That Casual Gamer Guy

Shiny Living Dex (1-10)

It is time for the start of this shiny showcase. Let’s see the humble beginnings of how I started on this absurd journey to catch ’em all, this time with new colors!

Number 1

When I first started playing Pokémon Violet, I kept thinking about what my first shiny would look like. The only thing I really hoped for was that it was something noticeable. The only thing I knew was that while shiny Pokémon showed up visible in the environment, there were no sparkles when they appeared. I wasn’t lucky enough to get one on the first day, but after a few days, I finally found my first.

It was a beautiful pink Lechonk! Honestly, it caught me by surprise in the best way possible. I had finally found the last purple pillar and was headed to the shrine when I found this pink pig relaxing in the grass. Naturally, I saved the game and caught him immediately. It was nice to know that I didn’t need the shiny charm to find one. If you are wondering if he has a clever name, the answer is no. I usually don’t nickname my Pokémon because all the ones I come up with are terrible. So I just keep them as is.

The one on the left is the normal one. The one on the right is the shiny one.

Number 2

My next shiny Pokémon was at a time when I was going crazy trying to catch Pokémon before finishing the story. That actually means it was a day later when I was putting off finishing the game. I still had one Team Star base in the Northern Province by that super laggy forest area and while I was grinding and stalling for time, I found a big green bear sitting while being surrounded by his cub posse. Yes, it was a shiny Ursaring. Another really nice shiny, even if I already had one is Pokémon Legend Arceus. Although, that could be said for multiple Pokémon in this game, so it doesn’t really matter.

The shiny one is the green one running at me like I just disrespected his entire family. The normal brown one isn't too happy either.

Number 3.

Again, I was stalling, but this time I was doing it on a mountain. I don’t think I had a particular goal in mind. I was just doing some mountain runs. I think I was partially hoping for another shiny since it had been about a week since I found the Ursaring. Maybe it was a sign from above saying to stop stalling? I ran into a blue Snorunt up on the mountain. I accidentally spooked it into running off a cliff. I couldn’t let it get away. I kicked my Miraidon into overdrive and dove off the cliff to catch up only to find it was just chilling on a ledge there and so I got my third shiny Pokémon.

Two Snorunts hanging out. The blue one on the right is the shiny form.

Number 4

My next shiny Pokémon was an interesting encounter for me in multiple ways. You see, before I decided to actually beat the game for real this time, I wanted to try out outbreak hunting. An outbreak is when a bunch of the same Pokémon spawn in an area and they keep respawning there until either you knock out enough of them to end the outbreak or the time hits midnight and the outbreak resets. If you knock out thirty of them your shiny odds increase and they increase again after knocking out sixty. There will be a message showing you when you are running low on Pokémon in the outbreak, but it does not have any relation to the increased shiny odds. Granted, I didn’t know any of this when I was playing, so I did things a bit differently.

I decided when I got there to try out the picnic reset method. What that does is it resets the spawns after entering and exiting a picnic so that you could potentially force a shiny Pokémon to spawn. I figured that I would go to an outbreak and see if I could manage that. So I went to a Rufflet outbreak and tried it out. It only took three or four resets before I found the shiny. I thought it would be harder to spot the brown feathers at night, but I guess I was wrong. Not only was it a very quick hunt, but it was also my first marked shiny.

To briefly explain, occasionally wild Pokémon that you catch can have a certain mark on them when you catch them. There are many different types, but they are rare to see on shiny Pokémon since marks and shiny Pokémon are both rare. So I was surprised to see it had the Sleepy-Time mark found on Pokémon caught at night. So he is now known as Rufflet the Sleepy. Neat.

The normal one is flying at me like I have a worm on my face while the shiny one is kicking back to see what happens next.

Number 5

After that, I wanted to try another outbreak. This time I picked a Noibat outbreak. I liked the colors of its shiny form and I was still in the area. This one was not nearly as quick as the first. I did a bunch of picnic resets before I realized that leaving and despawning them that way was more efficient. I kept at it for an hour or so before I was finally treated to my latest shiny Pokémon. Personally, I think it was worth it. How can you not love seeing that green bat?

Once again, the normal one is flying towards me while the shiny one stays put. Flying Pokémon are quite energetic.

