Tomorrow marks the true start of Backlogtober 2015, my upcoming effort to blitz through a significant chunk of my Pile of Shame through the month of October. I've posted a couple of blogs in the run-up to this crazy initiative, but none of them have dealt with arguably the most important aspect. The running order, the schedule, the agenda... Call it what you will, they all amount to the same thing - which games am I going to play? Well, I've spent the last couple of weeks whittling a list of almost two-hundred video games down to a shortlist of just ten titles. I've put them in what will most likely be the running order, and laid them out in reasonable detail below. Duders and duderettes, I give you the games of Backlogtober 2015!

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Taking the recommendation from fellow Giant Bomber @slag, I've decided to kick off Backlogtober with this indie darling from 2013. My records show I picked the game up in February of this year, when it was given away free as part of Xbox Live's 'Games with Gold' initiative. Since then it's been sitting unplayed on my 360's hard drive. It supposedly clocks in at a very reasonable three hours in length, so it should be feasible to wrap this up in one or two sittings and get the month's endeavour off to a strong start.

Estimated Time: 1-2 days

Pokémon Snap

Following on from a recent critical success will be this retro cult classic. I was big into Pokémon as a kid (in many ways, I still am), but not having a Nintendo 64 meant I missed out on the experience of playing Pokémon Snap. Years later I acquired a copy through the Wii's Virtual Console and I've dabbled with it a little, but I'm still yet to give it a proper shot. With an approximate running time of five hours, I should be able to zip through this one in a few sittings and see most of what it has to offer.

Estimated Time: 2-3 days

Halo 4

The pattern I decided to establish with my planned schedule for Backlogtober is best summed up as 'two small, one large' - a couple of shorter titles back-to-back, with a larger experience at the end of each double-bill to wash everything down. Halo 4 is set to serve as my first palate cleanser, providing a longer experience I can get a little more involved in. With an estimated nine hours of gameplay to be had in the campaign, I expect this one to keep me busy for a little longer.`

Estimated Time: 4-5 days

And Yet It Moves

Once I've finished getting reacquainted with Master Chief, it'll be time to dive into the dark depths of my Steam library to tackle And Yet It Moves. I was quite impressed with the game when I played through its opening levels last year, so it makes sense to me to return to it and finish what I started. Its length is listed at around three hours, which means I should be able to push through it in one or two sittings and quickly tick it off the list before moving on to something else.

Estimated Time: 1-2 days

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Another of my many Xbox Live acquisitions, this top-down adventure title joined my Pile of Shame in 2014 when it was on sale for just a few quid. As a long-time fan of the Tomb Raider games I would be remiss not to include Lara in this run-down, and this different take on the series' trademark combination of combat, exploration and puzzle-solving should make for an action-packed challenge following the more contemplative pace of And Yet It Moves. Sources recommend I set aside around seven-and-a-half hours for this one, so I should be able to get through it in a few days' worth of sustained play sessions.

Estimated Time: 3-4 days

The Walking Dead: Season Two

I've been meaning to dig into the second season of Telltale's The Walking Dead ever since the fifth and final episode landed in August of last year. I like to play these episodic adventure games in five-night stints, playing an episode a night for five consecutive days, so that's probably what I'll end up doing with this one as well. I still have my save data floating around from the first season and its 400 Days expansion, so it'll be great to see that story continue with this second season. Estimates say this takes around nine-and-a-half hours to play in its entirety, which averages out to around two hours a night.

Estimated Time: 5 days

'Splosion Man

I own a lot of indie puzzle-platformers that could have taken up this space on the list - Braid was a strong candidate, and I did toy with the idea of pushing through Toki Tori, but ultimately 'Splosion Man won out. To be honest, I think that's because this is crunch time for this quirky Xbox Live title - if I don't make it through 'Splosion Man this month, I probably never will. Sources state the game is around ten hours long, which seems a bit on the long side for an indie platformer of this ilk, so I'll be sure to set aside a few evenings to get through it.

Estimated Time: 3-4 days

Zeno Clash

When I'm all 'sploded out, I plan to return to Steam and get stuck into Zeno Clash. I've owned the game since 2011, but it didn't really move to the forefront of my interest until fellow blogger @Mento covered it as part of his 2013 May Madness initiative. Since then I've tried to get into it a couple of times, but have been held back by my inexperience with mouse-and-keyboard controls and a rather terrible affair with an Xbox 360 controller. I've vowed to make it third time lucky for Backlogtober, and finally push through its four-hour campaign to see all it has to offer.

Estimated Time: 1-2 days

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The pièce de résistance of my Backlogtober 2015 is set to be a long-overdue playthrough of Giant Bomb's 2009 Game of the Year, Uncharted 2. It's been high on my list of priorities ever since I played through the first Uncharted back in 2013, and at one point last year I even started working my way through it, right up until a hardware failure bricked my old PS3 and cost me the (admittedly little) progress I'd made. I'm now committing to return to it, and see this second chapter in Nathan Drake's adventures through to its conclusion. I just hope I'll have the twelve hours I'll apparently need to get through it before the month ends.

Estimated Time: 4-5 days

So that's the plan, the order of service for all Backlogtober proceedings. I'm sure you'll agree that working through these ten games will be... Wait, what do you mean there's only nine titles listed above? Well, I can't be doing with that. This initiative demands the harmony afforded by a round number. Now, where am I going to source a tenth game, and find the time to play it?

Ah, of course...

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

After a full month and almost seventy hours of game time, the end of Metal Gear Solid V still doesn't seem like it's anywhere in sight. I'd hoped to route-one my way through the game's main missions and see some credits roll before the month's end, but the myriad distractions and emergent experiences that the game presents have rendered me completely unable to do that. The plan is to keep playing it on the side throughout October, doing a mission here, some Mother Base management there, and maybe I'll be lucky enough to see the end of it at some point in the month.

Estimated Time: God only knows...

So there you have it. Thirty-one days, ten games, one outrageous initiative - Backlogtober 2015 officially starts here. The original plan was to post updates on my progress daily, but now I've had time to reflect on that, I've decided that might be a bit overkill (not to mention it'll eat up time I could be using to bust my way through these here games). I'll probably just end up posting updates as and when I beat each game, sharing a few brief thoughts on them, and how the overall experience affects my outlook on having a backlog and how to tackle it. I'll be back in a day or two with some thoughts on Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Until then, wish me luck! Thanks for reading guys, take care and I'll see you around.

Dan

---

Currently playing - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS3)