The Steam Awards 2022 Votes

Three of my nominees made it to the voting round for The Steam Awards 2022 and they are No Man's Sky for the "Labor of Love" category, and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ for "Best Soundtrack". Vampire Survivor was my nominee for the "Sit Back and Relax" category but apparently more people considered it as a "Best Game on the Go" candidate - apparently, people have that minimum of 30 minutes required to properly play this game while on the go? Right. I find it funny that even though when nominating titles, a game can only occupy one category. Meanwhile, in the actual list of nominees to vote for, a game can appear multiple times on the list. Here are my votes though. Just to make it clear, I would never vote for Elden Ring to win game of the year. That title truly belongs to Immortality. But of course, I am only limited to the options presented. Anyway, the winners will be announced on January 3rd next year.

Twitch Recap of a Quiet Stream

Year-end recaps are not just a console thing anymore with twitch.tv now joining the fray in showcasing the summary of your activities on the site for the year. I have returned to stream on twitch again this year after about 1 year of exclusively streaming to YouTube, which happened to be a superior experience when it comes to video management. I am not a popular gamer on both platforms, so it's no longer about the viewers for me. There was a time when I was using game broadcasting as a way to meet new gaming acquaintances, but I know that is no longer what streaming is all about. For me, it's a matter of capturing moments for posterity and it has been an interesting retrospect on my life as gamer. What eventually forced me to abandon YouTube livestreaming however is the ridiculous setup every single time you stream, in which YouTube insisted to treat each stream as a whole new entity instead of providing us a universal dashboard that stays connected and ready for your stream at any given time. Recently, YouTube has even overhauled their mobile streaming experience but still failed to provide the much-needed update to the desktop page. I criticized them for this in the comment section and they actually replied back that they will be focusing on desktop soon. I haven't seen anything yet, but my fingers are still crossed. Anyway, the following stats are just for half of the year 2022 because I started streaming on Twitch again around August.

I don't remember that many chat messages since my return.
They may have accidentally added the lifetime amount for me.

Game Room 4.1 Incoming?

Well, it's Christmas time and while most people are adorning their homes with Christmas decorations, I get to work on my... Game Room? Let's not celebrate this news just yet! I am just tired of sitting around in here surrounded by these dull Amazon boxes that I mostly use as my moving containers, and I mean t-i-r-e-d! I was just like, f^ck this, I'm going to leave everything to the spirit of gaming and regain my Game Room, come what may! Life is too short not to be enjoyed, and it was much more fun when this Game Room was alive several months ago.

The Skylanders are out and about! Free from their cardboard prisons!

Christmas Gifts for Demanding Gamers

So you know someone like me, a gamer who has it all, and you want to get this person a Christmas gift. Well, there is a really easy route to complete this task: which will fail to impress the individual, but a gift is a gift right? This includes getting the latest Call of Duty games (without even checking with the person if he or she already owns the game), buying popular gaming magazines or guides to the latest games that you suspected the person is playing, or paying for a gift card to Best Buy or GameStop which is quite insulting to a high-end gamer. Worry not troubled shopper, I am here to guide you through this difficult time as you rush to get the ultimate gamer gift. I know you have had enough of the fake smiles, the overblown reactions, and the quick head turns when all you ever wanted is to do is show the gamer you love that you mean well.

Option I - RTX 4090

Stack the Steam Banners: A Daily Grind

Do you keep all of your Steam games installed? I try to and this is why I have a total of 26TB of storage, a combination of hard drives and solid-state drives, available on my Personal Computer. With access to 6,200+ Steam games however, you know that even that amount of storage is just not enough. So, I keep all the games that I have installed because I want to be able to play them immediately when I feel like it, but I don't automatically install all of the games that I just got from the Steam store. And we are only talking about Steam games here. I also have a multitude of other gaming clients on my PC, like Epic Games or the EA App and I got plenty of games there installed as well. Is there a reason to keep games installed on your PC outside of having the convenience of their ready to play state? With Internet speed getting faster and faster as the years go by, maybe this situation is not as complex as it initially seems.

I have ONLY about 27% of my Steam library installed and ready to play.

