just because we want to play something for leisure, but I think less and less it's like, oh, I want to either play this to talk about it on the Discord or talk about it on a podcast or whatever it is.

Jared 06:19

Yeah.

Matt 06:26

And to have this list to refer to of like, well, I could play any game, but when you have like 300 games, say, on your Steam library, not that I'm being specific about anything,

soccr 06:26

Yeah.

Jared 06:34

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt 06:35

Uh, it might be overwhelming to look at that list and go pick one. But if you're looking at a list of 22 games, it's like, Oh, well, that one's only a couple hours long and I've been meaning to play it. So why don't I jump into that?

Jared 06:43

yeah

Matt 06:44

Right? I think it helps to have a focus.

Dave 06:44

yeah

Matt 06:47

Um, cause we're all, I think we all probably have some level or amount of ADHD on some level when it comes to deciding on stuff, I would think.

Jared 06:47

Yeah. Yeah. yeah ah no i you You hit the nail on the head because I had the exact same approach. just I'm really good at focusing on games, especially for like podcasts, like content, games like that, where there's like an intentionality to the reason I'm playing it and just having like this list and being like, oh, we're making the list and these are the games we're gonna play. like That helped me so much more.

I get the same thing with Netflix where I will boot up my Steam library or I'll boot up my PlayStation library and I'll spend more time deciding on what to play than actually playing games.

Matt 07:28

yeah

Jared 07:28

like The allotted time I have in the day to like you know an hour to two hours or so at the end of my workday to spend playing games, 30 to 45 minutes is like, what should I play? Let me go through the Nintendo Switch. Let me go through a Game Pass.

Dave 07:39

Mm hmm.

Jared 07:40

Let me go through the Steam Library. So it's nice to have a truncated list of like, these are the things that I said I was going to play. And even now, like we'll talk about the 2025 list, I imagine a little later. But I put mine in a wheel spin and had it randomly decide on what games I was going to pick next.

Matt 07:52

Yep.

Jared 07:56

So I was like, you know what?

Matt 07:57

Yeah.

Jared 07:57

I'm going to let fate decide. I'm not even going to spend my time trying to choose one.

Dave 08:02

Nice. Yeah, for me, it was, it is kind of the same thing. I have a bunch of games, especially since I started gaming on PC and just started picking up like five free games every week.

Jared 08:10

yeah

Dave 08:13

And so I have a bunch of stuff. And the the main kind of like takeaway from the challenge from 2024 resolutions challenge is um I always had a bunch of games that like

Jared 08:15

Yeah.

Dave 08:25

I really wanted to play, but it was really easy to just kick, keep kicking it down the line and be like, eh, not right now.

Jared 08:29

Yeah.

Matt 08:30

Yeah.

Jared 08:31

Yep.

Dave 08:31

yeah That game is a little bit hard, not feeling it right now. Or like, you know, I have this big RPG I'm playing for the podcast. Like I can't play that one right now. And there's a bunch of stuff that like I just kept finding excuses to not play, even though I knew I was going to love them. um And I guess it's like part of what we were talking about on that, that backlogs challenge.

Jared 08:48

Yeah.

Dave 08:54

the Backlogs episode with Marcus, Matt, just like it's not that I'm playing games that I don't like all the time. Like us, I have too many games that I know I'll love.

Matt 09:03

Yeah.

Jared 09:04

yeah Yeah, exactly.

Dave 09:05

I don't have time for even those games, let alone the other stuff for any other reason I might play something.

Matt 09:05

yeah

Dave 09:11

so ah For me, it was a good way to just say like I'm tired of making excuses to not play this game. I'm putting it on the list.

Jared 09:20

Yeah.

Dave 09:21

And I got to about half of them. So half of them continued to get kicked down the ah line.

Jared 09:24

yeah yeah

Dave 09:28

So, um yeah, he was good.

Jared 09:29

And that that happened to me, too, where it was like, it's almost like the like I want what I can't have mentality, because i I think about like, oh, games coming to streaming services, or like like a Thousand Year Door finally came to Switch. And I was like, those are the things I want so much. And now that I have them, and I was like, I can play them any time now. like I have them. I don't need to play them right now.

Matt 09:46

Yeah.

Dave 09:46

Yeah.

Jared 09:47

I can play them at any point. And that mentality just pushes them further and further and further down the line, where like this game that I wanted to play so bad, I ended up just never, never playing.

Dave 09:58

Now, um I think I don't know if we actually mentioned you by name soccer in that backlogs episode, but I know that we like subtext talked about you in that episode, as the the one of us in the community who just has the self control to buy a game when you're ready to play it.

soccr 10:08

Oh, yeah.

Jared 10:14

Yep.

Dave 10:18

play the game and then you're like, okay, I'm finished with that one.

Matt 10:18

Yeah.

Dave 10:22

What do I wanna play next? I will buy that game and then I will play that. ah So what was the backlog resolutions challenge like for you?

soccr 10:31

ah You know, self-control is such a weird word for it, Dave.

Matt 10:34

yeah

soccr 10:34

It's like, self-control over what I buy, I guess, in a sense, that's true, because I don't just, I don't just buy, but I'm apparently different from everyone else on Discord. In fact I don't buy a game unless I'm about to play it, which is really unusual.

Dave 10:48

Yeah. yeah

soccr 10:53

But I do have this like, I do have this out of control list of video games. on my phone it's just a list but like I'm constantly like it's growing and growing and growing and I'm like combing through and trying to like sort it and prioritize it um and uh whenever it comes time for a new game I'm uh looking through the list and trying to wait for something to like hit me um I don't have quite the same I don't have the yeah yeah I don't live the podcast life so I don't have the obligation well

Matt 11:00

Yeah.

Jared 11:02

yeah

Dave 11:18

Yeah. You're free.

Matt 11:26

Yeah, some might say you're better off

Jared 11:26

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

soccr 11:30

i don't have I don't feel obligated to play um ah probably as many games out there since you know you guys probably have, you feel some pressure to talk about a game of the moment or something that everyone's kind of talking about or playing.

Dave 11:46

Yeah.

soccr 11:47

Whereas I can be a little more like, eh, everyone else can talk about that one.

Dave 11:52

Yeah, true.

Jared 11:52

yeah They got it.

Matt 11:53

Yeah.

soccr 11:56

ah Yeah. so it's ah It's a little different. I do feel some I do feel some pressure sometimes if I and I mean I still feel like I'm missing out sometimes and I want to talk about certain video games.

Dave 12:10

Yeah.

Matt 12:11

Yeah.

Dave 12:11

Yeah. I think that's a universal feeling.

Matt 12:11

i mean

soccr 12:13

but

Dave 12:13

Yeah.

Jared 12:13

yeah

Matt 12:13

fuck fuck FOMO is real. I mean, I think ah what's funny, like talking about playing things, like playing the next thing you buy and not buying a bunch of stuff and not playing it. I feel like when I was first getting back into video games after taking like a year or two break, I

Jared 12:28

Hmm.

Matt 12:29

i was doing that. And then I decided it would be a brilliant idea to start several podcasts. And that shifted.

Dave 12:34

yeah

Jared 12:35

Yeah.

Matt 12:35

Well, because I used to pick on my spouse a lot for buying books and then not reading them. Like what's the point, right? Why are you buying books and then not reading them?

Jared 12:39

Right, right.

Matt 12:41

And there are a ton of reasons to do that. And I feel like that's a thing that a lot of folks do, but I am just, I don't buy as many books, but then I started buying, doing a video game podcast, meeting game creators, buying their game in good faith that I want to play it. And then maybe not getting to play it or whatever. And now I'm at a point where like, I can't even, like I, I've told ah her many times, I can't, I don't have a leg to stand on. I can't.

make that joke anymore because I have, just from the last two years alone, at least 10 games in the box behind me.

Dave 13:02

Yeah.

Jared 13:03

Yep. Yeah.

Matt 13:08

Armored Core, the new Contra game, Horizon, I got for my birthday this year.

Jared 13:10

yeah

Matt 13:12

like There's just, you know, Kenna, Bridge of Spirits. like it's just There's just so many.

Jared 13:17

such a good game

Matt 13:18

Yeah, that's actually on my backlog list for next year, but we know more about that.

Dave 13:21

Here we go.

Jared 13:21

That's good. That's good.

Dave 13:21

Yeah.

Jared 13:22

Ken is great. Ken is great.

Matt 13:23

Uh, but, uh, but it was one of those things that it's like, Oh, I've become the thing I made fun of all the time because it's just, you want to, so I mean, it comes from a good place.

Dave 13:23

Well. Yeah.

Matt 13:31

Also, especially for indie games, like in a physical release, it's like, I want more of that.

Jared 13:34

Yeah.

Matt 13:35

I'm going to support it.

Dave 13:37

Yeah.

Jared 13:37

Yeah. I mean, I, I even found myself like now, like as of recording steam winter sale is up, right?

Matt 13:42

Uh-huh.

Jared 13:42

It's like, it's, it's, it's happening right now.

Dave 13:42

Yeah.

Jared 13:44

And I don't, again, I don't need more games. I definitely don't need more games. But when I scroll through and I see like 299, I'm like, I mean, come come on, man. Like, how do I not just jump onto this deal?

Matt 13:52

Yeah.

soccr 13:53

Now maybe I do have self-control.

Dave 13:55

literally $20, self-control, impulse control.

Jared 13:56

Exactly. Exactly.

Dave 14:00

Yeah.

Jared 14:00

Yeah.

Dave 14:01

Um, yeah, literally like 20 minutes before we hopped on this call, I was finalizing buying some cheap stuff in the steam sale that not on my resolutions list for next year, who knows if I'll play it, but I'm glad I,

Matt 14:12

ah Amazing.

Jared 14:12

Spoilers, we have not learned clearly from 2024.

Dave 14:13

um yeah I'm glad I own Super Hexagon in another place after that. um Also, the other thing that happened ah like by making the resolutions list of 45 games that I was planning to play. um so if you're If people listening are not familiar with ah Matt and Jared's podcasts, Matt doesn't do game reviews every single week on fun and games. They talk about specific games from time to time, but that's not the point of the show. In Play Along podcasts, Jared's show They talk about one game for like a month or longer at a time.

Jared 14:50

Yeah, yeah, really stretch it out.

Matt 14:51

Yeah.

Dave 14:52

So like, yeah. So what happened with my list in particular, since I do do a game per week basically on the podcast, my backlog resolutions list plus the new releases I wanted to play basically became the podcast schedule. and

Jared 15:06

Yeah, smart.

Dave 15:07

That was that, well, it was kind of smart because it was like I could plan in advance, but then I planned too much in advance and I made plans with people that I couldn't follow through on.

Jared 15:15

Mm-hmm.

Dave 15:17

And I felt bad about that. There are, I mean, a lot of people who have probably forgotten that I asked them in February if they wanted to join me for a game on my list. ah But, you know, if you haven't forgotten.

Jared 15:27

You're just way long enough. we'll just forget about it.

Dave 15:30

Yeah, ah if you haven't forgotten, I'm very sorry. I didn't forget about you. I just, you know, I didn't get to that game in particular. But ah that was something that caused me a bit of stress that I didn't plan on.

Matt 15:41

Yeah.

Jared 15:40

Yeah.

Dave 15:42

um You know, I would be like, Like I said, in February, making podcast plans for June, and then June comes around, and I'm like, I don't want to play this game right now. And then you get into that situation where like people who make gaming stuff, podcasts, or whatever, we'd never want to find ourselves in that situation where gaming feels like homework.

Jared 15:53

Yeah. Yeah.

Dave 16:04

And this did kind of turn into that sometimes. That's probably the biggest negative experience of the

Jared 16:09

yeah Yeah.

Dave 16:10

The resolution challenge for me is that it did force me to schedule too much or not force me. I did that to myself. I scheduled too much and it started to feel like homework sometimes.

Matt 16:16

and Right.

Jared 16:18

Right. Yeah. I wasn't asked that too, because I was gonna ask in regards to like the podcast and this, like how was, was that balancing relationship between like, did you create a list and then, you know, to have that be the podcast episodes, or do you have an idea of podcast episodes already? And you're like, cool, let's just throw those in the backlog. I'm already going to do content for them anyways.

Dave 16:38

Couple of them, yeah. And into 2025, I have some that are already agreed to and being recorded in the next you know couple of months.

Jared 16:39

Yeah.

Dave 16:46

ah So did I learn my lesson?

Jared 16:46

Yeah.

Dave 16:48

We'll see.

Matt 16:48

No.

Dave 16:49

ah The answer is no, no.

Matt 16:50

No.

Dave 16:50

um

Matt 16:51

Definitely, definitely not if I could guess.

Dave 16:53

Yeah, so that's ah just like the general kind of thoughts about the um the challenge here. We have some people from ah the community who wrote in about their experiences with the um the challenge here, and we've got um we've got four of them. So you all want to just take turns reading one of them?

Matt 17:14

Sure.

Jared 17:15

Sure.

Dave 17:15

Cool. um let's start with Snacktaku, who is a patron. Thank you, Snacktaku, for your patronage. Snacktaku says, 2024's challenge was a mixed bag ah for me. I did intend to finish most games there, but I didn't make much of a dent in it due to the fact I got sidetracked by a live service game, Helldivers 2.

Jared 17:35

Ah, yes.

Matt 17:36

Yeah, it'll do it.

Dave 17:36

and

Jared 17:38

Hmm.

Dave 17:38

Shadow of the Urd Tree, the longest DLC ever made. um And then some games just didn't stick like Cyberpunk, Mass Effect 2, and The Witcher 3. And we did say like, you know, for anyone who's curious how our challenge works, and anyone who's maybe considering joining us for next year, ah we did say you don't actually have to beat a game to consider it complete for the challenge. You just have to like,

Jared 18:02

yeah

Dave 18:03

get as much out of it as you wanted. And if you played five hours and you're like, I don't, I'm sick of this, then you're done. yeah You checked it out. You did your due diligence.

Jared 18:12

Yeah.

soccr 18:12

Yeah, there were actually two games on my list at the start of the year that I didn't finish. And I didn't, it didn't feel right to mark them complete, but I didn't want them to ruin my list, so I actually just removed them.

Jared 18:23

Yeah.

Dave 18:26

Oh, there we go.

soccr 18:26

but

Jared 18:26

There you go. It didn't exist.

soccr 18:28

but I did what I wanted to with them.

Dave 18:32

Yeah, that's that's kind of I mean, the last thing we really wanted is, if anyone is like compelled to check things off the list, for the sake of having better stats, we don't want people to be like, actively hating what they're doing just for the sake of this thing, you know?

Matt 18:33

Yeah.

Jared 18:41

Yeah.

Matt 18:48

Yeah.

Jared 18:49

Yeah.

Matt 18:49

Yeah, I mean, that happened to me with Robocop. I got it. I was really looking forward to it.

Jared 18:52

Yeah.

Matt 18:54

um And I enjoyed it when I played it. But after, like, it's easily a 15-hour game that could have been an eight-hour game. And at an eight-hour game, it would have been great.

soccr 19:02

We.

Matt 19:03

But by, like, hour eight or nine, I was like, I think I've seen what this game has to show me.

Jared 19:05

Yeah.

Matt 19:08

And I enjoy it. But I'd rather be playing literally anything else.

Jared 19:11

Yeah.

Matt 19:11

um And so I totally get that.

Jared 19:12

Oh.

Matt 19:13

Also, the live service comment, ah now that Marvel Rivals is out, I'm nervous for 2025 because I have sunk

Jared 19:18

Oh gosh.

Matt 19:20

Too much time into it already and like a lot of my friends are playing and so I know that I'm gonna play it more and like I didn't I don't think I don't think I was playing alive and and then also Monster Hunter comes out this year and So and I know that's one that all of us really want to play ah I've already talked with Dave in the discord about us both getting on PlayStation so you could play together and so it's like Games like that are really gonna cut into the time too because like those are just much bigger in scope replayable almost endlessly that kind of thing and

Dave 19:30

Yeah.