Number 6

Now this shiny, was when I after I finally finished the game and was on my way to getting the shiny charm. At this point, I was just looking for the last few Pokémon I needed to get the shiny charm. So I went looking for every raid I could find in the overworld. I didn’t expect to get any Wonder Trade luck after all. At one point I went through the lake area and realized I had missed one of the raids so I turned around and headed back in that direction. Once I got there I realized that I actually didn’t miss it and that my short-term memory lasts about as long as a YouTube short. It would have been a total waste of time if it weren’t for the Toxicroak and his crew of Croagunk. One of the crew was another shade of blue. It also had rosy cheeks like it was embarrassed I found it. I still caught it though.

Two Croagunks wandering around and looking confused. The shiny one is the one on the left.

Number 7

The next shiny Pokémon I found on a mountain. Listen, I was desperate for raids and I looked in whatever place I could find them. At some point, I tried to take a shortcut up a mountain and I somehow missed the raid by going to the wrong side of the mountain. don’t ask. However, I did find something else. There was a Camerupt on the mountain with some Numel surrounding it and it somehow noticed one of their backs had a blue spot instead of the usual green. I think you can guess what happened next.

The Numel were sleepy so I didn't interrupt their naptime. The one with the blue hump is the shiny one.

Number 8

This shiny Pokémon was the last that I got with the full odds of 1 in 4096. Again, it was a rather common encounter for those who have played the game, but at the time I was thrilled to find myself a shiny Hoppip. The green really does pop so it is a nice shiny. If only I knew how many of them I would find in the future. Oh, well. At least they are cute.

You may remember already from my previous post, but the shiny Hoppip is the green one. Interestingly enough, the later evolutions have pink shiny forms instead.

Number 9

A full month after beating the game, I finally found the last Pokémon I needed to complete the Pokédex. Interestingly enough it happened on Christmas Eve so I considered it a present to myself. It really helped me out with finding the shiny Froslass I was looking for in the outbreak. I already had a Snorunt which is its pre-evolution, but it was male and so it couldn’t evolve into a Froslass. After spending the morning with no luck, I found the raid I needed to earn me the last Pokémon for the shiny charm. I then used it to find myself a shiny Froslass. Although, I will say things would have probably gone quicker if I knew how outbreaks worked. Of course, I could have just missed the pink ribbon multiple times when hunting it. Sometimes, hunts aren’t easy.

The shiny one stares at her floating sister while she sleeps. This is one of few shiny Pokémon in my first ten with a subtle color change.

Number 10

Once I had the shiny charm, there was only one thing on my mind. hunting for every form of shiny Deerling. Why? I have no clue. Honestly, a Christmas-themed hunt would have probably been a better idea, but I was set on Deerling so that’s what I did. Deerling has four forms based on the four seasons, and I decided to hunt in the order of spring, summer, fall, and finally winter. To get the spring form, I went to the southern province to get it and used a sandwich to get a normal type boost. This was my first attempt at using sandwiches for boosts so it wasn’t super efficient, but it worked out and eventually, I found myself a shiny Deerling. As you may have seen in a previous post, I tracked down the other forms as well, but more on that later. All that matters is we have another pink shiny for the Living Dex.

You may already recognize this one from a previous post, but this is a shiny Deerling with its normal form sleeping not far away. These are both in their Spring Forms.

That’s the first ten shiny Pokémon I caught in Pokémon Violet. We still have a ways to go before we are caught up, but at least progress was made today. See you for the next bath. Goodbye for now!

Shiny Living Dex (Update)

As I mentioned a week ago, I am attempting a Shiny Living Dex for Generation IX. I thought that it might be a good idea to post the shiny Pokémon that I got and how I got them. Part of it is because I might forget if I don’t do this and part of me thinks this will be fun. So, starting on Monday, every Monday through Friday I will post ten shinies and how I got them on the blog and I will do this until we catch up with where I am now. I will go ten at a time and hope that it won’t take too long. Once we catch up, I will release them every now and then. Basically whenever I have progress to report. I am confident that after a while, they will be a lot more spaced out. Just note that this will not affect the normal weekly uploads. Consider it as a little bonus.

That’s all I have, so I will see you on Monday. Goodbye and have a nice weekend!

Working On My Steam Backlog

If you are anything like me and have a Steam account, then you have a ton of games that you own, but haven’t actually played. Now I decided that since I should probably address some of these games collecting virtual dust in my library and test some of them out. Don’t worry though, I was still making sure to shiny hunt too. Can’t let that go to the wayside. Although since a lot of games were mentioned during the Nintendo Direct yesterday, I seem to be running out of time. With all that being said, here are the games I have managed to get to thus far.

