Doing a status update with multiple months in the title makes up for me not doing these monthly in a long while, right?
Don’t worry though, I’m fine. Last week was a bit disappointing as IRL situations led to me not having much time to write a review as I hoped, and a huge piece I was nearing the finish line on, as in, it got finished and was awaiting proofreading, had to be put in a cryogenic freeze for the time being. I don’t feel OK saying exactly why yet, but I figured that derailment leading to me literally having nothing out last week warranted me at least putting up a new status update for the first time in a while to get the ball rolling again.
Big articles…. Frozen
So yeah. Much to my immense frustration, I am holding back a Certain Article that’s pretty much done until other events play out. I’d love to just open my mouth fully and go all in on why I think that is stupid and why I’d like to not hold it back, but some trusted peers in the gaming industry recommended I do it and just wait it out, and they’re good people who helped with that article and other similar ones, so I am taking their word on it and just waiting.
Of course that means thousands of words I wrote down got stuffed into a freezer for who knows how long, and i’ll also have to edit the article yet again, (a running gag has been any time I finish or near the end of the skeleton to it, I have to edit it to add more info or context, and I ended it in such a way I felt that it would be impossible to do that any more…) but I will say that when it is done, dusted, out the door, with no more articles of that nature planned ever again, it will be a grand finale, and it’ll make sense why i held back on the piece once you see it. When will you see it? I dunno, I gotta wait for more things to play out. Next month, next spring, who knows? Again, I really fucking hate this, but trust me when I say that being given good advice on this is why I’m putting my faith in it and going ahead with holding it back. Better to hold back for a good article that ends well, than a sloppy one I have to make a followup to later.
Speaking of big articles, the others I had in mind will need a lot more time in the oven as a result. Since I diverted most of my attention away from them to work on the giant massive article, I have a lot of catching up to do. No ETA, but expect eventual articles on how I found Switch 2’s Backward Compatibility since launch, my thoughts on Game Key Cards, (and why i don’t think they’re the apocalypse, just very annoying) and of course, the usual end of year roundup pieces. I draft those starting in November, so that means a couple of weeks from now I’ll already be discussing the end of the year. Again, I do sincerely apologize for everything having been a mess with this one article; but I feel the final result will be worth it.
Reviews: More Free Time, Less Legacy
You might have noticed some reviews going up that aren’t in the queue, and instead just random retro related things, like my recent Cho Aniki SFC review. Most of this is really just because I’ve had the means to get writing on obscure retro reissues that came outta nowhere and I picked up for the purposes of doing so, but part of it was also to cover some titles I didn’t have/want to get via a review copy, but cover for the site anyway. For Switch 2 in particular, we still only have had the Welcome Tour as the only SFG Switch 2 review, and Majogami is in the works for the first one to be out and made possible thanks to a review copy.
But I’ve been wanting to cover other games that I’ve picked up the past few months, and I still have plans to mix a bit more games in my “Free Time” queue considering how slim the Switch 1 queue is as of now, and how the Legacy queue is reliant on pretty darn long games. I will knock out one or two legacy reviews before 2026, but I dunno about much more than that. Being a 100% solo site makes the whole thing a lot tougher, obviously. But some games I wanna cover in this manner are Bravely Default HD, Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut, a singular ACA2 title (I’m not doing them all, sorry) and Street Fighter 6. There are also a good chunk of Switch 1 retro-adjacent stuff I wanna cover too, such as Gradius Origins, the Jalecolle series, and because i literally had it almost done, forgot it existed, and found the review in progress on my computer, Hatch Tales.
There’s also of course, those system reviews I mentioned earlier. They’re still on track, with the Evercade Alpha being ready to review very soon, and the Analogue Pocket not that far behind. I plan to also cover the Switch 2 itself at some point late this year or early next. Rest assured though, queue’d reviews will still come out, including the rather overdue Clock Tower Rewind and Shantae Advance. It’s like juggling a lot of plates at once, but I still do have a plan to try and balance them all.
Twitch Change of Plans
Earlier this year I hinted at trying to build up SFG on Twitch and grow an audience there, and that I’d be likely to do so soon. Well if you’ve ever looked at the SFG Twitch, that clearly did not happen. I’m holding off for multiple reasons. The first is the Elgato I used in the SFG Gameplay Video days is on its last legs, and my newer Macbook just does not like it at all.
The next is Windows 11 sucks, like, really really sucks, and while I can stream there, I do not want to. That just leaves my PS4 (barely used, and I don/t have interest in streaming my queue games) and Xbox Series X (buggy, unfixed bugs, and locked at 30FPS) to directly stream to Twitch. With all of that, I figured it was too much of a hassle, and with funds tight, I’d much rather spend them on better things like you know, community mutual aid and my own groceries. So thus, a new Macbook-focused Elgato isn’t on my priority list right now and neither is streaming. Sincere apologies, but if you somehow were despite for me to stream retro stuff, you’ll have to wait a lot longer.
Website Change of Plans
….With that said, I can promise some good movement on one subject; the Website update. Yes, I finally got a cruddy WIP of a new site logo nailed down. No, I don’t want to release the sketch, you will not like my handwriting. But it’s been made clear to my artist pal the vibe I’m going for and I’m aiming to get the ball rolling on this sometime soon.
Yes, finally, a year and a freaking half after I planned to do it before life and anxieties hit me in the face. I still have no ETA for when this goes live and I kinda do wanna time it with a new article/review to surprise people with it, so you’ll see it when it happens. I feel pretty darn good about this.
Conclusion
I’m anxious about a lot lately, as I was last time. I had some pretty bad downs in August and September, but some pretty good highs in October and last week. I can’t assure you I’ll be on the up all the time, but I still wanna do my best to get some kind of writing out regardless. Rest assured, I’ll continue being transparent as can be despite all that.
The future is unknowable, not just in gaming but in general, so there’s a lot for us all to deal with. I’m debating as part of my interview initiative, expanding out slightly to not just gaming people talking about gaming, but to politically inclined people who have experience with the gaming sphere/gaming journalism. There are a few pretty rad people I have in mind for this, so if I do go ahead with it, that might be another fun thing to look forward to. Apologies if my commonly reiterated stance of “I don’t like people dying or getting hurt and want everyone to be safe” continues to be a problem for some.
Nevertheless, that’s basically how the last few months have gone. Still fun to write, still some pretty decent games getting covered, and even better ones in the pipeline. Thank you for dealing with my pacing.