Gold-Plated Games

You may have noticed reviews becoming a bit more irregular over the past few weeks. As I mentioned in our last update back in April, circumstances around here shifted our priorities more towards streaming and away from reviews, but I was still aiming for one to two reviews a week. I can speak much more plainly about what’s changed since then: I’m much busier with my daytime job. After eight to ten hours of writing a day, it’s hard to summon up more words to compose a review, especially if I’m sitting down to write again after three or four hours of streaming. The short version is, I’m super busy lately, and streaming is a way to wind down after that while writing reviews isn’t.

We’re not done with reviews, of course, but I feel the need to temper expectations. The project I’m working on for my job is going to last through the end of the year, and I don’t intend to take months off from reviewing. For one thing, Weeklong Deals will continue to roll out each week. Those are a simpler form of writing than composing full reviews, and are easy enough to find the time for (even if that means they drop on Tuesday instead of Monday). Beyond that, I will try to publish one review a week, but don’t be surprised if I miss one. I’d rather not go two consecutive weeks without any reviews, so look for one next week, but I’m not going to promise anything I can’t be sure I’ll keep up with. I’m also going to prioritize the monthly Reader’s Choice selections and our summer Patron Picks, to ensure that our community at least gets what they asked for.

Beyond those, though, reviews could be anything, from games I’ve streamed to random old flight sims I’m playing in my own time. Being busier at work means the little time I can find in the margins to play what I want to play is more precious than ever, so don’t be surprised if I’m spending that time revisiting old favorites or completely random choices. I still have review goals I’d like to complete eventually, like finishing the re-reviews from our first Spooky Games series, and I still may be able to chip away at that when I’m in the mood. But that’s just the thing, I’m going to let my whims take me where they will, since so much of my other time is spent working or filling stream requests. Honestly I love doing both of those things, but I do need a break from it all.

So that’s where we’re at, and I apologize if you were hoping for me to come roaring back to reviews after this. I suppose this is what I’m doing in lieu of a full vacation or hiatus in response to how swamped I’m going to be in the coming weeks and months. Of course, if you’re a fan of our Twitch streams or our YouTube channel, we’re still full speed ahead on that. Our two-year channel anniversary is coming up on Monday, where we’ll be starting a full playthrough of Horizon: Zero Dawn. And for a more proper celebration, on Wednesday I’ll be playing some of my all-time favorite game, Invisible Inc. It’s not quite the same as reading my full thoughts on a game, but we do a lot of live analysis and evaluation on everything we play. And everyone enjoys the conversation!

Once again, thanks for stopping by and spending your time on what we do here, especially in these trying times. We’re entering a slow period for reviews, but I’ll still be working to inform and entertain you as best I can, without burning out.