Key

Makes sense. I don't know if I'll even try it but it does seem like an interesting idea. Just kind of eh.

Key

Believe it or not, I just realized last night that this journal has been going since early 2015. That means I've been updating this bad boy for 3 years now. That's crazy to me since I still feel like I just started this thread. I've done a lot of things that I always wanted to do in a journal in this journal, and it's really cool that I've been able to keep it moving and keep discussions going and make things interesting all the time. Video games are something I truly truly cherish, and it's awesome to have a platform where you can just talk about them and feel no judgement or hate.

Anyway, i've done one of these for 2016 and 2017, but i'd like to do one for 2018 as I feel like between the end of 2017 and 2018, i've ranked up quite a few hours of gameplay amongst many games. So here we go:



The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth: 90 hours
Dead Cells: 56 hours
Divinity Original Sin 2: 77 hours
Fallout 4: 83 hours
Middle Earth: Shadow of War: 16 hours
Rocket League: 215 hours
Team Fortress 2: 300 hours
Slay The Spire: 17 hours

There's been so many great games that have come out this year. Not a bad look for the year to be honest.

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

i have 40+ days logged on most FIFA 16 & FIFA 17

probably a similarly high number on LoL.

those are by far my most.

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Music Blog / RYM / Last.fm / Qwertyy's Journal of Music Reviews and Other Assorted Ramblings

Key

I wonder what mine would be if I took every single game in my steam library and added all the hours together.

Key

An Adventure Through My Steam Library

As most of you already know pretty well by now, I'm a pretty big fan of video games. I'm strictly a PC gamer because every game I've ever played on PC has either been really rewarding and immersive, or it's just been a damn good time. And a lot of that has to do with how I feel when gaming. And using a PC and keyboard just feels right to me. I used to play console games, but other than the Wii U, I haven't actually owned a console since the Xbox 360. That's due to of course becoming strictly PC focused. So yeah, to also supplement that, I have had Steam for several years now. I think I actually signed up back in 2011, but I can't be sure. I could just look at my profile but eh. Anyway, over that time I have consistently updated my steam library of games that I keep installed and play almost all the time. A lot of the games I have already beaten, and a lot of them are games I've yet to beat. But they're games I always come back to, hence why I keep them installed.

And as you know, I like to do certain theme month style things in this journal because it keeps me motivated to keep writing, and writing is of course a second passion of mine, if you haven't gathered. I don't really say it a lot tbh, but I genuinely have a love for writing. I like putting together sentences in my head and putting them down on paper. I mean, I did make money doing it at one point but that's in the past. I still enjoy it. So, instead of doing a theme month this time, instead I'm going to focus strictly on games that I currently have installed on my Steam library. At the moment, I feel extraordinarily satisfied with my current state on Steam. All the games that I currently have installed are again, games that I go back to all the time. I feel like this'll give me a chance to not only go through and talk about games that I have commented on before, but it'll also allow me to have a heavily compiled list of games that I currently love at this moment in time. Makes it a lot easier to have a solid list of games that you could not live without. And that's what I plan to do here.

The list I will be posting will be a list of games that I plan to also do separate reviews of in this journal. I will try to keep it daily, but realistically it may be 3 or 4 days in between posts. So this journal is about to be heavily updated with more reviews about solid games that I absolutely love. I think it'll also be a lot of fun to talk about games that I haven't revisited in a week or so to get me motivated to get back into them. I go through phases but it all works out in the end.

The list below is currently as of June 14th 2018 the list of games that I give my full 100% recommendation to. Nothing about these games I hate. Everything about them I love. So here we go: (there will be links provided in this list as well once the reviews start coming out. so expect this post to also be heavily updated until the last game is reviewed.)