A Christmas in a Remote Cabin

Sounds like a horrible setup for a horror movie, isn't it? But seriously, I have been mulling over the idea of spending the Christmas holiday chilling in a remote cabin somewhere with my little Yoshi as we both enjoy... nature and isolation? I don't know, I do enjoy having the more personal celebration of Christmas these past couple of years due to the pandemic and quite frankly, I didn't miss all the hustle and bustle and all that noise that usually happens in a family gathering. I mean, why do you wait until Christmas time to celebrate anything with the family anyway? We don't know when we will be dead so if you have the need to hang out with someone, just do without being imposed nor limited by religious/societal events. I just learned about the passing of Kirstie Alley today, which was just shocking to me. One minute, you are alive and the next, you are no longer here. And gamers worried about a game's length when our own playtime rummaging about the Earth is extremely short.

Why build a remote cabin in a video game when you can stay in one in real life?

Wait, now I sound like a non-gamer!

Friendship Is Hard, But Not This Hard

I'm a loner. That's a fact. I don't particularly find much interest in having people around me for the bulk of my life, outside of a pet or two and a lover. As long as I have those, my social life is pretty much complete. I don't bemoan not having close friends because at the end of the day, I am left only with my own self. The truth of life is that you are always alone, and if you cannot contend with being happy as an individual, you are not living your own life. It's easy to fall into the trap of living through others, and I have seen many do just that. All this to say that I am no expert on forging friendships, even on the Internet. As a matter of fact, I am mostly open to friendships through the Internet. I do see the value of interacting with other people and I enjoy doing so while broadcasting my gaming activities, for example. Friendship is a transactional thing, and the currency is presence. We tell each other about ourselves, share our time with each other talking or gaming together, and offer support when the time calls for it.

"...and u have so much games than I couldn't even dream to have..."

The Steam Awards 2022 Nominations

It's that time of the year again when Steam is having its Autumn Sale event while taking in nominations for The Steam Awards for the year 2022. It's two days before Thanksgiving and I still have nothing solid to add to my current situation but let's forget about that for a moment and have a little bit of fun. Here are my nominations. Feel free to add the link to your nomination page in the comment section! I'd love to see your list of excellent titles for the year.

Alaska It Is, Then?

Not having access to most of my video gaming stuff that I have been accumulating over the years since my undergraduate studies a lifetime ago has been rough on me. There are the good days, and then there are the bad days. On a good day, I can forget about the aforementioned fact and actually have fun with the games that I am able to play, mostly on the Personal Computer, with the PlayStation 5 and the X-Box Series X being the only two consoles that are still hooked up to my entertainment center these days. On a bad day though, it's just downright depressing. You know that ever since I got the PS5 and XSX up and running in my Game Room, I haven't been able to use any of the old discs on them because those have all already been boxed up, ready for transport? It almost feels like a vicious and cruel sort of punishment on an intergalactic or even interdimensional scale. When the thought of not being able to see and touch my gaming stuff like I used to before suddenly flood over me, it is quite an overwhelming feeling. The fun of having my Game Room with everything in its place is the ability to be able to get to them at the time of my own choosing and to enjoy them at my own leisure. This has been the center of my gaming existence and being isolated from that for a long time sometimes feels like I don't even have these gaming items anymore. Out of sight doesn't necessarily mean out of mind though absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Trying to restore the gaming essence back into the room with strategic box placements.

Nathan Drake: The Chest Hair Delusion

I am still recovering from seeing Nathan Drake with chest hair, removing him from the status of being a sex symbol but you know what? While working on the thumbnail for my upcoming Uncharted: The Legacy of Thieves Collection video, I noticed that Nathan Drake is being shown as not having a fluffy chest on the cover art of the game itself as you can see for yourself below:

Aha! I knew it!

Nathan Drake Is a Hairy Man?

Is it just me, or has Nathan Drake from the Uncharted games been wearing a hairy chest on him all of these years we have known him? I always imagined of him, or fantasized I guess to be more accurate, having a smooth chest. But then I saw this screenshot during yesterday's launch of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection on Steam - the series finally made it out of Sony's ecosystem, thank the galaxy - and I was disheartened with what I have seen because, as you can probably conclude, I am on Team Smooth.

The stubble is hot. The creeping bush is not.

