Today's the Day! The 1 year anniversary. Today's game is Halo 3, I decided the best way to celebrate with a new year would be by kicking back and relaxing with some of my friends. We have here what we call our Spartan B-Team. We suck absolute ass, and are the last ones they'd call for the job. But we're... we're uhhh... we got nothing going for us...

All joking aside though, we played a few social matches and had a lot of fun. Despite the jokes we actually did pretty well. Most matches were tied pretty evenly and were a close call. It was a really satisfying game. Besides that though I'll hold off on talking about more, because I already have a decent bit more for the 1 Year Anniversary. Namely the...

Best of Section (or the section where I talk about the most memorable games I've played)

I was initially going to pick the best Screenshots, but I'm not really sure how to pick the best, plus there's a lot of them and this has always been more about showing the games than the pictures themselves.

So instead, I'm going to do a bit more like what I usually do in a retrospective manner.

Uncharted 4

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Initially, when I started, this was my first game. That was back when I was just doing screenshots from my backlog of screenshots, though. I took this screenshot probably around a year before I started? It’s of the cave where Nathan first falls when he crashes on the island. I remember picking this one specifically because I really liked the colors and the view. That’s always kind of been the mentality I’ve gone with for these. I’ve loved taking the photos more like an art piece instead of making them just regular old screenshots. I’m definitely no artist (I nearly failed art class in high school), but I feel like it adds a bit of a personal touch to the screenshots when I take the more artistic angle.

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With that screenshot being nearly a year old at the time of posting it, at some point, I had planned to return to the game for a crushing run. Uncharted was one of my first games growing up that I actually owned myself. I bought it to play on a hand-me-down PS3 Super Slim I got from my uncle. I only beat the first 2, but about 110 days into the posts, I decided to pick it up again. It was one of those games where I loved it and wanted more, so the best way I decided to show my love for the game was to try and go achievement hunting. I still need to reach that goal someday, but that’s what kickstarted picking up this game again.

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Uncharted is an amazing highlight of the kind of games I like, and I think after this you can kind of see a recurring trend with my choice in games. I like the kind of games with narrative lessons to teach the most. Being able to reflect on them and look back on them is something I enjoy the most, especially when I can apply them to my life. But beyond that, Uncharted 4 is one of the prettiest games I’ve seen. The water (oh great, here goes Atticus talking about water again) is gorgeous, the lighting is amazing, and most importantly? It runs amazingly! I got stable frame rates on Steam Deck. One of my favorite showcases of this is the Scotland chapter of Uncharted 4, where there’s just a lot going on. There’s rock physics and waves, and snow and just a lot of things I imagine happening, but honestly? I can’t tell much of a difference in performance.

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I think Uncharted 4 was an awesome choice for me to start off these posts with. It’s an amazing game and really showcases what kind of games I like. It acts as a sort of showcase for the things I’d be sharing. It also started to be when I moved beyond the standard “Here’s a screenshot, now bye” format I started with and instead really started doing these long-winded posts. Maybe it’s just a memory bias, but specifically I remember the above screenshot because I thought the “Nate on a Crate” line was funny. I want to go back one day to finish 4 entirely, and maybe finish Lost Legacy too which I left unfinished, but for now I think it’s a good starting point for these posts.

Alan Wake (I, American Nightmare, and II)

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This is the game I’ve been most excited to get too. I think it’s safe to say Alan Wake is my favorite game of all time. It’s the first game I’ve truly gone out of my way to 100%, and I enjoyed every second of it. I’m going to roll the 3 games into one to save on length because this already will probably be long, but the first game I feel like is amazing. The screenshot above was taken when I was messing around in the story, something I do from time to time. I took a selfie with a bear, which I think people thought was a reference to something else. Complete coincidence, but I’m glad people enjoyed it.

Talking more about the game, the gameplay is satisfying to play. It’s like a fun challenge of keeping your distance from enemies while also managing resources. The story is awesome too. It has so many little details to pick up on that even nearly 6 playthroughs in, I’m finding new things.

