What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Balatro (Switch)

April 8th, 2024

My weekend was busy, so by the time I got to the end of it, I wasn't good for much. After some reading, I played a run of Balatro while dozing off. Considering the circumstances, it was not so bad, but I got The Wall as my boss blind in round five, requiring me to get 44,000 points to pass, and I absolutely was not doing that well.

March 25th, 2024

I'm way under the weather today, but scheduled a five day weekend for myself at the end of this week. I'm trying to use my excitement about a little break to power through the week.

My biggest chunk of game time yesterday went to The Quarry, where I feel like I'm continually taking the wrong path and missing out on secrets. I'm so short on the tarot cards I'm supposed to be finding that it's ridiculous! I'm still enjoying it, but I do not feel like a smart cookie. All of my poor camp counselors are likely doomed.

I had a distracting stomachache before bed, so I played a not-bad round of Balatro to get myself to sleep, too. Early on, I was trying to stack my deck with hearts, but once Standard Card Packs dried up in the shop, I had to abandon that strategy.

March 19th, 2024

I finished Gris last night, and it's probably one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. The ending was very lovely, and I was glad I went back to it. I didn't feel like I got the feel of the platforming down until right at the end, though, so the excellent gravity puzzles made me feel like, on the gameplay front, it ended just as it was getting good. Story and atmosphere seemed more important here, though, so that's fine.

From there, I played a couple of unbelievably bad rounds of Balatro to get myself relaxed enough to sleep.

March 13th, 2024

Last night, I was so tired that I felt disoriented and a little sick, so I played a very bad round of Balatro before trying to sleep. I don't even remember what ante I was in when I lost, but I think it was only the third one. That was okay, though.

Tonight, a new event is starting up in Fashion Dreamer, but I'm still somewhat under the weather. More than worrying about games, I want to get through the work day and figure out the fun stuff after.

March 12th, 2024

Today, I have allergy itching so bad I don't feel like I can think straight, so this won't be a very long post. I played another four stages of Evangelion: Shin Gekijoban 3nd Impact, though. I didn't hit any new gameplay types last night, so better appreciated what the game was doing in terms of using different playstyles to reflect characters' interior states and the tension of battles. This is better than I expected it to be.

I played a run of Balatro, too, tragically losing in ante five when I played a hand I'd meant to discard. I was trying to play a deck optimized for hands three cards and lower, but didn't feel like I was having a ton of luck with it. Even if I hadn't blown things by hitting the wrong button, I think I would have lost soon after.

March 3rd, 2024

It's Sunday and I'm awake, which I suppose is fine. I want to get back on my Pokemon-all-regions-attack, but when I went to play Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee last night, my save file was gone! It's my own fault for not getting the file before clearing off my old Switch for a friend's kid when I got my OLED. Still, it necessitates a different approach. Cute as Let's Go is, I am not redoing my first 25 hours of that.

As far as games I actually did play go, though, I had a really good run in Balatro, but lost in the 7th ante, or set of levels. It felt way more like luck than skill, so I'm not sure how to replicate this. Spending a lot of my earned cash to level up my played hands with the "planet cards" seemed to help, though, so I'll see how that approach goes again.

I also tried Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but losing my EXP when I got hit made me so mad that I quit. It seems like a game with a lot of interesting ideas, but that mechanic felt custom-designed to infuriate me, and I'm ok with dropping things.

March 2nd, 2024

Today, I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed, but I don't really have a lot to do. My toughest quests for the day are buying groceries and making a pot of soup to meet up with family, both of which are super easy. I guess some days are just like this.

On Thursday, someone was a little rude to me on the phone, so I decided I needed a new game as a reward and picked up Balatro. I can't believe it took so long for "poker solitaire, but the numbers get really big" to become a game. Last night, having just started this, I played it until my eyes could no longer focus on the Switch's screen. It's simple, but I enjoyed it a lot.

I don't really know how video games will go this weekend, but I'll have enough to post here regardless.