Home and the Places In-Between

I thought that by now, I would have found myself in a new home, setting up my new Game Room by applying creative techniques to maximize the nooks and crannies of the room that I have chosen for such purpose. I still dreamed of the glorious days of Game Room 2.0 - It was the perfect amalgamation of all of my physical gaming items, embraced by a generous amount of room. The last two iterations have been a challenge for me with version 3.0 lacking any real open space while 4.0, where I am writing this from, being more of a temporary gaming station (if you want to call 2+ years temporary that is) which means that I couldn't customize it entirely to my liking. Things are not as simple as I would like them to be. Such is life. Situations evolve, things change, circumstances complicate. Now, I am not even sure moving is going to happen anymore.

Looking like a storage room than a gamer brothel.

Scariest Jumpscare Is a Title Screen

Looking for a nasty scare in your gaming life? 'Tis the season of everything horror after all. Well, at least for a lot of people. I had planned to do another horror-themed event this month, but I have buried that whole thing deep into the ground since it was just plain dead. There was zero interest in it apparently, and I made the mistake of selecting Resident Evil Village as the first game for me to play. It was too scary. I could barely move for the majority of the 3 broadcast sessions of the game and without any morale support - I even attempted to recruit local help but you know, I am the only gamer in the vicinity - the event was destined to fail. I was thinking about switching to a different game on my Gothtober 2022 list but decided to just switch it up and go back to my yearly Honor Month which preceded it. Usually in October, while everyone else and their great uncles are playing horror games and try to outspook each other, I would instead play anything I want and dedicate the month to those who honor themselves by paving their own paths in their lives, like not following what's trending but instead, always following their own hearts.

RIP Gothtober 2021 - 2022?

Speaking of everything scary and spooky though, I got an unexpected one from just getting to the title screen of a game! Spoiler warning: The actual title screen that scared me will be shown after the page break.

ME: Andromeda - Tale of Two Ryders

I am currently in the process of playing through Mass Effect: Andromeda on the Personal Computer, a game that I haven't touched ever since my first attempt of completing it back in 2017. In case you have forgotten, ME:A was generally hated by the fans of the series. I played around 20 hours of it before I got distracted, which is something that occurs often with me. The game had broken facial animations and I remember during the sequence when a new spaceship given under my command was supposed to land on the dock failed to actually load, resulting in a hilarious cutscene - all of these have been fixed since then. I never thought that the game was horrible outside of the aforementioned things and the sound mix in which some NPC conversations are quite difficult to hear. It was the case of Dragon Age II, in which it is another BioWare game that I personally enjoyed a lot but is misunderstood by many. There was just no way that a Mass Effect game that doesn't include Command Shepard and his lackeys are going to hit the same because that character's journey across 3 massive games were indeed legendary. I can always appreciate games that branch off into different narrative territories and I can see the creative approach behind Me:A to separate itself from the original trilogy. The only time this game gets any kind of positive public recognition is when Electronic Arts finally made Me:A available on Steam in 2021 because you know... Steamoroids.

ME:A was never a bad game. It just wasn't launched on Steam.

Loving Genshin, Loving Epic

You know that one of the reasons why I can justify having a PlayStation 5 in my Game Room is so that I can actually play Genshin Impact on the console... Well, you can now scape that off the list. I am not a fan of kernel level anti-cheat and Genshin has that. But I did more research and did some tests and I can say now that I am comfortable with having it installed on my Personal Computer... via the Epic Game Store that is. So why have I decided on this? The lag. The horrible, horrible lag. Genshin on the PlayStation 4 was a baffling experience because of the intentional 30fps performance - there is no reason why the PS4 cannot run the game at 60fps. On the PS5, I was then annoyed by the consistently horrible 200+ ping that causes the game to lag pretty darn often. Now on the PC, I get 80+ ping and I have never experienced a single instance of lag. So yeah! PS5, you can keep your Smite (no HiPatchService.exe for me), but Genshin belongs to the PC. Since I have been playing a lot of Genshin, the player experience surveys from Epic for this game has been popping up on me constantly too.

Player input without all the nonsense.