Chime Sharp

Have you ever looked at a game in your library and can’t get any sense for what it was about? That what this game was for me. I kind of had to just jump in and figure it out. Basically the game is kind of like Tetris, except instead of creating a Tetris, you create these boxes and you can make the box bigger by adding more pieces to increase your multiplier. Personally, it didn’t really click with me. However, I’m not really a big fan of Tetris to begin with so I guess that is to be expected.

Monument Valley

This is a game that my friends gifted to me recently. Honestly, at least half of my backlog is my friends gifting me random games, but this is one of the more recent editions. They mentioned that it wasn’t a very long game, so I figured I would give it a go. It is a puzzle game where your goal is simply to move your character to the end goal. The key is to change your perspective on how paths work and moving objects to give yourself a path. It was a nice time. I only got stuck on puzzles twice and I still only took about two and a half hours to finish every puzzle in the game. Apparently there is a sequel to this game, so I might check it out at some point.

Divide by Sheep

Of the games I played, this is the one I spent the most time on. The game has a very simple premise. The Grim reaper seemed bored so he decided to have some sheep killed to play with them in the afterlife. At least I think that is what’s happening. The game itself is just a puzzle game that requires you to insert the correct amount of sheep into a lifeboat. If you put too many in the lifeboat will sink. There are three objectives you can meet in each level. Each objective met nets you a star for a total of three per level. Once you collect a certain amount of stars then you can unlock the next world.

I have been enjoying this one because it makes me think. Sometimes it can be very difficult to figure out how to meet certain quotas with the resources available. After all, you only have so many potential sheep to save so sometimes you need to get creative. My only problem is that sometimes the difficulty is all over the place. For instance, I thought that the second world was more difficult then the third world. There are also certain levels that take me a few seconds, while some can take me over fifteen minutes to figure out. However, the game is still entertaining. there is one other thing. The game is called Divide by Sheep and they mean it literally. Do not play it if you aren’t prepared to have a few sheep sacrificed for the greater good.

That is pretty much all I had time for in addition to normal shiny hunting in Pokémon Violet. Part of the reason is due to my body’s need for sleep which is something I unfortunately cannot do anything about, yet. The other part is because I decided to work on something related to my shiny hunt in Pokémon Violet. I will probably make some sort of announcement about that tomorrow. For now though, I hope you have a good night and see you next week! Well, not counting the announcement.

Working Towards a Shiny Living Dex

How do I talk myself into these things? I mentioned previously how I have been spending a lot of time hunting for shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Violet. Well, since I spent so much time on it, I figured I would attempt something that I have never tried to do in any previous game in the series. I decided that I would try and collect every possible shiny Pokémon in the game. Now, for those of you who are unaware… this will not be a difficult task. There are 400 total Pokémon in the game. Of those Pokémon, only eight of them cannot be found in their shiny forms through any in-game method. That means if I am to try and accomplish this, I need to find 392 unique shiny Pokémon. Now what I mean by unique is simple. I want to have at least 392 Pokémon for each spot on the Pokédex so that if I ever wanted to transfer them to a different game, I could do so and still have the same shiny record as before. Why do I want to make things more difficult for myself? I wish I knew the answer to that, but it gets worse.

You see, I also have another rule in place that makes it so I must get the shiny Pokémon organically if that is a possible option. That sounds confusing, so I will give you an example.

Five shiny Pokémon are hovering next to Miraidon as it sleeps. All of them are shiny, but not all of them are needed for my goals. I just ended up with a few repeat shiny Pokémon on this journey is all.

You’ll notice in the image above that I have five Pokémon in this shot other than my ride Pokémon Miraidon. Four of these Pokémon are shiny Hoppip and one is a shiny Jumpluff. You may not know, but Hoppip and Jumpluff are part of the same evolutionary line. Hoppip is the starting evolution, then it evolves into Skiploom, and then finally it becomes a Jumpluff. Now you might be wondering why someone who is going for every shiny in the game doesn’t have the middle evolution. There is a simple answer. It’s because I haven’t caught one yet. I have given myself a limited evolution clause that doesn’t allow me to evolve any Pokémon for the Pokédex so long as they can be found organically in the wild. So either I rely on an outbreak of Skiploom or I find it randomly in the wild. Now some Pokémon do not naturally roam in the game, so those get a pass. Unless I decide to subject myself to more whims of the RNG overlords. We’ll see how far down the rabbit hole I go. Who knows if I haven’t already reached the bottom?

