Someone somewhere on the internet made an apt analogy between a game backlog and a fridge full of food. Do you feel pressure to eat all of the food in your fridge? No, you eat what you're in the mood for and you only eat a little at a time.

You can think of a game backlog in the same way. Play the games you're in the mood for. Play a game until you get a good sense of what the game is all about. If you like it, play it lots more. If you don't like it, or if your mood takes you elsewhere, put it down and play another one. It's a game, not a chore or an obligation. In the case of a downloaded game, it's an imaginary piece of property that leapt into existence when you bought it. It's not like you're depriving starving kids in Africa of games by wasting yours.

There's no shame in not playing/beating every game you own. Especially in this age of absurd sales. When I buy a Humble Bundle for one game and get 5 other ones for free, I feel no pressure to play/beat those other 5. I'll try them and if they blow me away, sure I'll play, but if not, then oh well.

I got every Tomb Raider game including the 2013 one for $12 last week on Steam. I only wanted the 2013 one, but the price of the whole bundle was significantly less than the normal price of TR2013 on its own. That's a bunch of games I'll probably never beat either. Who cares?

ToriJ: If past MGS games are any indication, they'll keep re-releasing MGS4 for all eternity in special editions and collections. And yeah, play FF9. You know you want to.