Jared 19:30

Oh yeah.

soccr 19:30

Oh yeah!

Jared 19:32

Yep. Yeah.

Dave 19:47

yeah

Jared 19:48

I mean, like Dave was saying too, it's so interesting because it's so determined on when we play something, that's gonna determine how we feel about it, if we enjoy it, if something else is coming out, because I had this with Metro 2033, and the Metro games, I really loved and enjoyed, but I don't know when I started playing it, if it was other things were coming out, take my attention.

Matt 19:54

Yeah.

Jared 20:08

Me and my wife have really gotten into Fortnite recently, so I've been playing a lot of that, and like you said, Rivals as well has been taking my attention, but I just kinda like,

Matt 20:10

Hell yeah.

Jared 20:15

fell off and it was like, i don't I don't want this right now. And I played enough of it where I was like, you know what? I've seen what this game has for the most part. I think I think I'm kind of good.

Dave 20:23

Yeah. So who wants to take Dan from Canada?

Jared 20:30

and Canada. I'll do it.

Dave 20:32

Okay.

Jared 20:33

yeah Dan from Canada so says for the past few years I have done my own gaming goals that have led to me to ah play through entire series that were all new to me. Metal Gear Solid, Halo campaigns, God of War series, Remedy Universe, Resident Evil 1-4 and playing my first Final Fantasy game with 16 and 7 remakes slash rebirth. Wow, that's a lot. The second I heard about the backlog resolution, I knew it was for me ah for me ah as a way to continue this gaming goals, but more targeted at older games that are mostly in the category of, can't believe you haven't played it.

I kept saying, I'd like to get to them one day. Well, now it's time to do just that.

Dave 21:09

Yeah, that's the, um, that's, that's the goal. I think for a lot of us is to, to knock off some of those games where like, you know, you need that.

Jared 21:13

Yeah.

Dave 21:18

Just that little extra thing. Um, and Dan's Dan's new joining us for the 2025 challenge and looking forward to, uh, to what they can do.

Jared 21:20

Mm-hmm.

Dave 21:27

Yeah.

Matt 21:29

I'll take the next one. It's Chris Taylor, good old Chris Taylor from Lightning Strikes the Rice podcast. ah I did participate in 2024 and I added like 20 games through the year but still ended up completing over half of the original list in addition to all the new titles show off. I will and we'll do 2025 and continue my exact behavior of adding them to my spreadsheet. I think the only thing, the only change is that It caused me to spend less time with ah live games like Final Fantasy 14. We were just talking about that. And I would like to return to your question and ask why you went through such an elaborate ploy to try and avoid reading books this year?

yeah it's and

Jared 22:09

Ah, that's why it all comes out.

Dave 22:10

And I will say exactly what I said in the Discord, Chris. I did read a book. It's just one part of a much larger book.

Jared 22:18

Hmm.

Dave 22:18

ah So if you were to cut the fourth Stormlight Archives book into like five pieces, I read a book.

Jared 22:25

Hey, no, it counts.

Matt 22:25

ah There

Dave 22:26

It's just the longest book ever. ah Thank you, Chris. And Sokka, you wanna take Artful Scruff?

soccr 22:36

Yeah. Artful Scruff ah says, I didn't get through as many games as I expected, but I did. But I think it did help me to play some games that might otherwise still have just been waiting in the wings.

Dave 22:50

Perfect, and I wanted to use that as a segue into the next section. So we did mention one of the big benefits of the challenge is that we had some of those games that were just kind of like sitting there waiting for us to play it. We knew we were gonna like it. We just needed that extra push to actually play it. And this is one of the big benefits and one of the most fun things about the challenge ah for me personally is to have some of these games that like I've had them forever.

Jared 23:10

Mm-hmm.

Dave 23:20

or you know they're emulated, so I could have played them whenever I wanted.

Jared 23:24

Yeah.

Dave 23:25

And I just needed that extra thing. And even like for some of these, an agreement to do them on the podcast wasn't even enough to prioritize playing them. It was just like, I needed all these extra things to play them. And so I have like a short list here of Some of the things from my list that I played that were examples of those where it's like, I could play these anytime. And that resulted in me never playing them. So um my shining examples of this were Mother 3, Pathologic 2, Shadow Tower Abyss, Night in the Woods, Lisa the Painful, God Hand, and Tinykin, which is the most recent game from my challenge that I finished was Tinykin.

Um, so those are some that, again, like I could have played them anytime. I never did until this challenge was the reason I played them. And I liked all of those games a whole lot.

Matt 24:21

Yeah, I have a bunch of them too.

Jared 24:21

yeah

Matt 24:22

I wrote down some just so I could remember Max Payne 1 and 2, Gun Grave Gore, Cyberpunk 2077, and its DLC, Phantom Liberty, To the Moon, Immortality, Cocoon, and then I mentioned earlier, Robocop Rogue City.

Dave 24:25

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt 24:35

And like specifically Max Payne 1 and 2, I've been a Remedy fan for quite a bit of time now. And I knew those games were good. And yet I just would never go to them. And Gun Grave Gore specifically, which was a more recent release, I think just the last couple of years,

Jared 24:44

Hmm.

Matt 24:49

I literally interviewed a member of the team at PAX, I think East a couple of years ago, got to demo the game, was stoked to play it, and then it came out, and I was like, oh yeah, that came out, and I loved the original Gungrave game on PS2.

Jared 25:02

Yeah.

Matt 25:04

I had every reason to play it and never touched it. Or even Immortality, which is a game that

Dave 25:08

Yeah.

Matt 25:11

Dave covered the podcast and I loved and liked it and I could only listen to the spoiler wall because I didn't want to get spoiled. Or no, you had done a bonus episode on it, I remember.

Dave 25:18

Yeah.

Matt 25:19

And like I just was like, you know what? I'm going to finally play it. And I did and loved it. And I like that I'm just grateful for this list making me do that.

Jared 25:28

Yeah.

Matt 25:28

Um, and I'm, I tried to do that a little bit and we'll talk about when we get to 2025, but I tried to do that again. At least half of the games on that list are just games that I've been curious about either for a long time or a short time, but that I really wanted to play.

Dave 25:41

Yeah, I was going to say like immortality is probably one of the best examples of this thing where you knew you were going to like it.

Jared 25:42

Yeah. Hmm.

Matt 25:46

Yeah.

Dave 25:49

Everyone's been telling you to play it. It's just we're so spoiled for choice with games that it's really easy to we all I'm sure we all or soccer on the potential buys list.

Matt 25:54

Yeah.

Jared 25:55

Yeah, yeah.

soccr 25:55

Yeah.

Dave 26:01

We all have these like critically acclaimed.

Matt 26:02

Yeah.

Dave 26:05

Nobody will shut up about them. We just like, you know, we were not

Jared 26:07

Yeah.

Dave 26:11

We're not like sitting here wondering what we can play. Like there's just too much to play.

Matt 26:15

Yeah.

Dave 26:16

And so some of these things just fall through the cracks, even though they're amazing experiences like immortality.

Matt 26:23

Yeah, for sure.

Jared 26:23

It's just not the right time, you know, it's not the right time for it yet.

Matt 26:25

Yeah.

Jared 26:26

Yeah.

Matt 26:26

Yeah. I mean, well, it's like,

Dave 26:27

We make it the right time.

soccr 26:28

I'll be getting just right, yeah.

Jared 26:28

yeah

Dave 26:28

That's the point.

Jared 26:29

yeah

Matt 26:30

and right I feel like with Cyberpunk 2077, there were a lot of reasons I didn't play it.

Dave 26:31

Yeah.

Jared 26:31

yeah

Matt 26:35

All the hubbub, the transphobic stuff in it, there were a lot of issues.

Jared 26:36

Sure. Yeah. A lodge being wild.

Matt 26:39

But then other friends of mine who I also know were upset about those things also finally played it and really loved it. Flora comes to mind as a previous guest of the show. I knew she had loved the game and talked about it a lot.

Dave 26:48

Yeah.

Matt 26:50

And so I was like, you know what, I'm finally going to play it. But also then with that one specifically, I got to have anyone who maybe doesn't know this. I don't know where you've been, but the Mass Effect trilogy is some of my favorite games of all time. And I had never experienced a game like Mass Effect and how it made me feel until Cyberpunk.

Jared 27:06

Hmm.

Matt 27:07

And what I mean was like, feel like I'm in the game, made a character based on me.

Jared 27:09

Wow. That's awesome. and Yeah.

Matt 27:11

It's funny, what I did for Cyberpunk is I paint my nails. Folks on the video can see that if Dave uses the video. And like, I've never played a video game where you can paint your nails as a male presenting character.

Dave 27:20

Yeah.

Matt 27:21

This game let me do it. And the first time, like at the beginning of the game, you put your hands on a table and I saw the nails that were similar color to what my nails were painted at the time and went, Oh, that's cool. Oh, that's me.

Dave 27:30

Yeah.

Jared 27:30

Yeah.

Matt 27:31

And that just colored the whole experience.

Jared 27:31

That's so cool.

Matt 27:33

But like, again, it's also a big game, a lot to do.

Dave 27:37

Yeah.

Matt 27:37

It's not short. The DLC is not short. And I got through it because I just became quite obsessed with it. Because again, like you were saying, Dave, people knew I was going to love this game. I knew I was probably going to love this game. But it's like, oh I'll get to it eventually. And so, you know,

Dave 27:50

Yeah.

Jared 27:50

Yeah.

Dave 27:52

So, um, soccr, were there any from your list that are like examples of this that, you know, like the challenge was the primary reason you actually did go ahead and play it.

Jared 27:53

Yeah.

soccr 28:05

Yeah, mostly it was some slower-paced games, um games that were a little more ah meditative. And it's hard sometimes it's hard to be like, this is going to be this is going to be a more cerebral experience than you know just picking up Fortnite Friday night.

Dave 28:15

Yeah. yeah

soccr 28:22

And it can be hard to just dive into that, I guess.

Dave 28:22

Yeah.

Jared 28:22

Right.

soccr 28:27

So I did get some pushes. I made a small list of games like that.

Jared 28:29

Oh,

Dave 28:29

Hmm.

soccr 28:31

Kentucky Route Zero, Season, A Letter to the Future, and Rakuin, I think it's pronounced, which is an RPG Maker game.

Matt 28:33

Yeah.

Jared 28:34

nice.

Matt 28:34

Ooh yeah.

Dave 28:39

Yeah. Yeah.

soccr 28:42

um All really good games. But actually, the most significant was Omori, um which

Matt 28:47

Hmm.

Dave 28:48

Oh yeah.

Jared 28:48

Oh.

soccr 28:50

I guess it's kind of slow paced. It wasn't as slow paced as I thought.

Dave 28:55

Yeah.

soccr 28:55

um

Dave 28:56

but I mean, it is basically a JRPG.

soccr 28:57

and

Dave 28:59

So yeah,

Matt 28:59

Yeah.

Jared 28:59

Yeah.

soccr 29:00

Yeah. ah But as soon as that got going, I mean, that's one of the best games I've ever played. So it was awesome to have that.

Jared 29:05

Yeah.

Matt 29:06

Amazing.

Dave 29:06

Omori was on my list too. Uh, my resolutions list and it's, that's another one where like, you know, I knew I was going to like it. It's like, it's one of those like 99% overwhelmingly positive on steam. Like everybody loves Omori basically.

Jared 29:19

Yeah.

Matt 29:21

Yeah.

Dave 29:21

Um, just when am I going to play it? And then this, the challenge is like, you're going to play it now. That's how it's going to work.

Jared 29:27

right now. Now you're gonna play it.

Dave 29:29

Yeah. Uh, Jared, how about you?

Jared 29:31

but well Yeah, so i had ah I had a couple of these as well. And either ones that like soccer were just like, getting home and in the moment just didn't feel like the right time to like this thing to decompress after my day wasn't something I wanted to do or that had already started.

Dave 29:46

Yeah.

Jared 29:47

One of my big proprietors was Death Stranding. Like Death Stranding, I had already kind of did like maybe a little less than half. um And I enjoyed my time, but it was one of those things where like getting home and like there is part of Death Stranding that's very cathartic that like does makes me feel at peace at times. There's also times that are very stressful and very anxiety inducing as well.

Matt 30:06

yeah

Jared 30:08

And that's just not what I was looking for at certain times at the end of the day.

Dave 30:11

Yeah.

Jared 30:11

um But putting it on there and forcing myself to finish it. Oh man, the ending of that game is so good. still incredibly confusing with what that game tries to cover, but just like at the basis of like connection and and the story is still like batshit crazy, but I enjoyed it so much.

Dave 30:27

Yeah.

Jared 30:27

And then I'm a big Nintendo guy. So there's a lot of, you know, Nintendo has a big retro library of games that I just hadn't gotten to.

Dave 30:33

Yeah.

Jared 30:35

The biggest proprietor of this was Minish Cap. Like Legend of Zelda is probably my favorite franchise and Minish Cap has been on NSO for so long and I could have played it at any point and I never got around to it.

Matt 30:37

Oh, yeah.

Jared 30:47

and doing it for the backlog resolution, it is now like, I think my favorite top-down Zelda.

Matt 30:54

Yes, let's go.

Jared 30:54

Minish Cap, it's such a big game.

soccr 30:55

It's such a good one.

Matt 30:57

Minish Cap supremacy.

Dave 30:57

It's good.

Matt 30:59

I've been shouting this from the rooftops for years.

Dave 31:00

You reminded me.

Jared 31:01

yeah

Matt 31:01

It's just such a good game.

Dave 31:03

So like ah So Jared, you and I did Minish Cap on Tales from the Backlog.

Jared 31:06

Yeah, ye yep.

Dave 31:07

We did that episode together. i It may have been that I saw Minish Cap on your list when it, I think it won a Patreon poll and I think I saw it on your list and I was like, oh, this is this is easy.

Jared 31:13

Yup.

Dave 31:19

It's on Jared's list.

Jared 31:19

Yep.

Dave 31:20

Let's make this happen.

Jared 31:20

It's already on his list. We'll just do an episode on it. It's perfect.

Dave 31:23

So yeah, I am, um I am spying on people's lists for maybe possible, possible guest stuff if I see if I see common stuff.

Matt 31:27

Oh, me too.

Jared 31:28

Hey, you know, it's perfect.

Matt 31:29

Oh me too.

Dave 31:31

Yeah.

Jared 31:31

It's especially for like, uh, like, uh, get wrecked on our show. And it's like, we're swapping gaming recommendations anyways.

Dave 31:35

Yeah.

Jared 31:37

And you have a truncated list of games you haven't played yet. And I was like, Oh, perfect.

Dave 31:40

Yeah, and these are already identified as ones that you want to play.

Jared 31:40

I'll just go through the list and everything. Sure.

Matt 31:44

Yeah.

Dave 31:44

Yeah, ah you mentioned another thing um with Death Stranding there, like, one of the things that I'm glad some people are using the backlog resolutions challenge for is if you've got a bunch of unfinished games that you want to finish, but

Jared 31:45

Yeah.

Dave 32:00

You know, you got sidetracked and you're, you just, you need another push to get back in there and finish it.

Jared 32:03

Yeah.

Dave 32:05

Um, I've got some of those on my list, uh, from 2024 that I did not go back and finish, uh, but they were there and I know there's a bunch of other people.

Matt 32:08

Me too.

Jared 32:09

Yeah.

Dave 32:14

I think there's even like maybe one or two people that just built their list out of unfinished stuff that they want to go back and finish.

Jared 32:20

Yeah. Yeah.

soccr 32:23

Damn.

Dave 32:23

So yeah.

Jared 32:23

And that's, and that's the perfect reason to do that too.

soccr 32:24

For sure.

Jared 32:25

Like I think it was probably like, a year out from Death Stranding, where I just had put it down.