One more thing. There is another goal I have and it is to attempt to get the alternate form of each Pokémon. This probably won’t be done until after it is finished, but I do want to eventually have a version of the alternate versions of certain Pokémon as well. I probably won’t go as far as doing alternate male and female versions, but I do want things like the different Lycanroc forms and the different forms for Maushold and Dudunsparce among other things. I have made some progress with this, but I won’t sweat it too much for now.

Above are all four forms of the Pokémon Deerling that I got because I could. Still need to find all four of its evolutions, but that will be for another time.

Again, this will be done pretty casually so I will post updates every now and then. The only reason I decided to post this is I figured that I should stop lying to myself by saying I am not going to catch them. The last thing I need to figure out is trying to get the version exclusives. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it though. In the meantime, it’s back to the hunt! Wish me luck, because I am going to need it. Not just because of this, either. I also have a Steam backlog staring at me, and it is high time I try and tackle it before buying more games again. I have no idea where to begin on that, and I am honestly more worried about that than the shiny hunting. Oh well. See you next week!

Becoming the Ultimate Bullet Hell in Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors is a game that came out last year that my friend got me into solely based off of the premise he gave me. He called it ” a game where you are the bullet hell, ” which really stuck with me. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a bullet hell is a type of game in which projectiles fly at you in massive quantities from various directions, so the goal is to defeat enemies while avoiding damage in the most efficient way possible. I have played a few games in this category before, but I have never had the experience of being the bullet hell before, save from a couple of very broken runs in The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. What sets this game apart though is that your character doesn’t attack at the click of a button. Instead, your character’s attacks are determined by the weapons that you equip them with during each stage. Killing monsters gets you experience points that you use to strengthen your weapons so you can keep up with the hordes of monsters trying to maim you like your last name is Belmont. I don’t think it is, but coincidences do happen. Your goal is to last as long as you can before the unstoppable horde overwhelms you.

The first thing to pay attention to is obviously the weapons, as they are your main way of attacking enemies. There are a bunch of different weapons, but they can be broken down into different categories. The first type of weapons fire at the closest enemy to you. The second type fires in fixed directions. The third type acts in a radius around you. The fourth type fires at random enemies. The last type, at least as far as I’m aware, requires you to move for it to activate. Now the last type is a little difficult to use, so it might be better to focus on the first four. There are six weapon slots available, so personally, I recommend that you use a mix of the first four weapon types. What I tend to use is one of the first and third types, and two of the second and fourth types. I tend to find it gives pretty decent coverage. However, there are two important things to take note of when picking weapons other than types. You also need to consider accessories and synergies.

One of the options shows it has a synergy with one of my existing weapons.

Now in addition to gathering weapons, you can also gather accessories to help boost your specs in battle. They are mainly used to help you damage energy more efficiently or help you tank more hits. Just like with weapons, you can level them up to increase their usefulness. It is important to pick a balance between accessories that goes best with your playstyle and go well with your existing weapons. You see, there is a special feature where items will synergize with specific accessories to become more powerful versions of themselves. Some of them are listed at the beginning, but there are some you will have to find out on your own. To obtain a synergy weapon you need to fulfill three requirements. The first requirement is having the matching weapon and accessory pair. If you have all of the materials for a synergy then you will be able to use it automatically once the other requirements are met. The second requirement is that the weapon has to be at max level, which is usually level eight. The accessory does not have to be leveled up at all, it just has to be present. The final requirement is that you need to pick up an upgrade chest. Some enemies drop chests which can net you some money and increase the levels of your weapons and accessories. However, they can also allow you to upgrade your weapons if both of the previous conditions are met. Do note that some upgrades may act differently from their original forms.

I could talk more about this game, but I won’t because I’d rather be playing it right now instead. I’m not finished unlocking everything at the moment, partially because I don’t feel like looking anything up, but I am still having fun with it because it is so much fun to go from being a weakling to being an absolute menace on the battlefield. So, I’ll sign off for now and get back to it. I hope you consider checking it out though. It’s a pretty cool game for those who want a mixture of real-time strategy (RTS) with bullet hells. It’s not a combination most people would think about, so why not see if you find it fun and fight some monsters. I will say before I go that my preferred setup at the moment is the magic wand, the bible, the holy water, the lightning ring, the dual pistols, and the knife. Who knows if that will change later? For now, though, I’ll let the picture speak for itself.

Can You Spot the Shiny?

