The Games of Steam Spring Sale 2023: Part 2

Click here for Part 1

FAR: Changing Tides ► Sometimes, I do fall into the trap of cascading sequels, that is, I haven't even played the earlier games in the series before inducting the new entries into my Game Library. This is one such case. I would normally ignore sequels in my huge wishlist if I still needed to play the games that preceded them, unless they got a nice price cut. Sometimes, I feel like I am navigating through the complexities of life only by myself, so I am intrigued by the idea of travelling across a desolate environment alone as represented in this title. The good thing about having a series of games ready to go however, just like binging a show on a video streaming service, is having that option to play them in succession if I want to. Such convenience is one of the reasons why I love building up - or further enhancing - my Game Library.

Roguelike? No, I LOVE Rogue

I received the Rogue Hero Pack for Marvel Champions yesterday. I have pre-ordered this for a while, and it sure took its time to finally get to me. Out of all the heroes released for this game, Rogue is the one I am most excited about. Why is that? Well, Rogue is my favorite X-Men. If you think this is funny, then you must have not known the real Rogue and that your exposure to her is only limited to her horrible portrayal in the X-Men live action films. I hate those movies, they are pure trash. You see, Rogue is not the weakling girl who ended up giving up her mutant powers from the stupid films. No, she is one tough, sassy southern belle, and is one powerful mutant. I am no woman, and I am definitely not from the south but still, let me share with you the story behind my obsession with Rogue and why she is significant in my life.

Rogue redefines what it means... to go rogue.

The Games of Steam Spring Sale 2023: Part 1

Trying something new here: I want to start writing about the games that I inducted into my Game Library during a significant sales event, for example, the recent Steam Spring Sale that occurred from 03/16 to 03/23. This is a great exercise for me to reinforce my connection to these games and to appreciate them beyond typical gameplay time, since the latter is a fiercely competitive field for these games. The process of selecting these games during a sales event is a complex one. I don't just go down my wishlist and easily select a number of games to fit into a certain budget. Unless there are games that I really, really want - I would usually just get these games outside of a sales event - it would normally take me at least two days to stew the selections in my cart before they are ready for purchase. The process can be fun and a bit stressful as well. As you will see, there is a story to every one of my game inductions, whether tragic, mundane, or filled with magic. All of them hold a special place in my heart.

Don't let it go away... This feeling has got to stay?

Yoshi in My Deck!

I have been using an air purifier in my Game Room for close to 2 weeks now and I am pleased with the results. Thought it doesn't completely eliminate the existence of dust in here, bear in mind that I went for a cheap unit, it does seem to slow down the overall accumulation of dust in the room. I didn't get to vacuum the space before I have the unit running, so maybe that has something to do with it. I will probably notice this air purifier's overall effectiveness eventually in the long run. So, things are looking good in my longtime struggle against dust but now, Yoshi's nasty fur has emerged as a new threat as it sets its eyes on my Steam Deck after constantly stuffing itself inside the lens hole of my mouse.

Why, Yoshi... Why?!

Death Defined, Video Game Style

Death is a horrible thing, but it's a horrible thing that will happen to us all. You would think that with the Steam Spring Sale going on right now, I would be in a perkier mood. But no. I have been wanting to write about this specific article for a while. I have mentioned in the past that I have been at peace with death since a very young age. I knew it was coming even back then. It was the thing that defined my understanding of life, and it was through the lens of death that I was able to see through the ruse of religion. Still, there are some nights when I would wake up, depressed, by the whole prospect of it. Having tasted life, why would I want to return to the void, this time, probably forever after being in the void before and then I finding "myself" alive. It's unfathomable to think about, especially when thinking about those close to you, the fact that once we lose someone, we will never be reunited again. Being a major gamer, I thought of a way to perhaps look at life, and death in a more palatable presentation. Like a lot of bad things in this life of ours on Earth, we don't have to wallow in the bleakness of it all. It's okay to dress it up some, as long as one understands and embraces the actual truth behind the concocted facade.

Just like the Steam Spring Sale, we all come with an expiration date.

Steam Startup Movies: Boot-Up in Style

Valve just released new "Startup Movies" for both the Steam Deck and Big Picture Mode in the Points Shop today. I have been dying for them to present new ways to spend my Steam points and this got my very excited. What is a "Startup Movie"? It's the intro sequence when you boot up the Steam Deck or when you switch to the Big Picture Mode on the desktop. The consoles have one too, the two best examples being a cube falling to the middle of the screen, stamping a path that became the letter "G" on the Nintendo GameCube and the orange dot bouncing and spiraling on the Sega Dreamcast.

