That’s right! After completing my two-year long monthly Game Pass posting project, I took some time to reflect on the nature of this blog. Moreover, when drafting my Game of the Year blog post, I realised that the realm of shows and series (or whatever you want to call them now that we’ve removed the “TV” part) offer far more to talk about this year. Well, for me personally, in any case.
I considered writing more about general entertainment on my main blog, but that space is reserved more for autobiographical musings and meanderings. I’ve reviewed books over there before, but it’s always felt a bit off-kilter. So I figured, instead of starting a third completely new blog with 0 followers, why not just expand the topics I write about over here?
So, yes! A new tag has been added to the blog. 32 Bit Brain will still primarily focus on videogames, because that’s where my heart lies, but you can also expect spoiler-conscious discussion about shows and movies and the like! I don’t watch many movies but I should probably leave room for them here.
In case you weren’t aware, I also have a Youtube channel where I talk more frequently and casually about shows I’ve watched and books I’ve read, so I’ll be spending some time figuring out what sort of content goes where. For a long time now I’ve wanted to adapt my blog posts into videos on the channel too, but unfortunately this is all a hobby for me and I don’t always have as much time as I’d like. But we’ll see what happens as we go forwards!
I do plan on making a Top Shows Of The Year post, I can tell you that at least. I hope you look forward to it!
Well, here we are. It’s officially been two years since I signed up to Xbox All Access and got my Series S! Consequently, it’s also been two years since the start of this series. So how has it all turned out? Well, I’ll get back to you. Firstly, we need to evaluate my final month of Game Pass usage!
Dabbles:
Costume Quest (Game Pass) – Half of this month took place in spooky season, so there’s some stuff like this in here. Costume Quest is a delightful little Halloween themed game, with turn based battles as you encounter tricks throughout the neighbourhood.
Persona 5: Royal (Game Pass) – I thought the aesthetic of this game was neat but I’m no further than an hour in. Not sure I’m down to commit to this just yet.
Phantom Abyss (Game Pass) – This is a game that I loved the concept of when it was first announced, and was delighted to see on Game Pass. Indiana Jones roguelike with ghosts of other players attempts, and only one player gets to beat a seed before it’s locked forever.
Gunfire Reborn (Game Pass) – It’s fun! It’s a fun FPS roguelike with… interesting localisation. I’m a fan of the amount of content it has in terms of talent trees and different characters.
Amnesia Collection (Game Pass) – For my Halloween stream this year I played The Dark Descent! The VOD is here for those interested in some spooktacular shenanigans.
Inside (Game Pass) – Easy 1000g with a guide, which I have not completed because this game is bleak as hell. I’m not great with bleak stories! Neat game though.
Age of Empires II (Game Pass for PC) – I dabbled in Age II back when I was a wee lad, but I’ve never been into RTS games. With the news for AOEII coming to consoles, I decided to revisit that notion. I’ve only played through the tutorial campaign but it was pretty fun! Wasn’t expecting the inter-match narrative but as a fan of history, I enjoyed it.
Continued Adventures:
Need for Speed Heat (Game Pass Ultimate) – I still can’t seem to get into this game, but gave it another shot with Unbound’s reveal.
Fortnite (Free to Play) – I haven’t actually launched the game in about a week now, but it’s still fun! This month there was an event where you could become a werewolf and sniff people out with your snoot powers and chop em up with your claws.
Overwatch 2 (It’s Complicated) – Still playing and enjoying this game. All my criticisms from last month still hold true.
Halo Infinite (It’s Complicated) – I’ve actually been super into Halo Infinite this month. Played enough to finish my season 2 battle pass, and finished up all side-objective related achievements in my campaign (besides collectables). The Winter Update feels a little lacking, though.
Owned
Diablo II Ressurected
Diablo III is one of my favourite games of all time, but I’ve never played any of the previous entries in the series. Depending on who you ask, this is either no big deal, or sacrilege of the highest order. When Resurrected was first announced, I was tempted to check it out on launch, but given how badly Blizzard bungled Warcraft III Reforged, I decided to wait for reviews. When the game did launch, I heard vague horror stories about the online portion of the game that put me off. But a week or two ago, the game went on sale for the right price, and using my handy dandy Microsoft Rewards-earned £5, I was able to justify buying the version that came with Diablo III to have it on my third platform (more on that later).