So, I’m currently taking a break from Tunic as there are a few puzzles I just can’t figure out. I could probably find the answers if I wanted to, but that means that the puzzles have beaten me and I refuse to accept defeat. So, most of my week has been spent playing some more Pokémon Violet. Specifically, I have been spending a lot of time shiny hunting after I got the Shiny Charm. For those who aren’t aware, shiny Pokémon are rare Pokémon that have an alternate color scheme than normal. Shiny hunting is simply spending time trying to find them, usually with a target in mind. This game is probably one of the easiest games to shiny hunt in because there are no fixed encounters and shiny Pokémon are visible in the overworld. So you can walk around and continuously despawn and respawn Pokémon until one appears shiny. There are more efficient ways to do this such as by having sandwiches or using outbreaks, but shiny hunting is pretty easy in this game regardless. However, that isn’t true of all Pokémon and today I would like to talk about this. While looking for shiny Pokémon can be relaxing, it can also be anxiety-inducing depending on which one you are going for. So, today I want us to play a little game called can you spot the shiny? The rules are simple. I am going to show you a picture and then you will guess which one is considered shiny. Then you can scroll down for the answer. Feel free to look up what they look like if it helps. Hopefully, it does. Are you ready? Here we go.

One of the Pokémon here is shiny. Can you guess which one?

This one is going to start out easy. This is during an outbreak for a Pokémon known as Arrokuda as you can see from the photo above. It was introduced in Generation VIII and can also be found in the water in Pokémon Scarlet/Violet. However, which one is the shiny? Take your guesses now.

Answer in 3

Okay, the answer is the one that I am battling with her name over her head is shiny. A little tricky, but I intentionally left a couple of normal brown Arrokuda around for you to see. This one was a little difficult for me during the outbreak because the water can make them seem darker than they really are. However, the alternate color pops a lot more at night than during the day. Moving on to the next one and this time it won’t be as easy as before. See if you can spot it.

Again, one of these is shiny. This time, the shiny is one of a few options so see if you can spot it.

This shiny was actually quite a surprise for me as I was trying to do an outbreak and stumbled across this one. This has happened to me a lot recently where when trying to go for an outbreak shiny I find another one nearby. It is a little unexpected, but you won’t find me complaining. So, which one is shiny? For this one, it might help to know its alternate colors.

Answer in 3

You see that little mushroom-looking thing on the right? Well, that is the shiny Pokémon this time around. It is a Pokémon called Foongus and it is based on a mushroom. It isn’t the most exciting Pokémon, but I will not complain about a shiny. Not even if it was my second one. That’s right all of the shiny Pokémon you see here were found by me today and this happened to be the second one I found. Considering how small this thing is compared to some other Pokémon, I am amazed that I found it twice on the same day.

The difference this shiny has from others is that it has the color purple on its head instead of its normal red. You can see a hint of it in the photo, but it would be hard to spot without knowing that beforehand. That is why I gave the suggestion. I do want you to succeed after all. Even without seeing the purple you could guess through the process of elimination. Although, I do want to say that this next one is difficult even with knowledge of its shiny form. Good luck with the hardest one!

Yep, one of these Slowpokes is shiny. Do your best.

I had to do an outbreak for this one because there was no way I was going to find it in the wild. It has a really garbage shiny because it just looks very slightly different from other Slowpoke. Look it up, then see if you can figure it out. Can you manage to do it? Guess your final guess in and let’s do this.

Answer in 3

Before I say the answer, I just want to say congratulations to you if you managed to spot it immediately after knowing what the shiny looked like. Personally, I almost missed the difference and had to do a double-take to notice it. The shiny one is the one directly to the left of that patch of blue flowers in the photo. If you look closely, you can see that it is ever so slightly paler than the others around it. It was annoying to spot if I am being honest. It is especially annoying since its evolutions have much more noticeable color changes. Well, they can’t all look good. Did you manage to get them all? If you did, nice! I’m glad you did! This was my first time using screenshots from my Switch so I did this as a test run, but this was kind of fun so I might do more of this in the future. We’ll see. Until next time everyone!

Taking My Time With Tunic

This week we will spend some time talking about the videogame I have been playing a lot recently. That game is called Tunic. You have probably heard about it last year when it was announced and thought that it looked like The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls met and had a baby. That’s what I thought when I first heard about it and since I have a friend who is a fan of both of those franchises, earlier this year I got him the game as a gift for his birthday. It seemed to be a big hit with him and so I eventually got it for myself later in the year. Sometimes you just need a friend’s opinion before you commit to doing something. Recently I started playing it and it is so much fun. I’ll get into more of why it is fun in a second, but this game reminds me a bit of Fez. For those who may not be familiar with it, Fez was a 2-D puzzle platformer that came out over ten years ago at time of writing and one of the big parts of the game is that certain puzzles would require you to make sense of patterns and potentially right things down if necessary if you wanted to collect everything. This game has something like that too and it is my favorite thing about this game.

