Older, but wiser

[Every now and again a blog comes around that hits so close to home for me that if feels like I could have written it verbatim had I been given the prompt. This is one of them. NakedBigBoss talks about how gaming and his perception of it has changed throughout the years - and not always for the better. But like any good story, there's still light at the end of the tunnel for aging gamers like us. Give this a read, and chip in below to tell us if he strikes any similar chords for you! - Wes]

I was at home playing video games due to storm number one hundred hitting the northeast of the United States and my job closing for the day. As I was sitting comfortably on the couch, playing Jak and Daxter on my PS4 because nostalgia is a quite powerful drug, I was suddenly deep??ly saddened that I never have this kind of time to game. Looking at my various systems, and the collection of played and unplayed titles that accompany them, I had a moment where I seriously asked myself: "Is it time to hang up the controllers and say goodbye?" Pondering this, I began to question how I got to this point in my gaming life...

"How many hours of playtime am I going to be able to cram in tonight?"

One of the major differences between child NakedBigBoss and adult NakedBigBoss is that thirty-three-year-old me has a nine-to-five job. On top of that, my commute to work involves a two-hour train ride going to and a two-hour train ride coming back from my place of employment. Getting some gaming time in d??uring travel is touch and go; New York's MTA is constantly fucking up, which means I rarely play with headphones on because I want to be able to hear any announcements, and the?re are quite a few times when people will be singing loudly or playing high-volume music while I'm trying to concentrate.

By the time I come home, I just want to eat dinner and relax with my partner. This gives me an hour or two to game before I need to go to bed; staying up any later messes up my sleep pattern, which causes me to ??doze off on the train the next da??y (this happens quite often due to me getting sucked in and wanting to play more than I realistically can).

Remember when socks were optional? Those were some good times.

Contrast my current job-having life to my "free from the shackles of capitalism" childhood one, and the difference is night and day. Kid me only had to worry about going to school for a few hours, and from elementary all the way to college my commute was never more than fifteen minutes. This meant I could game for hours: Was there time to find all of the secret exits in Super Mario World? Absolutely. Was a landline available that would allow me to call the experts at Nintendo about all the power-ups in Mega Man X3 while charging my parents a large sum of money on their phone bill? No doubt. Would I be able to spend a week in Final Fantasy VII making chocobos have hot sex with each other in order to obtain the legendary Gold Chocobo? Without question. Could I rent games from the video store (remember those?) and play on someone else's Super Metroid file that got further than me be??cause I got stuck and there was no internet to help me? Of course??!

I didn't even know this area or attack EXISTED

I always saved my homework until the last minute because I work well under pressure, which meant more time f??or video games. My dad made decent money, so I'd always get games from him around the holidays or special occasions. My brother was born ten years after me, so I was spoiled up to that point. There was all the time in the world to?? conquer every game I obtained. Life was good!

As I got older, I realized that not only was I changing, but the games I was playing were, too. Outs??ide of RPGs, games were never overly long. Then this shit happened:

OCD about getting 100% completion ACTIVATED

The arrival of GTA III coincided with me becoming an older teenager, and suddenly things weren't the same anymore. High school demanded more of my attention than grade school, so there was less time to game. My brother's birth meant the days of being spoiled were over. Gifts became few and far between, so I had to work part-time at a pharmacy in order to afford video games. And GTA III ushered in a wave of open-world games??. There was just so much stuff to do and collect, and the completionist in me struggled to co-exist with the responsibilities of? real-life adulthood.

I was still content with gaming until college, when the real struggle began. Getting my Bachelor's Degree in English became priority number one, which meant more time was needed for reading and writing, leaving less time for gaming pleasure. After I got a part-time job at my school doing transfer credit evaluations while studying for my classes, that time for leisure decreased even more. A??nd wh?at happened soon after obtaining my degree? LOVE.

NOT THE BUBBLES!

Indeed, I fell for one of my co-workers, and I've been with them for over six years now. Luckily, they game too, though their younger "I grew up with Halo" attitude clashes with my older "Mario platformers forever" philosophy.

If I thought gaming was only changing due to the onslaught of open-world titles, then the arrival of DLC expansions, season passes, microtransactions, and remastered/remade ports made my head spin. Sure, working part-time and then eventually full-time gave me the resource?s to buy games and their DLC without much issue, but I became jaded with the gaming industry as a whole.

