A Year in Review, Jan 28 to Mar 18
Well
So much for my goal of regularity when it came to these posts. The data is all being collected in the background, but it doesn’t make me sit down and actually write it like I’m supposed to.
I’ve started tracking playtime on systems like the PS4 and Nintendo Switch, nothing as advanced as the AWS Lambda that queries the Steam API for me, instead I’m using a bog-standard time tracking app on my phone to manage it. There’s some variation in the times that are going to be provided, if only because it’s impossible to do such things accurately.
I’d prefer to automate this, but Sony stopped collecting the data, or exposing it over the Playstation API, so I can’t access it that way. Nintendo may offer something, but I haven’t checked.
It’d be really nice if Sony would re-enable that functionality, because I’ve been playing on my Vita A Lot over the last month and a half, and knowing roughly how much time that’s been would be nice.
Anyway, here’s some data!
Jan 28 to Feb 04
Destiny 2
Platform: PS4
Time Played: 4.1 hours
I have … a lot of complicated feelings around Destiny and Destiny 2. This was the first time I’d played it in almost a month, and it was complicated to come back to. I’ll have more thoughts in a big block of text eventually.
Breath Of The Wild
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Time Played: 4.7 hours
My partner got this for Christmas, and I’d been holding off on playing, and, wow, yep, this is beautiful.
Unfortunately, also nearly unplayable on the JoyCons, but much improved with the Pro controller. Further, the swapped confirm/cancel is … difficult.
Feb 04 to Feb 11
Breath Of The Wild
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Time Played: 4.7 hours
Breath of the Wild is still great! Loving it! Yay!
Destiny 2
Platform: PS4
Time Played: 5.6 hours
This is where I noped out of Destiny 2 completely, and I mean completely. I was so completely and utterly done with the game, with there being nothing to do and the PvP being … unpleasant at best and the just utter emptiness of it.
Uninstalled it, unplugged PS4, walked away. As of this writing (March 19) I haven’t touched it again, but I have, as of the 18th, reinstalled it … so we’ll see how that goes.
Feb 11 to Feb 25
Big block of time - there was nothing in the Feb 18 time window (which was odd), so it’s the two-week interval.
Stellaris
Platform: PC
Time Played: 18.0 hours
This was me finally beating my first game of Stellaris, in a setup to 2.0 and Apocalypse coming out.
Finally! After a year and a half of Stellaris, beating a game. It was … Stellaris suffers from a lot of performance problems in the mid and late game, which makes grinding out the win really timeconsuming and rather boring and unpleasant.
It also covers a decent amount of playtime in Apocalypse, which seems to have fixed some of the performance issues, and really changes up how the whole game plays. Enjoying it, going to write up more thoughts on that soon-ish.
Hollow Knight
Platform: PC
Time Played: 4.0 hours
Yeah… I don’t know. It’s a weird one, this. Metroid-vania, clearly influenced by the Souls series, beautifully haunting hand-drawn art.
I was enjoying it until I got to a new area and I could no longer deal with the enemies, and it got really frustrating. I remain uncertain as to if I’ll go back.
Cultist Simulator
Platform: PC
Time Played: 3.5 hours
Saw a video of this early access game, by Eurogamer. It looked really neat. It’s really neat!
Stories Untold
Platform: PC
Time Played: 2.4 hours
A short set of vignettes. This right here is the inspiration for this post right here.
Make of that what you will.
Observer
Platform: PC
Time Played: 1.4 hours
This was finishing up the game from before Christmas. I enjoyed it, overall. It was extremely pretty, but the forced stealth sections really really ruined it for me, and I have no interest in going back because of that.
Dark Souls
Platform: PC
Time Played: 1.1 hours
This was about the time I read that Bloodborne was coming to PS Plus, and I wanted to see if I’d bounce off Dark Souls again.
I’d been watching a Eurogamer Let’s Play as well, and I really enjoy Dead Cells, and to a lesser extent Hollow Knight, so I … should like it?
Turns out: I do not.
Feb 25 to Mar 04
Stellaris
Platform: PC
Time Played: 7.5 hours
More playing in Apocalypse. Definitely enjoying Apocalypse, with my exceedingly friendly Space Lizards named the Gee Koh Republic.
I love my little Gee Kohs.
Darkest Dungeon
Platform: PC
Time Played: 5.2 hours
Turns out that this game works really well when streamed to your couch, and you have a trackball for it. So I’ve been doing that.
I read a couple of small guides, and the ones that talk about using weak newbies in blackout runs to grind for cash was … both inspiring and makes me feel a bit icky inside when I do it.
But someone has to pay to keep my heavy hitters in the fight, and the endless stream of rookies are … are free to hire.
The Final Station
Platform: PC
Time Played: 4.0 hours
I’d seen a bit of footage on YouTube about this. It looked interesting.
It was kinda interesting, I guess?
ABZÛ
Platform: PC
Time Played: 17 minutes
This game is extremely pretty.
This game gives me a lot of nausea.
I am not pleased about the latter point.
Mar 04 to Mar 11
Darkest Dungeon
Platform: PC
Time Played: 4.1 hours
More of the same, playing on my couch in the evening with my trackball. Good times.
Bloodborne
Platform: PS4
Time Played: 17.8 hours
And this is where Bloodborne landed on PS Plus, and this is where I got sunk into it.
It’d been my first really in-depth experience with a From Software game, and … I almost bounced off hard. I ended up spending 4 or 5 hours trying to get past the initial area and just getting creamed over and over and over again, terrified to explore and terrified of engaging with the first boss.
I eventually looked up a guide for the early area and got the first boss down but wow, early frustration, nearly uninstalled.
I am glad I didn’t because this game is great and I am loving it.
Mar 11 to Mar 18
Bloodborne
Platform: PS4
Time Played: 19.4 hours
I am still loving it.
Darkest Dungeon
Platform: PC
Time Played: 2.2 hours
I am still enjoying this too.
PS Vita
So I mentioned above that I’m playing on my Vita a lot lately.
It’s … I never really considered this to be a great console. I mostly got it so I had something to play while I was travelling, that wasn’t too heavy and had good software options, but even then I was hesitant to really use it.
And then I bought Rogue Legacy for it, and started replaying that, and just the utility and portability of the Vita caught me again. It excels at short games that don’t require deep investment, arcade-y stuff like Resogun or Rogue Legacy or Downwell.
It’s less good for longer and in-depth games like Gravity Rush, though. Not because it’s a bad game, but because longer sessions, you want a comfortable controller and a comfortable, well, TV to play them on. Now that Gravity Rush is remastered for PS4, I’d much rather play it there than on the handheld, I’d much rather play Persona 4 if it hit PS4 on the PS4, and so on.
Also, because most of my gaming on the Vita is those short snippets, the way I’m logging time … doesn’t work, because it’s a minute to start the timer logging, and if I’m playing for 5 minutes, why bother?
It’s definitely sold me on the full value proposition of the Switch, though.