by d_w
For the past 4 years I've been documenting every time I play a game and what I thought about it during that session.
A session can be anywhere from a few minutes to many hours. Sessions that last longer than one block of time (illustrated below) are counted for each block individually. Sessions that cross over a block (like from 2:30 to 4) count towards the one that more time was spent in.
This will be unedited and likely full of typos and misspellings. The descriptions of my sessions may include story spoilers. Any spoilers will NOT be marked.
Here's the break down of the time of day:
| Time | Term | Time | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12am to 3am | Midnight | Noon to 3pm | Afternoon |
| 3am to 6am | Early Morning | 3pm to 6pm | Early Evening |
| 6am to 9am | Morning | 6pm to 9pm | Evening |
| 9am to Noon | Late Morning | 9pm to 12am | Late Evening |
A bit of a change from the last couple of years. In previous years I would to add a one word description of what I thought of the game at the top of each session. I will be changing how I notate that since if I don't enjoy a game I usually only play it once or twice. If I had mixed feelings or enjoyed the game that wouldn't really change much through out my time with it. So instead I will only note when my feels on a game have changed.
Showing 1-10 of 37 items
Played: 1/1. Early Morning. PC Bnet. Enjoyed. Just had a few game while listening to the FatT holiday special. Nothing particularly notable. ~~~ Played: 1/3. Early Morning. Had mostly awful games where I played awfully and did bad. :( ~~~ Played: 2/9. Late Evening. First time playing on that Oasis map. It's pretty cool looking. Had a few decent games mostly as Junkrat. ~~~ Played: 2/10. Evening. Just played a handful a games. Had mostly good ones I think. Symetra does seem real good now. I didn't play her, but man. ~~~ Played: 2/12. Late Evening. ~~~ Played: 5/29. Midnight. Played while listening to a podcast. Tried the newest hero. Don't really get her very much to be honest. But only played one game with her. Had a really good game with Mercy. ~~~ Played: 6/7. Evening. Just had a few games while listening to the bombcast. Had a pretty good game as Mercy. ~~~ Played: 6/7. Late Evening. ~~~ Played: 6/10. Late Evening. Had a ton of really awesome games with a variety of characters. Main Roadhog, but had a good D.Va and Junkrat games. Had a decent couple of games as T.Orb. Played a little bit of McCree, no idea how to play him well. Did alright as Parrah though. ~~~ Played: 6/12. Late Evening. Played some games while listening to a podcast. Mostly pretty good. ~~~ Played: 6/18. Late Evening. Nothing particularly standout-ish happened. ~~~ Played: 6/20. Midnight. Had mostly not great games unfortunately. Did alright my one roadhog game. ~~~ Played: 6/21. Midnight. new update? Roadhog now has 5 shots instead of 4. That's cool. I mostly played as D.Va and got a really nice ult off where I took out like half of their team. ~~~ Played: 6/21. Early Morning. ~~~ Played: 6/27. Late Evening. Played some games as Tracer and did OK-ish. I think I could play more of her in the future. All my other games I played terribly or it felt like the stuff I was doing had been nerfed or something. It was pretty annoying. ~~~ Played: 7/1. Early Morning. Played while listening to a podcast. Saw the new moon map, don't quite get it yet. ~~~ Played: 7/2. Late Evening. Had a few good games I guess. Played around with a bunch of different characters. ~~~ Played: 7/3. Early Morning. Played a game as Mei and turns out she's a lot of fun... ~~~ Played: 7/4. Late Evening. Had one real good game as Mei. Still getting used to her. She's really spacing dependent though and that makes it tricky. Then had a really really bad game as Roadhog. ~~~ Played: 7/6. Midnight. Had a ton of really good games as my main stays and some just ok games as other folks. ~~~ Played: 7/7. Early Morning. ~~~ Played: 27/8. Early Morning. Had a really good game as Mercy and found some tricky stuff to do with Junkrat on the one map. ~~~
