![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Beep Boop, Beep Boop
Dec. 31st, 2023 09:28 amMy Steam year in review was amusing, mainly because it said I spent most of my gaming time fighting robot dinosaurs, and how cool is that? Yeah, I spent a lot of time playing through Horizon Zero Dawn, and it was definitely worth it. Getting a Steam Deck was a good move, and I've enjoyed having it not only for travel but for stuff like winter loafing on the couch when the cats want to snuggle.
So recently I started trying to play some games I've had in my library for a while. I guess everyone has a backlog, but I'd scroll through mine and think, I ought to play that some time. Well, my some time is now.
After Death was a short indie game that I generally enjoyed but it has its issues on Steam Deck. Two French guys made this one. It's fairly straightforward but has the capacity for a LOT of backtracking, and I found myself doing so every time I got a new movement ability, which kind of wasted a lot of time. But it was worth my time.
Owlboy is sort of infamous for its ten-year development time but it's a glorious, beautiful game. The controls are a little janky in places but not so bad as to induce rage-quitting. The story is well thought out and bittersweet, so you'll have feels. If you're a completionist like me, the Boguin Brothers' cannon challenge will test your patience. I never want to see those little dorks and their stupid cannon again. I do have a question about the achievements - there's "treasure hunter" and "expert treasure hunter." You'd think one is for finding a certain number of treasure chests, and the other is for finding them all. Not so. You have to find all the treasure, then they both pop. Same for the Buccanary coins achievements. *shrugs*
Gris is an artsy game from a Spanish dev that I'm playing right now. (Well, not RIGHT NOW) It's the third game I've played that is explicitly about dealing with grief and loss. It's very exploration heavy and has no combat. It has an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack. There's a ton of exploring and searching you can do, and several challenges that aren't really mentioned and have secret achievements, so if you play this one, you might want to go back after your first time through and read a guide to find some of the secret stuff.
At some point I need to go back to Bendy and the Ink Machine again. I tried to play through it in October and ran into a game-killing glitch that just drained all the enthusiasm out of me. This will be my fourth time trying to finish this game whenever I take up the controller again. If you try to save and quit during the third chapter you'll find yourself soft-locked in the room right outside Angel Alice's door. There's not really any getting around it, you just delete that save and start over. It's especially aggravating if you've almost finished all of Alice's little errands. I want to like Bendy a lot but the save glitches are a big problem, and the dev hasn't apparently addressed them.
Some non-gaming stuff! I guess I mentioned finding a rucking backpack and I'm thinking of giving it a brief test today with a 3-mile 20-lb ruck. I ended up getting an Osprey Daylite. I've already got several Osprey packs and they're very good, plus I think the main reason I was attracted to some of the more military-esque packs is that I want people to think I'm cool. Since we all know I'm not cool, why spend the extra money.
Yesterday I was helping Fox cut up a tree we felled for fire wood and I got my finger crushed by a rolling log. It's my right forefinger, so I'm having a hard time - holding a pencil is challenging and typing is a nightmare. The bruising around the joint should be nice and black by the time we get to Disney. Right now it looks like the nail is all right, but I noticed some minor pain when I do anything that moves it around, like scratching my head. But on the bright side we split and hauled a couple of weeks' worth of wood and didn't even have to go too far. There was a sickly bay laurel just down the cut from us that was super easy to get to.
I was hoping to get a Day One Hike in tomorrow at Gold Head but I really need to buckle down and get us ready to head to Disney on Wednesday. I'm excited about race weekend but I'm also looking forward to eating myself stupid.
So recently I started trying to play some games I've had in my library for a while. I guess everyone has a backlog, but I'd scroll through mine and think, I ought to play that some time. Well, my some time is now.
After Death was a short indie game that I generally enjoyed but it has its issues on Steam Deck. Two French guys made this one. It's fairly straightforward but has the capacity for a LOT of backtracking, and I found myself doing so every time I got a new movement ability, which kind of wasted a lot of time. But it was worth my time.
Owlboy is sort of infamous for its ten-year development time but it's a glorious, beautiful game. The controls are a little janky in places but not so bad as to induce rage-quitting. The story is well thought out and bittersweet, so you'll have feels. If you're a completionist like me, the Boguin Brothers' cannon challenge will test your patience. I never want to see those little dorks and their stupid cannon again. I do have a question about the achievements - there's "treasure hunter" and "expert treasure hunter." You'd think one is for finding a certain number of treasure chests, and the other is for finding them all. Not so. You have to find all the treasure, then they both pop. Same for the Buccanary coins achievements. *shrugs*
Gris is an artsy game from a Spanish dev that I'm playing right now. (Well, not RIGHT NOW) It's the third game I've played that is explicitly about dealing with grief and loss. It's very exploration heavy and has no combat. It has an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack. There's a ton of exploring and searching you can do, and several challenges that aren't really mentioned and have secret achievements, so if you play this one, you might want to go back after your first time through and read a guide to find some of the secret stuff.
At some point I need to go back to Bendy and the Ink Machine again. I tried to play through it in October and ran into a game-killing glitch that just drained all the enthusiasm out of me. This will be my fourth time trying to finish this game whenever I take up the controller again. If you try to save and quit during the third chapter you'll find yourself soft-locked in the room right outside Angel Alice's door. There's not really any getting around it, you just delete that save and start over. It's especially aggravating if you've almost finished all of Alice's little errands. I want to like Bendy a lot but the save glitches are a big problem, and the dev hasn't apparently addressed them.
Some non-gaming stuff! I guess I mentioned finding a rucking backpack and I'm thinking of giving it a brief test today with a 3-mile 20-lb ruck. I ended up getting an Osprey Daylite. I've already got several Osprey packs and they're very good, plus I think the main reason I was attracted to some of the more military-esque packs is that I want people to think I'm cool. Since we all know I'm not cool, why spend the extra money.
Yesterday I was helping Fox cut up a tree we felled for fire wood and I got my finger crushed by a rolling log. It's my right forefinger, so I'm having a hard time - holding a pencil is challenging and typing is a nightmare. The bruising around the joint should be nice and black by the time we get to Disney. Right now it looks like the nail is all right, but I noticed some minor pain when I do anything that moves it around, like scratching my head. But on the bright side we split and hauled a couple of weeks' worth of wood and didn't even have to go too far. There was a sickly bay laurel just down the cut from us that was super easy to get to.
I was hoping to get a Day One Hike in tomorrow at Gold Head but I really need to buckle down and get us ready to head to Disney on Wednesday. I'm excited about race weekend but I'm also looking forward to eating myself stupid.
