I wanted something short to play, so I settled on Wario Land 4. As an avid player of 3, having health is strange. But the level variety is phenomenal and the time limit makes it feel like a series of heists. I mostly hated how the bosses were though.

I underestimated John Johanas. I knew he had a sense of style and humor from the Evil Within DLC & sequel, but I would never have expected him to shadow drop a motherfucking character action rhythm game styled after Jet Set Radio. I NEEEED IT!

The Gamemaker's Notebook is a nice podcast. Usually hosted by Ted Price, the CEO of Insomniac, it's a series of down-to-earth interview with devs. It feels so sane compared to our usual view into the industry. The Ukraine episode was really good.

Mask of Deception done! Now I get why people compare this series to Trails, both for cameos and some plot points. But more than anything, this game reminded me of isekai anime. The tropes are all there, but it's not awful? It's like the writers had talent

Disco Elysium Log #2: The investigation began in earnest as I took in the hood and its people. I successfully pilfered funds from the bourgeoisie, had a mental breakdown about women in front of a child, aced some boulé and punched the shit out that kid.

Barely a month into this job and I already broke production using nothing but a perfectly fine little addition that had unknowable consequences. This is why they pay me the big bucks.

Disco Elysium Log #1: I successfully got my tie and made it all the way to Kim's motorcar without harmful incidents. I might even find my way home. Not sure if Physical Instrument or Half Light are going to cost me my nose first though.

If I had a nickel for every time I read a book in the last 12 months written by a video game critic who appeared on The Escapist about the British ministry of magic investigations I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird it happened twice.

Being halfway through the games, I think I can succintly describe the Utawarerumono formula as: Lorebombs, warcrimes, booze, food talk, more booze and waifus dumber than the sacks of bricks they can easily carry for reasons too complicated for a Qpost.

I'm trapped in a spiral of Disqus and my notifications go unread. #ScreenshotSaturday

Today's achievement was getting my dad through the first world of Overcooked. If that game ain't designed by Satan, I don't know what is. It's like running a FFXIV raid where you need to do eachother's skill rotations. Would recommend.

Man, finally playing the Evil Within DLC was a treat. It's still held down by the base game, but there are so many cohesive ideas for horror, encounter design AND A STORY THAT INVOLVES THE INNER STRUGGLES OF THE PROTAGONIST'S FEARS LIKE A HORROR GAME.

Starting up the second Utawarerumono game has been interesting. It does that Japanese thing where it replicates aspects of the first game in a way that feels like a reboot/remake, despite being a seemingly distant sequel. I think I'm more into this one.

It was bound to happen eventually. My backlog-shrinking streak came to an end in 2022 and it instead grew by 15. I beat less games (thanks to P5R & Elden Ring) and bought a lot more to justify the PS5. So now it sits at 75 in total. Time to get to it!

Plague Tale reminded me of how nice it is to play something with a limited scope and singular focus. Said focus being to take a stealth game with swarms of rats to its logical conclusion. And by logical, I mean fucking insane. I love video games.

I have ascended. I am now a new man, one with deep newfound hatred and respect for Devil May Cry. Took me 45 hours to do and like 100 deaths on DMD Nelo Angelo 3, but I did it. Save for DMD Mundus, because holy shit, that takes 8 minutes of perfection.

Start the fight with full DT, Spam Meteor 2 until it drains to stunlock, always jump away from the combos, taunt at every single opportunity to generate 3 full meters, pray the Summoned Swords don't go in a cross then go near him to cancel while...

Slowly reaching new heights. Hard Mode wasn't too bad, since I had access to every tool and could ignore collectibles. Certain encounter changes are borderline evil, but bosses were manageable. Onto Dante Must Die...

'Tis the season for jolly white-haired men in red coats, so I finally got all S ranks in DMC1. I learned a lot of cool stuff doing this, but it was a struggle. Some missions ask absurd efficiency out of you. But I got a couple of perfects!

My revenge run of The Evil Within is complete! With experience and guide-checking, I cut down my deaths from some 124 to like 38. The remainder can be blamed on all the unfair and unfinished jank. But holy hell is that the greatest magnum ever made.

Steamworld Dig 2 was a nice little metroidvania by way of Boulder Dash. The digging coupled with the resource management really forces you to commit to your decisions until the next venture. I must have dozens of games like this rotting in my wishlist.

I tried the style switching mod for Devil May Cry 3. It feels so wrong yet so right to SWORDTRICKSWORDROYALGUNSLINGERTRICKSWORDMASTER in that game. Makes Royal Guard a lot more inviting as well. Didn't stop me from eating shit once more though.

I still don't know how to get a summary thing, but I dumped like 340 hours into Elden Ring, so that's obviously on top followed by Persona 5 Royal, Forbidden West and Ragnarok. So many long games this year. My backlog is in shambles.

I survived the first day of my new programming job with sanity to spare. This one only took me two months to get compared to the 16 last time. Guess that makes me 8 times as powerful of an applicant. Feels good.

Oh wow, Forspoken just took a bunch of powers from inFAMOUS: Second Son. I approve. The demo felt like the fever dream of an 11-year-old girl in 2002 fantasizing about the future of video games.