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Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, though I think perfected the gameplay. It built off of it in a good way. The flashlight is a bit more floaty and easier to manage, and the game has more playstyle options. Story-wise, it’s a different flavor though. The first one is a thriller, while this one is a bit campier. I still love it, and the art style is amazing. The motel in the above screenshot is one of the most memorable places for me in the entire game.

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Alan Wake II, though I feel like is where the story hits its absolute best. The time loop and all the foreshadowing it throws right in your face is amazing. And then the final draft is so fucking clever. I remember when I was doing the final draft, I went out of my way to try and word it like it’s my first playthrough for the screenshots just to go along with the bit. I even tried to mirror my screenshots just to play along with the Time Loop bit. One of the places that stuck with me most is the deer in the lodge Saga stays in. Alan is my favorite character, but Saga was fun and that Lodge was so cozy. It made amazing use of the Mind Place too, because it makes it seem safe, but at the very end, it rips that safety away from you and takes away that safety it established. It was really well done and I love that they did it.

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Fallout New Vegas

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This was another major game on here I did. It’s an amazing game and I love some of the points it tries to make with its story and DLC. And the way the DLC ties together is so amazing. The best screenshot from this I’d say is the “Left my ♡ in the Sierra Madre” one. It marked the end of that journey, and served as what I kind of consider the “Beginning of the end” of my overarching Fallout New Vegas journey. I really liked picking that one as the main screenshot for that day. It felt very fitting.

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I think the other best photo for Fallout New Vegas though is my final main one. It’s a photo of Hoover Dam, which is where I chose to end it. With it being the very end of the game, it seemed appropriate, especially with how one of the main things in the game is how people are obsessing over it. That final post ended up being a bit of a breakdown of my thoughts and feelings of the game (and it was what started making these posts a lot bigger). After ending for the night, I actually went back though and stayed up to 100% of the game. It was a lot of fun. Never again though. I love that game, but there is a lot there to do.

Silent Hill 2

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Finally, this is the last “Major Game” I’ve decided to cover. There are a lot of good options, but I don’t want to draw this out too long. But Silent Hill 2 was an amazing experience. I loved being on the streets and just capturing photos of it. Still, the most memorable photo for me of this is the first one I took of James standing there on the street. The town is phenomenal. It feels like a generic Midwestern town, which is where I grew up. The art direction, I feel like, is something that did not miss in this. They knocked it out of the park. I 100% it with my first run through, but god, it was so amazing. I'm not picky about my games; most things will get like a 7 or 8 out of 10 from me, 9 if I really liked them. But God, Silent Hill 2, I'd say it's a solid 10 out of 10 for me. It was amazing, and it was one of those games that made you feel empty after beating it. I was wanting more. I think the only other games on this list that did that were Uncharted and Alan Wake.

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There's one other photo that's memorable to me from this game, so I'd consider it a contender for the best of. And that's this photo of James's car I took during my new Game+ run. It's of the backseat of a blanket in the back. You can't normally see this during gameplay, but I took a free cam back there, and I wanted to use it as a sort of photo mod to capture better screenshots, and the blanket is very body-shaped. If you know anything about Silent Hill. One of the big things is that Mary was in the back of James’s the entire time. And I'm 90% sure Bloober Team did this on purpose, and it's just a detail I love.

Honorable Mentions

Sea of Thieves

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Sea of Thieves is one of the games here that I wouldn’t be surprised if people recognize the most from me. It’s decently well known, I’d say, and I feel like I play it a lot with friends. The first screenshot for it I took the day of, and it’s the first one I did it for. I’m not going to linger too much on this game as ultimately I feel like it’s more of a footnote despite how often I feature it. This game is amazing to just hop into with friends and play around in. It has its share of issues, I feel like, such as network problems, and the local Voice Chat seems utterly janky as fuck. But ultimately I think it’s a good time to spend with friends and fun to just dick around in for an hour. There’s a good deal of fun to be had solo, but ultimately I think the most fun would be found in the Multiplayer.