Games started to feel shorter, with parts of them feeling cut out to sell as DLC at a later date (or sometimes within weeks of the game's release). Large titles like Assassin's Creed felt bloated with samey side missions and numerous collectibles to obtain. Sequels and remasters became more frequent. Greedy companies like EA took incredible new IPs I loved like Dead Space and injected them with mi??crot??ransactions, making it all too easy to feel like scavenging for weapon parts was becoming a chore and that paying for resources wouldn't be so bad because it made it faster to craft weapons.

It's good to see the EA of today has learned their lesson and is free of corporate greed!

More than anything else, I started to feel that sense of gaming wonder diminish in my heart. Gaming became constrained due to real-?life commitments. More money meant more bills to pay, which meant being more conscious of what games I could afford. Sales helped me feel happier about being able to grab titles I hadn't checked out yet, but this only added to the backlog that I already don't have enough time? in my life to complete. Seeing companies I once revered like Capcom and Konami become money hungry hurt my childhood RETROACTIVELY. I was still keeping up with new game releases and consoles, but it was hard to ward off feelings of becoming an old, bitter gamer.

Look what getting super excited about a new Konami game got me! *Cries eternally*

But, as with any bit of darkness, there is light (Kingdom Hearts taught me that). Nintendo still manages, throughout my lifetime, to make me smile. The Switch is one of my new favorite things in the universe. Super Mario Odyssey made me feel a joy I hadn't felt since Super Mario 64; I swear to you, there were moments in that game where I cried. Though they have their own issues with locking content behind amiibo figures, I can get costumes and stickers in Odyssey using coins I find in the actual game. I guarantee you, if it was any other company besides Nintendo, that shit would have been part of a pre-order incentive or DLC. I am so grateful Nintendo still exists and is doing well as?? a company.

It is impossible to play this without beaming every ten seconds.

Oh, I mentioned Kingdom Hearts! There's a new game in the series coming out this year, God willing. Here's a fun fact: There has been a numbered entry in the series released at such different points in my life. KH released when I was seventeen, KH II launched when I was twenty, and KH III is arriving in my thirty-third year upon this Earth. Yeah, there are a thousand spinoffs and the story is more convoluted than the Metal Gear Solid series, but it's Final Fantasy and Disney COMBINED. Who ever thought that woul??d work, let alone be successful?! God, I'm so pumped.

It's Woody. My...best...friend...*Wails uncontrollably*

Ooo! Ooo! Remember when I said I was dismayed at Capcom? I kinda am, but holy shit, they are remaking Resident Evil 2! Yeah, that's the first RE game I ever played! They remade the first game not too long ago and it was SOOO GOOOD. Jeez, I must have played that so much that the mansion map is forever imprinted in my brain! And did you know they made Resident Evil 7 last year? That game brought the series back to its roots and legit terrified me (the last game in the series to do that was Resident Evil 6...for different reasons). I played the demo countless times looking for secrets before launch and then I got ??all the unlockable items in the main game. Circular saw, haha!

BZZZZZZZZ!

What's that? Oh yeah, I guess I am getting a bit excited. So there's hope for jaded, cynical me? Th??ere are still bright spots in the video game landscape? And my partner wants to raise gaming babies and teach them everything we know? Well, that's encouraging! Hmm, well, in that case...

I won't hang up my controllers just yet...

I mean, how could I?

The post When is it time to stop gaming: A look at the struggles of bein?g an older gamer appeared first on Destructoid.

The face of a compulsive liar

[How well do you know Mario? Just another innocent guy, trying to make a living with his everyday plumbing duties...right? NakedBigBoss see's things a little differently ~ JuIc3]

We all know Mario,?? right? He's the most recognizable face in video games. He has been around since the early '80s. He's been in approximately seventeen zillion games...and yet, even after all these years, can any one of us truly claim to KNOW who Mario is? Sure, he lists his profession as a plumber, but when have you actually seen him use a wrench?

We, the gaming public, have mostly seen him as an adventurer, saving Princess Peach hundreds of times. But have you ever seen him as a referee? A doctor? A typing teacher? He's done all of these things, so what makes Mario, you know, MARIO? I did some deep investigative detective work and looked at Mario's various professions throughout the years, in order to accurately describe him to someone who has just been birthed into the world. Here are my findings:

What kind of plumber has to jump over barrels and fire that is literally alive to best a giant monkey and save his beloved?!