Played: 1/4. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed. Remembered this game was a thing and that it was alright. It continues to be alright. I'm sure there's a lot of cool stuff hidden in the updates, but all I saw was new and better UI. Some stuff is still a little confusing like how to use keys. ~~~ Played: 1/5. Midnight. This game is pretty unstable and crashes a lot, but the basic game is still pretty fun. Good podcast game. Trying to find the right weapon to use. I like stabbing weapons like the spear and short sword. ~~~ Played: 1/5. Early Morning. This game maybe needs a few more patches before I play it again. It's a bit to unstable right now. Also I don't like playing as the Wizard. ~~~ Played: 5/6. Late Morning. Watched a bit of Austin's stream and then HAD to play it. Seems there was a big update sometime 'cause there's a lot more cool stuff. The game seems better balanced too. ~~~ Played: 5/6. Afternoon. Basically just had some kinda awful and bad runs. haha. Ah well. ~~~ Played: 5/6. Early Evening. Having a much better run right now. Though I did lose a lot of my good weapons to the war god. Found better ones though. The thing I found was a note about an invincible enemy that may have its heart left out some where. That's the floor I ended this session on. ~~~
Started: 1/7. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed. This game seems interesting. A little side view adventure game. Nice art and music. Its controls are a bit stiff and puzzles don't seem very ...existent yet. The story so far is pretty generic haunted mansion sort of stuff. ~~~ Finished: 1/10. Morning. This game is a good little horror adventure game. The puzzles could be way more interesting, but the story was alright. Nice art and all. Finished the game in about 2 hours according to Steam. Probably was a bit more than that though. I like it! ~~~
Played: 1/7. Afternoon. 3DS. Enjoyed. Needed something to do while at my girlfriend's while she was busy. This is what I had in my 3DS. I beat Legion. I don't have much else to comment about it. ~~~
Played: 1/10. Morning. PC Steam. Mixed. This game seems cute, but it doesn't have gamepad controls and the keyboard just don't feel right. Also it doesn't really explain anything at all. I don't think I'll continue with it. ~~~ Started: 7/14. Early Morning. PC Steam. Neutral. This game had some massive update recently that fixed a bunch of stuff with it. I tried it last year and basically found it unplayable so I thought I'd give it another chance. Seems OK. The controller works, but some of the menu stuff is a little old-fashion. ~~~ Played: 7/15. Evening. Enjoyed. There's some stuff I really don't like about this game, but am otherwise enjoying it. Beat the first boss and got the wind power. ~~~ Played: 7/16. Midnight. Mixed. Got to the desert. Got Double Jump. This game is mad mediocre and that's unfortunate. There's so many little things that just make it feel kind of bad. No menu wrap, item drops are completely random. So many little things that add up. ~~~
Started: 1/26. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed. Saw this game pop up on the new releases list and decided to try it out. It is heavily inspired by games like Vandal Hearts and FFT. Fortunately it seems to lean more towards the Vandal Hearts side with one map looking very similar to a map from VH2. The combat is rad and very puzzle-y, but the coolest thing about it is the story branches, but you can go back and see the other options any time. This allows you to re-fight battles to do more of the optional goals. You keep your levels so that's cool. Kind of like Way of the Samurai 4. It does seem like there is perhaps a "critical path" or at least "You should do this on your first play through!". So far all experience has gotten me is points to unlock abilities, but you can only have 2 abilities equipped at a time. I'm not sure if you ever get more health or deal more damage. It'd be cool if there wasn't any of that stuff. Doesn't appear to have equipment either. ~~~ Played: 1/27. Midnight. This game continues to be pretty good. I decided to stick to the right side of the story and have the 4 box art character. The story is alright. It moves. I wish there was a "skip dialogue" button and some better keyboard controls. Escape does nothing for example. ~~~ Played: 1/27. Early Morning. Got to the 7th Day. The one with the 6 circles on it. Apparently you have to go through just about all the story paths to actually continue from there. That's interesting, but a bit disappointing. And oh boy! was the last fight I had hard. Was only able to beat it with only the main character alive since she heals to full every couple of turns. ~~~ Played: 1/27. Late Evening. Going down a more central path now. I got to throw a lot of pirates off a boat so that was cool. ~~~ Played: 1/28. Midnight. Finished the Sparta path. The final map was considerable easier. ~~~ Played: 1/28. Early Morning. The path I'm on now is a bit strange. Went to Atlantis then to an Airship. Not sure what was a more clean path. Not sure if there was one. Picking up the other two party members was very awkward. Especially Brass. ~~~ Played: 2/5. Late Evening. The path I'm currently on has me dealing with Sisyphus a whole lot and that guy is a pain. I'm not too fond of the battles in this path. Too many enemies and each one feels like I should have 1 more person on my team. ~~~