Dave 32:28

Oh man.

Jared 32:29

And when I was making this list, my mentality was like going through all my libraries. And I was going through my PlayStation library. I was like, I never finished Death Stranding. like I needed to boot that thing back up. And I'm so glad I did.

Dave 32:39

yeah

Jared 32:40

A couple other ones real quick.

Dave 32:41

yeah

Jared 32:41

um I always loved ah Mario 64 as a kid. I never owned it, but I never finished it front to back. So I did that, played through Mario 64. It's good, isn't it? Controls are a little... It's N64, so you know the controls aren't aren't fantastic, but it was still an awesome experience. And then Metroid Fusion. I had never played a Metroid game, but I love Metroidvanias. And I was like, why have I... There's so many of these on and NSL. Let me just play them.

Dave 33:02

Yeah.

Jared 33:03

And Fusion was fantastic. I absolutely love Metroid Fusion.

Dave 33:06

Yeah. Matt in particular is just eating with these, these games that you're making here.

Matt 33:09

Oh, yeah, you were.

Jared 33:10

Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion.

Matt 33:11

I mean, it's I mean, it's no secret that the GBA is my favorite console basically ever.

Dave 33:13

Yeah.

soccr 33:13

Yeah.

Jared 33:15

Oh, yeah.

Matt 33:16

And like fusion, I play.

Jared 33:16

GBA is great.

Matt 33:19

It's funny because I played fusion ah when dread the year dread was coming out, I played fusion again and anticipation of dread.

Jared 33:25

Yeah, yeah.

Matt 33:27

And then and that was emulated. And then like the year after that is when it came to NSO. And I was like, well, it's on and NSO.

Jared 33:31

Yeah.

Dave 00:02

All right, so we talked about some of our successes. We talked about some of the special games that we got out of the um out of the backlog ah that we're just kind of floundering in there. Now it's time to talk about our failures. And maybe just three of us, me and Matt and Jared, will um take the...

Jared 00:18

Ah.

Matt 00:22

Yeah, soccer could just take a break.

Dave 00:23

And soccr can just sit there and shake its head and judge everybody.

soccr 00:23

failures failure the great teacher

Dave 00:29

um

Jared 00:30

Yep.

Dave 00:31

Yeah, so um only one person out of 24 completed their whole list. and he's here with us tonight.

Jared 00:37

ye

Dave 00:39

And um the rest of us didn't complete our lists. So various reasons why and this is just a, you know, kind of sharing of experiences really like I'm not upset that I didn't complete my list and I'm not upset at anybody else for not completing their list except Chris Taylor. ah so um we ah we We can just talk about some of the reasons why. now i'm The what I wanted to start with is there is that kind of psychological phenomenon that when you tell people your plans, it makes you less likely to actually follow through and complete your plans.

Jared 01:15

Mm.

soccr 01:17

What?

Dave 01:17

And I knew about this going forward. Obviously, it doesn't apply to all of us.

soccr 01:20

Is it like that? It's not the opposite? Sorry, is that just a phenomenon? I would have assumed it was the other way around.

Dave 01:25

It is, yeah. Yeah, it's ah it is a maybe a counterintuitive thing. But yeah, people who don't tell their plans out loud are actually much more likely to complete them and follow through on them ah to the end.

Matt 01:39

Hmm.

Dave 01:42

So um I kind of I knew about this from you know, psychology research, I don't know, where am I going with that? I knew about this beforehand. But Daryl talks games, the YouTube channel also has a couple of videos about backlog challenges. And he talked about this, and he did, you know, supporting research, which I did not do for this. ah But it is a real thing. So um getting that out of the way as a possibility.

I mean, looking at my list from 2024, there were a couple of games I wrote down and that I was really hot on and then like I never considered playing them throughout the year.

Jared 02:16

Yeah.

Dave 02:19

um When I was looking for something new to play or something like that.

Jared 02:19

Yeah.

Dave 02:23

Like no shade to those. I'm sure that they're going to be good experiences when I get to them. But like I put the Citizen Sleeper DLC on my list and I love Citizen Sleeper. I know I'm going to like the DLC. I never considered playing it. And I feel like it is kind of that thing where my brain was like, good job, Dave. You did it and ah didn't get to it.

Matt 02:42

Yeah.

Jared 02:42

Yeah.

Dave 02:44

So I don't know if you all had any bit of that or if you considered that with your lists.

Matt 02:49

Yeah, totally. Max Payne 3 was that for me.

Dave 02:51

Mm hmm.

Matt 02:51

I did one, did two shortly after, and I was like, all right, I'm going to jump right into three.

Jared 02:52

Yeah.

Matt 02:55

No, I'm not. Well, I'll put it on the Steam Deck.

Dave 02:56

Yep.

Jared 02:56

Yeah.

Matt 02:58

No, I'm not going to play it.

Dave 02:59

Yep.

Matt 02:59

like And then I got an armored core at the end of last year. Or, yeah, the end of two years ago, I guess, at this point. And I was like, new armored core. And I'm like, I'm an armored core sicko.

Dave 03:08

Yep.

Matt 03:09

I played those games on PlayStation, PlayStation 2. I love those games. Got that, read the reviews, heard how great but hard it was, and I'm old and went, nah, maybe later.

Jared 03:14

Yeah.

Matt 03:18

And then maybe let her later never happen.

Dave 03:18

yeah

Jared 03:19

yeah

Matt 03:21

Resident Evil 3, also the remake. like every For all the reasons people hate that remake is why I wanted to play it. It's too actiony, great, that's what I want.

Jared 03:28

Yeah.

Matt 03:30

It's too short, great, that's what I want. And yet I kept looking at it.

Jared 03:33

ah

Matt 03:33

I downloaded it onto my PS5 and it would ah was on my home screen and I'd scroll past and go, maybe tomorrow. just just never did it. And like, I don't I don't know why that happened.

Jared 03:45

Yeah.

Matt 03:45

I feel like I think we set up some weight to it a little bit in our heads or like, again, it's the same way.

Jared 03:51

Yeah.

Matt 03:52

I think even when it's not on this list we were talking about before, it's like an exacerbated case of that. Like, well, I know I'm going to love it. So I'm definitely not going to play it right now because I'm going to play something else.

Dave 04:02

Yep.

soccr 04:03

Is there an element of anxiety to that, do you think? And That's something that I experience, where I know I'm going to like a game, so I get like I um I almost like freeze up.

Matt 04:07

Yeah.

Jared 04:08

Yeah.

soccr 04:13

i'm like but what if I don't start at the right time and I ruin it for myself?

Jared 04:14

Yeah.

Matt 04:17

Yeah.

Jared 04:18

That's what I think.

Dave 04:18

What if it doesn't change my life?

Jared 04:20

yeah

soccr 04:20

yeah

Jared 04:20

That's exactly what it was for some of these for me. Also just sheer length. Like I had Final Fantasy 16 on here, which I played like an hour or two of, and I loved it. But it was just like, that's gonna be long. I had Forbidden West on here, another long game. I put Witcher 3 and Yakuza 0 on my list too. And I was like, yo, I'm not gonna get to any of these. And all of them, aside from Final Fantasy, which again, I put like two hours in, I didn't even boot up any of them.

Dave 04:44

You know, I, um that's, that's one of the reasons that I was going to say for like, why I didn't complete my list is because I put a bunch of long games on my list.

Matt 04:54

Yeah.

Jared 04:54

Yes.

Dave 04:55

ah But looking at the games I completed, um I, I beat cyberpunk, I beat Xenogears, I beat Lost Odyssey, I beat, ah where's, where's the other one? um No, I lost it. I beat a lot of those longer games.

soccr 05:08

No cares.

Dave 05:10

The only other really long one that I didn't beat is Octopath Traveler 2.

Jared 05:10

Yeah.

Dave 05:15

And that's because I got sidetracked for other podcast stuff. In Midnight Suns, I never started that, but that's on my 2025 list.

Jared 05:22

Yeah.

Dave 05:23

So I know I'm going to love that game. I just didn't, didn't get to it, but like it is.

Jared 05:26

Yeah.

Matt 05:27

Midnight Suns is on your 2025 list?

Dave 05:29

Yeah.

Matt 05:30

Oh, I may have to meet you there and do it too, because I've had a copy of that for a while.

Dave 05:31

So yeah.

Jared 05:32

Ooh, there you go.

Matt 05:34

And like once people told me there are like Mass Effect-style check-ins, but with Marvel characters, I was like, ah oh, you really sold it.

Jared 05:39

Where do I sign?

Dave 05:40

Yeah, but book club with Blade, yeah.

Jared 05:42

Where do I sign?

Matt 05:43

Yeah.

Jared 05:44

Yeah.

Dave 05:44

um but like i Do like I did beat the longer games, but those probably came at the expense of a lot of the shorter games on my list.

Jared 05:49

Yeah. Yeah.

Dave 05:54

Because I spent 75 hours playing Xenogears, that means I didn't have time to play a lot of the other stuff on the list, even the shorter stuff, ah because I was so preoccupied with that.

Jared 06:02

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt 06:07

Yeah.

Jared 06:07

And not only that, for me, another thing was difficult. ah Because of Dave, he has sucked me into the Dark Souls ah love. And I had Liza P and Demon Souls on my list too. Didn't didn't really, I mean, I had already played Liza P and I'm probably like halfway through it, but I just didn't get to finishing. So I was like, I just came, it's just hard, man. It's just hard.

soccr 06:27

It's a lot of work.

Jared 06:27

And again, yeah, like Sakura was saying, sometimes I don't wanna get home and like, right before bed, be frustrated by playing like Liza P or Demon's Souls and everything else. like I don't know if I want that. I don't know about that energy.

Dave 06:38

Yeah.

Matt 06:40

Yeah.

Dave 06:40

Or, or the opposite, like maybe I don't want to, maybe I'm not in the head space to like get into the heady space of Kentucky route zero.

Jared 06:48

Yeah.

Dave 06:48

I want to see some explosions after I get home for work.

Jared 06:50

Yeah.

Matt 06:50

Right. Yeah. Well, Dave mentioned also like not getting to stuff because of other things. And I also, stupidly and smartly, I guess, in 2024, started working with a lot of other podcasters in our circle, which was great. Like I said, I did several episodes of the Play Long Pod.

Jared 07:08

Yep.

Matt 07:08

I did Still Loading. I did Pixel Project Radio. And a lot of those involved me replaying or revisiting games. And Retro hangover, I guess it on their show So I replayed stuff for that and then also on top of that join their discord more actively and join their backlog They they do a ah monthly game club game of the month club, which I joined which is great and even that I fell off of I couldn't do every month last last year and then I also signed up for a yet at this point as of when we're recording but maybe not when we're released it and

Dave 07:26

Yeah, Game of the Month Club, yeah.

Matt 07:41

unannounced project that I'm a part of that I've very poorly lied about for a long time. Because I don't even think they care. um I think I've done this nonsense lie not lie on their own show. But like I joined another thing that made me play a lot of video games from a specific year, a bunch of which I'd never played.

Dave 07:57

Yeah.

Matt 08:00

And none of them were on my list, I should have put them on my list. But um it was also like in June or or I tried to add a game in like March and Dave yelled at me. So I was like, all right, I guess that's no more.

Dave 08:11

yeah

Matt 08:12

And so ah that also, like I love guessing on podcasts. Obviously I'm here. like I love collaborating with other people.

Jared 08:17

Yeah.

Matt 08:19

But because of the stuff we do, that often leads to me playing other games, either to completion or at least a large chunk of. and that sideline my time or games that I was like, oh, I'll just revisit it because I've beaten it before and then play through it and its sequel.

Jared 08:30

yeah

Matt 08:33

Like, you know, just because I was like, oh I'm back into it.

Dave 08:33

hey

Matt 08:35

And so that kind of stuff also really sidetracked me and, um you know, but I like doing that stuff again, like I said earlier, like I like it being a part of the content that I get to make with folks.

Dave 08:35

Yeah.

Jared 08:43

yeah

Dave 08:43

Yeah.

Matt 08:46

And so, you know, it was a double edged sword, but that, you know, I probably didn't need to play all of Sonic Adventure again, though I love it.

Jared 08:49

Yeah.

Matt 08:54

And so I did.

Jared 08:54

No, yeah, you did. Yeah, you did.

Matt 08:55

I know I did.

Jared 08:56

Yeah, you did.

Matt 08:56

And Sonic Adventure 2. But that wasn't even for that.

Jared 08:57

Yeah.

Matt 08:58

That was for our good friend Eric's podcast. So like, yeah, it's it's that kind of thing too.

Dave 09:01

Yeah.

Matt 09:03

And I think if I could be more strategic about my plans for the year and whose podcasts I'm going to guess a guest on, maybe I can add them to the list.

soccr 09:03

Thank you.

Matt 09:09

Like, just plan ahead.

Dave 09:11

Now, that's a good point. And that's another thing that um caused me to not finish my list. because I had 45 games on my list. And at the time of recording, I've finished 64 games a total in 2024. So I could have finished this list. I beat way more games than I even had on this list.

Jared 09:30

Yeah. Yeah, same.

Dave 09:33

ah why did I not beat these games? And one of the things that I noticed is that my excitement level to play a bunch of these games changed throughout the year.

Matt 09:45

Yeah.

Dave 09:45

And so like when the list went up, I was all gung ho about playing tyranny.

Jared 09:45

Yeah, for sure.

Dave 09:51

And I'm still gung ho about playing that, but it was on my list. And it's not just on my list, it's near the top of my list.

Jared 09:57

Mm hmm.

Dave 09:58

And I never touched it, didn't boot it up the entire year. ah And like, so I would get to let's say like July or something like that. And ah like I have some stuff on the list that I don't really wanna play anymore. And I guess that's like the nature of making a list at the beginning of the year and then following through on it for some of us through the entire year um and not you know making edits to the list or something like that.

Jared 10:12

Yeah.

Dave 10:24

So now soccer, you finished your list.

Jared 10:24

yeah

Dave 10:27

So was this,

soccr 10:28

I love how I'm just here so you can throw out qualifiers, like most of us anyway.

Dave 10:31

Well, well praising praising, no, this, but it's a legitimate question for you because you made the list at the beginning of the year and you actually followed through and finished it.

soccr 10:39

Yeah.

Dave 10:41

So did you find yourself having that where, you know, you got to like, Oh, I got two games left on the list.

soccr 10:41

yeah

Dave 10:48

I really wanted to play them in January. I don't know about right now, but I'm so close. I'll play them anyway.

soccr 10:54

I mean, I didn't just I didn't play the games on my list one after another.

Dave 10:59

Yeah.

soccr 10:59

And I didn't just intersperse with ah with ah new games either. um i i I actually did. um What I would do is when I was ready to play. and you know There's one other quirk that we didn't talk about here that makes me different from everybody else.

Dave 11:17

Uh-huh.

soccr 11:19

And that's that I only play one game at a time.

Dave 11:22

Yes.

Jared 11:23

Awesome, that's crazy.

Matt 11:23

Madness.

soccr 11:23

Pick up a game.

Jared 11:24

That's serial killer behavior.

soccr 11:27

ah I play the game to the end, or whenever I decide I'm not going to play it anymore, and then and then I stop playing it, and then I play something else. so um i would When I was ready for another game, um I would just I would go to my backlog list first and I would look there for Something that kind of like seemed like it was fitting where I was at, you know if I was if I just got through a really

Jared 11:47

Hmm.

Dave 11:52

Yeah.

soccr 11:54

tough as nails combat game you know maybe I'm ready to pick up a puzzle or something like Kentucky Route Zero or vice versa maybe I just played something really slow and but there was you know I had a mix of genres on there so I was often able to be like yeah I I'm sort of in the mood for that and I was able to pick something off of there um but I didn't have that many games so I mean like I I don't know I wasn't feeling the heat at any point yes

Dave 12:00

Yeah.