Donkey Kong (1981) - Professional jump man

Mario first appeared in a title called Donkey Kong back in 1981. Upon starting the game, Mario imme??diately has to deal with some bullshit. An enormous gorilla named Donkey Kong (not to be confused with King) climbs up top a construction site with a lady in his arms, stom??ps the shit out of some railings to make them crooked, and laughs like an asshole. Up top, the damsel named Pauline, Mario's first love interest before he became obsessed with royalty, screams for HELP!

Once in control of Mario, the player finds fire coming o??ut of OIL barrels and following Mario up and down ladders, wooden barrels unexpectedly bouncing down ladders instead of along the construction rails, and hammers with which to destroy said nuisances. Upon reaching the top, Mario is reunited with Pauline, and then is quickly heartbroken when Donkey Kong grabs her and goes on to the next stage. The following levels throw even more obstacles in Mario's way, including pies, springboards, and picking up Pauline's lost handkerchief, umbrella, and purse. In the end, Mario causes Donkey to fall and crack his brains all over the floor, and is reunited with his true love (for this one game, anyway).

Final thoughts - Donkey Kong is a pretty reliable indicator of what Mario will become for most of his games; mainly, someone who is really good at jumping and killing animals. Also, for someone whose job title is listed as "Plumber," this is a pretty stressful first adventure.

My, how the tables have turned

Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) - Expert animal abuser

A year after his debut, Mario took on a far ?more sinister role. Not content with the permanent brain damage he caused Donkey Kong, Mario takes it upon himself to capture the beast, leaving his son, Donkey Kong Jr., fa?therless. Jr. has other plans, however, as he climbs to the top of every level in order to break his dad out of his rusty cage.

DK Jr. has an?? opening that might actually explain how Mario has time for so many professions: Donkey Kong's cage is?? lifted with a pulley by TWO identical Marios. Is the other Mario shown Luigi, and this is simply a hardware color limitation? Or does Mario have a twin we do not know of, that fills in for him during some of his many adventures/sporting events? My money is on the latter.

Everything makes sense now!

Every level, Mario cracks his whip, sending out weird gator monsters, birds, and sparks after DK Jr., which marked the beginning of Mario's animal cruelty that we later saw with Yoshi in Super Mario World (always bopping him on the head, forcing him to eat spikey enemies, and just launching him into the abyss in order to jump higher). In the last level, DK Jr. prevails, carrying his dad to safety with his tiny baby han?ds while Mario gets a big boot from DK that simply says, "Get the fuck away from me and my family."

Final thoughts - Donkey Kong Jr. shows Mario at his most sadistic, abusing animals and trying to break up families. This will become a theme throughout his adventures.

Did that Goomba have a family to feed? Probably

Super Mario Bros. (1985) - Harbinger of destruction

Super Mario Bros. was the game that put Mario on the map, as well as lay the template for most of his games. Mario had to run right in order to complete each level, while the screen moved forward with him, meaning he couldn't return to previous screens. Was this Mario running towards his new responsibilities, mainly saving Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom from the dreaded Bowser, while simultaneously away from his old ones, mainly fixing blockages from people's sink pipes? I think so.

Throughout the game, Mario kills innocent sentient mushrooms that have been transformed into bricks by Bowser's black magic. Yes, those bricks that Mario breaks for coins and power-ups are living be??ings. Could Mario hear the Toadstools' muffled screams as he shattered them to pieces, or did he simply not know any better? You be the judge. After burning numerous fake Bowsers to a crisp and hearing that Princess Peach was in another castle more times than any person could bear, Mario finally rescues the princess, who immediately tells him to start his adventure all over again. Yeah, no thanks, princess; I think I've killed enough innocent lives.

Final thoughts - Super Mario Bros. is the first time we see Mario snuffing the lives out of the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. Knowing he murders so many Toadstools gives me chills even to this day.

Where did he get his medical license?

Dr. Mario (1990) - A gross misuse of power

Dr. Mario is just...wow. Mario, by clearly using his famous status to bully people around, dons a medical outfit in order to see patients riddled with disease. Each person he sees has three different colored viruses affecting them, and Mario evaporates them by shoving pills of similar colors on top of them. Why does he not have help from someone who might, you know, be an actual doctor/nurse? Also, if we are assuming Mario is shoving pills down people's throats, then what happens to all the pil??ls that are left inside each patient that aren't used to destroy the viruses? Simple; they all die due to suffocation. Mario, you goddamn monster.