Started: 2/4. Afternoon. PC Itch. Enjoyed. Saw this game on twitter. Decided to pick it up. It seems really cool and good so far. Sort of a Metroidvania meets puzzle game. ~~~ Played: 2/4. Early Evening. This game continues to be cool, but there are some little things about it that are annoying. Particularly the way the laser blocks control. I don't know why, but I don't like which button controls their rotation. ~~~ Finished: 2/5. Early Evening. Beat the game I guess. It just sort of ends. No super hard puzzle or anything. Just stops. You escape. That's it. Kind of underwhelming. I collected all the bunnies and artifacts. I was going to go back and get every Eye, but I found one that is impossible for me to get without resetting the puzzle and there is no way to do that without starting the game over. Figured there's more like that. Ah well. Still a pretty good little game for what it is. ~~~
Played: 2/11. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed. Felt the urge to jump back into this game. It seemed to have uninstalled all the mods I had, but has since added a lot of their functionality. I don't know if I like the town I'm building too be honest. haha. ~~~ Played: 2/12. Late Evening. Started a new city, but ended up not liking the map I choose. It has a river running down the center but no way for the two sides crossing without you doing it yourself and ehhh... ~~~ Played: 2/12. Late Evening. Restarted again. I like this map much better. It's cool. Thinking about how I'm going to make the city look real nice. ~~~ Played: 2/15. Late Evening. This city is going better. I'm getting to the point where I have all the high density stuff. I need to figure out a better solution for getting people around though. ~~~ Played: 2/17. Evening. Started building up my downtown area. Things are going real well. Starting to see traffic issue though. ~~~ Played: 2/17. Late Evening. I really have a nice major central city area now. It's sort of like if Seattle was Manhattan. ~~~ Played: 2/18. Midnight. Whoops played this til 3am. ~~~ Played: 2/18. Early Evening. Got my city to a metropolis. I'm surprised I'm having as little traffic issues as I am. ~~~ Played: 2/19. Late Evening. I love this game soo much. I now have an international airport, a space elevator and all the tiles unlocked. ~~~ Played: 2/20. Midnight. Was going to call it quits at 12:10, but then just kinda played for another hour... whoops. ~~~ Played: 2/25. Afternoon. ~~~ Played: 2/26. Afternoon. ~~~ Played: 2/26. Evening. This city is so big now. ~~~ Played: 3/8. Early Evening. Wanted to make a new map and city. Eventually scraped the map. ~~~ Played: 3/8. Evening. Found a map on the workshop that looked really cool but it has a shitty difficult starting area that I don't like. Bah. The early bits of this game are not as enjoyable as the end game. ~~~ Played: 3/9. Early Evening. Messed around with different new map. I love the look, but the high way placement is tricky. ~~~ Played: 3/9. Late Evening. ~~~ Played: 3/10. Early Evening. ~~~ Played: 3/12. Midnight. I'm not too sure about this map I picked. It's real pretty, but the logistics of the highway systems is a major pain for traffic. ~~~
Started: 2/21. Early Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed. Only played a little bit of this. Nothing much happened. Got to the part where I fix the laptop. I like the mood a whole lot. I did real bad at the Guitar Hero mini game thing. My one critique is that the pause/option menu doesn't wrap and that's pretty annoying. Especially since you have to go through all the options to exit and save. ~~~ Played: 2/22. Midnight. Finished up the party and went to the mall. Still did terrible at the bass playing mini game, but as someone who used to play bass it kind of reminds me of what it's like when I would practice with people. That's kind of this whole game though. That nostalgia of disenfranchised young adulthood. That feeling of being too old to be a teen, but still not feeling like your ready to be an adult. If I could sum of this game it's "Man, being in your 20's sure did suck a whole bunch." ~~~ Played: 2/24. Evening. I fed the rats in the one building then I accidentally turned down the kid that hangs out on the roof when they asked to hang out. So I hung out with Bea and we had an argument. I'll say there was a lot more "realness" this session than in previous. It's less "happy go lucky" and that's cool. I'm glad to see that stuff come out. ~~~ Played: 2/24. Late Evening. Ended this session at the Library. The plot seems to be popping