Jared 12:01

Yeah.

Dave 12:14

Yeah. That's true. So, uh, just, just for comparison, uh, Matt, off the top of your head, how many games are you currently playing?

Matt 12:29

off the top of my head, uh, if we count like ongoing games, at least four, I think.

Dave 12:35

Yeah.

Matt 12:35

So I'm playing, I'm at.

Dave 12:35

I think I have four or five going right now.

Jared 12:37

I think I'm around there too. And that doesn't count like live service stuff like Marvel Rivals and Fortnite and things like that too that I jump into.

Matt 12:42

ah Yeah.

Dave 12:42

ah

soccr 12:45

Well, I've got some qualifiers there, too.

Dave 12:45

Yeah.

soccr 12:46

I mean, I do play Fortnite with friends.

Jared 12:49

Yeah.

soccr 12:49

ah But I have a specific day for that.

Jared 12:52

Nice.

soccr 12:52

I also play little games, just like that, which are under three hours. I've got a separate list of those. that And I'll just like to sit down in the afternoon to do those.

Jared 13:03

I intentionally with my 25 list was like, okay, how many short games can I find here? Let me look for a game with less than 10 hours, less than six hours.

soccr 13:11

Bump up those numbers!

Matt 13:13

for the new list, for the new list, for the new year, we'll talk about it more, but I definitely did that a little bit.

Dave 13:13

Yeah.

Jared 13:14

Yeah.

Matt 13:18

I mean, then a lot of those short games are getting in order to play, but like, yeah, I think part of it also for me is like, like Jared, I am, one of my podcasts is a long play, play a long pod, reignite.

Jared 13:18

yeah Yeah.

Matt 13:29

We were playing through origins during this challenge and now we're playing through Dragon Age two, which we're taking pretty slow. So we'll probably take through 2025, at least a good chunk of it, but like, so. However many games I say I'm playing, I'm actually still probably playing one or two more because they're the longer games that I'm just kind of playing through appointments.

Jared 13:46

Yeah.

Dave 13:47

Yeah.

Matt 13:47

And that's honestly been my favorite way to play those Bioware games. It's really interesting. Like I thought I would hate it, especially the games that I really love. But like Dragon Age 2 is my favorite Dragon Age a little controversially. But I'm loving playing it week week by week, talking about it with Frankie and if we have a guest. And like it's been kind of a slow burn in a great way. Whereas like with some of these games, I felt pressure again.

I'm not a psychopath like soccer is. And so because I play multiple games, I um I like when I was playing Robocop, I eventually dropped it because I would go to play it because I'm like, well, I should play this and then I'll switch to something else.

Jared 14:26

Yeah.

Matt 14:27

And I eventually stopped going back to it. And I was like, well, I don't want to play it. I guess I'll just stop. And like, you know, it's just I can't just play one thing. Usually I only play one thing per console. So like a switch game, a PlayStation game and a PC game.

Dave 14:39

Yeah, I usually have one game per zone, right?

Matt 14:40

That's usually how I split it up.

Jared 14:40

yeah that's Yeah, I was like, I do that same thing.

Matt 14:42

Yeah.

Jared 14:44

It's interesting too.

Dave 14:44

Yeah.

Jared 14:45

You just said that like you were looking at one of the games, you're like, Oh, I should play these games. Looking at my list, the games that I had that mentality for are the ones I dropped are at the time.

Matt 14:53

Yeah.

Jared 14:54

I'm like, Oh, I really should play this. I really need to play this right now. And those are the games I ended up like falling off of because yeah, exactly.

Dave 14:57

Yeah. once once it turns into homework, then you're like, yeah, fuck this.

Matt 15:00

Yeah.

Dave 15:02

I'll play something I want to play. So yeah.

Jared 15:03

Yeah, exactly.

Matt 15:03

Yeah.

Dave 15:05

Um, we have people from, well, I guess before we do that, were there, were there any other reasons that we can think of? Like we, we only, most of us only got to half of the games on our list. You keep saying it.

Jared 15:16

yeah

Dave 15:16

It's a defense mechanism for soccer.

Jared 15:16

Yeah.

Matt 15:18

Yeah.

soccr 15:19

yeah I get it.

Matt 15:19

We're all insanely jealous.

Jared 15:19

One of my other ones was just ah like nostalgia.

Dave 15:21

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah.

soccr 15:23

i

Jared 15:26

Like I have SpongeBob's Battle for Bikini Bottom on my list, right?

Dave 15:30

Yeah.

Jared 15:30

And I liked that game as a kid. And I was like, Oh, I love that game. They remade it. I probably should play it because I liked it as a kid and then never got around to it. So I was like, it's on my list just because I enjoyed it at a time my like years and years ago and in my childhood.

soccr 15:45

I took a look at your list um but before we started and I saw that one was marked red.

Dave 15:45

Yeah.

soccr 15:52

I was thinking maybe like the ones you had marked red are ones that you've decided like, I'm giving up on these. I'm not touching them anymore.

Jared 15:57

Yes.

soccr 15:58

is that right you're like You were just honest with yourself.

Jared 15:58

Yes. Those are the, those are the abandoned ones that, uh, I was like, you know what, I've got my time with them or like a battle for a bikini at the bottom where I was like, I don't actually need this.

Dave 15:59

and Yep.

Jared 16:07

I don't, I don't. Yeah. I was like, I'm never gonna, I'm never gonna play this.

Dave 16:09

Yep.

Jared 16:11

Let me just be real here.

Dave 16:12

I didn't color code it, but there were a couple where, uh, I was just like, yeah, I'm never, I'm never, I'm probably never playing this.

Jared 16:16

Yeah.

Dave 16:18

Not only am I not playing it in 2024, I'm probably never playing this.

Jared 16:20

Yeah. I'm never gonna play this.

Dave 16:23

Yeah.

Jared 16:23

Yep.

Dave 16:23

um Yeah.

Jared 16:23

Yep.

Dave 16:25

So ah we do have contributions again from the community of people who did not complete their list and ah why. So the first one is from Randall. A patron, thank you so much Randall. ah Randall didn't did not complete the backlog because he says I did participate in the 2024 backlog, but I was utterly destroyed due to multiple living titles I regularly play having major updates this year.

Jared 16:51

Yep.

Dave 16:52

The biggest being World of Warcraft The War Within, and I know Randall's really into Path of Exile once that came out. so um you know The backlog is shelved. Randall says, additionally, given the amount of things that have occurred in my personal life, I was surprised to find ah i was ah surprised to find maybe not a lot of time to game for the ah vast majority of the year.

Jared 17:12

Yeah.

Dave 17:16

so Of course, that's another reason. you know If you don't have time to game, you're probably not going to make a dent in the backlog list.

Matt 17:19

Yeah.

Jared 17:21

Yeah.

Matt 17:23

Yeah, for sure.

Jared 17:24

life Life be life and life do be life. Yeah.

Matt 17:26

Yeah, without getting into too much detail, I had ah like a couple of supreme like family things happen.

Dave 17:26

Yep.

Matt 17:32

I lost my father last year and some other stuff.

Dave 17:33

Yeah.

Matt 17:34

And like, I was on a pretty good clip of completing games and I kind of picked back up towards the end of the year, but like it definitely fell off. I was just, yeah you know, you're not in the head space. You don't have time, whatever else. And like that's like life is going to life, you know, if we were all 10 and had nothing to do and we were off from school, we'd probably get through a lot more games.

Jared 17:45

Sure.

Dave 17:47

Yep.

Jared 17:54

yeah um man

Matt 17:57

um I'll take the next one, Snaktaku.

Dave 18:00

yeah.

Matt 18:00

Snacktaku, a patron. Thanks, Snaktaku, for patronizing this show. I can thank you also for that.

Dave 18:06

Yeah, of course.

Matt 18:06

It's a good thing. um My strategy going into this challenge was to tick off the big games first and then tackle the smaller games.

Dave 18:07

Thank you, SnackTaku.

Matt 18:15

I'm laughing because like i I feel like I had that idea too and it just didn't it just didn't work.

Jared 18:20

Yeah.

Matt 18:21

ah which in hindsight was a mistake, yeah. um I should have gone for the shorter experiences first, to be honest. I do feel happy with myself that I finished some games like Baldur's Gate 3, twice, LOL.

Jared 18:31

Oh, wow.

Matt 18:31

Well, that's why you didn't finish anything else. And Red Devil Redemption 2, not a bad year overall.

Jared 18:35

Oh, yeah.

Matt 18:37

Yeah, okay. yeah Like, I was willing to give you some sympathy, Sniktaka, but what you said you didn't.

Jared 18:40

Baldur's Gate twice?

Dave 18:42

Baldur's Gate three twice.

soccr 18:42

yeah

Matt 18:43

Yeah, that's why.

Dave 18:43

Yeah.

Jared 18:44

It's crazy.

Dave 18:45

That's fantastic though. I mean, that's, uh, playing through Baldur's Gate three two whole times is, uh, an incredible, uh, experience for sure.

Jared 18:52

Jeez.

Dave 18:54

So it's not like snack taco was missing out on good gaming, uh, by doing that.

Jared 18:56

Great.

Matt 18:57

but true yeah

Dave 18:58

Yeah.

Jared 18:58

And Red Dead too, like Red Dead can be, I think the base story is like 50 to 60 hours or so, and you can do, so there's so much side content in that game as well, it's crazy.

Dave 19:03

A long ass game. Yeah. Yep. Uh, who wants to take Lucas?

Jared 19:11

Yeah, I'll take Lucas, Lucas game over hell. ah Two things happened. I ended up picking random priorities along the year for my channel, and I got so into replaying the old Final Fantasy games, I postponed Dragon Quest, which was going to be a big part of the backlog.

Matt 19:23

That's true.

Dave 19:26

Yeah, ah Lucas has a YouTube channel called Game Over Hell, which is good if people want to check it out. Good um good reviews, they're not four hours long. um But yeah, making stuff, creating podcasts, YouTube channels, your plans sidetrack other stuff from time to time.

Jared 19:38

Yes, yes.

Dave 19:44

It's kind of the nature of the beast. And Sokka, you want to take Michael?

soccr 19:52

Yeah, ah Michael from Bits of Time podcast says, I enjoyed it. Made me try to think about the entire year of gaming. Granted, I got distracted with a bunch of awesome new releases this year, and I put far too many RPGs on my list, which I seem to always do, and that probably won't change next year either.

Matt 20:11

but I mean, at least Michael knows himself, yeah.

Dave 20:12

yeah i Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jared 20:12

Hey, at least, I was like, yeah, at least your audience is with yourself, you know?

Dave 20:16

Michael was the guest on the Xenogears podcast on Tales from the Backlog. So I can take credit for probably like 80 hours of his gaming time with just that one game right there.

Jared 20:25

yeah

Dave 20:26

So um yeah, and I appreciate obviously playing Xenogears for the podcast, a big commitment, but it does take away from the backlog stuff.

Jared 20:28

Yeah.

Dave 20:38

So um I actually want to skip forward a little bit through the outline.

Jared 20:38

yeah

Dave 20:42

And since we've talked about things that didn't work, reasons why we didn't complete our lists, now we're going to turn that around and um Talk about our plans for 2025 because all four of us are participating in the 2025 backlog resolutions challenge. And ah surely, we at least think that we learned some lessons along the way. And maybe we can pass those along to new people who are joining us for the first time, or maybe just want to undertake this kind of challenge by themselves.

So, um, one of the things that I am going to, I'm like presenting this as it's ah as if if it's such a big fucking like smart idea.

soccr 21:17

Thank you.

Matt 21:27

okay

Dave 21:27

I'm going to have less games on my list in 2025.

Jared 21:29

Hey, there we go.

Dave 21:31

Uh, 45 games, again, not that I won't beat 45 games next year, but 45 games to choose at the beginning of the year just doesn't work for me.

Jared 21:37

Yeah.

Dave 21:42

So I'm going to try to cut my list down. It's currently at 36. Uh, my pre-list before the year starts currently at 36. I'm going to try to cut it to like 30 maximum. And I've already gone through the list, like 10 times and be like, I can't cut that. Cause I've been.

Jared 21:57

to the same thing.

Dave 21:57

convinced myself that if I cut it from the list, I can't play it anymore, which is not true at all.

Matt 22:01

Right.

Jared 22:02

Yes, yep.

Dave 22:03

um You know, if I can play any of these games, they just don't have to be on the list. So um that's, that's one of the things that I'm going to take into 2025 is to not have 45 games on my list.

Jared 22:15

Yeah.

Dave 22:15

What about you all? What's, ah what's, what's an idea, ah some advice going forward?

Jared 22:20

Ah, man, I think I did not learn because I have more games on my list this year.

Dave 22:25

There we go. Love to hear it.

Matt 22:26

Yeah, name same, same.

Jared 22:28

I did 30 last year and I think I have 39 on my list this year. so ah But like I said at the top of the show, I have a lot of games that are like sub 10 hours. And I think that was my mentality going into this was to try to find a lot of shorter experiences that I can play because I did put a lot of big games on there and with the intentionality of like, Oh yeah, let me get to these, I just never even touched the big ones.

Dave 22:38

Yeah.

Jared 22:50

I was like, you know what, let me just try to find some smaller, more truncated experiences that I can play. I tried to focus a lot on my Switch this year, because I had the Switch library, a lot of those games. So I focused on that. And I tried to do a lot of retro things as well. I have like um ah Zelda Oracle of Ages, I have Mega Man X on there, things like that. So I tried to find some retro stuff and you know, those retro games innately will be a little shorter as well too.

So, but shorter games, so put more shorter games on the list.

Dave 23:17

Yeah, there we go. And I'm looking at Xenoblade Chronicles X on my 2025 list.

Jared 23:19

Yeah.

Matt 23:21

<unk> Calling them out.

Dave 23:23

Just, uh, yeah, shorter games.

Jared 23:24

Yeah.

Dave 23:25

It's really smart. Am I gonna, am I going to do that?

Jared 23:26

Yeah.

Dave 23:27

No. Um, I have some short stuff.

Jared 23:28

I do have a couple of beefy boys in Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 3, but you know, there's also short ones on there too.

Dave 23:36

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so, um, Matt, what about you?

Matt 23:38

Yeah.

Dave 23:40

What's, what's, uh, a change you're going to make going into 2025?

Matt 23:43

Well, so like Jared, I had 22 games last year and currently I have 30 games, but.

Jared 23:48

Let's go.

Matt 23:49

But I also like Jared, like the majority of the games on the list are sub 10 hours. There's a couple of sub 20 and then only like two long RPGs. I put, as I alluded to earlier, the 81 hour monster of Persona 4 Golden again, because I did say to Dave when Dave said he was going to play it, that I would also play it.

Jared 23:59

Yeah.

Matt 24:08

Also, I think we may have suckered the retro hangover boys into finally playing it as well.

Jared 24:09

yeah

Matt 24:13

um

Dave 24:14

Let's go about time.

Matt 24:14

And so and so I think that'll be fun to like. But um the other beefy one is I got gifted ah Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky, the Legend of Heroes. If anyone knows Cam Hawkins, they know that he never shuts up about that series and it's why I love him. And he said many years ago, that's a good starting point.

Dave 24:34

Yeah.

Matt 24:34

It's, you know, there's some stuff I may not understand, but for the most part, it's an isolated story. I really enjoy it. And so I added that that's only 40 hours, only 40 hours.

Dave 24:42

yeah

Jared 24:42

Yeah, I'm just easy.

Matt 24:43

um But like the other strategy I had for this is actually something we talked about before is leaning into the, if I don't like it, I don't have to finish it.

Jared 24:51

Yeah, yeah.

Matt 24:51

And I'm adding games to this list that I've always heard mixed things about, but I've wanted to play.

Dave 24:51

Mhm.

soccr 24:52

Yeah.

Jared 24:55

Yeah.