The first page of the instruction manual. See if you can find them all!

At the start of the game, you are given limited instructions other than how to move and fight. To figure out where to go and how to progress, you need to find pieces of the instruction manual. You can find pages scattered throughout the different areas of the game. Each page you collect helps give you information on how to progress and what you need to do. Some of them even contain secrets that can help you find hidden items. The reason I enjoy finding these pages is I won’t usually understand the information on them until much later. Later on, I would piece together the information and I’d feel like I accomplished something. Sure boss fights are fun, but they aren’t nearly as crazy as some of these late-game puzzles. In fact, to give you an idea of what I am talking about, let me demonstrate one of the puzzles I had to do. This is a minor spoiler, but it won’t be anything too crazy.

A bunch of symbols, but what do they mean?

There is a statue that you can find early on in the game that will give you this message when you interact with it. It looks like gibberish, and I had no idea what to do with it. Fast forward to a couple of days prior and the game shows me that this is a puzzle that I am supposed to solve. So I take a closer look at it and realize that there is a pattern here. Each line uses the same four symbols and each one is used only once. Now having late-game knowledge as well as this new information, I felt like I was close to a solution. However, try to guess what all of those symbols meant would take some time. Also, I didn’t feel like trying to brute force an answer. Eventually I figured out that when in doubt I should go to the guide so I opened up the instruction manual and found the last piece I needed to translate it. Then I input the code and I got my prize. It took a couple of attempts to type it in properly, but I did it. Actually, as a quick side note I should warn that for some longer sequences you might have it right when you’ve written it down, but you could easily type it incorrectly. Just try it a few times until you are sure it doesn’t work.

Honestly, exploring this game is just fun. I haven’t explored everything yet, but I find myself constantly finding out new things to test out. You know that it is a good videogame when you actually want to backtrack. I understand that this game might not be for everyone and that the aspect of deciphering how to play might turn some people off. However, if you are a fan of videogames that have lots of secrets hidden for you to find, then it is worth checking out. I personally think it is best experienced knowing as little as possible which is why I tried to keep things vague. Don’t stop yourself if you want to use a guide though. That’s up to you. Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to finding the hidden items. Bye for now!

My Thoughts on the Steam Awards 2022

Happy New Year everyone! It’s a new year and that means new things to discuss. In my case, that means playing catch-up since I can never stay on topic. However, I have something relatively recent to talk about this time and that is the Steam Awards 2022, awards that are honestly more worthwhile than anything present at the Oscars. I have a picture detailing this below.

A quick look at all the categories Steam users voted on for this year's Steam Awards. Don't worry, I don't expect you to actually be able to read the winners.

There are eleven categories that people voted on this year and what better way to kick off the year than by reflecting on our mistakes. I’m kidding! Mostly. So, let’s get started with the most standout prize of all: The Game of the Year.

Game of the Year

Now the game of the year is probably the one award everybody pays the most attention to and for good reason. After all, it is a cool title to have. Who wouldn’t want to get the crown of Game of the Year? So, let’s look at who won.

That’s right! The winner this year was the latest FromSoftware game, Elden Ring. Honestly, it was pretty deserved. Not that it had much competition. The only game I could see challenging it is God of War (2018), but that didn’t technically come out this year so I could understand why it didn’t quite make it. I’m not saying the other games weren’t good, but if I’m being honest I forgot that two of those games came out this year. See if you can guess which two.

VR Game of The Year

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this category. I don’t really mess with VR and that’s because while it is an interesting concept, I play videogames to hide my lack of motor skills. Of course, that’s just me, as evidenced by the pick this year for this category. The winner was Hitman 3 which I can only say was a game. I don’t think it is bad or anything, but I don’t know how it plays in VR just like all the other nominations. If you are curious about them go to the listed page on Steam. I’m not going to show every picture.

Labor of Love

Okay, this one I actually have things to say so let’s just put it up real quick and then we’ll discuss.

Now, this one was a shock to me. I remember the release of this game having some mixed reviews for its performance and yet now this game has made a comeback which got it this award. It is surprising, to say the least, but if No Man’s Sky can be redeemed, then why not this game? Although apparently No Man’s Sky wasn’t redeemed enough to get the reward so I guess the developers of Cyberpunk 2077 must have things figured out. I just hope we are giving this award because of their improvements since fixing the game and not before.

