I ended up following the spirit and not the letter of my therapist’s advice. Regained my social confidence IRL somehow. Got a housemate which has also helped. I’m starting to get the writing itch again. Maybe this heralds a return to fandom soon. We’ll see.
Not much else has changed in my life recently. My partner bought me a steam deck for my birthday so I’ve been playing a lot of video games. Add me on Steam if we’re not friends already, friend code: 89803648
Games I’ve played and enjoyed in the last few months:
The entire Life is Strange series (Safi is my fave, with Rachel as a close runner-up).
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (such a gorgeous game, in so many different respects, and more games should have tarot inspired and influenced gameplay)
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (this game sure does live up to its name!). Fun art style and worldbuilding, too.
Griftlands, because I like roguelite deckbuilders with some semblance of a plot and longer run times
80 Days - I think I accidentally spent an entire day just replaying this game over and over while on annual leave last month. I really love the narrative engine and the relationship between the main character and his employer. Extremely shippable. AND this game improved my geography. Wins all around!
Expelled! - by the same devs as 80 days. Such a fun take on the mystery genre with an unreliable narrator who keeps changing her mind on what actually happened. I need to pick this back up again actually because I haven’t exhausted the whole story.
Stray Gods, look I’m going to say it, Athena is basically Meredith Stannard and I’m not complaining. “You must die but I’m the one who who’s suffering, really!” Basically a visual novel with songs. 🎵 you all turn away when I gut the fish/then cry hooray when it’s on the dish🎵 also Freddie is a babe and I think she would be a good bestie for Safi.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You - just a really fun narrative that keeps you guessing, the moment the penny finally dropped toward the end I was so mad/delighted I wanted to replay immediately to see the clues I missed but it’s a bit too linear for that so maybe later in the year.
The Pale Beyond: visual novel/resource management game set in an Antarctic expedition in alternate world and yes… the dogs die. but even knowing those dogs were doomed it still hit me way too hard. Lots of branching paths in this one and even a fun in universe mechanic to access them, I need to replay this game sometime when I find distorted memory/reality less triggering bc it’s doing a lot of very interesting things!
Heaven’s Vault - probably one of my favourite games I’ve played this year, gameplay involves translating an ancient language while exploring the mysteries of the universe and the narrative is quite non-linear in that you can do things in different orders in replays to get different dialogues and you retain your dictionary in ng+ so the translation puzzles continue to get harder. made by the same devs as 80 Days and Expelled! Main con is that movement is sooo slow. Like the MC literally cannot run.
Anyway, that’s all from me! What’s new with you all? What have you been playing/reading/watching lately? If you’ve played any of the games above I’d be keen to hear your thoughts!
