Steam Calendar Keeping Things Current

There are too many important things happening in the world these days, you wonder how a gamer could keep up with all the new titles coming out that are relevant to that person. I mean, I certainly struggle with that these days since gaming, as much as it is a beloved hobby, is not necessarily existential in nature when it comes to overall importance... perhaps, so sometimes it gets pushed to the back burner. Well, I know that this feature has been out for a while I believe, but I have been noticing that these days, I am getting more and more reliant on using the "Personal Calendar" section of Steam to keep me afloat in a sea of never-ending game releases, at least on the PC gaming front.

I tried maxing the game count to 500 and that spiked my anxiety level so 100 is more than enough.

Talking to Myself #1

Gaming Collection: Of Value and Access

If you ever wondered when a gaming collection would be considered "expansive" or perhaps even "complete", the answer to that is probably "never". I suppose I can use my own Game Library as a case in point. I have a lot of games. Perhaps too many games? Perhaps not enough because I have seen others with a lot more than me, either exclusively on Steam or across platforms. Sometimes I look around the room and thought that I had a nice little Game Room with plenty of physical gaming punch, but it would take mere seconds looking on YouTube to find others who have an ungodly collection that make mine look like a baby's playpen compared to a sprawling university compound. Video gaming is still an active industry and there are plenty of games, indies or otherwise, coming out left and right and if you are that deep into the hobby as I am, sometimes it feels like there's hardly any room to breathe. So, it takes some level of self-control to manage my library growth at a steady rate.

Culdcept The First that just came out was a rare day 1 purchase for me.

The Game Room, Living Room, and Garage

My guy, Selxes in Manitoba - in case you don't know by now, made a strange request in early April: He asked me if I could set up a couple of my older consoles in the living room so that he could play some video games there. The living room, as you have probably concluded from this interaction, is Selxes' domain. Sure, it's our shared space during mealtime, date nights, and movie viewing, but outside of those things, I find no reason to be there due to his choice of... cable offerings? So, to have something from the video gaming realm intrude upon his personal space is rather significant. Sure, he has played some video games with me, but he has very little interest in the medium. It was a genuine request however, because he said he wanted to "stimulate" his mind a little more. I agreed and installed my PlayStation 4 there, alongside the Nintendo Wii. He was really excited that I also volunteered the Wii because he said that he has enjoyed bowling on that console in the past. As you may have expected however, he hasn't touched them yet outside of a little demo I did for him when I completed setting those consoles up late last month.

I got a little bit of separation anxiety from this.

Taking a Break from Archiving Gameplay

The quiet of gaming without the camera observing me. It was a strange feeling, but a welcomed one. I have been spending more time on physical tabletop gaming than video games lately, and as with the latter, I used to record every single session of gameplay to be uploaded to my YouTube channel. The thing about recording a tabletop session is that I found myself talking a lot more because unlike how video gaming is a visual medium that can clearly explains itself, I always had to make sense of what I was doing with the components on the table, all the time. It was rather exhausting, but fun. Definitely exhausting though. And playthroughs that would probably take shorter time to complete turned into marathon power sessions. So, when I switched up from playing Origin Story by Stonemeier Games to another game of theirs, Vantage, I wanted to know how it would feel like playing the game off camera.

Inspired by Breath of the Wild but certainly doesn't play the same.

From Stranger to Family in Less Than 1 Day

While there are people who want access to a specific game, there are also those who want access to it all. So, apparently, I was just some random Steam-add not worthy of any note for a long time until one day, this person just happens to finally click on my profile and notices my game collection and probably thought... Well, well, wouldn't it be nice?

What is family?

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?

It's Really Not That Hard...

