Indie Games Are Saving Gaming
With Hollow Knight: Silksong coming out tomorrow, there’s no better time to make this post.
Indie games nowadays are a staple, they’re the games everyone talks about, it’s not just about the big AAA titles now. And for good reason, indie games have come to rival AAA titles in scope, graphics, complexity and overall enjoyment. It’s not a surprise that games like Sifu, Hollow Knight, Balatro, Dead Cells—Celeste, Blue Prince and so so many more have come to be so critically acclaimed and loved by their fans.
Live Service Games
Live service games are both good and bad. On one hand live service games are awesome. If supported for a long time, they become classics and come to shape whole childhoods and generations. Yet live service games have a bad reputation and it’s not unwarranted either. There are plenty of reasons to dislike live service games, even more so if you actively play one. The big ones people talk about a lot are shady monetization schemes and business practices. Try to think of any big live service game nowadays that doesn’t have loot boxes, battle passes, gacha mechanics, absurd prices for in-game items and cosmetics—shady “discounts” that aren’t discounts, and it goes on and on! Those are all present in not just free-to-play games, which is the main model games go with these days. They’re present in games which you’ve already paid for, 60, 70 dollars and then when you boot up the game you’re blasted with popups for the latest battle pass! Buy it now! Oh and look at this discounted bundle! It comes with both a car skin and a character skin!
Why I Dislike Most FPS Games
Okay, the title is kind of a lie. I don’t dislike FPS games1. I think I’m disappointed with the current state the genre is in. What do I mean by that exactly, I’m not 100% sure myself. That’s what I want to find out by writing this blog post. I’m not one with a really long history in FPS games but I’ve played them quite a lot over the years nonetheless.
Stardew Valley
I love Stardew Valley. I first played the game I don’t know how many years ago, and I was hooked—I was young and I had just saw a YouTube video or two about it, mainly DangerouslyFunny videos where he used mods and stuff and did massive harvests. My first introduction to the game was modded lol, I guess that speaks wonders to the kind of game it is.
I’ve been playing on my phone and I think it’s a great phone game! The mobile versions have an “emergency save” feature that lets you start right back from where you left off in the day so you don’t have to sleep to save. That means you can play for a few minutes then put the game down no problem! And I think that’s awesome.
Borderlands
The first Borderlands game is the first in a series that many love. And it’s no wonder why it is so, it’s a great game with great mechanics that still mostly holds up well to this day, especially with the game of the year enhanced edition.
I first got the game 3 years ago, but I had gotten a bunch of other games along with it on sale so I didn’t get to play it much, even more so as I’d gotten stuck in the early game at the time. So I ended up putting the game off for a long time, and finally got back to it when I got my PS5. For the longest time I thought, maybe looter shooters just aren’t for me, maybe they aren’t but Borderlands should’ve been a game I loved. I’m a sucker for RPGs and numbers games in general so there must’ve been something I was doing wrong, right?
Guide to using vpngate.net
Table of Contents
VPN Gate is a great resource that not enough people make use of. It’s one of the few free and actually good ways of getting a VPN connection.
What is VPN Gate?
VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project is an online service as an academic research at Graduate School of University of Tsukuba, Japan. The purpose of this research is to expand the knowledge of “Global Distributed Public VPN Relay Servers”
— vpngate.net overview
Marvel's Spider-Man
I can see why this game is a PS4 fan favorite and a must-play for many. I’m not usually into superhero games, but I bought this one years ago to play with my nephew and finally got around to platinuming it—four years later.
If you own a PS4 (or even if you don’t!) I highly recommend giving this one a shot.
Story
The story isn’t super special but there’s enough substance here that it serves for a good bit of entertainment. It’s not super deep and it’s pretty easy to guess where the story is going.
The YouTube Graveyard
So I came across this YouTube video today: Exploring “0-view YouTube” Until I Get a Bingo
It reminded me of the fact that I’ve always enjoyed getting glimpses or exploring these corners of the internet—by that I mean, randomly coming across some of these random videos with no views whatsoever. Or scrolling through random people’s Reddit profiles, especially those with a long post history.
I just think it’s super interesting to get a small glimpse into someone else’s life, it’s nice to think about how others might live sometimes. There’s like this feeling of mystique, you get to wonder what their struggles might be. If it’s in an old video or post, you might wonder what they’re up to now, or even if they’re still here with us…
Sifu
Sifu is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s just genius, the way everything is put together it feels like a game made with so much love and passion. The game feels like it was made by people who love martial arts and video games, the mechanics feel so good, the moves are straight up amazing. The Bak Mei inspired style that Sifu uses is insanely cool. The flow of the combat is super addictive and all of that on top of an AWESOME art style. Might be the most badass game I’ve ever played.
AI, writing and emdashes
As GenAI and LLMs get better and better I grow more weary of my passion for writing as now it feels like by the time I’m able to really do anything AI will have already taken over and my work remain forever drowning in an ocean of AI slop articles and novels. For the longest time now ever since I’ve found myself indulging in escapism I’ve wanted to write fiction but haven’t even gotten around to it yet, wanting to be a published author one day I’ve been meaning to actually read more books and try to get myself in a position where I can write something I’m proud of. I know the first thing I write probably won’t be a masterpiece but I really wish to write it the best I can.