The X-Box Flipperoo & A Surprise Judgment

After I got my X-Box Series X unit last month, my curiosity had resulted into me actually getting a couple of more physical games for the system - well, more like for the X-Box One but I don't have that console because I skipped that cycle - just to confirm if Microsoft had indeed designed the game disc holders to stay on the left side of the game cases. Well, here's the result:

Lefties rejoice! Definitely an unexpected, unique twist to disc storage.

Now THAT Is a PlayStation 5!

I couldn't stand it anymore. It was so bloody ugly. It didn't even matter if I was using the PlayStation 5, or playing Personal Computer games, or just browsing YouTube videos. I would always, always manage to catch it in the corner of my eyes. The ugliness. The horror. Those awful, absolutely dreadful white cover plates. They were just plain disgusting. And there is just absolutely no way on Earth that I would pay Sony $55 for their official cover plates. The appropriate price for them should be $20. I was waiting for third party cover plates to go down in price too, but I just couldn't wait anymore. If I were to continue seeing the PS5 the way it was, I would have gone blind pretty darn soon. So, I opted for this black third-party cover plates which have some cool engravings on them, and I couldn't have been happier. Behold! The true form of the PS5:

A Game Room Haunting: Eerie True Story

No, Gothtober 2022 is still 2 months away (I am not even sure if it's going to happen this year with the move and all) but I want to share with you a terrifying little story. About a couple of weeks ago, I started hearing this high pitch, whistling noise while I do my thang in the Game Room. I actually have the first occurrence of this recorded in one of my saved livestreams on YouTube, I just can't recall the exact date and time. Then, it started happening intermittently. It sounded, I don't know, electronic? So, I checked all of the smoke detectors and I unplugged a lot of appliances to see if the sound would stop. It didn't of course. I couldn't pinpoint where the sound was coming from because the sound never lasted very long. I did narrow it down though to the hallway of the house. Days later, I started getting a little concerned. I was thinking of calling an electrician, but I was very determined to figure it out on my own. Checking online, - yes, the best source of information - apparently there are people out there with the same issue. The sound they were describing matched exactly the sound that I had been hearing. I thought perhaps it may be electricity related. I was very convinced of this because well, I couldn't find any other explanation and also, the city was apparently digging up the street a couple of blocks away. They have been working on that area for a while and I thought, well, maybe they finally hit the wrong wire. One day, I actually heard the sound while getting the mail, so I thought maybe the sound was coming from outside near the front door.

A scary noise in the Game Room? I wonder where it's coming from.

X-Box User Reviews

And I thought the user reviews on Steam were horrible... I was trying to decide which platform to install Rumbleverse on - though the obvious choice here is the Personal Computer - when I noticed that just like the Microsoft Store on Windows, users are allowed to write reviews on the X-Box Series X store. What I found within of course is a never-ending show of the worst of humanity which mixes internal psychological disturbances with an unhealthy dose of racism and topped off with everything wrong you can possibly think of.

This is what happens when you have only had sex with yourself and is very frustrated about it.

X-Box Series X in the Game Room

Something dark and ominous this way comes.

Things sure have been hectic here in my slowly disappearing Game Room. The PlayStation 5 finally made it here a little over 2 weeks ago and now that these current generation of consoles are starting to become more available, I have finally opened up a space for the X-Box Series X in my life. As I had explained to Microsoft prior to launch, I wanted to experience the impact that owning such a console have in the life of someone who already has access to a Personal Computer that is far superior to the Series X. I was surprised that they actually responded to my request back then - positively, even- because well, it's easy to misconstrue my statement as sarcasm about the necessity of Series X's existence even though I definitely didn't mean it that way. The availability was quite scarce during the initial launch, so I was not able to score myself a unit. Still, I have had ample opportunities to actually obtain a Series X soon after but after that initial failure to obtain one, I just wasn't feeling motivated enough to own the darn thing. I think having access to the PS5 now has tripped some kind of completionist switch in me that reignited my curiosity about the Series X.

Unboxing the PS5 was a bore. Opening the box for the Series X is an epic, special occasion.
The inner packing feels quite premium with lavish foam paddings and stylish compartments.