Matt 24:57

And so like a big one of that is I have Ghostwire Tokyo on my list because first of all, I love Tango Gameworks, RIP, although maybe and sort of not, I think they kept the name.

Jared 24:59

Yeah.

Dave 25:00

Mhm.

Jared 25:01

yeah and i'll see maybe

Matt 25:06

I can't remember. Yeah, they're sort of alive.

Jared 25:07

no

Matt 25:08

They're making another Hi-Fi rest.

soccr 25:09

Cool.

Matt 25:09

That's all I care about. But like I had known this was going to be good, like it was a divisive game, but it's only 11 hours long.

soccr 25:11

Yeah.

Matt 25:17

It's an open world. an open world game that's 11 hours, like that's really short. And so I wanted to try it because the aesthetics look cool.

Jared 25:21

Yeah.

Matt 25:23

I like the imagery, like the graphics looked awesome, um you know, and then games like Pumpkin Jack, which also didn't get great reviews.

Jared 25:26

Mm

Matt 25:30

um And then there are other games on this list that like I've just I've i like, really, I should have finished like Transistor I was going to play last year because Dave did an episode on it and I didn't get to it.

Jared 25:30

-hmm. Oh, so good. Mm-hmm.

Matt 25:42

But I love Supergiant so much. It's one of the two games by Supergiant I haven't played. It's this in Pyre. And so I just picked one of them at random to finally get done this year. And then there are a couple of games on this list that that like um there's a couple of games that like

soccr 25:53

My two favorites.

Matt 25:58

I started like I have a cause and the wild masks, which is like a side scrolling action platformer. And I started pizza tower after Dave's episode on it. I had already had it, I think, but I just hadn't started it yet. And like, that's one of those games that like Wario land and the like, it's very like I can play it stage by stage. And so I feel like throughout the year, I'll eventually finish that one.

um And I also, a big change from last year is that I put a bunch of games last year that I didn't own when I put them on the list. I just put them on the list because I knew I wanted to play them.

Dave 26:26

Hmm.

Jared 26:27

Yeah.

Matt 26:28

This time I only have one game that's that, and it's because of the Indie Game Awards. I didn't know it existed until I saw it in the Indie Game Awards the other night as of when we're recording, and it's Crypto Custodian, which is billed as a top-down Metroidvania where you're a ah cat cleaning up

Dave 26:38

Oh yeah.

soccr 26:38

ah yeah

Jared 26:39

yeah.

soccr 26:40

yeah

Matt 26:45

becoming friends with ghosts and like taking care of Crips and the dead. And I'm like, this game was made for me.

Jared 26:50

Like you're saying all the right things right now.

Matt 26:52

Right.

Dave 26:52

Yeah.

Matt 26:53

And like something I'm trying to avoid, like also a lot of games that were on my list last year were games that I got during our Secret Santa stuff. Like I got Cyberpunk for that and a few others.

Dave 27:00

Mm-hmm Yeah

Matt 27:02

And so I'm going to add all of those games and then whittle them down because they don't have to play all of them. But like much to the celebration of one Dave, I was gifted Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, which I have never played.

Jared 27:07

Yeah.

Matt 27:13

And so that went on my list immediately because I know that if I play it, it'll probably become my personality for a month and Dave will enjoy that. um

Dave 27:20

That'll be the best month of my life for sure. um So soccer, ah how are you going to repeat as champion in 2025? What lessons did you learn? What advice can you give to the people?

soccr 27:35

Yeah, I don't know about advice. i Based on lists I've been seeing, i don't. I don't think anyone in your server is capable of changing. But I can definitely and I could definitely talk about what ah what worked for me.

Dave 27:43

No, absolutely not.

Matt 27:45

No.

soccr 27:51

I do have more games this year, um so I guess I'm challenging myself a little bit.

Dave 27:51

yeah

Jared 27:52

Cool, let's go.

Matt 27:53

Yeah, let's go.

soccr 27:56

um But ah this i mean we've talked about how I'm different.

Matt 28:05

He's built differently.

soccr 28:06

I mean I play one game at a time and um when you feel like you have to finish a game to play another one as I do then you tend to finish them.

Dave 28:08

Yeah. Yeah.

soccr 28:16

um So I mean that definitely pushes me.

Dave 28:16

Yeah. Yeah. Me too.

soccr 28:19

um I've also unintentionally did not set out to but I have become a video game hipster who is extremely picky

Matt 28:27

Yeah.

soccr 28:31

about what I play. like um ah Matt, you were saying you wanted to try out some games that you heard mixed things about.

Matt 28:38

yeah

soccr 28:38

And I'm like, that's exactly what I will just nix off of my list. I'm like, mixed? No, I don't, I don't have time for that. I i think I had this like i had this realization um maybe like a year ago when ah my list of games started to just, like it got up to maybe 100

Jared 28:47

I don't have time to mix.

Matt 28:47

yeah

soccr 29:01

um for the first time. And I was like, oh, you know, I'm never actually going to be able to play all the good video games.

Dave 29:10

Yep.

Jared 29:11

yeah

soccr 29:11

So I'm like, what I should do is um just like the slightest whiff of I might not like this. If it's not my style, if somebody that I respect says there's something that they don't like about it, I'm like, no, it's only the best.

Matt 29:19

Right.

Jared 29:20

Yeah.

soccr 29:25

Only the best for me. Only what I'm going to like the most.

Dave 29:27

For the list.

Jared 29:28

Yeah.

Dave 29:29

Yeah. and And you, I mean, that won't stop you from trying something out of curiosity.

soccr 29:29

hum

Matt 29:34

Right.

Dave 29:34

It's just, you know, what's going on the list?

Jared 29:35

Yeah.

soccr 29:35

Yeah.

Dave 29:36

What are you prioritizing? We'll say.

Matt 29:38

Yeah.

soccr 29:38

I'm also in an advantaged position because I have this personal taste. I don't like and don't really like photo realism.

Dave 29:48

Uh-huh.

soccr 29:48

And that excludes like ninety percent more than 90% of AAA games, yeah ah which are yeah which tend to be really, really long and open and and have lots of little bits.

Jared 29:50

Yeah, it's a lot of like, yeah.

Dave 29:54

Most of the longest games.

Matt 29:56

Yeah.

Dave 30:02

Mm hmm.

soccr 30:02

Like, I'm still playing long games. I've got Void Stranger on my list for next year.

Matt 30:06

You do have one of those games on your list, though.

soccr 30:06

And well,

Jared 30:06

Hey, that's my list, that's um that's my list too.

Matt 30:08

I see God of War 2018. That's pretty realistic.

soccr 30:12

yeah, we'll see how it goes.

Matt 30:14

Yeah, well.

soccr 30:14

It's not it's not my cup of tea exactly, but ah I mean, so many people like it. I feel like I got to try out a AAA game every once in a while.

Dave 30:21

Yeah.

Matt 30:22

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't have a ton of games on my list like soccer, but I think the ones I mentioned also are like, I heard that it wasn't to a certain people's taste.

Dave 30:24

Yeah.

soccr 30:24

um but

Matt 30:32

And also I've played some seven games this year that were like attendance to me.

Jared 30:33

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt 30:36

Like I really liked Star Wars Outlaws.

soccr 30:37

Yeah, like worth your time, you know.

Dave 30:37

Yeah.

Matt 30:39

Yeah. Star Wars Outlaws, I really enjoyed it. I haven't finished. I'm hoping to finish, but like I loved that game and everyone's like, it's too basic. It's dumb. It's bad. I'm like, I like so, but, but as you'll notice, sucker, I said, I have like two of those games on my list.

Jared 30:48

Yeah.

Matt 30:55

I didn't put in very much.

Jared 30:55

Yeah.

Matt 30:56

So I'm, I'm mostly with you.

Dave 30:56

Yeah.

Matt 30:58

There's so many good games.

Jared 30:58

Yeah.

Matt 30:59

Why play bad games?

Jared 31:00

It's also nice too, because sometimes, because I have one of those on my list, I have Marvel's Avengers on my list as well to play, which is like 12 hours. So it's like, cool, I'll just play the story, don't worry about online stuff, whatever.

Dave 31:11

Yeah.

Jared 31:11

But like to to play it outside of like the zeitgeist of all the kind of like conversation and talk around why the game is is is middling with its reviews, almost kind of like,

Matt 31:16

yeah

Jared 31:22

enhances the experience, right? You're not playing it when everyone else is like whispering in your ear that this game is terrible.

Matt 31:23

Yeah.

Jared 31:26

You're like, you're you're pushed away from all of that. And you can look at it with a different lens. So I was like, I'll try it out. I got it bundled with my PS5, like when I got it four plus years ago, and it's been sitting in a drawer.

Dave 31:31

yeah

Jared 31:37

So I was like, you know what? ah get let's Let's try it out.

Dave 31:39

Yeah, one of the things that I did um in the 2024 list was any physical game that I had, because I'm not a physical game collector.

Jared 31:48

Yep.

Dave 31:48

um So if I have a physical game, it's either because um I went to a store and impulse bought it, or which does which rarely happens, like once a year, I'll do that.

Jared 31:57

yeah

Dave 31:59

um Or I got it as a Christmas gift. And, you know, I really want to play those things, you know, especially if I got it for Christmas or something like that.

Jared 32:03

Yeah.

Dave 32:07

um So I put the physical games on my list. And then, um like halfway through the year, I still hadn't started triangle strategy. And I sold it because I was feeling like yeah there's two ways out of this, right? It's either going to sit on my shelf forever, or I can sell it and never see that box again.

Jared 32:22

Oh, man.

Dave 32:24

So I sold it. um

Jared 32:25

Ding, I was like I have the same thing where I have a very small physical library.

soccr 32:25

How to spray that in life

Jared 32:30

And on my 2025, I was like, let me add all the games in my physical library.

Dave 32:31

Yeah.

Jared 32:33

I thought this was gonna be like an inspiring story of how you got through them and everything.

Dave 32:34

Yeah, no, not not that one.

Jared 32:37

And I was like, oh, well.

Dave 32:38

But one of the yeah one of the things going into 2025 is one of the cool things I think I'm I think it's cool that I'm doing with my list in 2025 is I have some not Well, they are retro in a way, but I have an Xbox 360, I have a Wii U, I have a 3DS, and I have some physical games because I started buying especially games like for the 360 in particular that are not available on PC or, you know, other consoles or something. So I have a physical copy of Prey from 2006 and six and um Alpha Protocol that I bought when it was delisted. So I have those on my resolutions list because I want to diversify where I'm playing the games.

Jared 33:16

Yeah. Mm hmm.

Dave 33:21

um i I want my 3DS to get some love. I want my Wii U to get some love. Shout out to Jacob McCourt for giving me one of his 11 Wii U's that he has down in his basement.

Matt 33:27

good Yeah,

Jared 33:30

You are now only the 12 people that we own.

Dave 33:31

um

Jared 33:32

Yes, welcome.

Dave 33:33

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I have, um, I have two games from each of those older consoles that I want to play. Um, actually more than two on the DS because I'm going to pick I'm going to finish pick cross 3d. Uh, it's, it's time. That game is so long. There are so many puzzles in that game across

Jared 33:48

yeah

soccr 33:50

Dave, that's like my white whale, Picross 3D.

Dave 33:54

3d. They get, they get really hard.

soccr 33:55

Because I was so into it in college.

Dave 33:59

Mm-hmm.

soccr 33:59

And I got all the way through perfect scores and everything except the final puzzle. And ah then I failed the final puzzle like five times. And I was like, I'm going to do this. And then I left it and I never came back to it. And now I can't just like to dive back into it because it's been years.

Jared 34:11

Dang.

Dave 34:11

tough ah into the last puzzle.

Jared 34:14

yeah

Dave 34:15

Yeah, Yeah.

Matt 34:15

Yeah.

Dave 34:17

How long to beat on Picross 3D is like 60 plus hours.

soccr 34:17

Anyway, sorry, sidetracked.

Dave 34:21

Like there's a lot of puzzles in that game, um but it's on my list.

Matt 34:21

yeah

Jared 34:21

That's insane. That's crazy.

Matt 34:23

Yeah.

Dave 34:25

I want to finish it, but that's something cool that I'm doing to kind of like shake it up because I. You know, I have the Wii U, thanks to Jacob's generosity. I have the Xbox 360, I have my 3DS, but I didn't, especially the 3DS, I didn't really even touch in 2024, except for when I was getting ready for that um that panel at PAX East.

Jared 34:42

Yeah.

Matt 34:42

yeah

Dave 34:46

Again, thanks to Jacob. Jacob, getting a lot of shout outs in this episode.

Matt 34:50

What's that about?

Dave 34:50

Good guy. um So I want to make sure that those other consoles get some love. um And I'll probably end up playing those more than my Switch this year, next year, this year.

Jared 35:00

Oh man, not now I'm feeling like I should go back and reevaluate my list because even when the shop shut down, I bought a bunch of stuff for the 3DS eShop and my Wii U as well.

Matt 35:01

but

Jared 35:10

So I have a bunch of virtual console games like Donkey Kong 64 and like that on the Wii U and it's like, now I gotta play them.

Dave 35:11

Yeah.

Jared 35:19

Gotta put them on the list.

Matt 35:19

Well, yeah, I actually, I actually really liked that idea. Like I have a 3DS. I can't remember who I was talking to about, uh, playing, finally playing through heart gold, but I've never played gen two and I have heart gold.

Jared 35:30

Ooh, nice.

Matt 35:32

I started it, but I never finished it. I should put that on my list. I bought, uh, cause I did that. Like I have a bunch of switch games that I bought a couple of years ago, like Olly Olly world that I got cause it was on sale and I knew I'd play it eventually.

Jared 35:39

Yeah. Ooh, another good game here. Yeah.

Matt 35:43

eventually And like, I should diversify that. I have an analog pocket and like I have a ton of GBA games on it. Like, uh, I think Fire Emblem Fates is the one on there. I can't remember which Fire Emblem it is.

Jared 35:53

Mm hmm.

Matt 35:53

Someone will correct me. and but like on the Discord. But whatever Fire Emblem was on the GBA, I've been wanting to play that for ages. I hear it's an incredible one. And I have it. And I have an analog pocket. I should do that to diversify what I'm playing on. Because I did that a lot last year.

Jared 36:06

Yeah.

Matt 36:07

I replayed the Sonic Advance series, at least a couple of games. I played Popeye 2 on the Game Boy for a podcast appearance.

Jared 36:13

That's awesome.

Matt 36:14

So like, I think that's a really good idea, Dave. And it's a way to keep it not stale, right? If you just have like 40 Steam games, eventually you're going to be like, well, I don't want to play another Steam game, right?

Jared 36:19

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Dave 36:25

Yeah, yep. um Let's see. let's ah So we have community ideas for the 2025 list. And then one thing I want to do after that, before we wrap up, is um anything on our 2025 list that we're particularly excited about, um even if we haven't mentioned, even if we have mentioned them already, maybe there's some others.

Jared 36:40

Ooh.

Dave 36:45

But we do have a bunch of people's plans, people who think they've learned lessons from the 2024 list, just like all of us.

Matt 36:52

Supposedly.

Jared 36:53

Suppose the lesson is learned. Yeah, exactly.

Dave 36:55

All of us. Yeah. So, um, I will get started with, uh, a roost launcher. Thank you, roost launcher. Uh, so the roost launcher will participate in 2024 and say for the upcoming year, I've adjusted my approach slightly by making the list smaller and more achievable. There we go.

Jared 37:12

Smart.

Dave 37:12

Very smart.

Matt 37:12

Smart smart you might call that the stalker strategy Yeah

Jared 37:13

Very smart, very smart. Don't add more games like we did.

Dave 37:17

Yeah. Based on my understanding of how much time I typically spend on games, I've allocated about a third of that time to larger titles that I've wanted to play for a long time, like Persona 5 or the Mass Effect trilogy, rest in peace, Roost Launcher's ah time.

