This has been the year(s?) of absolutely craptastic releases. I’ve been incredibly busy in college for quite a while, only half-assedly following most of them, but following them close enough to see just about everyone gripe about the terrible state of polish things are being released in for both consoles and PC.
But y’know what? Screw all that. Screw shooters and AAA “masterpieces” and microtransactions and all that fast-paced hoopla.
I’m just gonna go back to playing Minecraft all summer, like it’s 2014 again. Probably mostly a vanilla server with a few close friends and my long-distance GF. Maybe mix in a little modded tech packs for some excitement that isn’t quite as hardcore as Factorio is. Maybe get on some public servers and play some minigames while getting drunk.
Minecraft, or at least the java edition, has largely escaped the massive commercialization push of the gaming industry. And being in a game where there’s no stress, no ‘grind’, no dopamine button pushers… just a game where you’re living life how you want it, when you want it, is something I desperately, desperately need right now.
Who’s with me?
I went back to Minecraft a couple weeks ago and just beat the ender dragon. It’s a great time even if you’ve done it a dozen times before. I do this about once a year, It’s fun to try and play it differently. Usually I try to go with huge farms of all different kinds (crops, meat, xp, iron, etc.), this time I went with micro farms, just enough to keep me alive.
Absolutely. The freedom makes the game. And the replayability is effectively infinite.
Getting into different playstyles is something I always struggle with. I always fall into the same rut of grind a bunch of building material, start huge projects, finish maybe one of them, abandon world. Maybe I’ll try to do things smaller this summer too. :)