Better with Friends

If you have spent time on this blog before you know multiplayer games aren’t my genre. At first, it was because of a lack of gaming friends. Now, it is because I just prefer single-player. Personally, I blame lag. So since Raft won this award, I honestly can only say congratulations and I’m honestly kind of surprised that people are still playing that game. Well, good for them.

Outstanding Visual Style

Okay, this one genuinely baffles me. I have to be honest and say that I have no idea how this game won. In this category we gave it to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Now the description for this award itself says that it is less about graphics and more about its unique presentation. And yet, we gave the award to the game that is literally based off of the engine of an existing game. That just seems a little weird to me. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has outstanding visual style, but this game simply looks nice. You cannot honestly tell me that this was the most visually outstanding game this year. Maybe something’s wrong with my eyes, but I just can’t see it.

Most Innovative Gameplay

I have mixed feelings about this one. I do think this game deserves this award and yet at the same time, I am hesitant to give approval. I’m getting ahead of myself though. First let me show you who won.

That’s right. It’s the game where you don’t just play as a cat. You are the cat. It deserves to be the most innovative game just on how much effort they put into making you feel like a cat. There is honestly no competition here. So why am I hesitant? It is because I don’t want to admit that this is one of the most interesting games to come out this year. It is essentially a cat simulator with a decent storyline and it was one of the best things to come out this year. I just don’t know how to feel about that. Congrats to you cat-lovers though. I mean it, it is a good game.

Best Game You Suck At

It’s Elden Ring. Nothing else I need to say. We’re moving on.

Best Soundtrack

Were there a lot of good soundtracks for videogames this year? Yes. Is Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade the one that deserved it the most? I don’t know. It is hard to tell if this game actually has a better soundtrack than the others or if there are just a lot of fans of Final Fantasy VII that will die for that game. I won’t know until I play the game. Unfortunately, it is not very high on the backlog.

Outstanding Story-Rich Game

You know, this is one entry I can’t help but agree with. Let’s show who won.

Yeah. I never thought I would say that the God of War series would be doing the best in the story department, but here we are. I will say it is definitely deserved, but honestly, I think almost everyone in this category was a strong competitor. Almost.

Sit Back and Relax

This category sounds weird to me because typically I play games to unwind. I don’t think most people are trying to become angrier while playing games. Unless of course they want to grab some views. That being said I think that LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a perfect choice. After all, playing through the saga in LEGO videogame format is a lot more relaxing than having to sit through all nine movies in the saga.

Best Game on the Go

Now onto the last category for the Steam Awards of 2022. Truth be told, this one took me some time to figure out so bear with me here after you see the winner.

This one through me for a loop. I think I understand though. there are two possibilities and both in my eyes are equally viable. The first is that the people who played the game got so invested in the plotline and gameplay that they couldn’t help but take it with them, which gave it the edge over its less story-driven counterparts. The second is that people voted it to make a joke about how your primary focus in the game is being a delivery man meaning you are always on the go. I’ll be honest, my friend Denison shared that one with me. Personally, the fact that I can’t discount this theory kind of annoys me, but I have come to accept that not everything can have a reasonable explanation. Oh, well.

Well, that is the first post of the new year. Let me know if you agree with the winners of these awards. If you don’t really care, thanks for stopping by anyway. Oh, one last thing. My new challenge this year is going to be less of a gimmick this time. Instead, I will focus on getting each blog post to have pictures in them. Try and dazzle the eyes and all that. Here’s hoping for a good year, everyone! See you next time.

Everything Has An Explanation

Every game has events that extend an effort to their eventual ending with the intent to invoke certain emotions in the end. The extent of the emotions at the end of an escapade is tied to the experience and effort that went into the end. Endings are essential for the experience to end, but not every game takes it easy with its escapades. Some explanations are episodes intended to elevate user engagement by embellishing an extravagant epilogue enveloped by the events of each episode experienced at this point. It can be exhilarating to establish the execution of events as an epic that was evidently orchestrated from the exact moment you emerged to enact justice on your enemies. However, the essential element of an excellent epilogue ends up being the execution. Every event that ended with your enemies being executed, every Easter egg you unearth in your expedition, and every encounter that evolves your existence must end up as an essential element of the episode. Again, not every game is an episodic epic that envisions the excitement and astonishment at the end when they establish everything as an element of an epic escapade. It is especially exquisite when everything is entwined effortlessly to leave you evidence of the ending without explicitly elaborating on it until the ending epilogue.

