#AGhibliADay #KikisDeliveryService

We've decided we're going to watch a Studio Ghibli movie a day since they're all on Netflix! Some of them we've seen before, some we haven't, some only one of us has seen, but it doesn't matter because you can't really go wrong with Studio Ghibli films!

Today we watched Kiki's Delivery Service. We'd both seen this before, but the first time I watched it, I didn't really care for it. It seemed simple, had very little plot, and didn't seem to say anything profound like Studio Ghibli had accustomed me to in the movies I'd previously watched. But as an adult (and with the help of Patrick H. Willems' excellent video essay), I realized Kiki's Delivery Service did have a profound statement to make, and that statement was about burnout and depression. About how doing the thing you loved could become difficult, even impossible. No matter how good you are at it, no matter how much you love doing it, the things you love can burn you out.

Kiki loves flying. It's the one witchy thing she's shown doing (besides talking to her cat). She can't always do it super well, but she doesn't let that stop her. She loves flying so much, she makes it a key component of her new business when she sets off on her own. But pretty soon, that city living wears her down, and she stops being able to fly. She's angry at her friends, at the people who have helped her out, and it isn't until she takes a sabbatical out in the country with Ursula, a painter she befriended earlier (and a well-timed emergency involving one of her friends) that she learns to fly again.

Ursula talks about her painting, and how she's always wanted to do it, but sometimes, she just can't, and she needs to take a break before she can do it again.

I think we all have that one thing (or maybe many things) in our lives that we love to do, that we can't imagine not doing for the rest of our lives, that we nevertheless have to occasionally take breaks from because it's just getting to be too much, or too hard, or not fun anymore. And we take our breaks, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a few months, sometimes for a few years, and then we remember how great it felt to do it before, and we start doing it again and we can't understand why we stopped doing it in the first place. Sometimes that feeling just magically comes back, sometimes it takes a lot of work, and sometimes, you fear it may never come back at all, no matter how hard you try. Yeah, that happens too. Fortunately, it didn't happen to Kiki, and it hasn't happened to me either.

Video Game Round-Up! - March/April 2020

Hello! Welcome to another Video Game Round-Up! As I’m sure you all know, it’s a pretty weird time right now. Thanks to the current pandemic, I have been stuck at home for about five weeks now. I am lucky and privileged enough to be able to work from home so even though my job is not at all essential, I can still do it and draw a regular salary. This means I don’t have to commute to and from the office, but it also means I don’t go outside very much at all (and when I do, I wear a mask and am socially distant from anybody else who might also be outside at that time). So what’s a guy to do with slightly more free time on his hands? Play a bunch of video games.

Let’s get to the games!

Video Game Round-Up! - February/March 2020

Hello! Welcome to another Video Game Round-Up! It may seem like I didn’t do a lot of gaming this past month from the quantity of games listed below, but that’s only because I’m still basically playing The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt almost exclusively. Also, I read two prose books and started writing a new Sherlock Sam book. I’m also still watching a lot of Star Trek.

But enough of reasons of why I didn’t play more games, on to the games!

Video Game Round-Up! - January/February 2020

Hello! I didn’t play a lot of games this past month for various reasons, but mostly because I was overseas for like 10 days. Also, I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek. Also also, I’ve been playing one game almost exclusively. You can probably guess which game that is :P

Now, on to the games!

Video Game Round-Up! - December 2019/January 2020

Welcome to a regular Video Game Round-Up! You know how this works now, but this may seem either late (which it technically is because I had to make space for the two Specials) or very early (because you read those two Specials, and it was less than a week since the last one came out), but that’s okay. It’s here, and it’s chock full of games!

If you read my second Special, Video Games I’m Most Excited About in 2020, you will have seen that two of the games on that list were Final Fantasy VII Remake and Marvel’s Avengers, which I said were coming on 3 March and 15 May respectively. Not two days after that went live, Square Enix announced both those games had been delayed, to 10 April and 4 September (!) respectively. And then, three days later, my Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed 5 months, from 16 April to 17 September.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

*koff*

Before we get to the games, a quick word about Apple Arcade: I played four games available through this service, and I’ll likely play even more in the coming months (years?), so I figured I should quickly explain it. It’s basically a monthly subscription service that allows you to download/play as many games available on the service as you want. Even better, none of these games have any microtransactions. Most of them are complete games with beginnings, middles, and ends (but not all, alas). It’s a fairly inexpensive service, and you can include up to three other “family members” on one subscription.

Now, on to the games!

Video Game Round-Up! Special! - Video Games I’m Most Excited About in 2020

Even though I haven’t played all of last year’s releases (and even though I literally just started The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (PS4), a game that is five years old), I am still stupid excited for a lot of games coming out this year. So get on the hype train with me as I run down a bunch of games I want to play (and you probably do too)!

I’ve split this up into three categories: games with confirmed release dates in 2020, games without confirmed release dates, but still supposed to come out in 2020, and games without confirmed release dates and probably not coming out in 2020, but I am nevertheless super excited and I hope against hope they do come out this year.

Now, let’s look at some exciting games!

Video Game Round-Up! Special! - Best Video Games of 2019

Welcome to the first of two Video Game Round-Up! Specials! before the next proper Video Game Round-Up! This Special! is all about the best games of the year. There are three sections to this Special!: the first section is a bunch of games that have received a lot of critical acclaim, but I haven’t played yet because I did not have enough time this year; the second section is my honorable mentions of the year; and the third section is actually my top 10 of the year. Basically, I’m gonna make you read about a bunch of other games before I give you my best games of 2019, but I guess you can just skip all the way down there if you want.

Now, on to the games!