Today's is (if i did my math right, and i'm like 99% sure i did) the 2 Year Anniversary. I decided i'd do things the way i did it last time with a normal post with all the extra stuff attached at the end.

To celebrate 2 years i decided to just relax with my friends on the Minecraft server i set up. Setting up this server was a little bit of a headache, and I even set up docker to keep things a little tidier when handling it which added some extra work. But it's worth it to have a space like this to hang out with friends.

In the 2 Years the group i game with has grown from Me and My Best Friend with maybe an occasional other person, too almost 8 other people. Not all of them join for the same games, but that's fine. It feels unreal to an extent to have a group of friends like that, especially ones i feel i trust to such a degree.

Anyways, less about my feelings and more about the Server. I set up a series of secret tunnels running from my base too everyone else's along with secret windows. One of my tunnels got nearly discovered though so i also obfuscated them with a series of mazes armed with booby traps that would discourage anyone from exploring even if they did find it. It was a long project but well paid off in the end to essentially mess with my friends.

I also went to Tropicraft again which was fun. All my friends tagged along too, which in concept sounds fun but it somehow lagged the hell out of the server. I set up an Portal there to warp back and forth and we decided to just leave that place be for now.

2 Year Anniversary stuff

For the 2 year anniversary i wanted to do something different from last year. This is a lot less about the photos and instead i wanted to reflect on the games i played. The way i went about this was too first combine a (mostly) complete history of my screenshots into a stats sheet.

I say mostly because i didn't want to sift through 2 years worth of posts, so i wrote a script to do it for me, then i used that to sift through the incorrect info. It's still a little messy, but i thought it'd give a fascinating look into the screenshots.

For anyone curious though, the top 5 are:

• Halo (at ~82 entries (if we're cheating and counting the MCC as one entire game))
• Fallout New Vegas (at ~23 Entries)
• Alan Wake 2 (at ~22 Entries)
• Ghost of Tsushima (at 18 entries)
• Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered/Assassin's Creed Shadows (at ~17 entries)

Obviously i can't talk about this year without mentioning Halo. I didn't grow up with this franchise. Until i became an adult the only brush i had with it was a weekly LAN party we ran in my Middle School woodworking class which stuck strictly to Boarding Action Slayer. After that i didn't touch it again until i turned 18 and my Best Friend created a monster that would go on to have over 700 Hours and Climbing in Halo MCC.

The franchise has resonated with me in a way not many games have. I'm not a big PvP game person, but it's given me a space beyond that with my friends. It's became the spot where i'd say some of my most treasured memories with them have been made. All over a Voice Call and a game of Slayer, or Infection on Zealot, or hell even just replaying Halo 3 for the 500th god damn time. I can understand why the franchise is so dear to others, and i'm so glad i got a chance to experience it.

I'm going to skip over New Vegas, because it's New Vegas. I don't feel like it needs much more introduction. I ended up replaying Alan Wake 2 this year. I had gone into the semester enrolled in a Photography Class and was starting to feel like i could take on anything. So i decided to replay the game. It has one of my favorite Photo Modes of all time. So knowing that it felt like a perfect match.

As for the contents of the game? It's a story that just hit all the right feelings for me. The meta commentary alone is enough to catch my attention, and then all the extra stuff like Alan's character arc and the beauty and simultaneous horror of the world. Remedy truly crafted something special that i am not afraid to admit I cried a little when it was over. It was one of those games that left a hole in my heart and i don't think anything will ever fill it.

And with the subject of games that left a hole in my heart; Oneshot. I'm moving off the list here now. But this game to me was something special. It nailed every part of it's presentation in so many perfect ways. It made me feel attached to Niko in a paternal way i'm not sure i've ever felt for a fictional character. I was about to cry at the end when Niko left. And it manages to do all that without introducing any sort of combat mechanic or action. Every moment of this game was perfect to the point i don't think replaying it could ever recreate that feeling.

I will touch on one last thing, as though i had more planned, my Wi-Fi has unfortunately gone out and i'm using a hotspot with a supper spotty connection to write this. And that one last thing is The Last of Us Part II. It's the earliest game i remember from this year, partly because i made a blunder and assumed everyone knew a plot twist. I thought since it's what i remember earliest, it's what I'll end with. A proper closing to the last year of pictures.

I liked the game, i know it's a but controversial but on it's own i really liked it. I'm a sucker for a story of the cycle of violence. Is it corny and tacky, yeah. Probably, but i can't help but enjoy them. It looked pretty too and it made me feel invested in all the same ways the original did (which ironically was one of the last games i remember ending off last year with as i was 100% it around that time). I still need to 100% this game and finish my crushing run, but as a closure to the last year i think it's good.

Anyways, that will be all from tonight. I had been up sorting games for the last few hours and debugging a script i put off for far too long to get those stats for games. There was a bug where it could only scan like the first 476 Posts which was weird. I fixed it though. Sorry Lemmy api if there was anything weird going on. That was me. Anyways, before my hotspot disconnects me again I'm gonna end today here.