6 games you might have rotting in your backlog that deserve to be played right now

Published Sep 6, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Gaming has been Samarveer’s greatest passion, and the Literature graduate in him takes immense joy in dissecting games for their themes, messages, and impact. Samarveer holds a deep appreciation of gaming, and considers the platform to be the most immersive and impactful across all media. He can be found engaging with gaming communities online, always ready to debate the finer points of ray tracing or itching to write an 8-page collegiate thesis on any game that impacts him emotionally. Sign in to your XDA account There's a strange little lie we tell ourselves about our gaming backlogs — that we're saving those games "for later." Later, when work isn't so busy, or when we have that ever-elusive long weekend, or when the stars align to finally let us boot up an 80-hour-long game. Naturally, that "later" never comes around. Consequently, our backlog only grows, and genuinely incredible games just sit there, gathering dust while we play the newest thing that happens to be staring us in the face. Some games, however, have been waiting long enough. These are games that are notorious for sitting and rotting in game libraries, all while we know full well that they deserve to be bumped to the front of the queue immediately. Starting (and finishing) them will have us wondering why we waited for so long. Stop pretending you'll play The Witcher 3 "eventually" Your backlog's greatest RPG deserves its moment Anyone who loves RPGs has always known that The Witcher 3 is widely considered the pinnacle of the genre. And yet, it remains in the backlog of countless gamers who have spent years looking for a reason to finally play it. I myself know a handful of fellow gamers who were just "about to get to it" before The Witcher 4, and now they'll have even more reason to expedite that first boot. The Witcher 3 Remastered arrives in September 2026, with improved visuals, performance, gameplay, and animations, while the announcement of an entirely new expansion has given everyone another excuse to return to The Continent. The real reason you should stop waiting, though, is much simpler: this is still one of those rare RPGs that can completely consume you. Yes, you're looking at 120+ hours with the White Wolf, but those hours are precisely what make The Witcher 3 so unforgettable. Its world, characters, quests, and moral dilemmas have a way of making the hundreds of other games sitting in your backlog suddenly feel irrelevant. There is no perfect time to play it. There is only the moment you finally stop making excuses and saddle Roach. Released September 29, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol Developer(s) CD Projekt Red Publisher(s) CD Projekt Red Franchise The Witcher Genre(s) Action, Adventure, RPG, Open-World, Exploration Baldur's Gate 3 is worth disappearing into Stop being intimidated by the commitment Baldur's Gate 3 has one of the most understandable reasons for rotting in your backlog: it is enormous. Look at everything the game offers, from its sprawling world and countless choices to its turn-based combat and mountains of dialogue, and the commitment can feel overwhelming. It's easy to tell yourself you'll start when you have enough time to properly appreciate it, and before you know it, weeks become months. But that enormous scope is exactly why you should stop waiting. Baldur's Gate 3 is the kind of RPG where your decisions genuinely feel like your own, where characters react to what you do, and seemingly insignificant choices can spiral into completely unexpected consequences. Not only does Baldur's Gate 3 give you a story that truly made it deserving of its Game of the Year award, but it also gives you a humongous world to mess around in. Don't let Disco Elysium scare you away It proves you don't need combat to have an unforgettable adventure Credit: ZA/UM | Steam Disco Elysium is one of the easiest games to leave rotting in a backlog because it doesn't look like much of a game at first glance. There are no flashy set pieces, no traditional combat, and an intimidating wall of dialogue behind that gorgeous art style. For anyone who spends 60 hours shooting, slashing, and looting, spending an evening talking to people can indeed feel like homework. But that is precisely what you're missing. Disco Elysium is one of the most profound RPGs ever made, a detective story where your skills argue with you, failures can be as entertaining as successes, and conversations become unforgettable moments. The in-game city of Revachol demands your attention, and it rewards you with an experience that leaves you reeling, wondering how a game with no action managed to say so much about being human. Prey is the masterpiece you keep overlooking You don't need another excuse to put off Arkane's sci-fi classic Source: Steam Everybody and their dog knows that Arkane Studios' 2017 Prey was a fantastic soft-reboot of the Prey universe, and it genuinely was one of the greatest sci-fi FPS games of all time. However, not many folks ever get around to it. It isn't usually the game people are actively avoiding, though — it's just the game that keeps getting pushed down the list while something newer, bigger, or more immediately exciting takes its place. That's how a genuinely unforgettable title ends up rotting in your library for years, as it did in mine. What you might not realize, though, is that you're sitting in a game they