Gaming Ramble Weekly

We’re officially a full week into 2024, and I’ve already had a mini crisis about the fact that 2024 is closer to 2040 than it is to 2007.  Not necessarily the start to this year I was hoping for…

Anyway.  Hello!  Thanks for coming back to read this week’s ramblings, I hope there is something in here that you can enjoy.  I did say it would be weekly, 2/2 isn’t bad. 

As always, the start of the year is a quiet time in the gaming world.  We won’t really be seeing any major releases until Prince of Persia on 18th January, and with 2023 being such a crazy year for video games, I wouldn’t be surprised if 2024 feels slightly lackluster or mediocre in comparison.  If ever there was a year to tackle the dreaded gaming backlog, then I feel that this year is the one.

Speaking of backlogs, I started using Backloggd this week, in an effort to keep a track of the games I have left to play that I still haven’t.  I’ll be updating this throughout the month of January, and will hopefully have a better picture of just how many games I have in my library that I’m yet to play/finish.  The backlog can be a daunting thing, and looking at mine, there are already some pretty heavy titles in there waiting to be played: Baldur’s Gate 3, Jedi Survivor, Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update, and Horizon: Forbidden West to name but a few.

The main purpose of using Backloggd was so there was somewhere I could put up game reviews in a short, concise manner, that allowed me to track my thoughts and feelings on the games that I play.  The whole point of Gaming Ramble Weekly was to give me a space to write my thoughts on the gaming world, a hobby that none of my family or close friends share.  It’s a space for me to be able to blab about the stuff I’m playing without annoying those around me who don’t care as much!  However, I didn’t gel very well with the longer reviews, and when I decided to change the direction that I was taking this project, I still wanted to have somewhere to log my thoughts on the games I play.  You can follow me over there if you fancy:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/gamingramble/backlog/

Branching Out

The “dream” of content creation has always been something that has fascinated me.  It’s no secret that it takes an immense amount of work, and a sprinkling of good luck, to reach the heights that often attracts people to the world of content creation.  I often wonder, while watching various playthroughs on YouTube, what it would be like to do that regularly, and I’ve always given myself the excuse that I just don’t have the equipment to give it a go.  Which, in part, is true.  But ultimately, it’s really down to the fact that I’m just not willing to give the time to trying that out.  As viewers, we can take for granted just how long it takes to not only sit and play a game while juggling full-time work, but also the time spent editing, and perfecting, the video.

So I’m going to take the easy route and try out TikTok, only as a personal challenge.  Last year, I uploaded my first TikTok, which was a 30 second clip laughing at AC: Valhalla, and today this sits at 222k views.  It’s not lost on me that as a platform, TikTok is by far the easiest platform to get seen by the most people.  So today, on this blog, I set the pretty ambitious goal of reaching 1000 followers on there by the end of the year.  I’ll be posting daily, so if you fancy a dose of gaming content on your For You page, keep an eye on Gaming Ramble Weekly.

We can take for granted just how long it takes to not only sit and play a game while juggling full-time work, but also the time spent editing, and perfecting, the video.

Burning Out

While I have the passion and fire for this project, I’m struggling with gaming burnout.  Anyone who plays video games regularly likely knows the feeling of this.  It often presents itself to me as indecisiveness and boredom, where I struggle to stick with a game for longer than 30 minutes before moving onto another one, which I will inevitably stop for another game just moments after.  January is usually a regular burnout month, this is a familiar feeling for me.  It’s frustrating, and often it feels like I’m just waiting for that game that lifts me out of it and hooks me in for 20, 30, 40 hours, or however long it takes.

Despite making the beginning of my backlog this week, the feeling of burnout has meant I have had no desire to even contemplate starting a new game.  It’s as if the knowledge that a game will take hours and hours is daunting and yet, these tend to be the games that stick with me the most.  I have Cyberpunk 2077 downloaded and ready for a fresh start (I previously managed the first 15 hours or so), but as of now, have not yet managed to even open the app.  Hopefully next week I’ll have managed to start working on the backlog.

Excited for More

Thankfully, I’ve never been more excited to write these blogs and keep it up.  I take a lot of pride in the “Gaming Ramble Weekly” brand as it is, and with the gaming industry being probably my biggest interest, I enjoy being able to write about things I see so many online talking about.  I’ve been listening to Luke Stephen’s podcast, Free Roam, recently, a show he does every week with JorRaptor, and as a source of information, this is one of the best.  It’s the type of thing I would love to do if I was in that situation, but for now, I’m content to listen and get some insight from two creators I respect a lot.

If you’ve reached this far, thank you!  It means a lot that you would take the time out of your day to read this.  As time progresses, there will be more coverage of the games I’m playing/big news worth mentioning, but with it being very quiet in the gaming space at this time of year, there really isn’t a whole lot to talk about.  True to its name, this really has been a ramble!  If you’re a regular reader of the blog you can sign up to receive this in your emails, and be notified when a new post goes up, simply press the subscribe button on the bottom right of your screen!  I’ll be back next Monday, but until then, have a great week, and hopefully I’ll have pushed through the burnout!