It's been what, 3 years since someone begged me for a Steam game? Look, I am not here to talk smack about people's financial conditions or their inability to support their gaming habits. I spend money on video games (and board games recently) because these are really the only two things I have interest in in my life these days. If you have seen my pictures or watched my videos, you have probably noticed my fashion sense over the years and make the accurate conclusion about my spending priorities. Anyway, it really irks me when people are doing low effort things, you know, like asking a zero-viewer live Twitch channel to pay for their horrible channel art or say begging for money in front of a store that clearly has a "now hiring" sign, or asking me to purchase them something out of the blue after being on my Steam's friends list for a while without any prior communication.

You are also only working part time at hustling for games apparently.

Gothtober 2025 Is Coming!

October is a depressing month for me now because of Yoshi's passing last year. So, I have decided to do Gothtober again to lighten up the mood. I miss you, Yoshi. I think about you every day.

From a Bye/Pass to Actual Plastic Sleeve

It's been a while. I am still gaming, of course, as it is still my main hobby. As I have revealed in the previous article, I have also been a full-time dialysis care partner and that does take away a lot of my free time. You may think that it's easy to just get into gaming while the treatment is running, but it is not. Mostly because doing so while managing treatment really ruin the flow of the gaming experience because of the frequent stops that may or may not be predictably timed. Most of the time these days, I ended up doing non-gaming stuff while I am managing treatment so that the experience that I want to have with my games are not impacted negatively by it. It's funny though; in the official training documents for home dialysis, they actually recommend that people undergoing the procedure should consider getting into gaming. I can see that, for sure. You just sit there while the machine does its work so there are plenty of things you can do while that's happening because you don't have to worry about managing the actual treatment. The care partner definitely doesn't have this luxury.

A sanctuary in a hectic world.

Gaming & Caregiving: An Interest of Conflict

I only alluded that I was deep in some medical situation last year without revealing what it was because I was not comfortable to be open about the details then. I didn't know how long it would last, and I didn't want to assume anything in regard to its continuance. But here we are in 2025, and I am still doing it so I may as well be out with it since this is probably going to be a part of me for a long time to come. As you may have guessed from the title, I am currently a full-time caregiver but not just the watching the elderly kind. I am a home dialysis care partner, which means that I manage the home dialysis for a loved one. In case you are not familiar with dialysis, it's that medical procedure for those with renal failure that involves pulling blood out of your body to be cleaned by a machine before the blood goes back into you. It all sounds pretty gnarly, and I guess if you can't handle the sight of blood, it probably is but I am so used to all of it now. I do this five times a week. In our case, each treatment takes 3 hours and 25 minutes to finish but that doesn't include preparation time and whatever galaxy forsaken issues that may pop-up along the way plus inventory management, inventory pickup, and post treatment clean up, et cetera. So yes, it's a fulltime job. If you look back to my gaming livestreams post-February 2024, you may have seen me stopping dead in my tracks having to take care of mid-treatment troubles. I want to make it clear however that I am happy to be a care partner. That is not an issue. The problem is that since home dialysis takes a lot of my time, it is causing a conflict when it comes to enjoying my games, which is something that I am struggling with in an ongoing basis ever since this whole thing began.

This is where the cleaning magic happens.

Weight Goal Achieved

I have written last year that I started practicing calorie counting as a way to help me lose weight, and this past weekend, I finally reached my weight loss goal. It was quite a surprise too because I was projecting it to arrive sometime mid-month. I felt so good about the accomplishment and then I saw the picture that I posted in the aforementioned article, and I felt even better. In total, I have gotten rid of close to 50 pounds off my body ever since I started my weight loss journey, and all of this was accomplished by merely watching what I put into my mouth and monitoring my calorie intake. There were no exercises involved even though I am itching to get back into yoga because truth be told, I am starting to notice that it's getting harder to open those tightly secured lids. No weight loss medication, no voodoo. Oprah, it was all pure human spirit and self-control, something that you used to believe in.

Is Life Better in Super Ultra-Wide?

