Me outside of work

Just an absolutely incredible experience start to finish. So much charm and love, a world that is a joy to explore, and just a really good level of difficulty for me. I don't 100% games often, but I had to 100% complete Silksong. My only complaint is that Act III felt a little weak compared to the other two, but that's more just because the other two acts were incredible.

I love my puzzle games, and I think Obra Dinn is the best puzzle game out there. There aren't many games that are just one giant puzzle start to finish, and this absolutely nails it. The feeling of seeing the same guy constantly from scene to scene but having nothing to go on for his name, and then finally spotting something that makes everything fall into place is one of the best feelings out there. Not to mention that the story as a whole is really cool, and the set-pieces are gorgeous.

Half-Life Alyx is the game that convinced me that VR is not a gimmick. It has the kind of immersion that genuinely has you forgetting you are in VR despite not even having arms. I genuinely think the chapter with Jeff might be the single best section of any video game ever, and one that I don't think I will ever forget. 10/10, this was my Half-Life 3.

Somehow Don Hertzfeldt has created one of the funniest, most heartbreaking, and most existential films I have ever seen and the main character is effectively a sick man. Just such a wonderful and meaningful film that explores the meaning of life for someone with severe mental disabilities in such a genuine and charming way.

An incredibly depressing premise that in reality is a very true-to-life deep dive into mens mental health, depression, and societal pressures. The two leads are incredible and the ending is the most I have ever cried watching a film. It deals with some incredibly heavy topics, but does so better than any other film I have seen. If it weren't for how hard a watch it was I would recommend it to everyone.

After watching Parasite I knew I had to go back through Bong Joon Ho's repertoire. I wasn't expecting it, but of all of his films Memories of Murder stuck in my head and just really worked for me. It's hard to talk about without spoilers, and I don't know if I can really put into words exactly how I feel about it anyway, but it was just a fascinating film and I absolutely love the way the two protagonists mirror each other throughout the entire runtime.

Like a lot of people in the board game space I have been a big fan of Cole Wehrle since Root and I have been following his designs ever since. Arcs though is just my perfect board game. I love tight mechanical design and elegence of mechanics, and Arcs just has that in spades. The number of different ways you can use the same action card, court card, resource, or leader ability is frankly staggering and leads to some of the most giga-brain turns I think I have ever seen in any game, video games included. It's a real shame it's so divisive because it can be really hard to get to the table. I yearn for the group that desires games of Arcs as much as I.

I am generally not a fan of turning video games into board games. I think they often don't translate very well, or they have to muddy the ideas from the video game to work properly. There are some exceptions though, and I think Slay the Spire is the biggest exception of them all. I am already a huge fan of the video game with thousands of hours across devices and a20 wins on every character, but I just think the board game is better. Maybe my bias towards tactility is doing some heavy lifting here, but there are also a lot of mechanical changes I just prefer. I love it so much I ended up creating an hour-long video essay talking about it. 2024 was a pretty good year of board games for me.

Sudokus and little written puzzles have always been something I enjoy to a small degree. Something about turning one into a PvP board game just hits the spot for me in a way small puzzles never had. The feeling of not just piecing together the drabs of information the game provides, but also going off every single thread of information an opponent leaks makes you feel like you're a true detective. Using logical reasoning about why a player would ask a certain question to narrow down what objects could be where leads to incredible "aha!" moments, but also devastating moments of folly where you have to reassess everything you have thought up until this point.