2024 was a thing. And an interesting one at that.

Da Blog

I’ve honestly lost count on when this all started. I moved to this new platform in April 2008, but was self hosting for nearly a decade before. It’s always been a mental health outlet, and continues to be so in this age of 10 second video clips. Appreciate all the folks interested in reading the somewhat livestream of thoughts I put up.

Oddly this year had more of a series of posts, which really hasn’t been the case in a long time (FF14 and WoW have their own categories for a reason). This is mostly due to the types of games played this year, where it needed not only multiple sessions, but a lot of thinking to puzzle them through.

Overall post counts were up, visits as well. Let’s see what 2025 brings.

Games

A fair chunk of smaller games if my Steam library is any indication. Zero mobile gaming, zero Switch. Steam Deck had a ton of use, I appreciate it more and more every time I pick it up.

Thematically most games were production-related, where logistical puzzles abounded. Satisfactory had a few playthroughs, including 1.0 (it’s double good now). Foundry gave a go (needs some end-game goals and QoL). Techntonica launched to not much fanfare (too bad, ridiculous potential here). And well, Factorio hit 2.0 and sucked up all the IT engineer’s time on the planet (very, very easy to sink hours here).

I played quite a few others.

• Price of Persia metriodvania was OK (not sure why this is seen as GotY level).
• Turbo Kid is also a metroidvania, more indie and worth the purchase.
• Hades 2 kicks butt and looking forward to full release.
• I played Cocoon and Sea of Stars finally, both absolutely amazing games.
• I caved and bought the Kingdom Hearts series on a very deep discount, they play well on the Deck (KH3 has more cutscences than gameplay).
• V Rising hit 1.0 – it’s interesting though likely a billion times better as a group.
• Enshrouded launched. It’s right behind Valheim to me.
• Pacific Drive, which I didn’t like as the runs were too long. Cool concept. I should give it another go now that QoL patches are in.
• Horizon 2 came out on PC. Very good game. Massive optimization issues in the DLC.
• Ghost of Tsushima on PC is amazing. It has an emotional mark in my life, so that helps.
• Riven on PC was nostalgic.
• Wukong may have set a new bar for why PC gaming is going to overtake consoles. It looks amazing and gives me a souls-like experience I prefer.
• God of War Ragnorok came out. It’s good but I find it too big. Personal preference I guess.
• Golden Idol 1 + 2 are great puzzle games.
• Balatro. This thing is like crack.

There’s more, but those are the notable ones.

Life

Another very busy year, but generally a good one. Much more stable than prior ones, and enjoyable to spend with family. I had a physical injury I’m still not quite over, which sucks. Work had much more stress this year, which increased gaming and blog posting.

2025

Sort of predictions I guess.

• PC gaming will come to dominate the market. Steam Deck will continue to grow and the Steam Store will show up on PS5 + XBOX. Nintendo… I dunno.
• AAA games are all but done in the way we know them. They are not sustainable, and AC: Shadows will be the final nail in that coffin. Exception: Monster Hunter Wilds!
• Maybe we will luck out and Live Service games will finally end.
• Political turmoil will accelerate, further enabled by social media, oligarchs, and the underestimation of the global level of willful ignorance. It’s already quite stupid, but there’s ample room to dig deeper!
• Nostalgia will be an even larger attraction as fear is used as a weapon and people find comfort in the known.
• AI everything.
• The blog will continue, and I’ll have more posts in 2025 than 2024.