Final thoughts - Mario continues his killing spree. When do the horrors end? 

Here we see a rare example of Mario not hogging the spotlight

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! and Tennis (1987 and 1984) - Supporting roles that still have Mario telling people what to do

Both Tennis and Punch-Out!! show us a more subdued Mario who takes a backseat to other characters. Tennis is just two players playing...tennis, while Mario refs and shouts things like, "DOUBLE FAULT." Punch-Out!! follows a young man from the Bronx named Little Mac, as he rises through the boxing ranks in order for a shot to fight Mike Tyson. Mario counts downed opponents out and cr??owns the winner of each match. Nothing too terrible with Mario in these games, except that he lets boxers laugh at Little Mac if they knock him out, even if he has a brain hemorrhage and is dying slowly on the mat.

No need to shout, we can hear you just fine!

Final thoughts - Mario has taken a break from murder and landed a referee side job. As long as it ends the violence, even for a little while, I'm all for it.

I learned one thousand sports in my spare time

Super Mario Strikers, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Super Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Various years) - Mario just has to excel at everything

During Mario's downtime between adventures, he learned a metric shit-ton of sports. Whether it be soccer, tennis, or go karting, Mario became an expert at it, because he is a perfectionist dickbag. In every sporting title, Mario can outright destroy his opponents (especially with a soccer ball or blue shell). This is especially apparent in the Mario Party games, where Mario can steal stars from other players in the lead during Chance Time with an expressionless face that masks his evil heart. And in the Olympic Games,???? Mario got to race against his Sega rival, Sonic the Hedgehog. The fact that he can beat Sonic in a race shows that Mario has the power of Satan, because how else can you defeat the fastest thing alive? 

Just chill the fuck out and have fun, Jesus!

Final thoughts - Mario is a Grade A bully when in competition with others. While everyone else is having fun, he still has to make it all about him. Disgraceful.

Not content to just take on Sega, here Mario tries to assert his dominance over Capcom's Mega Man

Super Smash Bros. - a chance to beat Mario mercilessly

In this popular fighting game, Mario and other characters from Nintendo's various franchises (and even Capcom's, Namco's, Squeenix's, and Sega's games) get to duke it out and knock each other off of numerous stages based on their games. For once, Mario (IMO) is not the best character to choose. I find immense pleasure in choosing someone like Ryu from Street Fighter and decking Mario in the chin with a Dragon Punch, launching him into the stars. Super Smash Bros. is also a great title for revenge: various villains/allies that Mario has wronged throughout the years; including Donkey Kong, Bowser, all of Bowse??r's kids, Yoshi, and Wario; can all line up and take out years of pent up rage on Mario's mustached face. Sure, they could best Mario in the previous entry that included sports titles/board games, but never before could these characters wail on Mario's dick/ass/entire body, bruising him for eternity.

Final thoughts - Super Smash Bros. is a great way to gain the upper hand on Mario, who has had it coming for years. 

Mario embraces the furry community

Super Mario 3D World (2013) - ?!?!?!

Final thoughts - WTF?

In the end, I think it's clear that Mario is a complex character. He certainly wasn't a very good plumber because I've never seen him fix a leak, but he's a great adventurer. However, since his beginnings, he's always had a lust for blood, whether on the way to rescue the princess or playing a friendly game of golf. And in his last adventure, he showed no sympathy towards cats, skinning them alive in order to wear their fur as a suit a?nd use their claws to climb surfaces. Mario may have taught me how to type, how to go fish, and how all toasters toast toast, but in my mind he's a narcissistic killer. W??hether a doctor, referee, golfer, or raccoon, the one thing that has always been consistent about Mario is his aggressive nature. Try to remember that when buying his next title. 

As long as it isn't a sequel to whatever the hell this is

The post The many faces of Mario: A look at the man we don’t even truly know appeared first on Destructoid.

Because who has time for an eternity?