My last display update was in early 2018, so that was about 7 years ago. Fast forward to last Friday, my 57" Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 came in. We were expecting it to be delivered yesterday but apparently, as with all of our most recent deliveries, it got bumped up several days as we are approaching Christmas. You would think that they would be delayed until after Christmas because you know, chaos and all. This display had been on my wish list for some time, and apparently my guy decided to get it for me as my Christmas gift. Thank you so much, love! Thus, the question at hand.

Best Christmas gift ever? I certainly think so.

Random Gaming Star: Essa

This feature will appear whenever I encounter a startling, memorable character in the games that I play. The characters don't have to bear any significant impact on the games as long as they are able to make a positive and/or a negative impression on me. Also, bear in mind that I have never been a fan of spoilers so those things will be kept to a minimum. Enjoy!

Case File #3: Tyranny (Personal Computer)

12,000 Milestone & Life After Yoshi

Oh yes, I did it or, oh no, I didn't? My Game Library collection has reached its 12,000th entry (12,013 at the time of posting to be precise). I thought I have slowed down a bit with inducting new games in, but it's easy for the library to continue to expand thanks to the plethora of free games being offered left and right these days on the Personal Computer platform between Amazon Prime gaming and Epic Games, and Steam has been good with those sales events despite it getting more and more difficult to find deals now that I have a lot of games on that particular platform. So, business as usual on the gaming front.

Some new arrivals from the current Steam Autumn Sale.

The Steam Awards 2024 Nominations

Here are my The Steam Awards 2024 nominees. Please share yours in the comments. Happy Thanksgiving to my readers who are in the United States. I hope there are plenty of reasons for you to be thankful for this season in the face of all the potential adversities and darkness out there in our lives.

I Love You, Yoshi

Yoshi became my little heart, the best girl ever, when I welcomed her to my home in 2012. We then became inseparable ever since. She would always be with me, almost all the time. My honey-bunny passed away yesterday morning, and I am devastated. I have never felt such loss in my life, and I have been struggling with the grieving process. Yoshi, I miss you so much.

Yoshi Childe Worthington
01/10/2010 - 10/12/2024

Will I Survive Another 14?

I made it for a month+ without participating in livestreaming. And it has been good. There were days when I questioned myself but for the most part, I was happy with my decision. Then, something happened. My guy happened. As you may have guessed, my guy is not a gamer. He's not interested in anything gaming. But he's interested in me. And he's interested in me as a gamer. I have talked to him about my plan to quit streaming but all this time, he thought that I was just saying that in jest. He knew about some of my frustrations involving livestreaming, and he thought it was just, cute. So, when I told him that I wanted to quit permanently, he really thought that I was just blowing off steam.

I tried to keep up with gameplay uploads from local recordings while away from livestreaming.

From Counting Games to Counting Calories

I've gained a lot weight over the past several years and despite my efforts with using video games to help, I have not seen much progress. This is because I have been struggling to commit to these "exercise" games. I really want something like Just Dance to just work but since that game doesn't really teach you how to dance, it's somewhat discouraging to spasm, twitch, and vibrate in front of the screen trying to mimic these professional dancers - even though just merely doing those crazy things is, in itself, a great form of exercise. I have a brief stint with non-gaming yoga programs, thanks to Amazon Prime, and these are easy on my aging body and quite effective. But Amazon got greedy and introduced commercials to their video offerings recently where you have to pay extra money to go commercial free: I stopped doing yoga because the commercials would interrupt the video in the middle of a freaking yoga pose. Just absolutely nasty! And no, I am not going to tell Amazon that it's okay to add this sudden tier of subscription just because they are greedy. The bad thing here is, of course, a lot of people probably did pay the extra cash - the same happened earlier in the video gaming world with the PlayStation Network and eventually, Nintendo's online access. If a majority of Amazon Prime users were more like Personal Computer gamers, Amazon would have cancelled the new subscription tier the same way that Microsoft cancelled paid X-Box Live subscription on the PC and made the service free.

This lady's yoga + HIIT fusion will kick your arse but it felt so good!