The week has been pure chaos, and as I type this I haven’t played a single game that isn’t FlipFlop Solitaire. The game has entered an echelon past simple game and is more a fidget toy that I use between work meetings at this point. I still highly recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in solitaire as a concept, but it’s not something I intend to write too much about.
Instead, this week I’ve spent some time thinking about how this newsletter fits into my writing routine. Minus the couple of weeks that I’ve been out of the country I’ve managed to publish a newsletter on a fairly consistent basis since February. That may not seem like much to some, but it’s helped me develop a writing habit that I’ve been content with.
In fact, this newsletter helped push me to finally start my own personal blog - something I’ve wanted to do for years but always put off. With that came the struggle of choosing what to use my limited free time on - video games and this newsletter or one of the other myriad things I’m interested in. As soon as that struggle began to manifest an ounce of anxiety I knew something was off. I don’t want to force myself to play a new game for an hour or two just hoping it inspires me to write that week, so I’ve decided to make this newsletter a bi-weekly event. Meaning after this entry you can expect the next one to drop on August 24th, followed by another on September 7th and so on.
My hope is that this leads to more enjoyment of the games I am playing, a more thoughtful approach to my writing, more posting on my main site, and more time to read and discover other writers (reach out with any suggestions!). My aim is to keep writing with the same consistency, but have it take new shape.
Anyway, thanks for reading all that! Now, I can’t leave you without at least a little gaming content, let’s get into a quick news round up from the past couple weeks.
Bonus Bits:
Game Informer is Shutting Down
This one cut deep. Game Informer was my magazine of choice growing up - I just got rid of the dozens of issues that I still had lying around and it was a wonderful trip down gamings memory lane. The covers were always my favorite part with their beautiful art spreading to the back of the magazine as well. Thanks for the memories!
Bungie Layoffs
Listen, I know there are nuances to every situation. As a data guy in my day job, I also get that the economics make it clear that certain actions are “best for business”. But it’s tough to not get worked up when you read about the CEO’s actions and then compare that to the late Satoru Iwata.
Balatro 2025 Gameplay Update
To end on a good note one of the best games of 2024, Balatro, is getting a big and free update in 2025! I have continued to lose hours to this game since I first wrote about it a few months ago. It’s the perfect Switch companion, and I’m excited to see the ways developer LocalThunk expands the game’s potential strategies.
See ya in two weeks!