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.