Every game has Easter eggs embedded in certain areas you can encounter after embarking on your epic escapade. These Easter eggs often serve as evidence of elements from events in other escapades from earlier eras. If not earlier escapades, then they exist as examples of elements from other entertainment media. Typically they are events that exist as extras that do not evolve the ongoing story elements. However, evidently, Easter eggs can hint at elements that aren’t evident in the story yet but will be experienced in an event eventually. An extremely exalted example of these Easter eggs is the extra den in Portal with the etched epitaph exclaiming “the cake is a lie” which is evidence of the eventual execution attempt towards the end of the experiments which eventually ends up with your exhilarating end fight against that electronic embodiment of evil. Another excellent example exists in Bioshock where if you keep your eyes out, there is evidence of Atlas’ exaggeration of his essence as your ally as he ends up as your enemy and enacts orders to eliminate you. The essence of the elements that the Easter eggs enable us to extract is that the world exists in it entirety and is established in an environment that we have the expertise to explore.

When I experience an evolving tale in an environment where I am the essential existence, I want to envision myself as an element of this epic that evolves as I play. I enjoy establishing that I am entangled in events in which I can’t envision the eventual end result of my efforts. I want each element of my experience to have an effect on the environment around me and have an eventual end goal. I don’t want to invest my effort in events that end up going somewhere empty and nonexistent. Many escapades in games end up having events that are exercises in futility and are only exacerbated by the event being evidently inconsequential and irrelevant to everything we have encountered thus far. It is not exciting or entertaining to end up going on an endeavor and end up with an excess of time wasted. It is more enjoyable to have events eventually show some evidence of connection that is all embellished upon in the epilogue. If I am endeavoring to eliminate evil from the entire world and some random NPC entreats me to do some errands, they better be ecstatic and empty their assets for my eventual endeavors. I’m ending up with an evil undertone now so I’ll end here. Everyone enjoy the end of this year and see you next time!

Superhero Games

Before we begin, just know that I am not a diehard superhero fan. I enjoy the content that comes out of the superhero genre occasionally, but I do not have any major knowledge about these superheroes.

Superheroes always have interesting storylines attached to them, but they have had one fatal weakness until recently, and that is their representation in videogames. If it wasn’t for the Batman Arkham series that began over ten years ago, the best games Batman would have to his name would be in the LEGO universe. The Spider-Man games suffered the same fate for a while until 2018 when the new Spider-Man game came out. Finally we had another videogame that could be considered good by a wide audience. There is one big superhero that hasn’t yet had a chance to shine and that is none other than Superman. That guy is in serious need of a decent videogame. That’s how low the bar is for him right now. It will be considered a success if people play it for longer than a few hours before never touching it again.

Now the ideal game for Superman would be one that fully incorporates what it would be like to be Superman. After all, that is what made the Arkham series and the latest Spider-Man game so successful. The question is how do you go about doing that for Superman. In my opinion, it should probably be set up in a sandbox style where you can do missions in the overworld if you choose to do so, but the main plot centered around you traveling throughout the city for a big story for the Daily Planet. That way the game is flexible and also has a concrete goal. The real problem is after that. The sandbox setup is the easy part compared to trying to incorporate Superman’s combat style. The thing about other heroes is that they tend to be more acrobatic in their fighting styles. Superman just kinds of wins by showing up, so what should be done about this?

Well, there are a couple of things. First Superman should probably also be saving people and so some of his powers could be used for different situations throughout the city depending on the emergency. Some of them might not be able to factor into combat so well. However, considering the amount of techniques Superman has in his arsenal, it is kind of a shame to take them out of combat so maybe put that on hold for now. The two big things to work on would be making flight fun and controlling his superspeed. If you can keeping flying from place to place as fun as Batman gliding from rooftops or Spider-Man’s web-swinging, then you’ll have a heck of a game right there. These things are important for both travel and potentially combat so they have to be given special consideration. We can’t just be going through rings as we fly. That’s just dumb. To be honest, aside from some cool races I really don’t know how you can make this interesting to play. I’m honestly stumped. I want it to happen though, because I feel like it needs to happen.

Look, there are plenty of other things to take a look at for superhero games in the future but these are just some things to keep in mind. This will not happen anytime soon. There are games that have done these things before, but it is harder to do with certain heroes without bringing up questions of morality. It is a tough problem to tackle, but I just want to think that maybe one day we can get some good videogames about some of the other superheroes. Well, maybe it might just remain a dream. We’ll see what the future holds in store. Also sorry about the delay, I lost half the document earlier when editing so it took a bit longer. Thanks, internet.