Jared 37:30

Let's go.

Dave 37:33

um I haven't included all the games I've purchased and won't be adding games I buy throughout the year. Thank you. It's not a resolution. If you add it to the list in June, that's not how resolutions work. um Instead, Roost Launcher says, instead I'll maintain a separate list for such titles and select them randomly to add some unpredictability. The rest of the time I'll spend on new games and spontaneous purchases.

And that's one thing I wanted to add for my 2025 plans. The big reason I wanna shrink the list down is not that I'm not excited about playing 45 games again, it's that I want more room for being impulsive with what games I play.

Matt 38:11

Yeah.

Jared 38:12

yeah

Dave 38:12

ah Maybe I saw a YouTube video and the game looks cool. Maybe I heard about it on a podcast such as the illustrious play along podcast or fun and games ah with Matt and Jeff. um or any of the other 35 amazing podcasts in our indie community here, I wanna be more impulsive with what I play and I don't wanna feel like the list is a ball and chain.

Jared 38:34

Yeah. Yeah.

Dave 38:35

So cutting it down a little bit, I hope will allow me to be more impulsive with you know what I play.

soccr 38:35

Yeah.

Dave 38:42

Because in 2024, I was not impulsive. I probably made maybe two or three games that I played within like a couple days of deciding that I wanted to play it, you know, a lot of them were like, I'll play it.

Matt 38:56

Yeah.

Jared 38:57

Right.

Dave 38:58

Well, let me put it on the schedule for four months from now. And then I'll get to that. And that's like, yeah, that's not great. So um I agree with what Bruce launcher said here.

Jared 39:04

Yeah.

Matt 39:07

Yeah, no, that makes sense.

Dave 39:07

um

Matt 39:08

I also ah think that, Dave, that's a great idea because then when you impulsively decide to finally replay the Mass Effect trilogy and listen to my podcast, you have plenty of room for that.

Dave 39:18

Right. Correct. Yeah. FYI, for whoever's next, the name is pronounced Rouge.

soccr 39:25

Rish.

Matt 39:25

Thank you.

Dave 39:26

Yeah.

Matt 39:26

I'll take the next one. Up next is Rouge, a patron. Thank you, Rouge. ah um ah My list is still being my list still being a work in progress. I'm aiming for about finishable 30 games to have on my list and leave enough room for a room and time for roguelikes I already own and new games that I want to pick up to be able to play with ah ah um play with others throughout the year because

Jared 39:46

Nice.

Matt 39:54

They are hot at the moment. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense, too. We talked about that before, like wanting to leave room for Monster Hunter Wiles, that promo.

Jared 39:59

Yeah.

Dave 39:59

Yeah, the FOMO you want to, yeah, you want to be part of the conversation as we, you know, we have a, our awesome lively discord community and the other communities we're in and you want to join the conversation.

soccr 40:01

Yeah.

Jared 40:02

Yes.

Matt 40:03

yeah

soccr 40:08

yeah

Matt 40:12

Yeah, totally. like ah ah For sure, yeah.

soccr 40:12

We're all kind of social players, I think.

Dave 40:15

Yeah, we love to talk.

Jared 40:15

ah yeah love Yeah.

Dave 40:16

I mean, that's why we're here. We love talking about video games.

Matt 40:18

Yeah.

Jared 40:19

Almost more than we play, though, which is funny.

Matt 40:21

ah rouge Rouge also says, so all in all, ah all in all hoping to strike a balance between playing what I feel like at that moment and clearing some great games in my backlog. Yeah. I mean, that sounds like a good approach.

Dave 40:33

Let's go to approach.

Matt 40:35

And I think that's kind of where we all sort of landed as we've talked through this episode is kind of leaving more room to like, not just, Oh, well, I have time to play a game.

Jared 40:38

Yeah.

Matt 40:45

I guess I'll play one of my backlog games.

Dave 40:47

Yep.

Jared 40:48

Yeah.

soccr 40:49

Hmm.

Jared 40:50

yeah I'll do the next, I got Randall. So Randall says, in 2025, I plan on trying to play some games I've let simmer on the backlog burner for far too long, while also allowing myself to not be held down by the burden of the ever-growing list. Oh, there's a running theme going on here.

Matt 41:06

Yeah.

Jared 41:06

ah Gaming is fun, and I want every year to be a new lesson on how to have that fun. I think that's a good rule of thumb for this, right? It's like, enjoy it.

Matt 41:13

yeah

Jared 41:14

like we're still doing this or we're building these lists to play these games to have fun and to enjoy playing the lists. So just if it ever gets to a point where you know you're feeling obligated or you're not having fun, then just you know play something else or like kick it off the list or take a little break from it too, right?

Dave 41:26

Yeah.

Jared 41:28

You don't have to play all of it right now. You could take a little break and come back later if you want to.

Dave 41:33

Yeah, for sure.

soccr 41:33

If it's never fun, you're probably doing it wrong.

Jared 41:35

Yeah, that's true.

Dave 41:36

Yeah, absolutely.

Matt 41:36

Yeah.

Dave 41:37

Yeah. We, uh, we all have like this, I mean, the point of the list is this, we have these like potential amazing experiences sitting in our steam library and, uh, we, we want to make sure we get to some of those, but you need to be in the mindset where you're open and receptive and ready for it rather than like, well, let me just check this fucking box off.

Jared 41:44

Right. Exactly. Yeah.

Dave 41:56

So, uh, so my stats go up.

Jared 41:59

Yeah. Yeah.

soccr 42:03

I guess I'll take the Dog nozzle. Thank you for subscribing. It was easy to put my list together since there are a lot. There are lots of oldish games. I want to play but not a ton that I already own. Most of my Pixar games that I know are good and that I started at one point will put them down because I wasn't in the mood for it at the time. Other than that, just try to keep the numbers down and limit the total hours to something doable.

Dave 42:34

Yeah. And, uh, Rouge, who's one of our spreadsheet wizards in the discord server, added a column of, um, total how long to beat.

soccr 42:42

The Wizard now.

Dave 42:44

Uh, and yeah, my, uh, I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's an idea with good intentions, but I'm also looking at that column that says 884 hours to beat my list for 2025.

Matt 42:44

Yeah, I was not in favor of it, just to be clear.

Jared 42:44

I don't know if that's a good idea or not.

soccr 42:46

Yeah.

Jared 42:48

I don't know. Yeah. Sure.

Dave 42:58

And, uh, I'm like, whoo, woof. That is, uh, that's a lot of time, you know, again,

Jared 43:01

Yeah.

Matt 43:02

Yeah.

soccr 43:02

reality check.

Jared 43:02

um I think I'm just going to avoid looking at that so I don't get overwhelmed by the number of hours.

Dave 43:07

Yeah, but stats are fun. I'm looking forward to seeing Rouge.

Jared 43:09

That's our fun.

Dave 43:10

Rouge is going to do a bunch of things behind the scenes.

Matt 43:14

yeah

Dave 43:14

So I'm, I'm excited. The 2026 backlog resolutions podcast is going to have a bunch more stats, which I think is going to be a good time.

Jared 43:21

We're gonna, we're gonna have like a year reviewed and be like, it just Spotify wrapped every year for the, uh, the backlog resolution.

Dave 43:23

Yeah, exactly.

Matt 43:24

yeah

Dave 43:25

And then we're going to have like fucking backlog, money ball, Sabre metrics and everything going on. It's going to be awesome.

Matt 43:32

It's going to be

Jared 43:33

Oh man.

Dave 43:34

um Next up is Lucas again from the Game Over Hell YouTube channel. For 2025, Lucas says, I'm going to have to plan my 2025 resolutions more realistically. Keep coming up with that theme.

Matt 43:47

Yeah.

Jared 43:47

Yeah.

Dave 43:48

Eyes are too big for our stomachs, a lot of us here.

Matt 43:51

hubris

Dave 43:52

Yeah, the hubris.

Jared 43:52

Yes, yes.

Dave 43:53

Lucas says, when I want to think more about the likely number of games, I might just decide to play out of the blue or for content creation challenges or anything like that.

Jared 44:01

Yeah.

Dave 44:02

So again, it's like a really consistent theme here that people want to free themselves up to be more impulsive while still participating.

Jared 44:03

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think yeah I think you're next.

Matt 44:15

I forgot what order we were going in. Was I next?

Dave 44:17

I think math.

Matt 44:18

Yeah, okay.

Dave 44:18

Yeah.

Matt 44:20

Lenka, new for 2025. I don't have a strategy yet.

Jared 44:25

Nice.

Matt 44:25

That's fine. You're in the place we were last year. It's totally fine. Except that maybe trying not to buy more games because for some reason I tend to.

Jared 44:31

For some reason.

Dave 44:33

for some reason.

Matt 44:33

Yeah, yeah for some reason. ah Except for the ones coming out next year, those don't count. I'll definitely buy those.

Dave 44:40

There we go. I like to hear that.

Matt 44:41

yeah

Jared 44:41

That's how I feel about Pokémon. Pokémon Legends EA. That doesn't count.

Matt 44:43

Yeah.

Dave 44:44

Hmm.

Matt 44:44

Well, that's not that that should definitely not come out next year because I don't because then everything's gone to hell. And once that comes out um ah and then I'm kind of hoping that limiting my giant backlog to just 17 games will help me reduce my decision paralysis. Yeah, that makes sense on what to play. But at the same time it is still enough to pick something based on what I'm in the mood for. Yeah. I mean, that's been like the running thing we've talked about.

Jared 45:06

ah

Matt 45:07

And I think that's really the decision and analysis paralysis is like the reason I don't play games when I don't play them.

Dave 45:08

Yeah.

Jared 45:08

Yeah. Do you? Yeah. Yeah.

Dave 45:14

Yeah.

Jared 45:14

Do, do something fun with it. Like I said, I have a literal wheel that I spin and I decided recently, I was like, you know what, let me get a jump on some of these games. And I used the wheel and the wheel picked the mafia definitive edition. And that game just engrossed me. I put like six hours in it. Like the day I started playing it, which is like, Hey, it was, it was kind of the perfect game for the perfect moment.

Matt 45:30

Nice.

Jared 45:32

So like throw some fun way of picking games in there too, to add some excitement to it.

Dave 45:33

yeah And um laka also, a new patron. Thank you, Lenka. I forgot to write it on the spreadsheet, but I appreciate it. And Lenka says something that's really similar to what Sakhar said was part of his success for 2024's list is um allowing yourself to be able to pick something kind of based on mood, but not necessarily based, because Sakhar, didn't you have like ah yeah like an action game sub-list and like a kind of narrative,

Jared 45:58

Yeah.

Matt 46:03

Yeah.

Dave 46:05

slower game sub list. So like whatever you're in the mood for, something's going to be there that you want to play.

soccr 46:06

Yeah.

Jared 46:13

ah Next up, we have Artful Scruff says, keep expectations low.

Matt 46:17

Yeah.

Jared 46:18

I love this.

Matt 46:18

Yeah.

Jared 46:19

I probably won't get through all of these games accounting for new releases. I think I've chosen games that are a little more within my usual wheelhouse. ah That's probably fair. Keeping expectations low and knowing that we might not finish all these games this year.

Dave 46:28

Yeah, keep that expectation. Yeah, I mean it's a fun challenge and like hats off to you if you finish all the games, but I'm not going to finish all of these.

Jared 46:32

Probably good.

Matt 46:38

Soccer.

Dave 46:40

I'm going to keep adding games until January 1st. I know how this works.

Matt 46:43

Yeah, totally.

Dave 46:44

so

Jared 46:44

That's yep. That's all too real. That's what I did. I was like, oh, I have these. The problem was like prime gaming and all those free things. They're like, here's some more games. And I'm like, ah okay, I guess I'll download them.

Dave 46:53

Yeah, exactly. And again, my weird brain is telling me if I'm excited about playing a game, it has to go on the backlog resolutions list.

Jared 47:00

Yeah.

Dave 47:02

I can't play it if it's not on the list.

Matt 47:02

Yeah. Can't play it if it's not on there.

Jared 47:05

And if you delete it from the list, it's gone forever.

Matt 47:05

Yeah.

Dave 47:05

Yeah.

soccr 47:05

Okay.

Jared 47:06

Just know that it gets erased from your hard drive and you can never play it again.

Matt 47:07

Yeah.

Dave 47:07

Yeah. That being said, it kind of having it on the list is a reminder that this is something I really want to play. There are so many games that I'll often look through my steam library and I'll be like, Oh, I own that.

Jared 47:18

Yeah.

Matt 47:20

Yeah.

Dave 47:24

And I really want to play that. And I forgot that I, that I, I bought that for two bucks in a steam sale two years ago.

Matt 47:27

Yeah.

Jared 47:27

Yeah. Yeah.

Dave 47:32

So the good with the bad, a lot of pressure.

Jared 47:35

Yeah.

soccr 47:36

I've really painted myself into a box here. It's going to be super embarrassing if I don't finish all my games next year.

Dave 47:42

There are, yeah.

Jared 47:44

ah you but ah You have an expectation that I kind of love you.

Dave 47:46

Arguably, none of us have any pressure for 2025, except for you.

soccr 47:48

Yeah.

Matt 47:49

Except for soccer.

Jared 47:53

Oh man.

soccr 47:54

Is it time for me?

Matt 47:57

Yeah.

Dave 47:57

Yeah, for Dan from Canada.

Matt 47:57

Dan from Canada.

soccr 47:58

um Yeah. Dan from Canada, who is joining the challenge for the first time in 2025. I am very aware of how many hours I play per year, so it was quite realistic about my list. 300 hours out of 500 or so. Saving the remainder for Switch 2 games and other random 2025 games.

Jared 48:17

Oh, to...

soccr 48:18

Oh yeah.

Matt 48:19

Yeah.

soccr 48:20

I also added a reason for each game on my list in the sheet, because I'm like that.

Matt 48:24

That actually is a really good idea, yeah.

Dave 48:24

Hell yeah.

Jared 48:24

interesting yeah I like that I like that oh well it like Matt said yeah

Dave 48:26

Yeah. We, uh, we have not talked about the possibility of switch to coming out and just fucking wrecking all of our plans next year.

Matt 48:35

Yeah.

Dave 48:35

Cause there's going to be, you know, like a new Pokemon, new Mario, there's going to be stuff you want to play.

Matt 48:39

Metroid Prime 4 at some point.

soccr 48:39

and some new franchise new weird Nintendo shit

Matt 48:42

Yeah.

Dave 48:42

Yeah. Yeah. Some new weird shit that you've never heard of, but it's going to be awesome.

Matt 48:47

Yep, basically.

Dave 48:47

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Finally, we have ControlAltNube, who is new to the challenge. She says, there is no chance that I will get through all the games. Good expectations in check at the beginning. I like to hear that. ah So I am just aiming for a good chunk of them. Lately, if I only have one hour at the end of my day, I won't play a game because it doesn't feel like enough time. It's a weird thing that I definitely empathize with. I get that all the time.

ah So I will sit and watch stuff on YouTube for an hour and gain nothing from it ah when I could have been playing a game. Anyway, ah noob says I feel like I'm waiting for my holidays to binge some games. I think this challenge could help with that and help reestablish gaming back into my regular routine. So. uh there we go yeah trying to defeat that idea it's a coming from ah all the parents are listening to this just being like you only have an hour and you feel like you don't have time to play games what are you talking about right now uh so uh all of us uh privileged uh to think that an hour is not enough time i count myself in that too

Jared 49:48

Right, right.

Matt 49:48

Yeah, exactly.

Jared 49:54

Right.

Matt 49:56

Yeah, and like you can do so much. like as i There are many nights this week alone that like I haven't played Mario and Luigi Brotherships. I'm like, oh, it's an RPG. I don't have time. Meanwhile, like I'm in the middle of a dungeon where there's lots of enemies.

Jared 50:06

Yeah.

