Firetale vs Infinite Backlog

If you want to know where you own a game, Infinite Backlog is worth examining first. Its published collection features include ownership, purchase information, condition and tags. Those fields answer practical questions about a collection that a personal review does not answer.

Firetale's record is organised around what you played and thought. A log can hold a status, platform, date, numerical score and review. Separate playthroughs let you add a later run without replacing the earlier experience.

Consider a game you own on two platforms but have only played on one. A collection tracker records the ownership distinction. A diary records the run you actually played. These are related jobs, but importing a collection does not automatically supply a review or a complete play history.

Infinite Backlog explicitly includes achievements, trophies, playtime and cross-platform statistics in its feature descriptions. If you use achievement completion to choose what to return to, test its integrations against the platforms you use and the privacy settings on those accounts.

Firetale has PlayStation and Xbox import options that use public history to identify games. It also supports Steam and GOG imports. The fields available vary by source: a public trophy list is different from a list of every purchase, and an imported playtime figure is different from a written diary.

On Firetale, Beat is a finished-game status and Played records experience without claiming a finish. Neither label is a promise that all platform achievements have been earned. Keeping those ideas separate makes a library easier to read, especially for multiplayer games and games you stopped playing.

Infinite Backlog's homepage describes friends' achievements, reviews, posts and recently played games in its social feed, along with collection and completion leaderboards. It is not simply an offline inventory.

Firetale combines personal logs and reviews with standalone posts, replies and quotes. You can keep a short progress note separate from a longer review. Player suggestions use recorded games and ratings, so the people you discover can be connected to what you play and how you score it.

Read the conversations you would actually participate in. If a friend's collection progress is the interesting part, follow that record. If you want to discuss a game's ending, find another player with similar taste, or write between playthroughs, try those actions on Firetale before choosing it as your main diary.

In Infinite Backlog, open Settings, then Export Data to download the collection CSV, the wishlist CSV, or both. Firetale accepts those CSV formats. It does not accept an arbitrary JSON file as an Infinite Backlog export.

The importer reads the source game identifiers and the available status, completion, rating, notes, finish-date and platform fields. A completed or mastered entry can map to Beat, while a general played entry can remain Played. Review those mappings in the preview; different status names are not always exact equivalents.

Firetale does not claim to recreate every purchase, condition, tag, achievement or social field from Infinite Backlog. The file and importer determine what transfers. Followers, comments and leaderboards are not part of this game-log import.

Existing Firetale logs are skipped rather than overwritten. Save the original CSV files, inspect matched titles and dates, and try a small selection before importing a large collection. This is a file transfer, not ongoing two-way synchronisation.

Use Infinite Backlog if cross-platform ownership and achievement tracking are the records you check most. Its official homepage describes free core use and optional Patreon support. Its mobile option includes adding the website to your home screen.

Try Firetale if you want to keep a diary, review games and use a feed for broader gaming conversation. Core logging, backlog management, custom lists, posts and discussions are free. Firetale runs in a desktop or mobile browser, supports installation as a PWA, and has an Android beta.

You do not need to move everything to make that decision. Browse the public catalogue and reviews, then record a game you are playing now. Check whether the status choices, review editor and replay record match the way you want to use the site.