won't soon get over, or ever. Prey is the kind of immersive sim that rewards curiosity, experimentation, and the simple act of poking around somewhere you probably shouldn't. Its station, its systems, and its story gradually pull you deeper until you realize just how much freedom Arkane has handed you. With 2017's Prey, all you really need to play are the first fifteen minutes, which make for one of the most stunning openings to a video game ever. It's not even an enormous 100-hour commitment, either. Give it the attention it has been begging for, and you may finally understand why people still can't stop talking about it. Released May 5, 2017 ESRB M for Mature: Blood, Language, Use of Alcohol, Violence Developer(s) Arkane Studios Publisher(s) Bethesda Engine id Tech 4 Multiplayer Local Multiplayer Franchise Prey In Prey, you awaken aboard Talos I, a space station orbiting the moon in the year 2032. You are the key subject of an experiment meant to alter humanity forever – but things have gone terribly wrong. The space station has been overrun by hostile aliens and you are now being hunted. As you dig into the dark secrets of Talos I and your own past, you must survive using the tools found on the station -- your wits, weapons, and mind-bending abilities. The fate of the Talos I and everyone aboard is in your hands. You have to actually play Death Stranding to understand it Kojima's strangest game asks for patience A few bad reviews and the experimental nature of visionary Hideo Kojima's game made Death Stranding a rather polarizing title. Over the years, however, history has been much kinder to it, as people have come to realize, through social media and video essays, that it is so much more than just a "walking simulator." Epic Games even gave it away for free, and millions of gamers added it to their libraries, but very few actually got around to playing it. The reason is simple: its entire premise, and the feeling you're supposed to take away from it, comes from the fact that it's a grindy game that needs you to slog through hours and hours of effort before you realize what Kojima and the story are trying to tell you. And yet, when you do, it becomes one of the most revolutionary stories told in gaming because the gameplay itself transcends its medium to make you feel the message behind the plot, and just how important the connection between humans is. There's also the fact that the 2025 sequel, Death Stranding 2, is as polished and fantastic a sequel as they come, and it makes the first game required viewing. Death Stranding asks you to endure the journey before it lets you understand why that journey mattered. Plus, it doesn't hurt that it comes with what's easily one of the best, most rewarding plot twists in all of gaming. Remedy's Connected Universe games Plenty of homework involved with these games Credit: Remedy Entertainment Alan Wake 2 is the latest game in the Remedy Connected Universe, with Control: Resonant just weeks away, but these games come with so much homework that the game rotting in our libraries can feel almost justified. Everyone talks about the "RCU," but getting up to speed comes with the pressure of having finished Alan Wake, American Nightmare, Control, its AWE expansion, and even Quantum Break. Before you know it, what should have been one game snowballs into one huge homework assignment that will require almost a hundred hours of your time. And yet, the Remedy Connected Universe is one of the greatest things gaming has ever seen — one of the most unique stories ever told in the entire medium, and one that will leave you thinking one thing and one thing only: "I've never played anything quite like this." Quantum Break and the Max Payne games aren't "officially" part of Remedy's connected universe, but the canon games are full of easter eggs and nods to these games. Quantum Break is a full-throttle sci-fi thriller adventure; Alan Wake and its sequel are transcendental survival horror titles that will have you pausing to take a breath; and Control is an incredible action title with graphics and gameplay you won't soon forget. FBC: Firebreak, too, tries to do something bold with the interconnected universe, and it's a testament to just how unafraid Remedy is to experiment with genres within its own tapestry of titles. Alan Wake 2 puts the art of storytelling itself front and center, turning the medium into part of the story and interweaving that theme into the plot every step of the way. That's why it deserves celebrating. You don't need to finish every piece of Remedy homework first, but you truly owe it to yourself to finally start. Released September 24, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) Remedy Entertainment Publisher(s) Remedy Entertainment Genre(s) Action, RPG, Hack and Slash, Open-World There are plenty of ways to get started with a backlog A backlog is supposed to be a promise, not a punishment. We buy games because something about them grabs us, then watch that excitement get buried beneath newer releases, longer games, and the endless noise of whatever happens to be next. That's when great games start gathering dust. The answer isn't to clear the backlog, but to stop treating it like a checklist. All you have to do is pick the game you keep thinking about, ignore everything else for a while, and actually give it the attention it was asking for when you bought it. Somewhere beneath all those untouched icons is an experience that could become the reason you remember that particular weekend, month, or year.