Matt 50:07

I could just clear the dungeon of enemies, and like that's a thing I did, and then turn it off.

Jared 50:08

Yeah.

Matt 50:11

But I don't think that way, because it's an RPG.

Dave 50:12

Yeah.

Matt 50:13

And I'm like, well, there's 20 more hours to go.

Jared 50:14

Right.

Matt 50:15

I can't do that in an hour, so I can't do any of it.

Jared 50:18

Yeah, thinking of that overall number I do as well.

Matt 50:18

you know

Dave 50:19

Yeah.

Jared 50:21

And then I will like, I'll justify that and then go spend like that amount of time like watching a TV or like a YouTube video too.

Matt 50:26

Yeah, exactly.

Jared 50:26

I was like, I could have just been playing games.

Matt 50:27

like

Jared 50:28

I could have, I could have done this.

Dave 50:29

Yeah. Okay, so those are all of our community contributions. And I really thank everybody who is number one participating in the challenge, whether it was just 2024, whether you're new for 2025, or whether you are in for both years. So thank you for that and everyone who wrote in with their thoughts and contributions. It's been a lot of fun going through the challenge with everybody in that Discord channel.

Jared 50:53

Yeah.

Dave 50:54

um We celebrate when we check things off the list with each other.

Matt 50:56

Yeah.

Dave 50:57

ah We talk about the fun we had. Everyone sees, oh, you beat that game. How was it? Stuff like that.

Jared 51:02

Yeah.

Dave 51:03

It's ah it's been really great.

Jared 51:03

A lot of fun.

Dave 51:05

So I appreciate everyone participating and then sharing those thoughts in this episode. So Before we go, um I do want to just kinda talk about some stuff we're excited about playing from the list in 2025.

Jared 51:17

Oh, yes.

Dave 51:20

So ah Jared, what's what's on your list for 2025? Maybe not the whole list, but like anything jumping out is like, I'm really excited that this is on my resolutions list.

Jared 51:30

Yeah, yeah, so I have a couple on here. you mentioned it earlier, you called me out for it, but Xenoblade Chronicles, I have played, ah not not fully, but I played some of it, maybe like 15, 20 hours or so, because I did a Get Wrecked episode with Barry from Nintendo Fuse.

Dave 51:45

Yeah.

Jared 51:45

And I had never really played any of these games. It was a series that I really wanted to get into. I just fell in love with that world. And even though I had like, The idea, I didn't know how many hours the game was when I started it. I was like, I'm not going to look. I'm not going to look. I'm enjoying my time now. I don't need to know how long it's going to take me to get to this end. I'm enjoying the moment that I'm in right now.

Dave 52:05

Yeah.

Jared 52:05

um But it's good. I'm excited. Same thing with you. I played it for the podcast and it kind of just got buried between other podcast games and other, you know, get rekt shows that I was planning for. So I'm excited to get back into it. I also was playing it on the original Wii and now have bought it on the Switch, the definitive edition. so

Dave 52:24

Good call.

Jared 52:24

I'm excited. Yeah, which I was like, you know, let me just do this because between quality of life stuff and just visuals overall, it'll probably be a smoother experience if I play through it on Switch than play through it on Wii. So I'm very excited to play through that.

Dave 52:35

Mm hmm.

Jared 52:37

I have Animal Well on my list because I've just heard so many people, you are yourself included,

Dave 52:39

Ooh.

Matt 52:41

Yeah, good one.

Jared 52:42

i just rained about how incredible this game is.

Dave 52:42

Yeah.

Jared 52:45

So it was on PS Plus as well.

Dave 52:46

Mm hmm.

Jared 52:47

So I was like, no, let me throw it on there ah so I can play it. So I'm really excited to check that out. um Another one I'm excited about that just recently got an announcement for a sequel is Okami.

Matt 52:56

Yep.

Jared 52:58

Okami is another one that I bought on a whim on a PlayStation sale years ago for like 10 bucks that I just never got around to playing it.

soccr 53:05

Oh,

Dave 53:05

Yeah.

Jared 53:05

And people have done lots of comparisons to Legend of Zelda in that case. And it's the same thing where it's like, this is fundamentally my shit, but I just never, never jumped into it.

Matt 53:09

yep

soccr 53:09

oh yeah.

Dave 53:09

Yeah. yeah

Jared 53:15

And I already had it on my list and seeing that it's getting a sequel to, it's just even more of a motivation for me to play through that game. So I'm excited to play it. It's a little longer than I thought it was going to be, but I'm excited for that nonetheless.

soccr 53:27

yeah

Jared 53:28

um And then last, I'll say Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart, because I've always loved those games.

Dave 53:33

yeah

Jared 53:35

And we played, I think last year for the pod, we played through the 2016 reboot, and the Rift Apart looks like it's more Ratchet and Clank fun. And it's beautiful looking, so I'm excited to play through that on PS5.

Dave 53:44

Yep. Nice, uh, soccer.

soccr 53:46

Yeah.

Dave 53:46

How about you? What do you, uh, particularly excited about?

soccr 53:50

um Well, ah I'm suddenly kind of pumped about Hi-Fi Rush.

Matt 53:56

Yeah.

Jared 53:56

Oh, yeah.

Dave 53:56

There we go.

soccr 53:56

This is a game that i i wasn't I wasn't sure about at first.

Jared 53:57

High Five Rush is great. Yeah. Yeah.

soccr 54:02

um But then like I watched a couple more trailers, and everybody only says good things about it. And I'm just, why haven't I played this game yet?

Dave 54:08

Yeah.

Jared 54:10

It's just a feel good game.

soccr 54:10

and

Jared 54:11

Like you're just going to feel great playing it and it's, it's just a feel good game.

Matt 54:12

Yeah.

Dave 54:12

yeah

soccr 54:15

I mean, it looks great.

Dave 54:15

Yep.

soccr 54:16

ah But also, um another one, Heaven's Vault.

Dave 54:22

Yeah, that's.

soccr 54:22

which is apparently like a language puzzle game.

Jared 54:23

Ooh, I don't know. what

soccr 54:25

It always comes up when people mention Chance of Sinar.

Matt 54:29

Yeah.

Dave 54:29

Yeah.

soccr 54:31

I guess it invites comparison. um I actually researched this one for a bit, and I decided I wasn't going to play it. But then person after person keeps talking about how awesome it is.

Dave 54:40

Okay.

soccr 54:46

So I have to think I'm in for something good. um Especially I mean like I'm just a sucker for puzzle games any puzzle game.

Dave 54:53

Mm hmm.

soccr 54:54

I'm super into um Pseudo regalia is is I guess the other one that I would mention which is like 3d Metroidvania Good platforming like it the platforming kind of reminds me of blue fire based on the little bits that I've seen and ah Yeah

Dave 55:01

Looks like a lot of fun.

Matt 55:05

Yeah.

Dave 55:05

Yeah.

Jared 55:10

Oh, I love blue fire.

Matt 55:11

Yeah. I still haven't played it.

Jared 55:13

Blue fire was so good.

Matt 55:14

That's been on my list for maybe it's got to go on the list.

Jared 55:15

Oh, so good.

Dave 55:15

That was on my 2024 list and I did not play it.

Matt 55:16

Yeah. blue Yeah. yeah

soccr 55:19

I saw that one on your list. Blue Fire is fun because it feels like you're breaking the game whenever you do good platforming.

Jared 55:24

Yeah.

Matt 55:25

Yeah.

Dave 55:25

Yeah.

Jared 55:26

Also very Zelda-y in some of its presentations too.

soccr 55:28

Yeah.

Jared 55:29

Really a lot of Zelda.

soccr 55:30

Yeah, that's true. um Pseudo-Regalia gives me similar vibes and just 3D platforming in general is a great time. And maybe I'm still coming down off the high of Astrobot.

Dave 55:39

There we go.

soccr 55:42

but

Matt 55:43

Yeah, yeah.

Dave 55:44

Cool. Matt, how about you?

Matt 55:46

So my list, I have a couple categories, not by genre, but like what brought me to put them on the list. One is game codes that I got either because I got to interview folks at PAX and like the pressure was off to play the game for the show because I'd already talked to them about it and they gave me a code after the interview or in you know with the interview or I demoed it um and then there's a section that's class like older games not retro games but like I well I guess they're retro now stuff from like the Xbox era and like the you know like Xbox 360 era and a little past that that I never played that I've always wanted to

And then just new shit, newer shit that I've always wanted to play. And so like for the stuff I got code for, it's like a Gestalt, Steam and Cinder, a Metroidvania, a Steampunk game that I started and I really liked and I want to play um that I got code for. um The Rugrats game, Adventures in Gameland, we interviewed the dev. It was a great interview. It's only like an hour and 50 minutes long and like it's like a classic like side-scroller Nintendo style game that I wanted to play um Another one that I got code for I knew its I know it's on this list somewhere Key Locker, which is ah a bit of a beefier RPG, but it's got this like Undertale style aesthetic, but it's like a cyberpunk like

ah Hacking the system kind of in a digital world kind of look um that I really liked and I played the demo And so I've been wanting to play that um Moving towards like the older stuff like that's not super old but old enough that I've always wanted to play um I got a physical copy of Pikmin on switch Pikmin one and two and so only person they were both on my list last year I just put the first one on my list because it's only eight hours and I feel like I could probably get through that and And I've always wanted to play it um inside.

Dave 57:11

Mm hmm.

Matt 57:35

I love, love, love Limbo played it when it came out, played it on the 360 and never played inside and then got it on when it came to switch.

Jared 57:37

oh Yeah, that's that's so good.

Matt 57:44

And I was like, I'm going to play this game. That was probably like three years ago.

Dave 57:47

so

Matt 57:48

And so I definitely want to play that one because I'd been hearing stuff having just played immortality. I recently bought her story on sale. I want to play that also because I've heard nothing but good things about it.

Jared 57:58

Yeah, her story is great.

Matt 57:59

Um, and then like stuff like vanquish and metal gear rising a, because Dave's a sicko and these are Dave sicko games.

Jared 58:03

Nice.

Dave 58:06

Yeah.

Matt 58:06

Um, but also because, uh, again, they're from that era of like the Xbox three 60 Xbox one, like action hack and slash games. Um, and then the new stuff is like, you know, ghost wire, Tokyo, I mentioned before, kind of bridges, spirits, crib custodian, which I don't own, but I've wanted to play for quite some time.

Dave 58:15

Yeah.

Matt 58:23

Moonlighter two just got announced. And so I put moonlighter one on my list because I've just wanted to play that. um and Call of the Sea. My best friend Yuri Lowenthal is in that game and I feel I owe it to him to play that game, ah mostly so then I can tweet at him something about...

Dave 58:34

Yeah.

Matt 58:38

cool stuff he did in the game.

Dave 58:40

Yeah.

Matt 58:41

Pumpkin Jack also, I watched ah the ah Shane from Metro Hangover stream a bunch of it. And it basically looks exactly like what I wanted, which was easier to play medieval.

Dave 58:46

Yeah.

Matt 58:50

I love the medieval remake.

Jared 58:51

Yeah.

Matt 58:52

I love the original game, but there are just certain things about that game that's hard because it's an older style game that it looks like um Pumpkin Jack kind of rectifies.

Dave 58:54

Mm hmm.

Matt 59:01

And so I've always really wanted to play that one as well. so yeah And then there's a bunch of other stuff, long RPGs and things I mentioned earlier. but like

Dave 59:07

Yeah.

Matt 59:08

I think having a smattering of like the why and then there's like half-life's on here because I know Dave's played it um and I know that ah Jared wants to play it and so like I feel like that's a good one maybe we'll do it for your podcast Jared I mean who knows you know you know I'm just saying maybe but like that but that kind of stuff too is like people I know who've also expressed my oh and then there's one sequel on here that I put I bought Finding Paradise after playing to the moon last year

Jared 59:14

Come on, let's do it. I don't know. Maybe, maybe. Yeah. yeah

Dave 59:33

yeah

Matt 59:33

And so I was like, oh well, I want to play the next one because I want to play that whole trilogy. I figure one a year could be a fun way to experience that trilogy.

Jared 59:39

Hmm.

Dave 59:40

Yep.

soccr 59:41

you've been warned about Cana, right?

Matt 59:43

Yeah. I mean, I mean, yeah.

soccr 59:44

As hard as hell.

Jared 59:46

Kana does get Kana's beauty and it's such a fun 3D platformer, but it does get kind of hard. It does get difficult. Yes, yeah, yeah for sure.

Dave 59:52

Yep.

Matt 59:52

Yeah.

Dave 59:54

Does have a, does have difficulty options though, at least.

Matt 59:56

Yes. Yeah.

soccr 59:56

Yeah.

Dave 59:56

So yep.

Matt 59:57

And I am one to drop things too easy. if it like ah I played most of the Yakuza games on easy because I just wanted to experience the story.

Jared 1:00:01

Oh Yeah Yeah And I mean the the combat is the comments fun, but it's the story of the visuals are the best part of that game and

Matt 1:00:04

So I have no qualms about that.

Dave 1:00:04

Yeah.

Matt 1:00:06

so

Dave 1:00:07

That's the way to be.

Matt 1:00:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave 1:00:12

Nice, nice. um for my list, I have kind of a mix of some stuff that like, I have a couple games on here that have been in my Steam library like since like the first couple weeks that I had a Steam library. ah And so I haven't played like the, like XCOM um enemy unknown or enemy within whatever the expanded version is called.

Jared 1:00:27

That's awesome. Yeah.

Dave 1:00:35

um I wanna play that. It's been in my library this entire time. And yeah, so I want to play that. um I talked about my wanting to play stuff on my other consoles. So I'm going to play No More Heroes.

Matt 1:00:48

Yeah.

Jared 1:00:48

Ooh, another good one, yeah.

Dave 1:00:49

That's my plan on the Wii U. Xenoblade Chronicles X also on the Wii U.

Jared 1:00:54

Yes, you don't play the skull.

Dave 1:00:56

Might not be the smartest move. It might be better to play portably on the Switch when the remaster comes out, but

Jared 1:01:00

Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. It's coming to a close. That's right. That's right.

Dave 1:01:03

ah oh Well, I've never said I was a smart man.

Matt 1:01:06

now

Dave 1:01:07

And then um I have a couple of interesting ones that I'm excited to put on the list because there are things that they're easy to pass over or something. So um there's a free like Ultima inspired game called Moon Ring on Steam that looks really cool.

Jared 1:01:24

Hmm.

Dave 1:01:26

It has this amazing black, but like colorful art style um and it's free and it's apparently really, really good. But you know, like you I download free stuff all the time and because I didn't pay for it, I feel like I'm, you know, I feel less of a pressure to play it.

Jared 1:01:41

Yeah.

Dave 1:01:41

So I put that on my list. um There is a free browser game called Koru.Observer that I have on my list that I picked out of. um There's ah there's ah a writer for PC Gamer, and I don't know how to say his last name, Dominic Tarasan, Tarasan, something like that, who posts like the coolest but most obscure games on ah Blue Sky and Twitter all the time. And this looks great. It's a browser game, so it's free and um it looks wild. So I put it on my list. I don't play browser games. I want to try it out. And then the last thing on my list that I'll point out because I don't want to just read down the list.

um I'm going to be Ring Fit Adventure. I'm going to get through the story of Ring Fit Adventure.

Matt 1:02:21

Yeah.

Jared 1:02:21

i i so I saw, I saw that and I was like, hell yes.

Dave 1:02:25

I'm like maybe 60% of the way through it. like It's a long campaign, ah but I've played quite a bit of Ring Fit Adventure and um I'm gonna beat it.

Matt 1:02:31

It is. Yeah. um Yeah, exactly.

Jared 1:02:36

But think how shredded you're going to be afterward.

Dave 1:02:36

ah

Jared 1:02:38

It's going to be great.

