Inanity, thy name is video games

The struggle is real.


Who I’m envisioning as the mascot for 2025

At least, it feels real in regards to not just the complete insanity that 2025 has already launched with, but keeping up with the craziness enough with the same kind of “DON’T PANIC” vibes I advocate for on the regular. That obviously complicates my day to day, including finding time to sit my ass down and write with any regularity whatsoever. I always desire to have more fleshed out ideas for articles in this space, to elevate Active Time Event above just another gaming blog, but alas, to quote a prescient prophet of our cosmic time, if wishes were horses, we’d all be eating steak. With all of that said, I feel as if in a constant state of flux truth be told, in always feeling as if I need to “start again”, as if reigniting the fires of creativity in some kind of conceptual grand gesture to imbue my meager efforts with some well needed feelings of gravitas to frame the whole affair with. Keeping that in mind, I’m not quite sure the number of times I’m essentially going to refer to my own writing endeavors as a “soft reboot“, but I’m speculating the number will indeed be too many, and simultaneously, not enough at the same time. I did make my return to the writing space about this time last year, and while the first half of the year dragged a bit in terms of consistent content, the couple of pieces I did get out were decent pieces of dynamite, setting the stage for a second half of the year resulting in a wild stream of content every day for months on end. A stream of content I may add which eventually ended in November for, uh, tragically disappointing reasons many of you were confronted with as well.


November 5th forced me into doing a perpetual Steve Harvey face for the rest of the year, ngl.

As I made mention recently, this time of year is always devastating for me, as both seasonal depression and related moments of destructive tendencies that are contingent on said moods tend to drag me down to the depths of despair and debauchery in the most nefarious of ways. In those ever present and unrelenting times of melancholic torture that attempt to drown me in chaotic malaise, I seem to catch a serious case of the fuck its I just cannot shake, and the lack of motivation and complete abandonment of what I view as my duties that follows is one of absolutely brutal and insurmountable malcontent that is nearly unrivaled in bloodshed and misery.


Nearly unrivaled

That’s kind of the abhorrently abysmal hole I’m still attempting to crawl out of, on some metaphorically psychological level at least, but this year has been one of the most promising springboards of regeneration coming from a point of stability in recent memory. I’ve at least maintained a decent day to day of gaming and an ounce of respectability in terms of writing about them, far more so than basically any point around the same time in the last 7 years combined in retrospect, which is worth saying. Perspective is everything, and if you’re use to test flights ending with the entire vehicle engulfed in flames and crashing into a side of a mountain, merely having a rough landing where a wing gets bent or a wheel falls off should be marked on paper as a successfully executed colossal undertaking.


Someone made a PS2 about similar subject matter
if my memory isn’t betraying me…

So yeah. Still enjoying my new Xbox Series X, still don’t have a PS5 (work in progress), still somehow enjoying games on my launch Switch, a system which is in extraordinarily dire stakes, with the back cracked in half, the poor damn thing randomly vibrating, and on it’s fifth set of joycons mind you, but still trucking non the less. I somehow still haven’t beaten Echoes of Wisdom, in spite of the title being both a Zelda game and getting in weekly play sessions on the regs, but I’m always enjoying about 7 games at any given moment, so playthroughs tend to take a second. I’m also schmoozing the competitive Smash scene and admiring Animal Crossing up close and person everyday, but I don’t have much in the way of interesting ideas floating around about either at any given moment. This could be do to the notion either feels like an old relationship of some kind, where it’s become more of a way of the everyday then a conscious effort, akin to the nutrients vicariously but unconsciously absorbed that keeps one breathing. A lack of inspiration involving writing ideas could also be predicated on that notion I just know to stay in my lane and realize I’m not within the authority of exterior design to speak with any gravitas on the matter, or wish to give some succulent trade secrets of the Smashing persuasion, but I hold my tongue appropriately when I feel as if nothing of value can be imparted to ye lucky crew of readers and onlookers alike. I suppose I’ll dig deep and attempt to offer insight on both Smash and AC simultaneously for you now.


Love what they’ve done with their village layout. They
have trees and everything. Also, Smash Protip: Don’t
fall off the edge.

See? Rubbish.

I’m continuing to give Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 a shot, even though I feel as if I know me and the game have no real shot of longevity together. The campaign was fine enough, though the multiplayer does feel like it lacks a certain crisp quality involving that bespoke 30 seconds of fun (of Halo legend) needed for any gaming experience to stay relevant for long in this hyper competitive market this day and age. However, I muster the courage to continue my college effort in my affairs with the title, giggling still as I play, watching the big bologna men run hither and thither doing big bologna men like things whenever I play Space Marine 2, wondering who in their right mind takes any of this seriously, but that may be one of the only things keeping me invested in my bologna man space dystopia adventures, so it’s really the small things that count.


A screenshot of one of my more intense
matches playing Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2.

I did also finish getting all the achievements for Castlevania, Order of Ecclesia, the final cheevo involving beating Albus mode, which is just where you go back through with an optional character and rebeat the campaign with an unlockable character after the credits roll, in the memorable style of Symphony of the Night. I do chuckle thinking about the comparative nature of Albus as a character vs others in the series, as while he is relevant to the main story of Ecclesia, he is essentially a dude with a gun in a story involving legendary vampire hunters and demonic entities born of myth and fury. Still, Dracula still has a mouth that one can fire bullets into, which contributes in meaningful ways to dislocating his ass from this reality and then launching his bastard ass directly into hell with relative fucking gusto.


Pictured: a conceptual representation of Any Castlevania
progatonist by the end of their respective game. Not pictured:
Dracula’s immense frustration with being evicted by the
Belmonts every god damn century

On the PS4, I’m largely just focused on Elden Ring, having finished the DLC Shadow of the Erdtree about a month ago. I maintain a pride in having played through both the vanilla portion of the game and the DLC without having used any external help whatsoever, be it guides, videos, walkthroughs etc, and even pushed myself not to summon any player help to fight any of the bosses, which I consider to be a stubbornly bullheaded endeavor of herculean proportions that I’m happy to have seen to it’s bitter end. Though the playthrough of both the title and it’s add-on did put things into a stark perspective, and that is I can’t sacrifice a year of my life to a single game all of the time, as it just simply isn’t sustainable. I realize not every experience is going to be as demanding as a souls-like is, but the truth remains that in this day and age of hyper busyness, combined with a ridiculous slate of games coming down the pipeline, on top of my general desire to have hobbies and passions outside of gaming, I’m trying to remind myself it’s really okay to ask for help and or take a shortcut every now and again, or else one would surely get consumed by the madness of struggle, and drown in the endless sea of everyday inanity in a moment’s notice.

~Pashford