Recent Game Stuff
Dec. 19th, 2025 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
got_quietI've got a whopping 21k words in my "blog" file but everything is a half-formed thought or a restart and restatement. It's been a while since I posted cause my mind has been so scatter shot, so here's just a quick sort of year end update on one subject, gaming.
Dispatch
I played the demo of Dispatch during a Next Fest and was impressed by the high production values, but didn't buy the 1.0 release because as a general rule I don't buy things that aren't complete. Lucky me in this case, because it turned out to be an ultra het game. No hate, that's just not for me. I've watched a couple of Let's Plays which are entertaining for what they are, but I would be pretty annoyed constantly dodging the female LIs, so I'll probably leave it at that. Flambae's "You're a bitch" song has been living rent free in my mind for weeks now though.
Fellowship and Hades
I've basically been splitting my game time between Hades II, which I finally have the time to no-life, and Fellowship, which my friends have gotten deep into and I've kind of just been tagging along. I missed the original Hades ending so I don't know how bad it was, but the revision felt okayish as an initial ending. It's probably the weakest of SG's endings, some of which made me weep openly, but my enjoyment of Hades doesn't rely too much on the plot so whatevs. The runs are still a ton of fun, and I've hit a bit of a plateau at the final boss Rivals. Grandpa and Typhon are both laying the smackdown on me right now, but I'll get them eventually.
Fellowship we're riding on low eternals at the moment. My friends each have multiple alts but I'm just running Ardeos and refusing to swap because I don't have the bandwith to learn a new rotation. Plus his playstyle gives me old Shadow Priest vibes which I appreciate. My DPS on his is ass but like, ass that is just ok enough to be worth bringing while we're all painfully undergeared and pushing progression.
Stardew Valley
I've taken to playing this again during tabletop sessions. It's semi perfect in that I can still bascially pay attention to what's happening at the "table" but I'm not going insane with impatience as the group ponderously engages in this that or the other thing. It's a very slow group that sometimes will take over half an hour to even start due to technical difficulties, so if I don't have something to keep me from going nuts I'd have to quit. On my current run I'm only on year two, have romanced Elliot, and am trying to get away with minimal actual farming, which I actually don't really enjoy! But I've been meaning to go for a 100% eventually so maybe with enough boring tabletop games I will eventually get there. I've also been resisting the temptation to restart with a randomized Community Center because that sounds like fun.
Video Game Awards
Naturally I wanted Hades II to take away everything, but that was not going to happen. At least they got one thing. I think they should have gotten best Soundtrack too, but I will also admit to not having listened closely to E33's soundtrack enough to really have an opinion. I took a look at E33 back when it came out but was turned off by the art direction, so kind of miffed that it won for that also. It felt kind of gray and full of a lot of blury light, which is one of my least favorite aesthetics, and always looks kind of cheap to me. But I do like JRPGs so I may give it a shot eventually. I've also been curious about Kingdom Come Deliverance II, but when I'll find time for another big game I don't know.
Year in Review
According to Steam I played 18 games, 7 of which were new, with Hades II, Fellowship, and Railroad Corporation as my respective top 3 of the year. The only gaming this doesn't really cover is Honkai Star Rail, which probably would end up in second place if it were counted. I didn't really play any Visual Novels at all this year. They kind of require me to be chill and relaxed in the later hours of the night, and that was an extremely rare event for this year. Here's a link to my Year in Steam and here's Steam's little monthly breakdown chart.
So that's been my last quarter in Gaming.
I'm curious what everyone else's game of the year has been? Anything that surprised you for better or worse? Anything you're looking forward to for 2026?
Dispatch
I played the demo of Dispatch during a Next Fest and was impressed by the high production values, but didn't buy the 1.0 release because as a general rule I don't buy things that aren't complete. Lucky me in this case, because it turned out to be an ultra het game. No hate, that's just not for me. I've watched a couple of Let's Plays which are entertaining for what they are, but I would be pretty annoyed constantly dodging the female LIs, so I'll probably leave it at that. Flambae's "You're a bitch" song has been living rent free in my mind for weeks now though.
Fellowship and Hades
I've basically been splitting my game time between Hades II, which I finally have the time to no-life, and Fellowship, which my friends have gotten deep into and I've kind of just been tagging along. I missed the original Hades ending so I don't know how bad it was, but the revision felt okayish as an initial ending. It's probably the weakest of SG's endings, some of which made me weep openly, but my enjoyment of Hades doesn't rely too much on the plot so whatevs. The runs are still a ton of fun, and I've hit a bit of a plateau at the final boss Rivals. Grandpa and Typhon are both laying the smackdown on me right now, but I'll get them eventually.
Fellowship we're riding on low eternals at the moment. My friends each have multiple alts but I'm just running Ardeos and refusing to swap because I don't have the bandwith to learn a new rotation. Plus his playstyle gives me old Shadow Priest vibes which I appreciate. My DPS on his is ass but like, ass that is just ok enough to be worth bringing while we're all painfully undergeared and pushing progression.
Stardew Valley
I've taken to playing this again during tabletop sessions. It's semi perfect in that I can still bascially pay attention to what's happening at the "table" but I'm not going insane with impatience as the group ponderously engages in this that or the other thing. It's a very slow group that sometimes will take over half an hour to even start due to technical difficulties, so if I don't have something to keep me from going nuts I'd have to quit. On my current run I'm only on year two, have romanced Elliot, and am trying to get away with minimal actual farming, which I actually don't really enjoy! But I've been meaning to go for a 100% eventually so maybe with enough boring tabletop games I will eventually get there. I've also been resisting the temptation to restart with a randomized Community Center because that sounds like fun.
Video Game Awards
Naturally I wanted Hades II to take away everything, but that was not going to happen. At least they got one thing. I think they should have gotten best Soundtrack too, but I will also admit to not having listened closely to E33's soundtrack enough to really have an opinion. I took a look at E33 back when it came out but was turned off by the art direction, so kind of miffed that it won for that also. It felt kind of gray and full of a lot of blury light, which is one of my least favorite aesthetics, and always looks kind of cheap to me. But I do like JRPGs so I may give it a shot eventually. I've also been curious about Kingdom Come Deliverance II, but when I'll find time for another big game I don't know.
Year in Review
According to Steam I played 18 games, 7 of which were new, with Hades II, Fellowship, and Railroad Corporation as my respective top 3 of the year. The only gaming this doesn't really cover is Honkai Star Rail, which probably would end up in second place if it were counted. I didn't really play any Visual Novels at all this year. They kind of require me to be chill and relaxed in the later hours of the night, and that was an extremely rare event for this year. Here's a link to my Year in Steam and here's Steam's little monthly breakdown chart.
So that's been my last quarter in Gaming.
I'm curious what everyone else's game of the year has been? Anything that surprised you for better or worse? Anything you're looking forward to for 2026?
no subject
Date: 2025-12-23 05:48 pm (UTC)I really enjoyed playing E33, and I think the soundtrack is fire, that win I think was definitely deserved imo. Which is unfortunate because I've always loved Darren Korb's scores, Bastion has one of my favorite game OSTs. I just started playing Hades II like three days ago but the music sounds like it slaps as usual.
I only played like, 4 games this year so E33 would have to be my personal GotY lmao but I did have a lot of fun playing Split Fiction when it came out. And Hades II of course but I'm only up to fighting Scylla and she keeps kicking my ass so I'm not very far.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-24 04:36 pm (UTC)I'm looking forward to playing E33 someday, and if the soundtrack really is better than Hades it's got to be an absolute banger.