Diablo II surprised me. I was fully expecting to feel ostracised by stiff controls and archaic game design, but combat feels fluid and familiar, and many of the older quirks of Diablo II were familiar to me by way of my experience in games like Torchlight and Fate. Moreover, Diablo II throws atmosphere at you in full force. I’ve always handwaved arguments about Diablo III losing Diablo II’s gothic overtones in favour of a lighter / more cartoonish art style, because when you compare Diablo III against other games it’s still plenty dark. But something about the art style, music and narrative tone of Diablo II is just exquisite. This is largely preserved by the excellent job done by the now-cannibalised Vicarious Visions studio, masters of remakes. I like to tell myself I don’t care about graphical fidelity, but toggling the classic graphics on came as quite a shock to me.
Diablo IV looks to merge Diablo II’s aesthetic with Diablo III’s gameplay, and after playing some Diablo II I finally fully appreciate this decision and am more excited than ever. I only hope its live service ambitions don’t get in the way of an otherwise fantastic experience.
Diablo III: Eternal Collection
As mentioned earlier, my first Diablo was Diablo III, and I was lucky enough to come to it post Reaper of Souls. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed hundreds if not thousands of hours of demon slaying across both PC and console, and I’d been patiently awaiting the Microsoft-Activision merger to go through to play through the game once again on Game Pass. But for the aforementioned reason, plus just wanting to own one of my favourite games of all time again on one of my favourite consoles of all time, I ended up picking it up once more. Well done, Activision, you don’t deserve me.
As with The Elder Scrolls Online, this game is going to become a long-term perfection goal for me. For those unaware, it can take literally thousands of hours of play to get all the gamerscore in this one, due to its frankly unreasonable 500 Bounties achievement, plus some other problematic ones. But Diablo III is nothing if not replayable, and I’m jumping at the chance to stop getting distracted by seasons and focus instead on creating a roster of characters for each class and climb Torment levels. Despite all my hours in the game, I’ve never progressed a character past around Torment VII in terms of damage output and survivability. Still, it’s always fun when you combine some set and legendary effects with the right powers and vantus runes to break the game mathematically and launch yourself several difficulties / greater rift levels higher.
I am going to enjoy this.
In Summary
And that’s all folks!
All 24 months of My Xbox All Access Adventure have finally come to a close. My Xbox Series S is fully paid off, and my Game Pass is just about expired! (Yes, I know about the Xbox Live Gold conversion trick.)
So, what did I think? Would I recommend this as a way of purchasing a console and experiencing Game Pass Ultimate? Well, my thoughts on that have been pretty much made up since the first few months: Yes, if you can afford it. You may be shocked to learn that Xbox Game Pass is… well, do I have to say it? The Best Deal In Gaming™. However, I do want to note that I ended up purchasing a fair amount of games from the store regardless. Game Pass is a brilliant companion service to the console and I do recommend it, but it’ll never replace purchasing games for yourself because despite the service’s wide selection of games, you’ll always want something that’s not on there.
I also can’t help but notice that the majority of Game Pass games were on my “dabbles” list, implying that it’s rare to find a game on the service that truly sticks with me, but I think that speaks more to my personality in general. If anything, that’s an endorsement for people like me, because I’ve both had the opportunity to play more games than I otherwise would have, and spent less money on games which I don’t end up spending lots of time with. And despite spending such little time with these games, I do still enjoy my time spent with them!
Gamerscore as of November 8th, 2020: 2,470
Gamerscore as of October 11th, 2022: 41,565
Gamerscore as of November 11th, 2022: 42,173
What’s Next?
Well, shockingly, before I started this monthly series of blog posts I did used to write about a variety of non-Xbox topics. In fact, I’ve had a blog post about MMO CGI cinematics half-written for about half a year now. I should get around to finishing that!
As for monthly blog posts… I think I’ll take a break for now. But in 2023, I’d like to start a new monthly blog post series. It would be very similar to My Xbox All Access Adventure, but wouldn’t be limited to just Xbox games. Plus, it wouldn’t be as exhaustive a list. It might still have a dabbles section, but it wouldn’t require a game I’ve spent all of five minutes in to be listed, for example. Who knows what might happen?
For now, thought, I’ll probably leave you until my 2022 Game of the Year blog post in a month and a half or so. That’s right, it’s that time of year already! I just need to remember what I’ve played this year. If only I had a handy monthly reference point…
32 Bit Brain 