Dave 1:02:38

I hope so. I need to get back into working out more, but I legitimately like ring fit as an exercise.

Matt 1:02:45

Mm hmm.

Jared 1:02:46

Yeah.

Dave 1:02:46

and um you know you can. You can do it for 20, 30 minutes and be wiped. It can be a tough workout.

Jared 1:02:53

Oh, yeah.

Matt 1:02:54

Yeah.

Dave 1:02:56

The story is absolute dog shit in that game, but I want to get to the end

Matt 1:02:58

Yes.

soccr 1:02:59

but it moves you along.

Dave 1:03:01

yeah it is ah It does move you along. um It is literally Bowser is in another castle except Bowser is a dragon who's obsessed with working out and he's moved to a different set of levels to work out.

Matt 1:03:10

Yeah. It's true.

Jared 1:03:13

He's like he's good, he's the toxic Jim, bro. That's ah he's the bad guy of the game.

Dave 1:03:15

Yeah.

Matt 1:03:16

Yeah.

Dave 1:03:17

Yeah, so ah that's, that's perhaps the most interesting game on my list to say that I'm going to finish is ring fit adventure. Uh, so it's cool though.

Matt 1:03:25

Yeah.

Dave 1:03:26

So I'm looking forward to it and we have, um, so, so far right now we have. 23 people who have made lists for 2025. And um this is the call. So if you're listening to this, if you made it to the end of this and you're either not in our discord server or you um are in the discord, but we're kind of undecided whether you wanted to join us or not, come join us, make a page on our community spreadsheet, and then we can play through these games.

We can celebrate when we check them off the lists.

Jared 1:03:58

Yeah.

Dave 1:03:58

And again, one of the best parts about it is there are amazing experiences that are just kind of sitting in the shadows in your Steam library, that your eyes pass over as you're scrolling down the list that you own.

Jared 1:04:09

Yeah.

Dave 1:04:13

Or ah maybe, you know, if you have stuff that's on Game Pass or PS, if you get those free PS Plus games or the free Amazon Prime games,

Jared 1:04:14

Yeah.

Dave 1:04:21

um Those just go directly there are the epic games they go directly into the epic library. I never open an epic, but they're all there. um So we have these awesome experiences there. And some of them we do just need a little bit of a push and I say peer pressure jokingly because it's not like anybody in the discord is like a dick about it or anything, but just a little push.

Jared 1:04:32

Yeah.

Dave 1:04:45

pressure yourself a little bit, just a little bit, to play some of these games, to like me saying I'm gonna beat Ring Fit Adventure.

Matt 1:04:53

yeah

Dave 1:04:53

um instead of the Instead of the Ring just being prominently, yeah.

soccr 1:04:56

But now that you've told us your plan...

Matt 1:04:57

Yeah.

Jared 1:05:00

That's true. That's true.

Dave 1:05:02

Instead of ah instead of the Ring Fit Ring being prominently displayed in my living room with dust on it, so.

soccr 1:05:08

yeah

Jared 1:05:09

Peer pressure, parentheses, not derogatory.

Matt 1:05:09

I mean, just out of frame up here is my ring fit ring that I haven't touched since I first got the game either, so.

Dave 1:05:14

Yeah. Right. So yeah, um we are really looking forward to the 2025 experience of going through this.

Jared 1:05:21

Yeah.

Dave 1:05:23

Again, it's like there's no pressure to finish your list except for soccer, massive pressure on soccer to finish his list.

Matt 1:05:29

Right, yes, endless.

Dave 1:05:31

um

soccr 1:05:32

Yeah, I'm so screwed.

Dave 1:05:32

For, for everybody else, it is, it is just a fun thing. Make a list of those games that you feel like you really want to play, but for some reason you keep passing up. Um, and it's, it's going to be fun. So, uh, I appreciate the three of you joining me to, uh, to look back on 2024 and look forward to 2025.

Jared 1:05:44

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt 1:05:51

Yeah. Thank you for having me.

Jared 1:05:52

yeah

Matt 1:05:53

i' I'm happy to do this. I will point out, Dave, that we have a difference of six games currently on our list and my time is like half of yours.

Dave 1:05:58

We do.

Matt 1:06:00

And so that makes me feel better.

Dave 1:06:01

It is.

Matt 1:06:02

Makes me feel better.

Jared 1:06:04

yeah

Dave 1:06:04

That should make you feel better. I don't know what the fuck would happen with my list.

Matt 1:06:06

Yeah.

Dave 1:06:08

ah It's like a hundred of my hours are Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Jared 1:06:12

Yeah.

Dave 1:06:12

That's the, that's the issue.

Matt 1:06:12

Yeah. I mean, that's true. Yeah.

Jared 1:06:13

Xenoblade taken up a big part of part of mine too.

Dave 1:06:16

Yeah.

Matt 1:06:16

Yeah.

Jared 1:06:16

That's funny. ah Yeah, I know. This has but this has been awesome. And genuinely doing this and doing it on the server has helped me play through some of these games in my backlog.

Matt 1:06:24

Yeah, totally.

Jared 1:06:24

like This has genuinely helped me play more games and have made me find some of the games that I have had some absolutely amazing experiences in.

Dave 1:06:25

Yeah.

Jared 1:06:33

So it's been great.

Dave 1:06:33

Yeah. Any last words, soccer or are you just basking?

soccr 1:06:42

I'm just basking. Thanks for having me.

Dave 1:06:44

There we go.

soccr 1:06:45

I love to talk about video games.

Dave 1:06:47

It's great to have you, yeah. um And ah a little tease, a little incentive, something to look forward to for Tales from the Backlog fans. As it goes out of necessity, but also out of interest most of the time, most of the games that I complete from my Backlog resolutions list will end up on the podcast because I can't play Xenoblade Chronicles X for 90 hours and not do a podcast about it. That just won't work.

Matt 1:07:12

That's true. Yeah.

Dave 1:07:13

So, um, you can look forward to a lot of those.

Jared 1:07:15

That's so true.

Dave 1:07:16

Maybe I'll do a ring fit adventure episode.

Matt 1:07:18

That would actually be really great.

Dave 1:07:18

That would be, uh, that would be fun.

Jared 1:07:18

Dude, that would be great.

Matt 1:07:20

Yeah.

Jared 1:07:20

I would love to hear your journey through the Ring Fit Adventure.

soccr 1:07:24

Please do that.

Dave 1:07:24

We'll talk about, talk about the story, all the, the, the deep philosophical themes.

Matt 1:07:28

You'd need a spoiler wall for it.

Jared 1:07:29

I'll put up the spoiler roll.

Matt 1:07:29

and You got it.

Dave 1:07:30

Yeah. Yeah, okay, so the spoilers are up. Now we can talk about those leg kicks. Whoo, all right. ah Well, before we sign off here, um we should mention the things that the guests on the podcast here do. So um Jared and Matt are hosts of podcasts. Matt is a host of multiple podcasts. Jared is a host of one podcast, really, but you have a lot of stuff going on on the show.

Jared 1:07:57

Yeah, I do a lot.

Dave 1:07:57

So um let's talk about those things. So Jared, tell everybody about playing along with podcasts, please.

Jared 1:08:03

Yeah, just one more time. Thanks for having me on. This was so fun. And I'm pumped to get into this 2025 list. I was anxious to find a good way to make my list. I was ready. I was like, come on, what are we doing? The list? I was ready for it.

Dave 1:08:14

Yeah.

Jared 1:08:14

I was ready for it. Uh, but yeah, I'm the host of myself, my other two co-hosts, Kai and Ben host play along with podcasts. the podcast where we kind of play through games in a book club style. As Dave mentioned, we'll kind of take a game and you know spread it across a month or so. We'll cut it up into different sections and then come together each one of those sections and kind of you know discuss it specifically, talk about our feelings, talk about our predictions going into the next section and everything, which is a ton of fun. And myself and The other two all have a wide variety of games that we like.

So we play just so many different genres and franchises and everything, which makes for a lot of cool games that we get to play, which is awesome. And then we have another site series on the show called Get Rec, in which Matt and Dave have both been on their respective episodes, where we grab a guest from the internet.

Dave 1:08:58

Mm hmm.

Jared 1:08:59

We swap video game recommendations. Again, just another way to try to chip away at the backlog, the ever-growing backlog. So this backlog resolution actually helps with that, Like I said earlier in the episode, just to find lists of games to recommend to people, but also just you know just to have games on there to play. So yep, that's me. You can find us anywhere you find podcasts.

Dave 1:09:22

Right. Yep. And, um, this goes for play along and also for Matt's podcasts. I will put them both down in the show description, so you don't have to search, just go down there, click the links, maybe as, as I'm talking about myself later or as the music plays us out of the episode, go, uh, go find some stuff to listen to.

Jared 1:09:31

Yep.

Dave 1:09:38

So, um, definitely recommend playing along with the podcast and I recommend what Matt is making.

Jared 1:09:39

Yeah.

Dave 1:09:43

So Matt, please tell people about fun and games and reignite.

Matt 1:09:47

Sure. Yeah. So Fun and Games, ah broadly, the main show is a topic-based podcast that I host with the incredible Jeff Moonen. We cover different genres of games. We do retrospectives like Jeff um You're Dave, Jeff is my co-host. Dave guested on an episode we did all about the Xbox 360, which for the record, Dave called as soon as we started doing retrospectives and we were able to, could not wait.

Dave 1:10:06

Mm hmm.

Jared 1:10:07

Yeah.

Dave 1:10:10

I could not wait.

Matt 1:10:12

um But ah and we also interview developers, composers, we talk about signposting in video games, is grinding in games good? um You know ah living breathing worlds and games that kind of thing um And then we have a sub series within the fee called side quests where a different host every month or not every month every I think it's three every two weeks um a Different host talks about a game they love and why they love it um born out of wanting to bring more positivity to the gaming space Everyone on this call has done an episode soccer's done one on Yotun.

Jared 1:10:24

Yeah.

Matt 1:10:42

I believe is how it's pronounced Yooten never even remember

soccr 1:10:44

i can't even remember now

Matt 1:10:46

um um um Jared, I believe, has done two, and then Dave, I've lost count. I just, I can't keep up.

Dave 1:10:52

Yeah, have I've done a hundred.

Matt 1:10:52

Dave has done too many.

Dave 1:10:53

Yeah.

Matt 1:10:54

You're like a hundred of them at this point. Dave, after playing certain games, will go, by the way, Matt, I'm just earmarking. At some point, I'm going to do side quests about this.

Dave 1:11:01

Yeah.

Matt 1:11:01

And I'm like, yeah okay, sure. Yeah. All right. um But the idea behind that is like every game is somebody's favorite. It doesn't, good, bad, doesn't matter.

soccr 1:11:08

I can't even remember now.

Matt 1:11:08

And this curated list of almost as of when we're recording 350 games has just been so much fun to do. And then every 50 episodes, we do like ah a milestone episode where me and Jeff are joined by a guest and do kind of a longer format of it. Um, I can give a tease that by the time you hear this is already out, but for our 350th episode, we're doing Sea of Stars, which Jeff, myself, and the incredible Sarah Moon and his wife are all huge fans of.

And so we're gonna gush on that.

Dave 1:11:36

Hm.

Matt 1:11:38

But ah yeah, I love doing that series. And then briefly, ah too late for briefly, Matt. Briefly, I have another podcast called Reignite. It started as a Mass Effect podcast, played the original trilogy, and decided to do Andromeda, which I'd never played, but my co-host, the incredible Frankie Bradley the Strange, had played. We did that. When we were done with that, we're like, well, I guess we have to do Dragon Age now. So it's a BioWare focused podcast. We are currently playing our, as of this recording, playing our way through Dragon Age 2. We've also been current because there's a new Dragon Age game that we've talked a little bit about that we will of course cover at the tail end in like two or three years from now when we get that far.

Jared 1:12:06

Yeah.

Matt 1:12:12

Um, and if you like to play along with podcasts, if you like bioware, if you love choices, and most importantly, if you love romancing folks in video games, we are the perfect podcast for you.

Dave 1:12:12

Mm hmm.

Jared 1:12:12

Yeah. Yes, yes, yes.

Matt 1:12:21

So you should definitely check that out. Find all my stuff at DJ storm again.com. I'm on a bunch of social media. Um, all of the links to like Patreons and other things are there to go check it out. Uh, DJ storm again.com.

Dave 1:12:33

Fantastic. Yeah. And, um, I always give the recommendation for everything that Matt makes and everything that Jared makes whenever they're on the show. Uh, so again, I will just, uh, reinforce that recommendation. Please check out play along podcast, check out fun and games. And if you want to play along with bioware games, look no further than reignite. And also, um soccer is not a podcast host, but we appreciate the contributions to this episode. So thank you for coming to soccer. And is there anywhere you would like to direct people?

soccr 1:13:05

Uh, just to, just to Dave's Discord.

Dave 1:13:08

There we go.

soccr 1:13:08

Come to Dave's Discord, come to Blue Sky, talk to me about video games.

Jared 1:13:09

Yeah.

Matt 1:13:09

Yeah.

Dave 1:13:12

There we go.

soccr 1:13:12

It's easy to be my best friend, just geek out about one of my favorite video games with me.

Dave 1:13:13

Yeah.

Matt 1:13:17

There you go.

Dave 1:13:17

Fantastic, yeah. That is ah That's how this started. That's how soccer became an ah podcast guest mercenary, is a yeah ah shared experience talking about Rain World, which we did on the podcast last year together, which was fantastic.

soccr 1:13:29

Oh man.

Dave 1:13:32

So ah thank the three of you ah for coming on. This has been awesome. um Really was looking forward to kind of reflecting on the challenge in 2024 and then looking forward to 2025.

Jared 1:13:40

Yeah.

Dave 1:13:44

This has been great. Thank you all. And one more call for everybody. If you're listening and you want to join us, there's an invite link for the Discord server down in the show description, so you can easily join us. um Come in, make your list. ah We have some people on the list who have, um you know, 40 plus games. We have one person on the list. Shout out to Mikey Tabletop, who has one game on his list.

Matt 1:14:06

One game.

Jared 1:14:07

Yeah, let's go.

soccr 1:14:07

ah

Dave 1:14:08

Uh, binary, do I complete my list or not?

soccr 1:14:08

a

Jared 1:14:09

Yeah.

Dave 1:14:12

Uh, very easy for Mikey.

Matt 1:14:12

yeah

Dave 1:14:14

So, um, no pressure to make a big list.

soccr 1:14:15

juliaan

Dave 1:14:17

Come in, do what you're comfortable with. Uh, it's going to be a good time.

Jared 1:14:19

yeah

Dave 1:14:21

So again, that invite link for discord is down in the show notes and. In addition to being the place where the backlog resolution challenge happens, it's also a great community of lovely folks who just love talking about video games. um It's a nice place.

soccr 1:14:35

Hey!

Dave 1:14:36

It is a supportive place. It is a friendly place for everybody. I work hard to make sure that it is a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable.

Jared 1:14:45

Yeah.

Dave 1:14:45

I would just want to come in and talk about games and talk about the podcast and stuff like that. So um that's the Discord server. You can also support the show by leaving a rating and review. This goes for Jared and Matt's podcasts, of course, as well. Ratings and reviews help people find new podcasts, and that's what we really want. So if you're listening on Apple, if you're listening on Spotify, if you're listening or watching on YouTube, ah like and comment over there. Leave ratings on the podcast apps. It's super helpful.

And last but not least, if you want to support me and my shows monetarily, you can do that at patreon dot.com slash real Dave, where every ah patron gets to vote in polls for what games I do on the show. You can also get bonus episodes. I do a bonus retro gaming series. I do a bunch of stuff on the Patreon um and I appreciate everyone who supports me. So that is all for this episode. ah We're not We're not going into a spoiler section. So I don't really know how to end it. I don't know how to do this. Thank you everybody for listening and tuning in next week for the next, and tune in next week for the next game to come out of the backlog.