PlayStation 5 in the Game Room

My PlayStation 5 unit has finally arrived today. First impression? This thing is way too big for no real reason. Since it's a Mark Cerny production, he probably thought that engorging the size like this would make the console feel more powerful. Overcompensate much? It's definitely the biggest console I have ever seen. Is the X-Box Series X this huge as well? Once in, the dashboard interface is quite uninspired. It's basically a sleeker version of the PlayStation 4's dashboard with all the weird particles floating about a dull, greyish background. It's not minimalistic for the sake of being stylish, it is so as an excuse for just being lazy. I am very surprised however that they are finally able to give us access to a functional trophy screen. Loading up your trophies details on the PlayStation 3 requires you to sacrifice your entire youth while it's maybe half of that on the PS4 but here, it's very fast and responsive. Bravo, I suppose?

The PS5 is way larger than how it looks in pictures...

Steam Deck: Shut That Sh!t Down

I had to wait 5 hours at a hospital today and you know what that means: Steam Deck time! Just like a born-again virgin, that Steam Deck hasn't been touched in weeks. I always put the Deck to sleep when I am not using it and I should have known better because I have seen the battery for the Deck depleting at a rapid rate even while it's asleep... I don't know, I have left the Nintendo DS on sleep mode for years and when I eventually opened the clam shell, it was still on. But no, not the Steam Deck. I spent the first couple of hours of my wait time visiting nearby parks to satiate Yoshi's peepee lust and that was fun. Then, I drove back to the hospital and found a cool, fully shaded corner of the parking complex, unzipped the sexy carrying case, pulled out the Steam Deck and pushed the power button... Nothing. The screen was dark, there was no power light near the power button. I realized then that I was f*cked.

Stuck in a car for 3 hours with a limp Deck and a demon dog can't be that bad... right?

PlayStation 5: I'm Having a Move Party

Of course, now that I am inching closer to moving to my new home, guess who has decided to join my Game Library? It's Sony's PlayStation 5 of course, which is the inbred, test tube baby of one Mark Cerny. Thank you, babe, for making this all possible. Since all of my PlayStation 4 games are already packed away, I will only be able to play my PS4 digital games without redownloading them since my PS4 external hard drive is still lazing about in my entertainment center. Let's be real now, there are hardly any games out that I want to play on the console so it's pretty much just going to take up the PS4's place as that unit is now relegated to a back-up console.

It looks like I will be receiving the Forbidden West bundle. Still need to finish the first game though.

In a World of Meme Reviews, Epic Got It Right

Steam. I love Steam. But I don't love Steam's "Customer Reviews". Not only do I not love it, I don't even like it. Sure, there are people out there who actually put some real thought into reviewing a Steam game. But 90% of the time? All you see are children, or adults acting like children, trying to out-meme each other with nonsensical non-reviews for what reason? Nobody knows. Then, there are also the review bombings and all the Steamoroids flare-ups (this involves individuals who are so unhappy that a developer decided to make some money and have its game exclusive to another game client and now that they have the ability to showcase that vitriol on Steam, they purchase the game and throw up a non-review). At this point, I don't think Valve cares anymore. I mean, since they introduced the Steam Points, meme reviewers are finding themselves as recipients of plenty of Steam Points Awards to further encourage their behavior.

Steam displays this as the most helpful review for Stray.

Meanwhile over at the Epic Games Store, things are a little different. While browsing their current sales event (sadly, I have purchased most of these games on Steam), I just saw an "Epic Player Rating" section. This shiny new feature was released last month apparently and I love it! Just look at this:

Epic Games: Free, Not Free to Play

Okay, Epic Games need to get their act together because I am noticing a horrible trend with their weekly free games offer. They have provided us free-to-play incentive packages before but the frequency of this is increasing. Just look at what they have on the menu for this week and next week:

The real free games are cool like always but the other two? Pure crap.

The Perfect Use of Steam Deck: Horror Games

This thing, this portable personal computer, meant to be used while you are away from your gaming space... It's actual reason for existence has now been revealed to me. The Steam Deck is the best way for one to play horror games whether it's in your gaming room or otherwise. Well, at least for me anyway. You know that these days, my tolerance for horror games is extremely low. I get too scared way too easily. Gone were the days when I would play the original Silent Hill, which to this day is still one of the scariest games ever made, in the middle of the night, in the dark, in the living room of my apartment because nowadays, even in a secured, well-lit Game Room, every moving shadow on the big screen in any horror title would force me to wail out a dying scream. Well, that's exactly the problem, isn't it? The big screen. I have now noticed that one of the factors - the other being a personal trauma, which I would guess have more of an impact on me than anything else - was the screen size. I started cowering from horror games around the same time that my gaming display started getting larger in size. I mean, everything is scarier and more impactful on a large screen, right? And everything is just downright unbearable in virtual reality!