Valve seems to like the SegaSaturn apparently, since some of these seemingly gave a nod to its logo.

My Gaming Life as a Split Screen

I have been streaming my gaming activities since 2010. It's weird to think about it now because that's 12+ years of my life. My only regret from all of this is just that I have only started archiving all of my streams to YouTube. It would be a lie to say that I only did it for fun because I was actually reaching out to find other like-minded people to hang out with. As much as I like playing games, I also enjoy watching games being played by others. I never imagined myself being popular, but I was hopeful that at least I would be able to find a crowd of people who would appreciate my company while I am gaming. Apparently, whatever that defined me as an anti-social person offline also manifested itself in my personality as a streamer. At one point, it did bother me somewhat. I have had difficulties understanding the reasoning behind my inability to have a close gaming friend. It was the one thing I sought after until I found myself. These days, I hardly ever think about it anymore. A close gaming friend is like 50 million dollars. They are quite nice to have, but I can live without them.

Alien dealings (2016)

Battle of the Sexiest Current-Gen Consoles

3 beauties, coated in black, dripping with desperation and forever left behind by Personal Computer technologies. These are our current generation consoles. They are usually referred to by their incorrect pronoun of "next-gen" when in truth, all new consoles are immediately "current-gen" the moment they are released, and as stated above, forever behind in terms of raw power because these consoles are usually announced way in advance to get potential buyers drooling. Let's face it, if a gaming device can't be upgraded and doesn't support old releases - measured in the console world as previous generation forever hopeful of being "backwards compatible" - it's just bad design. Nevertheless, I am getting too distracted because we are actually here to determine the winner of "The Sexiest Current-Gen Consoles" award. Here are the results!

The Game Room's Dust Collector

Ah, I remember around 25 years ago when my Game Room, and overall game collection, used to be small. Let me think, yes! I only had the SegaSaturn, the Dreamcast, the PSOne, and the Nintendo 64 hooked up to my entertainment center. Back then, I would lightly feather dust the whole entertainment center every day in the morning. The entertainment center used to always be spotless, compared to how things are these days. I now have a three-tier tempered glass entertainment center - I used to have one made of hardwood that could house a lot more of my gaming platforms - and it's so easy to see when the surface is dusty. I just did the much-needed dusting of it yesterday and it was such a big mess. My gaming stuff are not dust collectors so it's time to combat all of this with the help a machine in the form of an actual dust collector.

A sibling of the modern consoles since it is placement orientation-fluid.

Games to Revisit: A 10K Library Reflection

I have 10,000+ titles in my Game Library. That's a lot of games. Now, I have always been honest about them: I get distracted a lot thus, there are many titles that I have not played enough of to see all that they have to offer. I have always made sure that for the consoles, especially, every time I get a new game, it is routine for me to play them at least once. Things are a little harder with Personal Computer games these days because when I get them in bulk, sometimes I would miss installing and booting up a number of them. I want to be better about this of course because my games deserve better - and I do too.

The console era is pretty much over and gone but there is much to celebrate from its illustrious past.

The Hallway of Naked People

As someone who does gaming livestreams on a daily basis, the last thing I want is to accidentally capture something... untoward for my viewers. I have a number of accidental "features" shown during my livestreams, believe it or not, due to honest mistakes. It doesn't happen at the level and frequency shown by these Zoom noobs ever since the pandemic started several years ago, but sometimes there are just things outside of my control since I am not alone in this house. Unfortunately, I can't just lock the door to the Game Room - heck, I can't even close it completely shut, all because of my little Yoshi. It's not possible for me to have the traditional doggy door setup at the moment so if she needs to get out there to do her business, I have to make sure that she gets to do that because I can't depend on anyone else to open the backdoor for her.

Some have mistaken that hallway for a nudist beach.

The Eventual 10,000

Well, here we are. I am at 10,002 games. *Faints*

This is what got me to 10K.

How do I celebrate this? Is it even possible to celebrate this because having all of these games is already a celebration in itself? I am feeling excited and somewhat overwhelmed. I mean, 9,000 was a lot but 10,000 just feels, insane? I personally think it's a cool thing, but I have gotten some hate before for my huge Game Library size, so I am sure this is going to fuel the fire on that end. I feel quite accomplished as a gamer. I have successfully built up a gaming collection of my dreams and whatever comes next is just a deck for the Steam client, or in layman's terms, an icing on the cake.