I wish I didn’t have to fall off the face of the planet when I get busy, because I miss out on things. Things like wanting to be a strange voice of reason during the No Man’s Sky problem, or jumping aboard the hype train during Battlefield 1’s beta. Maybe I can be part of the conversation of "Wow! they're really trying to talk to me about colours, the PS4 pro seems CRAZY!"

Priorities are a hard thing to balance when there’s always a lot to do. Especially when (for once), a lot of my priorities involve playing games that have been out for months. So let’s face it, I don’t even want to bore myself with the conversation of “Overwatch is still a lot of fun, they make changes, they add things, everyone complains about something, yeh yeh. Zenyatta4lyfe.”

Tangentially, I’m in the middle of playing Phoenix Wright right now, (Wright now!) The Spirit of Justice! Mr. Wright takes a trip to a country that has been murdering accused people for the past 20 years without a fair trial, because religion says so. Which I’m sure there’s more to it, But it’s insane how corrupt these people are. So being the good guy lawyer that he is, puts his life on the line to save a life.

I feel like after that first case alone, after bumbling through it and winning, They should have thrown the new mechanic for the game out the window because HOLY SHIT, if this is what they base all of their trials on, there’s gotta be some sort of human rights violation coming into play.

So whatever, that happens. I’m on the second trial, and suddenly, so many things about this game just dawned on me.

Looking back, I gave Dual Destinies a pass because it was years before I touched that series again. So for me it was nice to see all these characters, and their quirks, the mechanics that I remember about them, and the stories they’re involved in.

I thought that’s what the point of Dual Destinies was, for the game to say “Hey remember all of these things and these peoples! It’s like a parade of favourites!” I really enjoyed that experience with DD.

I haven’t even dug that deep into the game yet, and I’m already getting the opposite feeling with SoJ. I’m sitting on the fence thinking I’d rather see something new, or that maybe it doesn’t have to give me every mechanic they’ve ever introduced. Because it’s a court drama, the interesting parts are the trials and the characters and not about a bracelet that shakes every time someone winces.

Another thing that really surprised me, was about how much of a bubble these characters live in. Trials always seem to involve the main cast or friends of the main cast. This is the sixth game, and yet Maya Fey or Trucy Wright are still involved in some kind of murder plot.

They’re not so much an actual law firm as they are putting on a play for themselves and it has this scooby doo like quality that always seems to involve the same people but different masks.

It makes me wonder if “stale” is the word that I want to use to describe it. Stale in the overall plot, stale in adding yet another mechanic to bullshit through a lie, Stale in “here’s all these characters we created over the course of the series so we have to keep using them.

But like I said, I’m only the second case in, so maybe my opinion will change over the course.

So now that we’re getting ever so closer to the end of the year, a question I want to ask is: How many people are already thinking about what they’re game of the year is, I know that there’s still plenty more games to come out (I’m sure there’s plenty. Is plenty the right word? Nothing major has been moved to 2017?) But has anything already solidified a top spot for you?

I’m asking this, because for those of you who have read older blogs of mine, know that I’m a bit of a fanboy for Picross games. I, and some friends, have been waiting for the NA release of Picross 3D 2 for quite some time. It’s lived up to my expectations of being good, not only with execution of the mechanics but the amount of puzzles and the rules behind them has been a little too addictive.

While it does have the guise of being a puzzle game, it’s element of 3d is what makes it more compelling than that?

So… ok, if you have a slab of stone and you want to chisel away to make a sculpture or a bust. You might be saying to yourself, “I’m not very good at the art. If I chisel away at this it’s going to look like garbage.”

But lucky for you, the slab of stone is actually a ‘chisel by numbers’ art project for beginners and you end up making something with ease.

So then you're at the top of your slab carving class, and the teacher walks up to you and says, "Well now it's time for you to take 6 or 7 of these stones and chisel them all to make a larger piece."

And you're like "Well that's not a problem. I'm basically a master." and you make Japanese temple with little people running around.

It happened.

It’s that dumb way of looking at it that kind of appeals to me from an artist perspective. Why I think, out of all the puzzle games it’s the most interesting, and it’s saying a lot of I can say “It’s the most fun I’ve had more than any other game this year,” while keeping a straight face.

But the year ain’t over yet, and maybe FFXV will win me over.

Now that I’m done spouting nonsense, I can go back to being a busy recluse. I’ve actually been doing less of these blogs because I’ve had different platforms to talk about games and news, and I’ve been flirting the idea of doing something with a friend. But in this age of having all these different live streams and podcasts out there which are all essentially the same thing, It takes a while to get something new out of it.

But I think I’m onto something, and hopefully I’ll get around to producing and sharing it.

I hope that it could at least be different. When I mention stale about Phoenix Wright, I wonder if I could ask that question about the kind of entertainment we’re all consuming because there seems to be a lot of the same things these days. I’m not really looking to have a deep conversation out of it, but when creating an idea that the one thing I always ask myself, what can I do differently?

I blame the reason episode of the Beastcast and their conversation of consumption for making me think that way.