This used to be a portal to hell. Now, it's just the exit to the forest.

Physical Games Are Hard

As I have mentioned recently, I am in the process of moving to a new home. I am still weighing my options in terms of the locations, but I am homing in on several promising spots. It's safe to say though that Hawaii is off the list at the moment because well, there is a reason why I am where I am. There used to be this one extra-friendly, older Hawaiian phlebotomist who worked at my primary physician's office. Every time I was sent her way, she would always encourage me to come home. She would always ask me about my last trip to Hawaii and inquire about my family. Of course, telling her that my parents are ready to kill me because I am gay would probably change her sunny disposition and since, well, she was the one doing the poking, I wanted her to always be in a jolly mood so she could easily find my vein. So now it's down to Alaska and, uh what was it that I said before, Connecticut? Somebody suggested Texas because of the affordable housing market but that would almost be as bad as moving to Hawaii at this point. Progress on the living arrangement is slow and steady but I am about halfway done with packing up my things. And you know what? I have to let this out of my chest: physical games are just not worth it!

Slowly but surely, the Game Room is starting to look like a storage room.

Steam Deck's First Outing

I took my Steam Deck out on the road today. I didn't spend too much time with it however because I didn't have to stay parked that long. I did encounter a snag however with one of the games that I tried to play, South Park: The Stick of Truth. It wouldn't launch at all as it kept telling me that it was out of sync with Steam cloud even though the Deck was set to offline mode.

Waiting is never boring with two great companions with me.

Steam Deck: First Impression

I finally got my Steam Deck portable gaming personal computer today, delivered in, while stylish, a blatantly conspicuous wide box with the Steam Deck logo printed outside of it. And yes, there is even a Portal reference on the box. If this was an Amazon delivery, you know the driver would have just taken it home and reported it missing, risking his or her livelihood for the sake of snatching up a rare PlayStation 5 unit. Oops, wrong story. But yes, you can tell that the box is holding the Steam Deck but I suppose Valve probably had these things tightly insured right up the microSD slot to eliminate delivery issues.

If you mean the bedroom, yes... And perhaps the toilet.

Steam Deck Incoming

I was doing some light livestreaming of Aquarist for the Personal Computer this morning and after I was done, I saw a yellow bar on top of the Steam client. I was so scared because I have never seen this type of notification before. I thought perhaps that perhaps I was being flagged by Valve because someone attempted to hack my account. Imagine my relief and joy when it was actually a notification to inform me that my Steam Deck is ready for shipping!

Got the message in email form as well.

Fitness Comes from Outside of Gaming?

I have been wanting to shed off some pounds but starting a healthy routine is always a challenge. After struggling to initiate a return to healthy physical activities using video games as exercise tools, I have instead used a video streaming service to accomplish that goal. I have been eyeing a bunch of exercise videos on Amazon Prime for a while. Many are quite intimidating, so I was hesitant to commit to any of them until I finally found one that really caught my fancy: 30 Day Yoga for Weight Loss with Julia Marie. I have flirted with yoga before through Yourself!Fitness on the original X-Box and I have always been curious about the daily practice of yoga. So I was like, I got 30 days (one would always hope so) and I want to lose some weight, so why not?

I am on day 26! Haven't missed a single day and I am proud of it.

Alaska, Hawaii, Rest of Life Kawaii

Looks like it's almost time for me to move again. Dear galaxy, I am not looking forward to boxing up all these gaming items at all. Over the next several months, you will start seeing things slowly disappearing from my background if you watch my gaming livestreams. I have been making plans since the beginning of the year but to be frank, nothing has been finalized yet. I just know that it has to be done and that it's time for me to move on ahead to the next chapter of my life. It is my hope however that wherever it is that I am going to, it will be the last relocation in my life. Will I be back to where it all begins, surrounded by bluest hue of the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii, or will the raw nature of Alaska hold me firm in its embrace? And then there's always Minnesota.