Project Zomboid

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Project Zomboid is another multiplayer game I play fairly often. Not as of late, unfortunately, but God it is so satisfying to play. It feels like a mini episode of The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead I grew up on, and I honestly am really disappointed. We've been denied a good Walking Dead video game. Like an open-world survival sandbox one. Zomboid fills that niche so well. Every session just feels like an episode of The Walking Dead, a good one too. Maybe it's just because I'm in that episode. But it's so satisfying. Like one of my favorite examples was my friend and me. And we went to go get a generator, and we had to go to this airfield to find it. But we crashed our car on the way there, so we had to carry the generator back by hand. Only a horde started coming in as we're dragging it back. So we had to take shifts dragging this generator back while also keeping watch on the hoard to make sure they didn’t get us.

The game is great for those kinds of moments. I feel like the only downside to it is that it’s very dependent on you being able to make your own fun. The game honestly led to my friends and me making a lot of lore. For example, there’s Jerry Attricks. He's like the middle-aged, unhinged American dad Barbie. I've cycled him through so many jobs. He's not qualified for any of them, but he picks them up in the apocalypse like hobbies. He's been a doctor, a soldier, a taxi driver, a chef, a stripper, a carpenter. All sorts of stuff. And he has a son named Cable that he picked up off the streets when the apocalypse happened. His son is like 20 and he's a stoner. He was an adult when he picked him up. Our lore is that the son just went along with it despite being an adult. He's not the best father. But he tries. Sometimes.

No Man's Sky

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No Man's Sky is in a very similar place for me as Zomboid. It's a lot of fun, just hopping around discovering planets and honestly kind of role-playing as an explorer. I think it's very much the same place, though you have to be able to make your own kind of fun. I think since it's launched, the game has greatly improved. There's a lot more to do. The planets are more vibrant. And it feels like the game has its own kind of society. I've seen guild and clans pop up and run by players. And honestly, I think that's really cool. And I appreciate that they didn't give up on it.

Halo Master Chief Collection

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Halo, honestly, I feel like it's an injustice to include it in the honorable mentions section. But there's just so much that I have to relegate it here. It is an amazing game, and when you're with friends, even the shitty parts of the games are fun. Like Halo 2 legendary? Fucking nightmare. But I have such fond memories of that because I did a co-op with a friend. Honestly, if it's a friend that I get along well with, I might do it again. I mean, it took me nearly half a year just to beat Halo 2 co-op. Just because it was so difficult. But God, it was so fun. And Halo, I feel like it has this magic formula to it. Or like a magic sauce. And just even the shitty, grueling, tiring sections. Can be really fun. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the wacky physics or maybe it's just because the highs of the game make you feel like a fucking bad ass. But those first four games, there's something magical about them. And honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I would need to talk about Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4, it would definitely be getting its own page at the top.

The Conclusion

Honestly, I've had a lot of fun this past year. I think there are some points where it just felt like I was going through motions. Less like I was talking about the game and more like checking off boxes. In a sort of “I did this part of game x” way. But I think the daily nature of that is going to cause that. Because there are only so many opinions you can have on a game. And I have more free time than others usually, but even still sometimes life gets in the way of that. Despite all of that though, having this community to share the games I like with has been really fun. And I think I will keep going for another year, Or at least try to.

At first, I was considering moving to a per-game kind of post after this. Like I said, sometimes I feel like it’s hitting check marks, but also I’ve always wanted to stream but don't want to overlap this thing I have going on here with that. But the more I thought about it and the closer I got to a year, I think I'm kind of having fun sharing these like bite-size pieces of a game. I feel like it points out details that a general overview would miss. Like the water ranking that I do or fish that I've been discussing. I think a full-length overview, those will kind of get brushed over. Besides, I think if I really wanted to start streaming, I think I’d be able to balance it out right now. So because of that, I think I'm going to try and go for another year. I think it'll be fun to get my own website set up one day too. Maybe even with like an RSS feed or something. But that's just me dreaming. I wouldn't expect to have a website set up soon. Anyways, I just want to thank everyone for being so supportive. It’s a nice community, and this is the first time I really put myself out there in this way and it makes me happy to know that I people enjoy these.