the background noise

Since restarting the blog three years ago I've made great strides into clearing the perpetual gaming backlog that irked me so much back then. It has been a busy few years and a great many games have been completed post-COVID.  It's a fine line of course I don't want this to feel like a task or a chore to clear but at the same time, games are not meant to be accumulated without actually... you know playing them.  So played them I have and h aving tracked my ongoing thoughts on the gaming habit right here on the blog I now ponder the always fraught question of what to play next?

2025 is here and it feels so good. I have it on reliable authority that the world didn't end and that this is not actually The Matrix so we're going to press on with that most prestigious of annual events. Why yes it's TGPLYA's and that still doesn't translate to a catchy slogan I should really have worked on that since last year's edition. Anyhow in brief we are all here to celebrate my entirely subjective opinion on the best and worst games I played last year as exhaustively catalogued in my end of year retrospective. With no further ado let's get to the awards...

Happy New Year all! Once more unto the breach and all that. It's the last leg through the odyssey of eclectic game picks that comprise my 2024 in video gaming. Please believe me when I say that I don't select these games by randomly throwing a dart at a board full of random sticky notes.  There is perhaps a method and a madness to this seemingly bizarre selection of games I promise you. Yes we've had rolllerskating with guns, we've had text based adventures in space, we've had a lot of live service shooting and even a full fat RPG in there somewhere. I'm sure there is a line that connects all these dots but you might have to get back to me on that one. To the games...

More thoughts! More games! More thoughts on games as I continue the survey of my 2024 in video gaming. On reflection I really feel like the majority of these games are getting suspiciously modern and 'current' like they might hold a degree of relevance to the present moment in which we live. I feel like I should be playing an obscure green screen graphical adventure from 1988 just to restore the balance somehow. I won't actually do that as I do go a bit retro in this entry towards the end. That said let's crack on with the hot takes, the medium heat takes and the 'why the heck would anyone play that?' takes.

Merry belated Christmas all! It's that time again, the time to look upon my last twelve months in gaming. Reflect upon the dizzying highs, the deep lows and the indeterminate set of feelings we find in the middle. Obviously it was a quiet year in literally every other respect . Nothing significant happened in the political, cultural or social spheres, honestly it was a pretty unremarkable year. I'm almost entirely sure that what the world needs right now is more red hot blog content about my year in video gaming. Yeah that sounds about right, nothing else to see here. So without further ado, what did I play this year and what did I think about it in brief?

Happy November all! It's that special time of year where everything gets cold, sparkly and barren. Crispy leaves on the ground, a bite in the air and a wellspring of reflection as the year comes to a close. Naturally my thoughts turn to my year in gaming and soon there will be my third annual retrospective of everything I've played this year. I know, I know you're excited dear conception of a reader but for now I feel like sharing a screenshot or three from a game I played a few months ago but haven't really talked about around these here parts.