Batman: Arkham Asylum
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Borderlands 2
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Darkest Dungeon
Darwin Project
Dead Cells
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition
Dungreed
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Enter The Gungeon
Fable Anniversary
Fallout 3
Fallout 4
Fallout: New Vegas
Flinthook
Full Metal Furies
Grim Dawn
H1Z1
Hand of Fate
Hero Siege
Heroes of Hammerwatch
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Middle Earth: Shadow of War
Nuclear Throne
Okhlos: Omega
Ori and the Blind Forest
Outlast 2
Oxygen Not Included
Planet Coaster
PUBG
Radical Heights
Redout
Rocket League
Shovel Knight
Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Slay The Spire
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Stardew Valley
Subnautica
Super Meat Boy
SYNTHETIK
Team Fortress 2
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Wizard of Legend
XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Expect random reviews throughout the days to come. I won't be going in alphabetical order because that's not fun.

So yeah, enjoy!

Key

Borderlands 2

One game I know I haven't talked about recently or that much in this journal is Borderlands 2. A few years back when I was working at Value Village, I had found a cheap copy of Borderlands 1 for PC, and I had never myself gone through the games before but I had always heard of them. When I played it, it was some of the most fun I've had in a first person shooter open world RPG style game. Once I sort of had my foot in the waters at this point, I decided to pick up Borderlands 2. Man, I was just taken back by everything this game had to offer during my first playthrough. I got to see Sanctuary lift off the ground for the first time, as well as make Zero a full on powerhouse of a character. As far as I can tell, it doesn't necessarily matter too much on the class you choose, but each of them definitely have their own special benefits that could potentially make you pretty OP along the way.

You have Gaige the Mecromancer, Krieg the Psycho, Axton the Commando, Maya the Siren, Zero the Assassin, and Salvador the Gunzerker. All of them with their own special traits and perks which can make the game different each playthrough while still maintaining the same atmosphere and love of the game that is truly shown throughout. The current playthrough that I'm working on now is going through as the Commando. I wanted to do just a pure full on gun shooting rampage style character, and he fits the bill right away. Haven't gotten too far into his skill tree yet to really take advantage of his perks, but I'm having a lot of fun.

To me, Borderlands 2 will always be one of those staples in video game history that people will continue to talk about. I don't think it's actually possible for these games to reach obscurity levels. The fanbase is not only one of the coolest fanbases out there, but it's also not going to let this game or this franchise fall into the obscurity that we talked about earlier. There's so much passion and love for this franchise that it just continuously gets stronger as more people realize the potential behind these games. I say potential because it would be absolutely amazing to see some kind of Borderlands 3 trailer sometime this year. We all know it's being worked on. But we've yet to really see anything about it. Once we do though, I imagine there will be a big surge in popularity for the first 2 games, which I am certainly looking forward to.

I've only logged about 30 hours or so, but that's not due to me not liking the game. It's one of those games that I keep installed so when I'm in the mood for it, it's there. I always enjoy playing it during those sessions, but I don't want to overdue and grow tired of the game any time soon. Spacing out game sessions like that helps me progress in games like this. I do it with all my single player RPG style games. No reason to play it all at once and run it dry quickly. Gotta savor it and enjoy every last piece of it.

Key

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

It honestly would not surprise me if I talked about this game more than any other game in this journal. Let's face it, those of us that have put our hours into the Knights of the Old Republic games understand not only that the games are fantastically well made, but they both have something special to offer. KOTOR being the first in the two games, I feel it's still worth talking about this game as if I've never talked about it before. Though I imagine you can probably expect to find more positive things to say about it than negative. Hell I'd be surprised if I really found any fault in this game.

The thing is, I love this game. I genuinely have a deep affection for this game. I think what it does, it does so well that it warranted a sequel to not only do those things better, but kept the original still breathing strong. I mean, holy ****, KOTOR came out in 2003, and it's still to this day bringing in new players to give the game a shot.

It's been quite a while since I've actually done a full playthrough of this game. In fact, Steam shows that the last time I played this game was back in 2011. 7 years later and I still not only have the game installed, but I have been itching to play it for quite some time. That may have to happen soon, that is if my catalog of games ever stops growing. One of these days I will come around to playing this one around. Hell, I just played KOTOR II not too long ago. Loved it as much as I always do.

