13 years ago today, I got news that completely changed the course of my life.

My job requires me working on computers all day. Most of my hobbies revolve around computers in one way or another. It’d make sense not to throw all of that into complete disarray, right?

It would. Which CLEARLY means I gotta screw with it somehow.

• Game: Apex Legends
• Platform: PC (also on console)
• Developer: Respawn Entertainment
• Publisher: EA

Battle Royale games have taken over the gaming industry over the last few years. After The Hunger Games made its mark on the movie industry, mods for games like Minecraft and ARMA 2 (the DayZ mod) popped up fairly quickly, giving players arenas to battle it out for map supremacy. Soon, standalone games like PUBG (itself a mod of the DayZ mod) and Fortnite took over, becoming not only insanely popular, but managing to deeply integrate themselves into pop culture. The success of Fortnite was one that many thought would not be overcome for a long time; its absolute dominance over the attention spans of gamers worldwide seemed absolute.

And then EA released Apex Legends.

(Not So) Fun fact: on Wednesday, Jan 30, 2019, the projected temperature in Des Moines (with wind chill) will be 122 degrees colder than it will be inside my house.

Congratulations, everyone. We made it¹ to the end of 2018.

It’s been an absolutely crazy year for me. A new job started. A ton of fun games released. A new kitten acquired. A house purchased. 2018 was definitely a blast, and yet I feel like some things have been lacking from it.

I think I narrowed down the cause; beyond these huge, major milestones, I feel like I didn’t accomplish a whole lot this year. I used to give myself some goals back in the day, and while I wouldn’t always achieve them, I felt like they gave me some guidance and organization to my life. When I transitioned to a business analyst this spring, I realized that I thrive on structure and having clear-cut goals to accomplish.

So! For the first time since 2013, I’m going to set some goals for my upcoming year. I routinely post my goals to my blog a) in order to have access everywhere, and b) to have public accountability.

• Game: Shadow of the Colossus (PS4 remaster)
• Platform: PS4 (remaster)
• Developer: SCE Japan Studio / Team Ico
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
• Completed Date: 24 Nov 2018
• Time to Complete: 4 hours 7 minutes 25 seconds

When I was about 10, my best friend and I went on a group trip to go explore some caves. I had a great time; we spent about 5 hours inside, and I just kept running around, exploring every nook & cranny, and even getting stuck at one point climbing through a tunnel I don’t think we were supposed to go through.

• Game: Buying a House
• Platform: Planet Earth
• Developer: My parents (lol)
• Completed Date: 9 Nov 2018
• Time to Complete: 31 years 8 months (unknown completion)

Be honest, how many of you forgot I had a blog?¹

My gaming has been a bit sparse as of late. A few life changes, a few game changes, and… my wife and I bought our first house!

This post isn’t going to be abnormally long, because we have Pokémon Let’s Go to play, but I just wanted to make this post and let everyone know that yes, I still exist, and yes, I’m going to be reviewing more games here in the future. Should be a good time.

Normally I’d put some boilerplate here about how you can harass me about my opinions on the games I review, but today you can’t do that. Message me on Twitter anyway and let’s chat!

• Game: Minit
• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Developer: JW, Kitty, Jukio, and Dom
• Publisher: Devolver Digital
• Completed Date: 24 Aug 2018
• Time to Complete: 58 minutes 2.53 seconds (51% completion)

Society is filled with unoriginal ideas right now. Hollywood is filled with remakes, TV is filled with crappy reality shows, and game developers love beating established IPs into the ground with sequel after sequel. Even one of the best games of all time is the 18th game in a series that spans over 30 years¹.

Somehow, in an era where graphics and mechanics rule, Minit succeeds as a refreshingly unique game, while managing to be an ultra simple concept.

• Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Platform: Switch (and Wii U)
• Developer: Nintendo EPD
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Completed Date: Aug 8, 2018
• Time to Complete: 25 hours*

My first console as a kid was an N64, and Ocarina of Time was one of the first games I remember owning, playing, and beating. It was my first for a lot of things; first Zelda game, first RPG, first major open world game, first real challenge as a gamer.

When I said I had no idea what I wanted to do with this site the other day, I lied. There are actually 2 things I (might) want to do. One of them is converting my aforementioned gaming spreadsheet into something more readable & usable on the web. Right now, entering a new game into that requires me to unhide a column, type things out, sort, then hide the column again. Updating one requires me to find it on the massive main list in order to make changes. It’s gross.