_{[Local naked cblogger NakedBigBoss has some tips for you in case you're drowning in a big backlog. Chances are, if you have a backlog, then it exists because you're older and have adult responsibilities. I mean, if you're younger than that, I don't think a tip about using your vacation days to your advantage applies to you. ~Strider]}

Have you ever felt like you weren't making any progress in your life? Like you were stuck and weren't moving forward? That no matter how hard you tried, you seemed to be right back where you started? Well, then you must be staring down a near-infinite gaming backlog (probably). Gaming backlogs are a part of life, especially if you are an older gamer like me. As we get older and find jobs, the time we used to dedicate to gaming decreases tremendously. Though work gives us the finances we need to add to our gaming li?brary, the sheer amount of time we spend going to work, working, and returning home means completing that game you just bought appears to be borderline impossible.

But worry not! With my patented, yet-to-be-copyrighted techniques, you'll go from pining for your simple youthful days playing Xenogears for eight hours straight to completing The Nathan Drake Collection with enough time for dinner, walking the dog??, and snuggles with yourself/??significant other!

Stop spending this on more video games when you haven't even finished Infamous Second Son yet!

Naked Tip #1 - Stop spending your paycheck on more games/systems

Look, I get it. You finally got a job and became an adult and look a?t you, Now I Have Disposable Income Person. Looking at those digits in your bank account makes you feel good, doesn't it? Powerful. Like you can buy anything you wa??nt now. Yep, everything is coming up roses for you.

But what's that? You never finished those XBLA games you purchased during that last big sale, have you? Did you even START any of them? Oh, I'm sure buying that Wii U with your first check made you happy, and yeah, you deserve??? something congratulatory, but did you complete all of your Wii games? And now you're buying a PS4 with your partner when you already made a mini-backlog with that Wii U you purchased? Are you mad? Also, where the hell did all the time go STOP BUYING THINGS DURING THE LATEST PLAYSTATION FLASH SALE, YOU IGNORANT BUFFOON!

Temptations are real, and they do pop up in the video game entertainment industry. And yes, you have money now and that's a great step forward in your life, but you have to be sensible about it. You know what's more vital than games? Re?nt. Food. Things you need for your house/apartment like furniture, clothes, etc. Most importantly, you will never make a dent in your gaming backlog IF YOU CONTINUE ADDING MORE SHIT ONTO IT. The less games you have, the higher the possibility you will have time to complete them. So save your money and take that first step towards destroying that backlog (unless something is, like, $10 or less that you really want. Because really, when is a sale that good ever going to pop up again?!).

Yeah, this guy's hilarious, but he's seriously costing you some very important video game time!

Naked Tip #2 - Limit the time you spend watching YouTube personalities

You've come home from a long day of work. You're tired. You want to unwind. What better way to relax than watching silly YouTube videos? And there's people out there reacting to playing video games?!? Hey, they are just like me! Let? me spend a few minutes watching Markiplier/Dashie/Game Grumps/literally hundreds of gamers on YouTube.

Only it's too easy to fall into a YouTube spiral. You know what I mean: you wat??ch one person play a game, laugh at their jokes, subscribe to them, and end up viewi?ng their older videos. Then you look at people they are subscribed to. Hey, these guys play games too and are also entertaining! Let me check them out. And so on and so on, until the end of time.

It doesn't have to be that way. Hey, I check out YouTube every day, and I hate missing a new video on a channel I am subscribed to. But you have to space these things out. Watch a video or two, then go back to playing that game inserted into your console that you played last. Because while it's fun to watch gamers on YouTube review something you love/freak out over a horror game/slowly lose their mind playing something brutal like Dark Souls, it's even FUNNER having all those things happen to you. You aren't getting any younger, so play your damn video games instead of watch?ing someone else do the same, so you can feel that connection to your younger self and remember those ??simpler days EVEN IF IT IS JUST FOR A FEW HOURS. 

"I'm feeling really anxious about my video game backlog and must stay home to complete it" is a valid excuse to stay home from work

Naked Tip #3 - Use your annual days/sick time to avoid your job

Working a 9-5 job can be quite stressful. It's even tougher if you have a long commute (it takes me two hours to get to work, and two hours to get home, five days a week). What is the infinite ba??cklog g?amer to do with such a situation? It's quite simple, really.

