This month was not my month lol. But we persist. Let's take a look at the games I played in February and see what else I've been up to!
This Month’s Games
On Stream
Under the Island
This game is what I was looking for in a 2D zelda-like. I was given a key by Top Hat Studio to check the game out, but I wasn't paid to cover the game. Thanks for the key! It follows the adventures of Nia, a teen who is determined to do whatever she wants. She sets off a journey after disrespecting the customs of the island where her parents were sent to study the local ruins by a university. It's a fairly straightforward adventure game, but it's just a lot of fun and pretty charming most of the time. If you're looking for a good way to spend a weekend, I had a bunch of fun playing through the game and you should check it out!
We finished up Scrabdackle on stream in February! While some of the boss fights were pretty wild and there's a maze for part of the game (I am personally not a fan of mazes lol), it was a great game! This is just the first part and I'm so excited to see what comes next!
VODs are up on YouTube, link at the bottom of the newsletter if you want to check them out!
On My Own
When the Past Was Around
I found myself playing another game about loss and processing grief. When the Past Was Around follows the story of a girl who is trying to work through her partner's death. Over the course of the game, you revisit important memories of their relationship to help her gain some level of closure from the relationship. It's a really pretty hand-drawn game with calm music and a reminder that we can carry the memories of the people we lose without getting lost in those memories.
I'm not gonna lie to yall, I think that Celeste is my number one comfort game. It's a pretty difficult game, I know. But there's something about climbing the mountain that just helps me reset when I'm going through a difficult time. I've been slowly making my way through the game again and it feels a bit like coming home. I figured out how to put the itch.io game on my Steam Deck and it's been fantastic exploring the world again so far. If you haven't played it, I'd highly recommend. It has some fantastic difficulty settings if you're worried about the platforming.
(If anyone wants to get me the Celeste keycap set, let me know lol. I'm joking!)
Slay the Spire
I'm incredibly excited for Slay the Spire II to drop! So I've been picking the game back up to get used to playing it again. Also, my hands have been hurting a little bit from playing too many intensive games, so it's been a nice break from that vibe. I'm not good at Spire, if I'm honest. But, for some reason, that doesn't keep me from continuing to play it. I know that there's a method to building a deck that works well and will help you win, but, I haven't really figured out how to build good synergies. And that's alright. It's still a fun game!
February, Black History Month, was, for real, not a good month. With everything happening, it gets easier and easier to want to give up, to start wondering if it's worth it to keep trying, to just stop. Hope can be hard to come by, but it's hope that brings me back every day. And I don't mean this nebulous idea of hope that if just wait it out, things will get better on their own. I mean the hope that faces towards the sky, determined to see the light through the fog. I am eternally hopeful that because I genuinely believe that things can and will get better and that is a hard fought hope. After years of seeing genocide and climate disasters and new wars started by people who don't know how to see other people as people, sometimes it is hard to hold on to that hope. But there are so many good people out there pushing us towards better futures and we have to keep pushing towards those times. We owe each other, we owe ourselves, hope. We owe ourselves and each other action.
We keep showing up because we are determined to create a future and time where we can thrive. Showing up will look different every day, but I cannot understate how important it is. Without each other, that future cannot exist. Things will be hard for a long time and it will be hard to see hope through this fog, but it is worth it. May we keep showing up for ourselves and each other. May we build the future we want to see.
My Content for this Month
Scrabdackle and Under the Island Streams
I got one stream in for the month of January. We played Scrabdackle, a game that I had the chance to back on Kickstarter a few years ago. The game is wild lol and I’ve really been enjoying it
Back to Black - GDQ
A good friend, GamingMusume, invited me to be on her couch for a speedrun on GamesDoneQuick for the Back to Black event by the Black in a Flash crew! I've been a huge fan of GDQ for years and it was so exciting (and nerve-racking) to be a part of the event. The crew being the event is absolutely top tier and we had a great time during the speedrun. You can watch it here.
YouTube Video - Promenade!
There's a new YouTube video up on the gaming channel if you haven't seen it. I started a playthrough of Promenade and it's been so charming! If the link below doesn't work, you can click here.
If you want to subscribe on YouTube, I’d really appreciate it. You can check out the Gaming Channel and the Vlogs / Chatting Channel by clicking on the hyperlinks!
Bonus for Reaching the End - Food Highlight!
A member of my Discord community mentioned that they'd like to see some food featured every so often in my newsletter. For context, cooking is one of my favorite things to do, especially when I'm feeling down or stressed. So this month, I wanted to feature this peasant bread that I made earlier in February. It's a pretty easy, no-knead recipe. I really enjoyed it, though I think I would like a little more salt in it the next time I make it! Check the recipe here.
Picture time!
A picture of a loaf of bread on a black wire rack
See y'all next month.
Keep telling stories. Keep creating. You are important for the world that we want to create. I look forward to continuing to build a better world and better stories for us all. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I’ll see y’all around the Internet.
