I’ve been doing the Backlog Barbecue for a number of years now, and I really do enjoy the act of playing my old games and offering my thoughts on them. But I have to admit, it’s getting harder and harder to actually write about them. I never really intended the Backlog Barbecues to be “reviews” of sorts. That would be a bit pointless, seeing as how most of these games are years old. I’d rather just offer my thoughts on these games, maybe couple them with an anecdote or two of my time with them. But even that can be difficult. Some of these games are played a little bit at a time over a span of months or even years. Some of them I start and finish in a relatively short amount of time, but for one reason or another maybe they just don’t evoke any kind of strong emotion in me.
Some games are immensely good times. Others can be extremely frustrating. Those are the easy ones. But a lot of times I’ll finish a game that is neither great, nor is it terrible. It’s just average, and man those are tough to talk about because that emotion, that interest, just isn’t there.
Right now I have a backlog of articles about my backlog. Games I’ve beaten and still need to write about. I just… can’t be bothered. I really, really want to talk about them. But I don’t know if the written word is the right format. I can talk about Call of Juarez: The Gunslinger all day long. Doing a well-thought, well-written article on it though is something else. This game isn’t new, nor is it particularly great. It’s good. Kinda ugly. But that’s about it. What else is there to say?
It’s a time like this when I really do start considering a podcast or youtube video. Solo podcasts are (in my opinion) kinda lame, and youtube videos are a minefield of algorithms and all that other bullshit. Podcasts can be listened to anywhere, but youtube vids probably get more traction. Youtube vids also allow more freedom to change it up a bit, whereas a podcast tends to have a format to stick to.
I don’t know. There also seems to be a lot of drama around Youtube. Not that I think I would ever be popular enough to attract drama, but I guess the potential would always be there.
But I do think it’s time to change it up from the website. Besides, NOBODY reads this thing. As in, nobody. Ever.