Don't go to work.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am NOT saying quit your job so you can have all the time you need to lay that backlog to rest. That's very selfish and irresponsible of you to even think that. Besides, you'll never get to play new games or pay for the internet/electricity without money. But I AM saying use your sick/annual days to your advantage. Any employer knows that you aren't going to feel one-hundred percent every work day, and they know you're going to need time off sometimes. If your job gives you a set amount of days you can use to stay home within a year, plan that shit out and USE THEM. Send an email/text to your boss to let them know in advance if you are feeling sick/need to do a complete playthrough of GTA V, and you take that time and commit to that game. Save a few days for a??n actual illness so you aren't blindsided with a fever out of the blue. If you work part-time, a dayshift, or a nightshift, then plan your gaming hours around your schedule. Work is stress, and everybody needs to de-stress sometimes. It turns out that gaming is one of the many ways we can do just that.

There ain't no shame in resorting to a guide, unless it's one of these, because the internet is free, dummy

Naked Tip #4 - Use a guide/walkthrough

Little twelve-year-old you is probably crying tears of betrayal right now. "How could you use a guide? Guides ruin the game and ??are just another form of cheating," I hear mi??ne saying. 

Well screw you,? young?er me that doesn't exist anymore.

Maybe guides were considered sinful ??when you were gaming back in the day, little one, but you had more luxury time at home and less responsibilities, didn't you? Free time is something to cherish in your thirties, and you have to use that time wisely for gaming. You no longer have the time to play through an entire game, then immediately go back to it and find all the little things you missed. For all of the completionists out there, please, use a guide if you need to. I know playing through a game is an adventure and filled with new experiences, but using a walkthrough in this day and age isn't tantamount to treason.

As an example, I played through DOOM recently, and let me tell you, I used a video guide to help me find all of the collectibles. Yes, the auto map showed where most of them were, but they didn't show where all of the classic DOOM levels were located or where the switch was to unlock them. I did not feel dirty following a video to find them because I don't have hours of my life to spend combing through every last inch of a level to find a tiny lever in some corner of the map. Right now I'm tackling The Nathan Drake Collection and actually didn't use a guide to find all of the collectible treasures in the first two games. Unlike other titles, the Uncharted game series has a chapter select option that shows how many treasure??s you've obtained in each level. I found a lot by myself, but you better believe it was not beneath me to use an online guide to find all of the ones I missed. And now that I'm on the third game in the series, I just want to find everything in one go, so I just said fuck it and am using a guide to find everything in my first playthrough. Just use a guide, completionists with too many responsibilities. It's okay. No one is going to laugh at you and if yo?u're embarrassed, I promise I won't tell anyone (unless they offered me money for your innermost secrets).

You can either fall asleep or catch up with all of those Pokémon games; the choice is yours

Naked Tip # 5 - Use your commute to your advantage

Going to work sucks big time when you have a looooooo??ooooong commute. If you have trouble sleeping or simply stay up late catching up on all of your incomplete games, it's even worse, because then you'll be tempted to take a nap. But resist that urge, my friend.

Hey, I se??e you nodding off. Listen to me. I'M TELLING YOU SOMETHING IMPORT?ANT THAT IS VIDEO GAME RELATED.

It's taking you hours to get to work, hopping from bus to train and vice versa? Why not use that commute time to your advantage? Charge that 3DS/Vita the night before, turn it on before leaving the house, and stuff it in your bag. While on the train or bus, whip it out and go to town on that handheld backlog you have. You have so many Pokémon left to catch and gym leaders to defeat! You never killed all of those Gold Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time 3D, did you? Hey, that guy sitting across from you wants a quick match in Super Smash Bros.! Use that time on the train to work on that backlog. It may not help with your console games at home, but of course you got caught up in a downward spiral and amassed a backlog on your handhelds too, so take some initiative and plow through those games. Just make sur??e you don't miss your stop.

I still feel this delight from time to time; it's never too late to have fun!

I hope I was able to provide some advice to all of the older gamers out there who struggle with playing games in their backlog while juggling real-world shit at the same time. In closing, let me add that having a partner to tackle co-op video games with will absolutely help in completing said titles faster, take advantage of the weekends, and unfortunately I didn't account for having childre??n (if anyone has kids and has tips for gaming backlogs, please share with me in the comments below!). Getting older isn't always easy, but it doesn't mean we have to give up on the things that made us happy as kids, especially video games. There's always time to play games and chip away at that backlog, so never feel that playing through all of your various titles on your various consoles is an impossibility. And if you can't dedicate the time to your backlog, at least you'll have something to burden your offspring with finishing when they are old enough to hold that controller.

The post NakedBigBoss’ tips for making that infinite backlog more finite appeared first on Destructoid.