Once upon a time, when I was a member of forums and had a community I felt at home with (sort of), I enjoyed creating or participating in mid-year review discussions and evaluations as June gave way to July. By then E3 would be over, many of us would have had an opportunity to catch up on some older titles we fell behind on, and the releases ahead would be etched more clearly in stone and intimidating for our wallets.

Now that I am no longer a part of a forum and am looking to plaster some content onto this blog while I prepare more interesting works, I figured it’s as good a time as any to look back on what I’ve enjoyed most this year, what’s looming ahead, and how I’m generally feeling as a content creator. It might be a bit of a long read, but hopefully it’s varied and interesting enough to keep your attention.

This year has been a rather interesting one, so let’s waste no time in kicking things off.

Best Games of the Year (So Far)

Last year I had predicted that Resident Evil Village would be my game of the year, despite still having another six months to go. While it would eventually be ousted by Metroid Dread, it was only barely so. Towards the end of the year I typically go back and replay bits of every release to make sure I’m not under the influence of recency bias. Experiences tend to stand out more strongly when they’re fresh, and therefore games that are enjoyed in the early months of the year tend to feel less exciting when compared to the new hotness of the closing months. This was not the case with Resident Evil Village, as I continued to return to and enjoy its gameplay with each playthrough as the year wore on. Metroid Dread had the same impact, it merely appealed to me a bit more.

Though these titles are from last year rather than this one, I mention them in order to illustrate that my prediction of Elden Ring winning my top slot of 2022 is likely to come true. Even now, after more than 140 hours in the game and having rolled the credits, I keep wanting to go back, experiment, and play. I not only dabbled in the New Game Plus and started a new game under a different class, I have since purchased the game on Xbox Series X where I have begun a fresh quest as a Wretch. While our big podcast episode on Elden Ring was filled with more criticism than praise, it is a game that does so much so well. I will be starting a series on the game next week, analyzing it piece-by-piece so that I might more fully explain why it works so well while doing my due diligence to examine its flaws.

Of course, one might wonder if Elden Ring has had any proper competition. The only other new release this year to have made a similar impact on me is Ghostwire: Tokyo, a title which is not as bad as its reputation and yet certainly not for everyone. Perhaps what made Ghostwire: Tokyo so appealing was how comparatively relaxing it felt beside Elden Ring’s far more harsh and hostile world. Encounters weren’t nearly so dangerous and I spent most of my time gliding between rooftops looking to collect trinkets, cash, and spirits. It was a nice way to unwind and destress compared to From Software’s more hostile caverns, hostile mines, and treacherous catacombs.

Aside from replaying some older games or streaming titles such as Onimusha for the first time, however, I’ve largely been more of a gaming tourist in the first half of 2022. I’ve started and failed to complete many titles this year, be they old repeats or newer releases. Pokemon Legends: Arceus became incredibly repetitive rather swiftly, and any charm and appeal wore off as the tedium increased. I returned briefly to Triangle Strategy, but I am completely torn as to which direction I should go with its forked narrative. One route requires me to bang my head against the wall of a difficult battle in order to achieve a more desirable outcome, while the other fight was far easier but resulted in a foul-tasting consequence of choices. The game’s New Game Plus should theoretically give me confidence to return later, but unfortunately all the enemies will be advanced in level themselves. So, I’m sort of stuck wondering where to go.

Really, it has been a combination of streaming and following my impulses that has led me to having so few games finished and so many played. I own Mario Strikers: Battle League but have yet to boot it up. I also have Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, a game which I had streamed once, but have not yet jumped back into. A.I. The Somnium Files: Nirvana Initiative has instead taken precedence, lowering all other titles down a few steps on the priority ladder and booting Cyberpunk 2077 off almost completely. If any other game would be a contender for Game of the Year rankings, it would certainly be Nirvana Initiative, as it is just as charming, comedic, and mysterious as its predecessor. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge has also made a place for itself as a potential favorite, though it is a shorter experience and best played among friends. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak released today and threatens that cooperative appeal, while a recent sale on Dark Souls III, an older game, also demands my time and attention.