Alaska always on my mind.

Target: Where Good Gamers Go to Shop

I have a confession to make. I am a Target shopper. But you probably already know that because I have mentioned this a few times here before. The funny thing is, Target isn't a place where the rich shop. I often get that side glance when I mention my affinity for doing some light grocery shopping at Target. I mean, it's not like I said I shop at a freakin' Bel Air. Walmart is often mentioned as a counterargument. As if there is even a comparison. Do you like shopping at cramped spaces where there are too many people walking around for a slight price difference? Where the employees just don't care? Well if you do, please don't go to Target. It's not like I can even step into a Walmart without risking a simultaneous combustion anyway. Now, I used to do a lot of game shopping at Target. This was during the pre-PlayStation 3 days. I have never been a fan of asking people to "fetch" the games for me because they are all locked-up behind a glass shelf though. Thank the galaxy for Amazon deliveries and also the current digital distribution of games.

Kirby ate the Target ball!

Steam Treasure: Ejaculation Time?!

Yes, another entry for Steam Treasure already. I go through the Discovery Queue on Steam a lot and I allow Valve to show me everything it has in store, and I mean everything. As you may expect, there are a lot of crapware on Steam but some are just more special than the rest. Today I found... Ejaculation Time: Mommy Play with a Super-Sexy Fox Girl.

A sexy fox lady with a twisted maternal instinct...

Steam Treasure: My Newborn Life in a Harem

I go through the Discovery Queue on Steam a lot and I allow Valve to show me everything it has in store, and I mean everything. As you may expect, there are a lot of crapware on Steam but some are just more special than the rest. Today, I found... My Newborn Life in a Harem.

Afterlife full of sex? Sounds like a religious promise.

Luna: The Amazon Star Story

Amazon's entry into game streaming with Luna officially launched earlier this month. I tried to play it as soon as it became available - Amazon Prime members get access to a monthly rotation of 4 free games - but I couldn't even play it on my Personal Computer nor my mobile devices because the service then required you to use Google Chrome and I have moved on from that browser for a while now. I was on Amazon several days ago just shopping away and without even realizing it, I started looking at the Luna page again. I clicked on one of the free games and was so surprised that the game stream actually started. Good for them for expanding the browser compatibility list.

Prime membership is expensive enough. Amazon should have given us access to Luna+.

Steam Treasure: Foot Odor Girl

I go through the Discovery Queue on Steam a lot and I allow Valve to show me everything it has in store, and I mean everything. As you may expect, there are a lot of crapware on Steam but some are just more special than the rest. Today, I found... Foot Odor Girl.

Wouldn't it be easier to visit a park and intentionally step on dog poop?

Is It Safe to Buy Games With Epic Around?

The Epic Games Store has been a blessing to the Personal Computer gaming world with its weekly offer of free games. Let's not forget that it also brings something that is sorely missing from Electronic Arts' soon to be replaced Origin and Ubisoft Connect, a real competitive edge in a Steam dominated world. Epic has not been cheap at all with their free game selections. These games being offered for free have been either significant titles or more known smaller releases with flops rarely ever being presented in the lineup.

Dauntless is still alive? I thought the Monster Hunter PC releases killed it.

Are You Ready for Elden Ring?

Ah, Elden Ring by FromSoftware, one of the most hyped-up games ever, coming to your PlayStation 4/5, variety of X-Boxes and the Personal Computer. It is coming out tomorrow and you can pre-load the game today to further heighten that sense of anticipation. To me, it's just another Souls game and if the past couple of them is any indication, the experience is probably going to be... as expected. Which is, oh everything looks new, feels new, but it's the same old game. And yes, I still feel the same way about the whole "oh the Souls games are so hard" nonsense. It's a game where you learn enemy patterns and location layouts. Demanding? Yes. Annoying? Maybe. Hard? No.

The core gameplay is probably as "elden" as the ring.

