The year has ‘properly’ started now. Which is to say, work resumed and life settled into a bit more of a ‘normal’ cadence of activities. I’ve been back a couple of weeks now and already the holidays are starting to fade in memory.
You know what though?
I reckon that is a defensive mechanism to avoid the full extent of the pain of the holidays coming to an end.
*rocks back and forth in the corner*
No… No, I’m OK. Really. Holidays? Pffft. Who needs ’em? Not me! (Alright, so, actually, I might’ve already gone through the calendar for the year booking in the public holidays and any holiday extensions to those I might want to do… AND, added a couple of days off around the weekend that Monster Hunter Wilds launches. So, you know, that helps take the barb of the beast.)
Remaining in memory or not though, there were still solid weeks of games played before going back, and ManicTime sees. ManicTime remembers. (Thanks, ManicTime).
Gaming Goals
January Gaming Goals
I could not have set myself an easier goal if I tried. It amounted to, ‘Play a game I already planned to play for a modest number of hours’.
Still managed to fail it abysmally though.
I think my subconscious rebelled against the ‘p’ word used there. (Whisper it: …planned).
So yeah, I started Cyberpunk 2077 — got a bit over 4 hours played (out of the 10 hours I set myself) and then dropped it. You see, what I really didn’t plan on, was finding not one, but two different gacha games I was having a good time with.
Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail are serving different purposes in my gaming time at the moment. With Wuthering Waves; I’m done with the main story but recently increased my ‘Union Level’ (aka, account level) high enough that I can max out my characters and weapons to 90.
That takes a fair amount of resources and largely revolves around expending your wave plates (aka, energy/stamina) for what you need.
With Honkai: Star Rail, on the other hand, I am still immersed in the depths of the story content. For anyone in the know, I’m in Penacony. I still think relatively early on, but I’ve returned to the ‘real world’ for the first time since going in.
For anyone not, in the know — maybe I’ll end up talking more about it in its own post another time!
February Goals
… I might’ve spent all my word count for the goals section on the recap.
Umm.
I mean… Monster Hunter: Wilds is coming this month. But… Literally on the last day of it by NZ date and time reckoning.
Ooh, I know.
- Honkai: Star Rail: Complete the Main Story Content before Wilds comes out.
Which… I think is possible… Although I do engage in a fair bit of the side content too, which has the potential to derail me. So we’ll see!
Games Played January 2025
| Rank | Game | Hours | % Gaming Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honkai: Star Rail | 75.9 | 41.7% |
| 2 | Wuthering Waves | 64.5 | 35.4% |
| 3 | Helldivers 2 | 20.2 | 11.1% |
| 4 | Cyberpunk 2077 | 4.4 | 2.4% |
| 5 | Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PC) | 3.8 | 2.1% |
| 6 | Overwatch | 3.0 | 1.6% |
| 7 | Zenless Zone Zero | 2.7 | 1.5% |
| 8 | Beneath Oresa | 2.5 | 1.4% |
| 9 | Islands of Insight | 2.3 | 1.3% |
| 10 | GRIME | 1.5 | 0.8% |
| 11 | Forza Horizon 5 | 1.4 | 0.8% |
With my discovered interest in Wuthering Waves and Honkai, I thought… Why not? Why not try another? And so gave Zenless Zone Zero another try. But that one just wasn’t for me. It leans very heavily into a certain aesthetic that simply doesn’t appeal to me.
Which is a bit of a shame, as the story direction even from the time I gave it, seemed like it might be interesting.
But since I gave it a try, I’ve come to appreciate that it didn’t land with me. I think two is more than enough (particularly while one is in full story mode for me still), and keeping that time free to bring in some gaming variety is going to be appreciated.
How else am I going to fit in all that Queensblood card game time now that Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth is out on PC??
Books Read January 2025
With the sort of bittersweet sadness that comes with the completion of a series you’ve really been enjoying, I came to the end of The Legends of the First Empire series by Michael J. Sullivan.
Fortunately, it came at such time that Drumindor (Riyria Chronicles #5) had just recently been published, and it picks up (albeit thousands of years later) on some of the threads I had discovered in my time with First Empire.
I’m nearing the end of Sullivan’s current catalogue of work with this one though. I think there is one more series to pick up, set somewhere between First Empire and the Riyria books, but! Before I go investigating that further, I will take a step away and back into Sanderson-land.
Specifically, Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive #5) came out in December and I’m intrigued to see how this ‘conclusion to the first arc of the Stormlight Archive’ pans out.