In the end, Elden Ring has been the obvious top contender for four months with Ghostwire: Tokyo making for a decent runner-up. While it’s true that any real competition only recently began hitting the shelves, the greater obstacle is my ability to choose a game and stick with it for an extended period of time.. save, of course, Elden Ring.

The Games Ahead

I’m starting to feel as if I could really use a year of nearly no releases due to how much I already have to catch up to. I blame myself, obsessed with playing older favorites as much or more than I am the new hotness. In addition to the games listed above, I’ve been craving, for example, a return trip to Gransys in Dragon’s Dogma; a desire that has increased even more so with the confirmation that Dragon’s Dogma 2 is real and in development. There are also still many games without release dates, such as the many indies I tallied for Steam Next Fest or highlighted in the Summer Game Fest trailer round-up. Any one of those games could be given a surprise release date, squeezing into what is already becoming a rather packed autumn.

Specifically, an overstuffed month of October. Just this week Square Enix revealed that Star Ocean: The Divine Force is releasing on the 27th of the month, the same day as indie-horror release Signalis that I am greatly looking forward to. Scorn and A Plague Tale: Requiem shall both be hitting Game Pass the week prior. While I am not exactly invested in it myself, I imagine titular podcast co-host Steve will be aiming to purchase and play Forspoken, meaning I may have to try and adventure through it for the sake of a spoilerific episode and discussion.

Thus far, the months prior all seem to be easier in decisions of what to cut and what to play. As I have yet to remove the shrinkwrap from my copy Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I am unlikely to purchase the third game brand new in July. Though I should wait on Live a Live, the fantastic visuals and promise of old school Super Nintendo baits me like a plump worm on a hook tempts hungry fish. A demo has fortunately been released, though it was just such a demo that pushed me head first into buying Triangle Strategy, and look at how that turned out. Soul Hackers 2 is also of interest, but I have too many other RPGs on Switch and Steam to play first: Ys IX: Monstrum Nox, Caligula Effect 2, and Shin Megami Tensei V all join Triangle Strategy in the pile of incomplete or unplayed JRPG’s I’ve acquired. That being said, there’s something to the temptation of supporting a game like Soul Hackers 2 at launch to communicate interest in such titles, particularly if I am purchasing them on Xbox, a platform that needs greater Japanese development support.

Splatoon 3 is the big highlight of September, though Warhammer 40K: Darktide and Evil West are both equally intriguing in their own right; the former being a four player horde-mode co-op shooter available on Game Pass day one, and the latter being a supernatural Western themed shoot-and-melee title that feels mechanics driven like the games of twenty years ago. I’m not sure I’d drop a full $60 on it, and thus my saving grace might just be waiting on a sale rather than sweeping it up on release day.

The remainder of the year fortunately calms after the whirlwind of October. As the Pokémon series has failed to charm me over the past few years, I am unlikely to pick up the Scarlet and Violet pairing hitting shelves this November. I am more likely to give Square Enix’s Rune Factory competitor Harvestella a try, though it’s rather clear that the time investment of RPGs are a major problem in my schedule. Things close off with Callisto Protocol, a horror-themed spiritual successor to the Dead Space franchise headed off by the original creators. I will actually have the week between Christmas and New Years Eve off from work this year, so perhaps that is the perfect time to indulge in some creepy body horror action on a snow covered moon.

As I had stated, however, indie games tend to confirm their release dates far closer to the actual day of launch. Any day one of those titles I previewed or played could be hitting the digital shelves. There are a lot of games out there, and trying to schedule them all is… well, it’s tough, and I suppose it leads into the next segment.

The Life of a Part-Time “Content Creator”

I hate terms like “content creator” because of the abuse the word “content” has taken. The entire strategy has been one of quantity over quality in nearly every sphere. Audiences want quick headlines and snippet videos to trigger their pleasurable brain chemicals before moving onto the next hit. We’ve effectively turned commercials into the primary mode of entertainment, only the brands being marketed are individuals on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Independent game pundits have stopped scripting their videos in order to just talk at a camera, while politically charged pop culture warriors read entire articles for the viewer rather than just link the article they’re discussing in the description. After all, making a script, editing audio, cutting video together, that all takes time, and time is precious when you need to make sure you have at least one video per day to post. Even translators and highlight clippers of VTubers chase the ad money dragon by creating five or six not-even-two-minute clips of a single stream rather than compile them into a single, ten-to-fifteen minute highlight reel. Make sure the clips are exclusively sexually charged moments taken out of context for maximum clicks.

