On this day last year, I made my first ever post on this blog. I really did not know what I was going to do or what I wanted this to be about. At first, I thought I should do little game reviews, but I feel like those are a dime a dozen. Instead of just reviewing games, I wanted to share the experience. I wanted to talk about the random encounters I had in games, the little memories triggered by events, and just bring a more personable experience to gaming. As much as I am a “hardcore gamer”, I’m also super casual, and I thought today I’d reflect on the past year of this blog.

One of the biggest reasons I started blogging was because of Little Nightmares. This is one of my favorite games! I had been sharing clips of me playing the game on Instagram and a lot of people wanted to know more about it. While I didn’t write about it first, it is the game that started me down this path. It is still one of my favorite games, and as much as I enjoyed the Little Nightmares 2 sequel, nothing beats the feeling of that first game. I am still as in love with the art, the characters, and the gameplay as ever. If you haven’t played those games, check out my posts on them and consider giving them a try!

I have written about a lot of different games. Early on, I thought it might be fun to try and push outside of my comfort zone and dabble in the Horror genre. I cannot do scary movies but I love horror books, so I was slightly optimistic that it might work out. I guess I thought the ambiance of Little Nightmares had prepared me, but I was wrong. After trying to start the game Visage, I quickly abandoned that quest. I literally accomplished nothing in that game and have never attempted it since. I did, however, watch my friend play a chapter of it and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. If you like scary games, maybe try this one out. I could not hang.

Starting this blog made me branch out and try a lot of new games I wouldn’t have otherwise. Most of the time, I am a gamer who sticks to my usuals and not much else. If it isn’t apparent enough, Destiny 2 is one of the big ones. I’ve written more about this game than any other, and it is one of two games I have played for years. When our friends started playing again, we got to do more difficult content like beating a raid. It’s a regular activity now and we even completed the newest raid, Vow of the Disciple!

I knew if I was going to be blogging about games, I’d have to get some more variety. GamePass made that so easy – I found a lot of new games to try with no commitment. Many games I played were smaller Indie titles, but I also explored some bigger named titles as well. If there’s any game I can’t recommend enough, it’s A Plague Tale: Innocence. Lucky for us, there’s a sequel coming out! This game is beautiful and the story is so interesting. It’s not overwhelming in the gameplay or mechanics either. It was so enjoyable that it ended up being my first ever 100% completion! If you haven’t played this game, you don’t know what you are missing out on.

As much as I tried to post about every game I played, there were a couple that slipped through the cracks. One game I really enjoyed and finished in a night is called Superliminal. It’s been months since I played so I don’t think a blog post now would do it justice, but I do want to mention it as it was a really unique puzzle game I really liked. The game uses perspective to change the size and arrangement of objects around you. It was maddening and perplexing, but so much fun to figure out. Even though I never got around to writing about it, it’s a game worth checking out.

The last game I need to touch on is the game that took over my life for a couple of months. Stardew Valley was a game I heard so many good things about, but looking at it, you would think there’s not much to it. I went through 4 years of Stardew Valley before I disappeared off the game. I’ve been thinking about jumping back in lately although I don’t remember what I was last up to. The nice thing is that it’s the kind of game that you can just pick up and go with – it’s casual, relaxing, and your goal is whatever you want it to be.

So what’s next? I’m not sure. My first thought is Elder Scrolls Online is way too underrepresented on this blog for how much time I’ve spent on it. I want to keep trying new titles on GamePass and I want to go back to my farm in Stardew Valley. Maybe I’ll do more “gaming with my niece” features. Maybe I should make another Gamer Score goal for the year. Is 60,000 too steep?

I am curious – are there any games you tried because of something I wrote? Are there any games you want to hear more about? Sometimes I think I am just writing to myself on here, and that’s okay, but I do wonder how far this reaches.

Anyway, yay! I did it for a year! Welcome to Year 2 of Brittany Blogs!