Back Again (Yet Another Update)

Right, so, as with all plans, it seems it didn't survive contact with reality in any sense of the word. However, I've given myself some breathing room, enough, actually, to start working on this again. Yay! This is mostly text-heavy, so brace your eyeballs, folks.

So, I have a new plan of sorts after much thinking, tinkering, writing, and generally sitting around with a blank expression. I have a rough plan for content going forward on my site. I'll get into more details a bit further on in this post. I think a part of it is that relying on Twitter (or X if you prefer, most don't) and how that has changed over the last couple of years ensured I am not likely to get as much reach there for a while as I barely use it. I'll be throwing my Bluesky link onto the site at some point, but that's neither here nor there as if you are reading this, you don't neccessarily need to follow me on social media.

I tried a few games over the course of this year so far just to see what I could turn into a story: X4, Starsector, I even dabbled in EVE Online as a free-to-play account, yet none of them seemed to stick quite the same way as Elite Dangerous did. Other things kind of worked such as Crusader Kings 3 or Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord, but I could never quite translate it into an epic written adventure, which lead to me nearly giving up on this entirely. Especially given how my reviews didn't seem to do all that well.

All this meant I decided to go back to games that are basically story generators to sort of ease myself back into the written/story let's play idea. You can expect a Rimworld story or quite likely several of them as I settled on a good idea for formatting it finally I'll get into that shortly. I'll also probably continue my reviews, but I am going to solely focus on indie/small games and old games, there are enough people out there tackling the big AAA releases plus my PC can't always handle them. I have to play BG3 locked at 30fps just so it doesn't melt my entire PC, for example!

Right, the Rimworld idea will be one part learning, one part story and largely designed to move from one failed colony to the next using what I have learned each time to get further. Simple enough, kicking myself for not thinking of it before, but here we are. The formatting idea largely comes together in the following ways: first, I'll set a list of objectives for myself at the top of each entry, then story-ise what happens as I attempt to hit those objectives. Lastly, I'll put in any OOC observations or things I learn along the way (never know, might help someone out who is playing too). Then, if a run fails, the colony gets overrun or any number of other way,s things can go the way of the proverbial pear in Rimworld. I give an overview, then move into the next run, attempting to get further every time.

I think Rimworld works best for this idea at present, as it essentially serves as a story generator. If I can ever afford it, or if enough people demand it, I could look into similar games like Dwarf Fortress. This, however, will work to get me back into it.

As I mentioned above, I haven't entirely given up on the reviews though I'm not entirely sure what I will write reviews for; big AAA releases might be beyond my PC's ability to play. Therefore, I'll stick to older titles, if not necessarily old games, although both are options I'll consider, plus smaller indie titles that need all the help they can get especially if they are as awesome as some I've played over the last few years (Vampire Survivors, Dave the Diver, Glory to Goo.) So, here's a short list of some possible things I may try and do reviews for by the end of the year:

• Deep Rock Galactic Survivors: Specifically, once it goes into 1.0, gets all its features and endgame content.

• Earth Defence Force 5: A game I keep meaning to get around to finishing, but always find myself not being able to pick a class to focus on, typical me!

• Volcanoids: An indie game I dabbled in for a bit, really enjoyed then have been sitting on waiting for 1.0 (seems to be a thing I do a lot of.)

• The Batman Arkham Series: Specifically, Asylum, City, Origins and Knight as they are some of my favourite games, and honestly still look good even today. Arkham Knight still looks as good today as some current releases, if you ask me.

• Deus Ex (the Original): Just one of my first PC games that hooked me into PC gaming in general, alongside Fallout 2.

There are other written let's plays I am pondering, so I'll do another brief list with the caveat being that these may not happen anytime soon or ever, it'll depend on feedback and whether doing this stuff gets me enough support via Ko-Fi and such to keep doing this. With that disclaimer aside, have some more possible things I may do written let's plays for:

• Songs of Syx: It has a lot of elements that make it a bit like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress, just on a massive scale, so it'd be less about individuals and more about the city itself. Largely waiting for 1.0 to learn it and see if I can make it an interesting read.

• Mount and Blade II Bannerlords: Another one that has a lot of potential, though I feel like I'd need to mod it pretty heavily to ensure I could turn it into a good story, though its certainly has enough Crusader Kings elements to work.

• Monster Hunter World/Iceborne: This was just a random idea, I think it could work if people were interested.

• Dominions 4: As its the only one I have, I do want 6 but that'll have to wait but I can test the waters with 4 but I'd need to either learn it better or take a similar approach as I am with the Rimworld story, make each campaign a learning experience and hope it helps others figure out how to play how they want too?

• EVE Online/X4/Starsector: I know what I said above about considering them, but not quite figuring out how to story-fy them though if I do puzzle out a way to do it, I'll definitely do it. I do have ideas for them, zero to hero for EVE, going from Alpha Clone to Omega Clone. Using the 4X mod for Starsector etc.

I have no idea what order I am doing a lot of this stuff in exactly just yet besides Rimworld being first, I'll see where the inspiration takes me otherwise unless I get a lot of feedback pushing me toward certain things of course.

So, if you like the idea of what I am trying to do, enjoy my existing content or just want to help keep me plodding forwards, then do please consider donating via Ko-Fi or subbing via Patreon if you can afford to do so. It will all help massively, the better I do, the more I can write, which means more for you to hopefully enjoy reading! Links are under the buttons at the top. All constructive feedback is welcome!