off now. Had a real good scene with the mom and some story beats. The 3rd ddr mini game is really fucking hard... I wish they let you practice on the bass in Mae's bed room. ~~~ Played: 3/18. Morning. Finally got back to this game. Just played a day of it. Hung out with a Germ and Mom, and then went to the graveyard. Spooky. ~~~ Played: 11/19. Midnight. ~~~ Finished: 11/19. Early Morning. Finally got back to this game and finished it. Didn't realize I was so close to the end until talking to some folks about how long it was. Wish I had finished it back then. I do appreciate that nothing is really settled by the end, exactly. Like there is a plot that concludes but the mysteries are left mysteries and I like that. It's about the characters and not solving the mysteries of the world these characters live in. I spent most of my time with Bae for whatever reason. ~~~
Started: 2/28. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed. This game seems really good so far. I have some minor gripes with it. You can't rebind the "inventory" button (playing with a PS4 pad, the touch pad brings it up instead of share,) hitting the pause button while paused does not unpause the game. Minor stuff. I did find the map and map upgrades a curious design choice. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, because it seems so... unnecessary? Basically you don't start with a map, you have to find the NPC that gives it to you, which is fine. But then you also have the buy items that will update the map and show where you are on the map. The former only happens at save points and the latter must be equipped. It's different and added a bit of in universe flavor but I'm not sure if its... Well it could end up allowing for some real rotten situations where players are in an unmapped area just looking for a save point but have to wander around instead of using their map. Now if save points are common and well placed that won't be an issue. From what I've played so far save point locations are weird and kind of clumped together. I'll have to play more of it. I do really like the aesthetic of the game even though the whole "grimdark" BS shtick is kinda out played. Bugs are cute. It's cute grimdark I guess. The game is well juiced too. You know exactly when you get hit. There is something strange about the attacking though. You move back a little bit after every time you hit something. Which can lead to you falling off platforms if you're near the edge. I found the jumping downward attack to be really cool since you can bounce off enemies. ~~~ Played: 2/28. Midnight. Hrmm. There are things I don't like about the combat. Hurtboxes don't always behave in the way you think. Like you can be hurt while attacking in a way that feels weird. Getting hit sucks too. There's enough knock back/around that getting hit will usually put you in a bad situation. Tougher enemies are smart enough not to get into spots where you can easily hit them. I also feel like I haven't gotten enough upgrades for how long I played. I have so much money but nothing to spend it on. It'd be nice if they gave me another thing of health or something soon. ~~~ Played: 3/1. Midnight. Did some exploring, found shops, beat a boss and got dash, then explored more. Now in a mushroom area. There's a lot of shops selling mostly trinkets. Still only have 5 health, but found another trinket slot. I'm enjoying this game more now, but I wish it wasn't so stingy with the upgrades. I've seen others around but I need wall jump or some other upgrade to get them. Dying is kind of a hassle. It does the Souls-like thing where you have to run back to collect them. Only now a really easy enemy defends them. I just don't see the point. It's more of a hassle then anything. I guess it's incentive not to die but the nature of the combat seems to sometimes allow for BS deaths, like getting knock into acid, etc. Still I like the world, general feel, and characters. I do kinda just want to play more of this. ~~~ Played: 3/1. Early Morning. Explored a whole bunched. Have some decent upgrades now. 6 health, a trinket that gives me soul when I get damaged, another one that allows me to dash a lot more. Some other good stuff. Not sure where to go now though. Went to the mantis village and got the wall jump ability, but I guess I just gotta wander around some more. Was thinking of saving up 1800 geo for the one thing that lets you see in the dark, but kind of forgot about it when buying trinkets. Ah well. ~~~ Played: 3/1. Morning. Now in the Capital. Beat some optional spider boss in the first zone that was pretty tricky. Now have my nail upgraded so it does a bit more damage. Enemies that were dying