Honestly, I think what really makes this game shine is just how much the devs really didn't care what people thought about what they were trying to do. Some people don't really like the combat style, which honestly I love. Some people didn't like the party system. Again, I loved it. And some people simply didn't like the fact that you couldn't be a Jedi right away. But honestly, the lead up to becoming a Jedi in this game is so worth it. You go through all the trials and tribulations of finding the pieces you need, and finally getting to that point where you get to choose the color of your path. I always love the moments of getting a lightsaber in these games, because they've somehow made the discovery of a lightsaber so...magical and always makes an impact on the player. That is until you have far too many lightsabers that you know what to do with. But the very first one you get will always be special to you. I remember one of my playthroughs, I found a silver crystal for my lightsaber, and I just ran around with that throughout the rest of the game. It was amazing.

Anyway, many many people love this game, and I as well. It really shouldn't surprise anybody that I still have this game installed. I have it still installed for almost the same reasons as Fallout 3. It's a game I'm eventually going to play through again, and it's a game I feel impacted me so much that uninstalling it would be sacrilege.

Key

Fable Anniversary

Remember Fable? Yeah, it's that game. The game we all grew up with. The game we all loved. The game we all played. There's something truly special about the original Fable game. You know, the one that was actually not the finished product? I was growing up in the years that this game was gaining popularity. I remember seeing trailers and gameplay for it on some weird video sites, and I was always so impressed with how the game looked and how much fun it looked like you could have. Then the game was finally released, and all my dreams for the game had come true. It was by far one of my most enjoyable experiences in gaming as a kid. Going through the huge world of Albion for the first time, getting really buff, leveling up. It was all done so seamlessly and flawlessly, that I thought it'd be really tough for the game to be better. Then of course we got the actual full Fable game titled "Fable The Lost Chapters" and once again, the game was revived and I had as much fun with it as I did with the original. This one added a new island and end game boss. Which if you haven't seen it, spoiler alert, it's a giant dragon Jack of Blades. Fantastic.

And as if that wasn't enough, in 2014, the world was once again blessed with the release of the anniversary edition of Fable titled "Fable Anniversary". And God damn did it deliver. To this day, I still consider this remaster to be one of the most impressive remasters of a game I have ever seen. Not only does the game look better, the game plays better, and could easily match up against current gen RPG's. While the game did look and feel much better, it also managed to keep a lot of what I loved about the original Fable game. The silly villagers in Bowerstone, the scares you throw around when you're evil. Lots of cool little things that you'll notice are still present if you spent a lot of time with the originals.

It takes a lot for me to be impressed by a remaster, because that's the thing, the game has to look and feel brand new again for it to really be considered a remaster. Anybody can simply put a new updated graphics pallet on the game and call it good. Instead, Fable Anniversary was given a complete graphical overhaul, but it was also meant with an updated inventory system, an updated start menu, everything little thing they could update, they did it. And man it paid off.

Going through this game again in its Anniversary form is simply one of my favorite experiences as a gamer. I did get it for PC which was awesome of them to release it on PC. There's just something truly special about the Fable games, and the first in the series will always be near and dear to my heart. I know the sequels weren't met with as much positive feedback, but I know for certain that if you ask anybody about their first Fable experience, you'll see that it mimics a lot of what I feel about the game. If you have yet to experience this game in its Anniversary form, do it. Get it on Steam. Get it on console. It's worth the money and your time.

Also, just a little snippet of why the Anniversary edition is so good:

The Batlord

> be me
> give flowers and compliments to a bar maid
> marry bar maid
> buy a house with bar maid
> have a son with bar maid
> refocus on quests
> now every time I come home she's bitching about me not buying her things anymore
> enough
> hit her
> hit her again
> she runs out into the street screaming
> follow her
> chase her back to the bar
> beat her to death in front of her coworkers and half the village
> they took my son, little Keanu

10/10 Would commit domestic abuse again.

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Key

What's even more fun is marrying two separate people in the same town, then bringing one of them to the other. You'll basically get two crazy wives yelling at each other while you just stand there. It's great.