This past month was Backlog Month at Kotaku. April, our thinking went, would be fairly slim in terms of new games, bookended by two blockbusters (Outriders and Returnal) but devoid of tentpoles in the interim. What better time to play the games we already have?
May, however, looks a lot busier. Today, the much-anticipated Resident Evil Village landed on consoles and PC. Next week, Mass Effect Legendary Edition stands poised to do to free time what the Reapers did to so many alien species (although for those of us who haven’t played all of the original trilogy, that must count as a backlog by some definitions). A few days later, we’ll finally get to see what BioMutant is all about. Then Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart releases shortly after that. It’s safe to say the release drought is over, at least for the time being.
By and large, Kotaku appreciated the breather, which has given many of us a moment to chill out with games we’d missed. Zack played and then immediately forgot about Quake 4. Alexandra detailed a novel yet brutal-sounding approach to playing Abadox. Riley followed a Cyberpunk NPC around, and chronicled the results. I pissed my pants over The Medium. Luke pissed his pants over the seven-year-old Alien: Isolation. John embraced his inner shark. Good times.
We didn’t always focus on games. Ash tapped into the feeling-wellspring of “video game FOMO.” Nathan did the same for the havoc service games can wreak on one’s backlog. Also good times.
But here’s the thing about backlogs: They never actually go anywhere. You know how it is. Try as you might to put a lid on yours, it just grows, and grows, and grows.
In the spirit of this collective and eternal struggle that could be easily described in terms of a certain Greek mythical figure, Backlog Month isn’t really going anywhere either. Sure, the officially designated month has ended. And, given the influx of major games on the horizon, we’ll probably be busy with new stuff for a while. But backlogs are hard to kill, so look for more Backlog stories from Kotaku in the future. We’ve all got one. No reason not to talk about it.
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