*crickets*
The summer months have dragged on and (finally) come to an end. The warm California air without air conditioning at home usually leaves me not incredibly inspired to do all that much aside from try to stay cool. So having our windows open now and feeling the cool breeze roll in is wonderful.
Don’t get the wrong idea: I wasn’t just sweating inside and trying to stay cool doing nothing. I had video games to keep me company of course!
You’ve probably seen here on DownStab I’ve been working on the RPGaymer Podcast with my friend Patrick. We actually very recently completed our first season of the Podcast. Ten episodes down, and we’re already planning the new season’s content coming in 2022! I hope you’ve been enjoying it, and i hope you’ll follow our shenanigans in the New Year as well.
Also, I’ve been trying to stream more on twitch. Like above, I’ve been routinely working with RPGaymer to host weekly streams on Tuesdays around 5pm PST (8pm EST). Together we completed the pretty excellent Remnant: From the Ashes, and are a decent way through a playthrough of Diablo III. On the personal side of things, I’ve been streaming on DownStab’s Twitch very random games, including the Frog Golfing Playstation 2 title Ribbit King, as well as some very weird PS1 finds. It’s been fun to jump into random games and find things that are surprisingly entertaining (shoutout to Tetris Plus on the original Playstation being way more fun than it should be).
Our friend group has also been enjoying Pokemon Unite. Like many of you, I’m sure, we’ve been learning the ropes and either getting absolutely destroyed, or completely obliterating the enemy, with no real happy middle ground as of yet. Of course, Overwatch has still been a weekly game, but it’s recently taken a slight hit with games like Vermintide II coming back strong with the DLC, as well as Diablo III (Yes, again, with a separate group of friends). In short, there’s been lots of social gaming going on.
On the collecting front, I’ve shared a few stories here and there about collection updates, but the big story is cracking 3,300 games, and getting really close to 3,500. Truthfully it has never been a goal to have a certain amount of video games. But the hobby hasn’t gotten stale to me, and the recent ridiculousness surrounding graded game prices only drives my efforts to find better deals. It’s been an adventure, and one I’m thoroughly enjoying, some 20 years later. If you weren’t aware, DownStab’s Instagram is all about the collection, so head over there to see some highlights and discuss game collecting!
Outside of the games themselves, we have gone through a few minor changes here at our home. After a minor rearranging of our furniture and rooms, we have a semi-new home for the Playstation, Dreamcast, and Saturn games. It’s nice to not have them in boxes anymore, but I’d still like to have each game easily visible while on display, instead of having to double-stack (in some cases quadruple-stack!) rows of games. It’s still the dream to have a dedicated game room set up, but until then, we’ll compromise and make our space livable instead of cluttered when it doesn’t need to be.
Lastly, with covid vaccinations being more readily available and administered in our area, we’ve been seeing a few friends more often. Usually the same 2 or 3 friends, and we’re still taking precautions. It has been very nice to host small get togethers at our place, like cookouts and board game nights, and reminds us of the fun we had before the lock downs. I really do believe we can get to a safe point in the near future where everyone can safely enjoy these types of moments again without worry!
Seriousness aside, it’s been light on the blogging front here on DownStab, but business as usual while we trekked through the last two or three months. I look forward to making more content this year and the next, and hope you’ll enjoy the journey with me!
Laters,
Jsick