in 2 hits are now in 1, and so forth. I have this charge up attack move that I always forget I have. I just never think to use it in combat at all. ~~~ Played: 3/1. Early Evening. Went exploring since I encountered some tough enemies. Found a soul upgrade but doesn't seem to add much really. Found a place called "Deepnest". Seems pretty brutal. I'm saving up for the 1800 thing and putting it in the bank. I bet I were to grind in a location I could probably have enough, but I don't really want to do that. ~~~ Played: 3/1. Late Evening. Went through a sewer area and fought a dung beetle boss. At least now I know what the rancid eggs do. Also saved up that 1800 and bought the light item. Now it's time to try it out. ~~~ Played: 3/2. Midnight. Found a way into the Crystal Mountain area. Found a boss guarding a bench and die to it. Ugh. The check points are so far too. I am feeling like I'm missing some sort of helpful attack or something. I could rearrange what trinkets I have equipped, but any of the bosses I've encountered are so far away from any other benches I've found. ~~~ Played: 3/2. Evening. Found some catacombs area, went into a dream, and now have the Dream Nail. Fought some ghost mini bosses. One in the catacombs, the Traitor, he was pretty easy. Then one in the swamp area, she was easy, but kind of a shitty boring boss. I was expecting them to be really hard, but nope! I know there's a bunch around so I'll probably clean them up. I really like this point in the game. No direction, just explore and you'll find some sort of progress. Really what I like/want from a Metroidvania! ~~~ Played: 3/2. Late Evening. This game is getting really good. Just fought a rad boss called something like "Soul Lord" and got the slam move. Also fought the ghost of the mushroom place and it was probably the hardest ghost I faced. Now I have just under the requirement to get the next thing from the lady that gives you ghost stuff. I don't want to stop playing, but it's 11pm and I haven't eaten since getting home from work. ~~~ Played: 3/3. Midnight. Got the super dash. It's interesting in that it doesn't damage enemies. I'm now going back through a bunch of areas to find new stuff. Stopped in the swamp area to do a particularly tricky (and kind BS) down attack-hop thing you have to do across a bunch of enemies that move up and down. They move fast and its hard to go to the next one when they're at their highest. Ah well. I'll try again when I'm not so sleepy. ~~~ Played: 3/3. Early Evening. Just kind of explored around looking for all the places I can't quite get to yet. There's a lot of them. Decided to do the other side of the city of tears or whatever it's called. Found a "dark" upgrade for my ground pound, so that's cool I guess? ~~~ Played: 3/3. Evening. Found the upgrade for the blast attack so that's cool. Went really deep and found some sort of orange slime/bug boss that I couldn't beat. Trekked back out to the city, killed a ghost singer thinking she'd give me the essence I needed to get to 700, she didn't. whoops. Decided to fight the Mantis Lords and after doing some CRIME I was able to beat them. My strategy included having the charms that spawn flies with soul, gain soul on damage, and gain a ton of soul on hit. It worked real well. Basically just had to dodge, get hits in when I could, and the flies would do the rest. Really cool fight. Then when I went to get my reward I accidentally killed the friendly gatekeeper. Whoops. ~~~ Played: 3/3. Evening. So I'm going though the Deepspawn or whatever it's called and I come to another one of those downward attack bounce rooms that probably just has optional stuff in it. It's super wonky and the checkpoints are bull shit. The bouncing doesn't feel right. It's not consistent. What's especially annoying is when you touch a wall then hit jump and he just slides down the wall for some reason. I've failed so many times because of BS like that. I don't get it. The area itself is really cool though. ~~~ Played: 3/4. Afternoon. Was able to beat that challenge. Got another pip of magic. Explored more of it. Found the tram pass and beat another ghost. I also found this optional boss that the set up to was super cool even if the actual fight was kind of easy. It got me more Pale Ore, which I immediately left to go upgrade my nail. It's now level 4, the spiral nail. I also was able to buy the final charm slot from the charm salesman. I only need 10 more charms then I can get their blessing. ~~~ Played: 3/5. Afternoon. Got to the end of the deepnest. Looks like I can face the one boss now. This area has a lot of BS that I don't like. ~~~ Played: 3/5. Evening. I'm kind of stuck. I don't know