My tip is to just forget about them. You're not gonna die of a stroke or a piano falling on your head if you just move on and start anew. They're just video games. Toss them out and then when you buy your next game, don't buy another until you've beaten said game.

Purging myself of my backlog was so liberating... it felt like an elephant had just jumped off my shoulders.

Best advice I can say is make a limit of how many games can have in backlog. Once you hit that cannot buy more games until you beat existing ones.

Either that or really think about your backlog and ask if you haven't got around to playing some of them, why is that, and do you see yourself playing them in the next year. If not may just move on and learn from it.

Last bit is look up "how long to beat" and hit shortest games in quick succession,

I have the opposite problem - it's very hard for me to find games that I'm interested in and that I enjoy playing *smug*

What did you exactly do when you purged?

I just moved my attention to the next game I wanted to get, whatever that was. Then, I made a rule that I was not allowed to buy another game until I had either finished it or decided I didn't want to finish it. Sometimes, there's a little bit of stress to beat a game when there's another one coming out, but I just remind myself that they're not going anywhere and will be there when I'm done.

Overall, I'm a much happier person now and I don't feel like my hobby of choice is controlling me. I'm controlling it.

Interesting. I can sometimes find choosing a new game to start somewhat daunting, but it's never felt like a burden. Having said that, I'm aware of the fact that buying more than I will ever finish in my entire life is a dubious practice. PS+ adds another 5-6 games a month. I look at it as a pretty nice problem to have. And ( knock on wood ) I will have some nice, valuable collectables down the road. :)

AC2 is an amazing game. And so far Black Flag is a solid third person action game. All the rest are shit. 

Sorry I don't play perfect 98+ metacritic scored games all the time like yourself.

Wow. But that's quite a strict rule. What about sales? In the upcoming Steam sale it's too hard to resist buying at least 5 if not 20 new games.

You will never beat your backlog. As a dedicated gamer that's just impossible. My backlog reaches back to the NES (I will play Turtles III: Manhattan Project sometime in the fllowing days, I swear!). There are games in my backlog on pretty much any console you can imagine and also on PC. And there are more games coming than I can play, and yes, of course I am buying them! Right now I'm in the middle of Wolfenstein: The New Order, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Metro 2033 and Just Cause 3. I didn't finish any of those. Because I don't have too much time to play, I take my sweet time. Sometimes I need two months to get through a shooter. I gave up on RPGs.

Really, it's just not possible. You have to decide which games you really wanna play and what games will only look good in your collection. That's all it comes down to. Unless you're a millionaire without family who happens to have time to play all day and doesn't need to work. That would be different. =P