the background noise

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. 

In a shocking turn of events welcome to the second part of my horror movie marathon for October 2024. This time around I'm going for a random assortment of films I have yet to watch. Most of these are pretty recent, some dates from the olden times from whence records barely survive. The 1980's I mean, of course they would pop up here somewhere. It's a broad eclectic selection to be sure and one that covers all the major categories of horror. From under the sea to the otherworldly let's get to the films...

It's that glorious time of year again where we all come together to be frightened, shocked, mortified, haunted or just plain disgusted. The spooky season is of course upon us and much like last year I've decided to embrace it by watching as many horror films as I can. I've just watched all the films in the Paranormal Activity series so that's the subject of today's entry with a more varied assortment of films planned for part two. It's all floating kitchen utensils, strange sounds and flying bodies in this series. Not to mention  the unwavering commitment of its main characters to  capturing all this madness on tape when they should perhaps be doing shots of holy water or relocating to sacred ground. Mild spoilers ahead...

Damn it Kojima! I was all ready to rubbish this game. I really was. I was not having a good time with it. Then what do you do but go all Hail Mary in the last third of it and somehow save the whole thing from a thoroughly average review rating? I probably shouldn't be surprised that you somehow accomplished this feat given your past record but there we are. From the mind of the man who brought us Metal Gear comes the ending that saves the whole thing. Anyway I think I'm getting ahead of myself here. As you may have gathered, I have now played and completed Death Stranding . A game that has provoked many thoughts from myself, thoughts I will now dish out in no particular order. Warning: possibility of minor spoilers below...