In Need of a Sex Change

Yesterday, I started a new playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 for the Personal Computer. I was reminded of the game after I saw a big announcement about the latest patch version 1.5 for the game on Steam. The patch is primarily rolled out to give PlayStation 5 and X-Box Series X players their proper visual update, but I understand that they have also added a host of new changes to the game as well. I was just curious if they ever fixed the missing image of V on reflective surfaces: the fact that this game is one of the first to implement real time ray tracing and to have your main character missing from the equation is quite an embarrassment. I was disappointed to find out that V is still not showing any reflection outside of some special mirrors, which is really, really odd. Perhaps I need to get to the part when V is revealed to be a vampire.

Sindel... Is that you?

When you are trying to make Ingrid and got a MK character instead.

インターネット ボーイフレンド

You know what's so cool about the Internet? It enables people to find each other in ways that was just nigh impossible before. I suppose in parts, I should thank my persistence in making myself available on the net with all the livestreaming I have been doing over the years. Even through the utter mundanity of the process, through all the uncertainties, all the harassments, it's all been worth it because I have also found a lot of joy in it... and most importantly, via the magic of the net, I have found someone special in my life, someone who has been there for me during my loneliest moments over the past couple of years. Maybe Oprah was right about the secret of the universe (she's not), that all you have to do is long for it and life will guide you towards the very thing that you desire the most and the only thing you have do then is to accept it with open arms.

I am hooked on these stupid animated emojis...

Steam Treasure: Slimy Sextet

I go through the Discovery Queue on Steam a lot and I allow Valve to show me everything that it has in store, and I mean everything. As you may expect, there are a lot of crapware on Steam but some are just more special than the rest. Today, I found... Slimy Sextet.

Use your tentacles like the Na'vi use their hair!

9,000! Plus an Encounter with an Immortal Soul

Well, I made it folks. I am 1,000 titles away from the big 10K. As of tonight, my game collection is sitting at 9,002! And... I feel very good about it. Especially the fact that most of these games can be accessed digitally. I am so tired of physical games. They are such a burden. Those of you lucky enough to become gamers after video games started being offered via digital distributions, I do envy you. Don't let the physical-only crowd bully you into accepting their delusions - going digital is the smart way to go and you have all of my support!

Having a lot of Steam games installed also means nonstop game updates.

An Exercise in Gaming: A New Perspective

I've been looking at this all wrong. Screw Yourself!Fitness! Forget Ring Fit Adventure! The last time I have used an exercise software presented as video games was, I don't know, mid 2021? My weight during this never-ending pandemic has been yoyoing up and down with a progressively ballooning belly and I can't seem to stay committed to any exercise routines from specific exercise games. I remember writing that the trick is to find a program that can make you think that you are playing a game when you are actually working your body and Ring Fit Adventure on the Nintendo Switch is a good representation of that ideal. I was certainly on the right track, but I accidentally fell down into the bush on the side and couldn't get myself up. You see, if one is looking to find video games that could trick you into exercising, well, those games should not be games that present themselves as exercise programs to begin with!

One of my Christmas 2021 gifts. Still haven't played it yet.

Evaluating Connections in an Online World

I recently had a falling out with an online gaming acquaintance. I know. I hate using the word "friend" because, well, after a while, it's hard to associate that word to anyone when it becomes synonymous to a lot of negative emotions. So yes, I always think of my gaming contacts as "acquaintances". Often times, some people seemed to showcase such promising attributes only to suddenly show me who they really are. It's no secret that I am anti-social. I have always been this way. I never see it as a problem because I am content having myself as my only companion. But of course, things just can't stay the same. As time goes on, life gets more and more complicated. From falling in love to getting to know someone through social gaming, I have experienced the beauty of human connections, though these occurrences are mostly short-lived. It's easy to let go when acquaintanceships go awry but they still disturb me just the same.

Can't find appropriate pictures for this post so... Let's just feature pics of Yoshi!

VR HMD Upgraded: VIVE Pro 2

I was an early doubter turned early adopter of virtual reality gaming. I really enjoyed the HTC Vive and it has been my sole VR head mounted display for the past 5+ years. When Vive Pro and the Valve Index that came after it showed up later on, they were not compelling enough of an upgrade for me at the time because I feel that I needed to spend more time in VR to justify an upgrade. Last year, I decided to get the Index Controller while still sticking with the original Vive. Now that I am ready, I regretted that decision because to buy an Index HMD these days require you to buy it bundled with accessories via Steam.

My library of VR games has grown substantially over the years.