I wasn't around much in December to work on my side projects: long hours at work, long hours working at home, long hours traveling, and most of my free time spent with friends and family. It's great to see people, but it's also exhausting to be that busy for that long. Consequently, I spent the few days and evenings that I had to myself recharging with books, Netflix, and video games, hence the distribution of updates below.
This Blog:
While the notion of writing a post about each of my topic tags in sequence was initially a way of getting me to write more often about a wider variety of topics, I'm starting to feel a little constrained. I passed on one or two posts I was planning to write because they didn't fit into the scheme, and the one topic I did use—Marriage—was shoehorned into a Television post. The next few topics should be easy enough to want to write about organically, so stay tuned for those.
- Retrospective: November 2014
- Where Everybody Knows Your Name
While the notion of writing a post about each of my topic tags in sequence was initially a way of getting me to write more often about a wider variety of topics, I'm starting to feel a little constrained. I passed on one or two posts I was planning to write because they didn't fit into the scheme, and the one topic I did use—Marriage—was shoehorned into a Television post. The next few topics should be easy enough to want to write about organically, so stay tuned for those.
- Retrospective: November 2014
- Where Everybody Knows Your Name
GameCola:
I've come to realize that writing articles for GameCola takes me a LOT of time. Agonizing over word choice for maximum comedic effect, painstakingly procuring the perfect screenshots, continually condensing my thoughts to keep the word count within readable limits...I can hammer out a fluff post over the course of a lunch break, but columns, reviews, and the occasional comic take hours. Granted, I do enjoy the writing process, and there's a certain satisfaction to capturing interesting screenshots like I'm a professional video game photographer. Still, the amount of effort I put into any given article doesn't necessarily translate into a proportional amount of quality or attention.
That's why I'm shifting my focus almost entirely to behind-the-scenes work at GameCola. Editing an article takes me a fraction of the time it does to write an article; I think my time would be better spent getting other people's articles posted, and getting the archives cleaned up faster. I did manage to get one last full-length article into the review queue before the end of the year, but it didn't get posted in time to make this list. So...I look like a delinquent with this one small contribution.
- Q&AmeCola: Favorite Winter Holiday Level
I've come to realize that writing articles for GameCola takes me a LOT of time. Agonizing over word choice for maximum comedic effect, painstakingly procuring the perfect screenshots, continually condensing my thoughts to keep the word count within readable limits...I can hammer out a fluff post over the course of a lunch break, but columns, reviews, and the occasional comic take hours. Granted, I do enjoy the writing process, and there's a certain satisfaction to capturing interesting screenshots like I'm a professional video game photographer. Still, the amount of effort I put into any given article doesn't necessarily translate into a proportional amount of quality or attention.
That's why I'm shifting my focus almost entirely to behind-the-scenes work at GameCola. Editing an article takes me a fraction of the time it does to write an article; I think my time would be better spent getting other people's articles posted, and getting the archives cleaned up faster. I did manage to get one last full-length article into the review queue before the end of the year, but it didn't get posted in time to make this list. So...I look like a delinquent with this one small contribution.
- Q&AmeCola: Favorite Winter Holiday Level
The Backloggery:
Santa and his elves were very kind to me this Christmas—two elusive Castlevania games I've had my eye on for some time (one of which I've been slowly working through at friends' houses for the last several years, but could never manage to finish), a number of Steam games I'd never heard of but are right up my alley, and a brand-new Wii U to replace my poor, ailing regular Wii, whose graphics card is failing. Once I finally put down the addictive Burnout 3—mostly because I'm generally terrible at racing games, and my self-preservation instincts won out over my completionist tendencies—I quickly picked up one game after another to fill the void.
The irritatingly misspelled Windosill was a one-shot evening playthrough from my wife's collection, and I kept my puzzle brain active with LSL6 and QfG2—though the latter was unceremoniously removed from the rotation when, after an hour or two of perpetual frustration with one thing or another, I dead-ended the game before I had any idea what was going on. My first foray into the Lufia series was much more agreeable, though I can't say the same of Super Mario Galaxy, which is interesting, but difficult for all the wrong reasons. At least I'm now in the habit of abandoning games when they're no longer enjoyable, and it's liberating to know already that I won't be forcing myself to wobble through Perilous Motion Control Debacle Galaxy or whatever it's called to go for 100% completion.
New:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS)
Defy Gravity Extended (Steam)
Escape Goat 2 (Steam)
Evoland (Steam)
Love (Steam)
NightSky (Steam)
Nintendo Land (WiiU)
Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
Super Mario 3D Land (WiiU)
Type:Rider (Steam)
Windosill (Steam)
Started:
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (PC)
Lufia: The Legend Returns (GBC)
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (VGA) (PC)
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Beat:
Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2)
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (PC)
Windosill (Steam)
Completed:
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (PC)
Windosill (Steam)
Mastered:
Windosill (Steam)
Santa and his elves were very kind to me this Christmas—two elusive Castlevania games I've had my eye on for some time (one of which I've been slowly working through at friends' houses for the last several years, but could never manage to finish), a number of Steam games I'd never heard of but are right up my alley, and a brand-new Wii U to replace my poor, ailing regular Wii, whose graphics card is failing. Once I finally put down the addictive Burnout 3—mostly because I'm generally terrible at racing games, and my self-preservation instincts won out over my completionist tendencies—I quickly picked up one game after another to fill the void.
The irritatingly misspelled Windosill was a one-shot evening playthrough from my wife's collection, and I kept my puzzle brain active with LSL6 and QfG2—though the latter was unceremoniously removed from the rotation when, after an hour or two of perpetual frustration with one thing or another, I dead-ended the game before I had any idea what was going on. My first foray into the Lufia series was much more agreeable, though I can't say the same of Super Mario Galaxy, which is interesting, but difficult for all the wrong reasons. At least I'm now in the habit of abandoning games when they're no longer enjoyable, and it's liberating to know already that I won't be forcing myself to wobble through Perilous Motion Control Debacle Galaxy or whatever it's called to go for 100% completion.
New:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS)
Defy Gravity Extended (Steam)
Escape Goat 2 (Steam)
Evoland (Steam)
Love (Steam)
NightSky (Steam)
Nintendo Land (WiiU)
Super Castlevania IV (SNES)
Super Mario 3D Land (WiiU)
Type:Rider (Steam)
Windosill (Steam)
Started:
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (PC)
Lufia: The Legend Returns (GBC)
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (VGA) (PC)
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
Beat:
Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2)
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (PC)
Windosill (Steam)
Completed:
Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! (PC)
Windosill (Steam)
Mastered:
Windosill (Steam)
And with that, we're onto a new year.
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