I try not to be the sort of person that claims things “used to be better”, as there was once a time I would not have been able to share my thoughts regarding games, anime, or film anywhere at any time. I could speculate on what an Internet-free life might look like for me, but such speculation is pointless because my theories would be biased towards an experience informed by the Internet, how it has impacted me, and guesswork based on a more mature mind rather than the youthful conceit I had possessed in my teens and twenties. Nevertheless, even if things aren’t easily defined as better or worse, it is depressing to acknowledge that all the traits and bad habits of humans the cyberpunk genre had warned us about are not coming true, but are true. Even Futurama’s satirical perspective on the future turned out to be on the mark more often than not.

Gripe as I might, I also cannot deny the fact that I have never gotten as large a following as desired due to a lack of consistent “content”. Or, more precisely, I’ve always had a tendency to spread myself too thin rather than have a clear focus. Trying to update the blog interferes with trying to update the YouTube channel and both of these interfere with trying to keep up with games. Let’s not forget that I have a day job, meaning any form of content creation is going to struggle to keep a consistent schedule. However, for the past several years my biggest opponent has been myself, my lack of self-confidence, and my lack of discipline. Rather than spend an hour typing up a blog entry I’d go spend an hour or two posting lengthy replies on a web forum. Instead of hammering a draft together to force myself through a fit of writer’s block, I’d leave the document empty and switch over to play a game that I’d inevitably not write about.

I’d like to say that things are somewhat different this year. Things got off to a strong start in January, filled with my retrospective on the year prior. February, however, was completely empty, and March and April were decently populated while May was rather pathetic looking. There are a variety of reasons for this. Some of them involve a greater investment in streaming on Twitch while others are simply due to a bout of depression. Going into June, I had made a decision: I was going to take inspiration from Shamus Young and figure out how to write about games in a far more varied way. This is, after all, how I had decided to do my annual retrospective in January. While Shamus would be my inspiration, my methods and perspectives would still be in my own voice and in my own style.

So too would I write about the Summer Games Fest in my own way, and I was fortunate enough to also have the Steam Next Fest to fall back on. As a result, June has been a busy month for the blog, and while it has not resulted in an increased volume of comments or anything, it has certainly been satisfying.

The last (and only) game I played with Shamus Young. Never expected it to hold a place in my heart for such a reason.

However, almost as if it were fate, just as I chose to take inspiration from Shamus and his incredible ability to consistently update his own website, he had passed away. Despite appearing on my stream and sounding hale and healthy the weekend before, he was suddenly whisked off this Earth and taken to the hereafter that early Wednesday morning. I’ve discussed it plenty in the Eh! Steve! Podcast and blog entries, but his influence and inspiration meant a lot to me and I am still in the process of grieving this loss. Nonetheless, I am also using it as a sort of motivation. I want to make more content, but I want it to be quality over quantity. I cannot fill the void left behind by Shamus Young, but I suppose I feel as if his legacy will live on if I do my best to have that same work ethic and consistency that he had possessed. It might sound strange, selfish, conceited, or emotionally tone-deaf regarding the loss of him, but the only other option in my mind is to keep on going as I’ve been, wishing I could be like Shamus rather than putting in the effort to aspire to be half as good as he was.

I cannot guarantee a schedule, but I am certainly hoping to get at least one post onto the blog per week (that is not an Eh! Steve! related post). However, I also don’t want to just force content out. I want to write about games in a manner that provides some sort of insight or food for thought, which likely means going back to how I used to write; back when I was far more confident in the quality of what I produced. Which, I suppose, leads me to the concluding section.

