Spyro seemed like a zen way of ending the evening after having a relatively nice day, even at work. Switching from morning chai to a light grapefruit jasmine so that my body may power down properly, as I’m also listening to the pitter patter of rain both digitally and in reality. Finally setting the mood to lay my weary head upon the pale pillows majesty after such vivid adventures after a quiet noir day.
Steam End Of Year Review: 2023
It’s that time of the year again, where The GabeN sits us down and tells us about the multitude of ways we collectively wasted our time throughout 2023. Apparently I’ve been really busy, especially on Achievements. So, how did I manage to have fun this year? Let’s find out!
I have a hard time wrapping my head around this one. How can you be on Steam and only play 4 games? I’m guessing these must be people that only play TF2/Counterstrike and a couple of others. Me though? Apparently I’m full of variety. I played a total of 118 different games over the span of 119 days, meaning I’m not afraid to try something new. Among those 118 games I managed to finish 9 of them, a story for another end of the year thread! 😛 I was two achievements short of getting 400. I’ve set a pretty high bar for myself on Achievements, not sure if I’ll be able to hurdle over it in 2024. 😛
Surprisingly I played a lot of newer titles this year. They were indies for the most part, some I fell in love with during NextFest! Such as; Whisker Squadron Survivor, and Gal Guardians just to name a couple.
For me this was the year of Metroidvanias and Roguelikes. I finished one of the Shantae games, and I progressed further in a multitude of others like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Dust: an Elysian Tail. While I’ve also been playing Whisker Squadron Survivor and Hades. There was also some looting to be had in different variations of the Borderland’s and a tiny bit of electronic warfare of the Cyber and Mech varieties. With my collection of entertainment I’m never allowed to be bored. 😛
One quarter of my overall fun time was done on my Steam Deck with 0% regrets. Every long lunch break it was there for me whenever I needed to kill a bit of time, sometimes literally. Even managed to complete a few games on it that I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish elsewhere, thanks to cloud saving and being able to pick up where I left off after sleep mode. Some of the games I finished on Deck were the first Commander Keen Episode, Shantae: Half Genie Hero and Okami as some examples. After over a year of having the Steam Deck I can honestly say I’m quite happy with my purchase.
In conclusion: This was an amazing year to finish games both of past and present, and discovering new adventures. May the distractions I have in 2024 be just as incredible as previous years.
Merry Holidaze!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful day, regardless of what you celebrate, or if you even celebrate just be glad to be alive. CELEBRATE BEING ALIVE DAMMIT.
Christmas Eve Open Thread
On this Christmas Eve I had awoke from a long winters nap, something that hasn’t happened in I don’t know how long. I celebrated by sitting down with some tea and nog, played a fun game while talking to another friend that was doing the same thing but with beer instead. Time to celebrate surviving a holiday season of assholes, now I can rest for the next one.
I Have Assumed Control
Another busy day passes, and a quiet evening sucks me into Control once more for more other worldly adventures and achievements/trophies to find. I learned to levitate, survived two intense boss fights, and continued to lose myself in the epic awesomeness that is photo mode.
More pics can be found over at Mastodon!
Finding That Rainbow
Settled down tonight with a bit of Trine. I even got an achievement for using each character’s ability in one level, and I triggered it by turning into the Knight and falling onto a skeleton! I had a busy day of work, although I did stop at a new tea shop after I got off work today. They make really amazing milk tea! I went with a friendo for some authentic boba. Now I’m enjoying some peppermint tea before bed, tasty and helpful with inflammation.
Late Night Open Thread
Not much to report. The last couple days have been successful for SFM rendering! It’s looking like some of the items I ordered online won’t be here on time to ship out. A couple websites emailed me about delays. Fortunately most of the people I know are ok with after Christrmas swag. 🙂 Also played a little bit of Crash Bandicoot 2 on my Steam Deck, got one of the gems. I remember that being one of the games I got at Christmas time, when we had the original Playstation. I only played a few games on it before going over to the PC side of things, but I do cherish some of the old games I did manage to play. 😀
You Know She Mad
She is such an Uber-Karen to fight! I’m going to enjoy it when I finally take her down. So far I die when I make it to the part where she goes Ultimate Moon on my ass. I did manage to get two boss battles in today to lead up to this point, one of those was during lunch today. Who knew I could work well enough under the pressure of only having an hour to kick Serpentine’s ass?
Kickin’ It New/Old School
Was feeling more in an indie retro vibe kind of mood tonight. It didn’t help that I played a bit during my lunch break on the trusty Steam Deck to get a little practice in.
I’ve told a few people at work about this game – that and Whisker Squadron Survivor. There have never been many Star Fox like games, so when I found these it was an instant yes for me. I never got to grow up with Star Fox, only ever got a taste of it when I was over visiting family as a kid what felt like a century ago. At least indies can help bridge that gap. 🙂
Time For Your Fave Soda! (You Know The One)
Played through the DLC I unlocked with a hex editor last night for Control. It unlocks three outfits (one I’ve been wearing in all these shots) and “Dr. Yoshimi Tokui’s Guided Imagery Experience” that would only be on Playstation otherwise.
The DLC gives you two tapes to listen to. There’s no battle or anything, just a really weird story on each one. Listening to them makes Jesse feel better afterwards.
Tonight I can say that I’ve claimed 25 control points! I was kind of hoping to get another call from Trench before calling it a night, given the news of James McCaffrey’s passing. I was surprised to find that he played Trench! Now that I really listen to his voice I can hear it.
Another one of those voices I grew up remembering. Max Payne was one of the big games of my older childhood. I remember playing it many a night, even on laptops – before gaming laptops were a thing! 😛 So many memories with a mix of intrigue and mental scarring, the dream sequences used to give me nightmares that only seemed to go away when I wrote about them. His voice though, was a big part of that childhood. He will be missed like so much other talent we’ve lost in recent times.