I’ve had zero creative energy this year so most of my spare time is spent watching documentaries (CuriosityStream and Nebula and PBS for the win), listening to music, and playing games. Quite a bit of playing games.

But not a whole lot of games. Just a few.

The big one remains Satisfactory, as the accumulating pile of posts about that game on this very website would probably indicate rather clearly. In my current save I’m getting near the point of making nuclear power plants. (My plan involves doing so responsibly, mind you: Plutonium will be “sunk” instead of used, because I don’t want to deal with a corner of my map being highly radioactive forevermore.) Every time I start to think I’m close to “done” with the game, I find a new project to dig into. Love this game.

Over on the Switch, I am… actually not on the Switch as much anymore. I’m most of the way through my second playthrough of Fire Emblem Engage, I have all the characters I intend to use, and… meh? The story’s not so great after you’ve [redacted] and have become [redacted], so now it’s just the long slog to the big boss fight and my enthusiasm has run down. The tactical combat mechanics are superb, it’s just that nearly everything else in the game besides that is somewhere between “so-so” and “outright annoying.” Honestly, I’m probably going to go back to Three Houses. Or maybe Three Hopes, but that’s less likely. Button-mashing, blarg. (And the less said about that expensive disappointment named Advance Wars: Re-Boot Camp, the better.)

Speaking of Fire Emblem, I still eke out my daily grind in Fire Emblem Heroes but only barely, and only because every now and then they add in new 3H characters (or at least new versions of characters, like their eighth or is it ninth Byleth variant). I’m also several years into my Gems of War time and it remains a great “I just wanna match-3 a bit” side game. It has issues, definitely, but it’s firmly in the sweet spot for me. Not too greedy, not too flashy, perfectly okay for the filthy casual such as myself.

Both of those are just side games on my tablet, though. The real mobile heavyweight? Honkai Star Rail. Yes, I tried Genshin Impact (back when I’d really let this place get overgrown with weeds, hence the lack of coverage) and I wanted to love it but the combat mechanics were too much for me. Similarly I never even bothered trying the “action combat fighter” that is Honkai Impact 3rd. Star Rail, though? It’s turn based! Ah, finally something with the MiHoYo style, quality, and attention to detail that runs at my speed. (Frankly, I think they could stand to change up their style a bit, but I can understand why they want to stay “on brand” as much as possible.) The characters are vivid and fun, the story’s fairly decent, the attention to little side details is incredible, and the whole presentation is absolutely gorgeous. The fact that there’s a PC client for when I want to really soak in the beautiful worldbuilding and design is merely a bonus.

And, no, before you ask: I’m not playing the new Legend of Zelda game. I’ve never played any of the Legend of Zelda games. Not out of distaste or anything like that, I’ve just never been interested… and it’s not like I have the bandwidth for a big new game right now anyway.

So I hope you’re having as much fun as I am this year, at least where games are concerned.