Getting Punked by Cyberpunk 2077

I first played Cyberpunk 2077 on my Personal Computer at the time of its launch back in 2020. Apparently, I have never gotten past the prologue in my 3-4 previous play attempts ever since then. I finally did though recently as I plan to maximize my time with the game. I like that terminology now when it comes to participating in the activity of playing a video game: "maximize" my time with a game. Not "finish" a game but maximizing it. If you have been gaming as extensive amount of video games as I have, "finishing" a game is a complicated concept. I know a lot of people think these days that checking off all "task unlockers" - achievements, trophies, call them what you may - is the tell when a game has been "completed", even though these things usually ask you to do the most menial, meaningless things while playing those games. Even after say, you have completed all the contents of a game, it doesn't mean that a game is "finished". The shmup genre is an example of this. Narrative heavy games can be replayable too, given some time. While some games are replayable or they offer options to continue playing them, they sometimes feel like they overstay their welcome. Fallout 4 is an example of this: After I completed the main storyline in that game, I have yet to attend to all of the remaining quests available plus the game's downloadable contents. I have lost interest after a certain point, yet I feel like I need to further maximize my time with the game. My video games, to me, are not mere things to be "finished". They are there to provide me with the content I want on demand. When the time is right and the mood blossoms, I may indulge and thus maximize my time spent with them.

Oh no... It's Keanoooo!

Steam Winter Sale 2025 Feels a Bit Off

With the recent arrival of the Winter Sale, Steam's sales events for me have progressively felt less and less celebratory each time they show up. I know this is mostly due to the fact that I have a lot of games. I think that perhaps I am beginning to reach some kind of saturation point when it comes to further enriching my Game Library. Perhaps it's because I am now also progressively getting more and more invested in physical tabletop gaming, even though this newer hobby is slower in its growth, thanks to the fact that it's being controlled effectively by my lack of storage space. Then, there is also my admiration of the Epic Games Store, which has been offering free games nonstop to the point that any game that I am interested in that also has an Epic version will be immediately removed from the Steam wishlist and transferred into Epic's so that I can potentially just get the game offered for free or reward Epic with its eventual purchase - Epic is certainly doing a whole lot more when it comes to value than Valve does these days.

Since nothing is permanent, why do we even bother?