Looking Ahead to Future Content Creation

Despite never fully giving up my writing, I have recently come to feel out of practice. I realized this when I sat down to try and write about Elden Ring again, concluding that I had been trying to summarize too much in a single post. Yes, my prose and actual writing was gradually improving as time progressed, but to combine it with a thorough examination of a game and its mechanics? That had regressed. So, I made a decision to split my evaluation of Elden Ring into several posts, with the first currently drafted up and ready for next week. While not every game demands such a deep dive, I would like to be able to consider each title and figure out which ones I can more thoroughly dissect and analyze across several posts. For example, when I get around to discussing Shredder’s Revenge, it’s unlikely that I’ll need more than a single write-up to discuss all that I have to say about the experience. For other titles, well, who can say? It turns out I had two posts worth of content for Ghostwire: Tokyo, and if I go back and replay it, it’s possible I could have another one or two lined up on things such as the story, or a more thorough takedown of the open-world collect-a-thon.

The secret is to simply have confidence in what I’m saying, which I’m finally starting to regain.

I am also trying to enjoy content other than just games, as rare as it is. The occasional dive into non-Godzilla kaiju films, for example, or the reading of books on game development. You can most assuredly expect a piece on Masters of Doom, a nearly twenty year-old book that I should have already read and reread multiple times in my life by now. It’s possible I’ll also have a piece on Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 on Netflix, depending on which angle I choose to write about it from.

What does this mean, however, for other forms of content? Well, were it up to me, Eh! Steve! would have a new episode every week at this point, even if we didn’t have a specific topic to discuss. However, my co-hosts all have jobs, responsibilities, and hobbies of their own, so it’s not exactly something I can guarantee.

Streaming, however, is a side-project I’ve decided needs to be toned down. I certainly enjoy it, and it can provide a clearly scheduled time to get through certain games on the backlog. However, if this mid-year evaluation has made anything clear, it’s that I have a massive stack of titles to go through, and relegating my gaming time to something as rigid as streaming isn’t always going to be helpful. So, for the time being, I will continue to support my Twitch channel with quality over quantity: fewer streams, but always a fun and enjoyable collaborative effort with a friend or friends of mine.

Which, lastly, leaves the YouTube channel. Despite not having been updated for about two years now, I have still somehow surpassed the 550 subscriber mark. Theoretically, if I wanted to center my content on what is most popular, I would focus primarily on making YouTube videos.

I honestly don’t think this is the best route for me to go, however. Not that I wish to abandon it, though I’ve insinuated as such in the past. It’s more that I simply enjoy writing a lot, and it requires far less work to put out more thoughtful pieces for the blog than it does to put out a video. Perhaps this sounds lazy, but to me it’s more about efficiency and mental health. Every video took months of work, and watching the analytics and waiting for comments was almost a testament to how undesirable my content was. As such, I’d rather the YouTube channel be supplementary. I do already have a script, audio, and recorded gameplay footage assembled for a new video, waiting to be cut and edited together. I am ready to begin and work on this process. However, so much of my time this month was dedicated to the blog and, on occasion, art, that it fell by the wayside.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a game I’m tempted to do a deep dive on, but it might be better to just do it in writing than the months-long process of making a video.

I plan to resume that project, but I don’t want it to come at the cost of the blog. I don’t know if I’ll ever create a lengthy deep-dive of a game again, though it certainly has its advantages over the written form. At the same time, my shorter video experiments may prove to be lackluster and working for months on a single analysis video, secondary to the blog, will prove to be the best route going forward. All I know is the blog is where I want to focus my primary efforts, and I want to exercise discipline in doing so.

Which means my next hurdle is to figure out how to grow the audience to this thing so I actually have people engaging and commenting. Unfortunately, I’ve never been really skilled at that sort of self-marketing. I have enough charisma to get by but I’m still somewhat socially inept and don’t completely understand how others think. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I’ve made so many friends that disagree with me on a variety of topics, even if it frustrates me at times; by listening to those that disagree, you come to better understand alternative perspectives to your own. Regardless of my mental capabilities or ineptitudes, however, the greatest help would be for those of you reading this to not only share my blog, but comment on it and suggest that there’s perhaps something else going on here, too. That would be a big help.

For now, however, that’s my aim for the website, and my aim for the “brand” that is RamblePak64 as a whole.