what I need to activate that one Dreamer I can get to in Deepnest, but I also don't know where to go. I found Kingdom's Edge and the arena, but I can't find the map guy and much of the area needs double jump to progress. ~~~ Played: 3/5. Late Evening. Got double jump (it's kinda wonky), the mark of the king, and shadow dash. Got the final charge attack from the swamp place. Found the map in Kingdom's Edge after exploring it completely, even did the Hive area. Tried to do the 2nd challenge in the Arena, but it's real tough. Probably going to do the rest of the City now that I can access it. I'm assuming I'll get the ability to swim at some point too. There's a nice bit of plot that has been happening now too. ~~~ Played: 3/6. Midnight. SO... uh... I killed all the Dreamers. I didn't realize there wasn't going to be a boss fight. haha. Welp. Now I'm exploring the Queen's Gardens. I'm assuming I'll get some sort of swimming ability or something since all the areas I can't access are blocked by water. I also found a new spell that I was probably supposed to get much earlier. Whoops. The 3rd dreamer area was cool. That Jelly fish boss was annoying, but also cool since the one NPC was helping you. I dipped into the Black Egg area but didn't go far at all. Also... the first area is a bit different haha. ~~~ Played: 3/6. Early Evening. Finished up the Queen's Garden. Went to the Stag Nest. Started to look up some things I missed like the acid swim ability. It just was through a door I thought was blocked by acid, haha. There's still a lot of stuff I should have do I think. I want to try to finish up the arena, get the best weapon, get all the charms, that sort of stuff. ~~~ Played: 3/6. Evening. Got all but 3 Charms. Beat the Collector and am missing 4 grubs. Got the Pure Nail, don't think I'll be doing the final arena challenge since you don't get anything but an achievement I think. Going to be heading to the Hive then Crystal Mines next. ~~~ Played: 3/6. Late Evening. Collected all the charms except for the last one. This was a really trying session. I'm not super good at games and had to really push myself to pay attention to stuff like the crushers in the Crystal Mines. Right now I'm trying to fight the Lost Kin. I think I'm slowly getting. Funny thing is that I'm using a very similar strategy as it is. I've got my helpers spawning in and am using the stab dash. I have to remember to focus on the ghosts and play it safe. Only jump over its downward attack when I'm in the corner. its fucking ghosts though. They're super annoying. Still I just gotta take my time. ~~~ Played: 3/6. Evening. Beat that guy. Stinky is a good charm. Then did the White Palace or whatever it was called. That place is a little too brutal for my tastes, but I was able to get up to the top and get the 2nd part of the final charm. ~~~ Played: 3/6. Late Evening. Got the Void Heart and I wish I had done some other things first, ah well. I also got all the charms now so now I recharge Soul at benches. That's nifty and would have been useful much earlier, ah well. Next I think I'll go to the black egg. I don't really have much interest in getting the last 2 mask pieces. ~~~ Played: 3/7. Midnight. Beat the first phase of the final boss and got that ending. It was fine, but predictable. I can't seem to get the 2nd phase down though. It doesn't help that all its attacks deal 2 damage instead of 1 and it doesn't really give you any breathing room to heal up. I'm going to keep at it though. Also I hear there is a secret 3rd ending if you wear the mushroom charm and talk to the mushroom NPC. Gotta try that. ~~~ Played: 3/7. Afternoon. Tried to beat the true final boss again, but it's too tough. Well it wouldn't be so tough if the game didn't make you fight the fake final boss each time. That boss is easy. Even laughable easy. But after 1.5 hours of trying I was only able to get to phase 2 of the real final boss and at 1 hit point. No breathing room in between phases either. And the boss deals double damage that can knock you into other things that deal damage. It's a huge difficulty spike that I don't feel is handled well. If it dealt normal damage or you didn't have to waste your time fighting another boss before it. Whats worse is the amount of RNG in the fight means sometimes you'll just get screwed over because there was likely no way you could dodge something or know what could have been coming. You can't just learn the patterns or anything. You literally do not know what's coming next. ~~~ Played: 3/7. Evening. Got the upgrade for the upgraded up spell, and was getting to the 2nd phase but still couldn't beat this boss. I think I am done with this game. ~~~