animals | Active Time Event

Happy 5th Anniversary you two. Cheers to many more celebrations including both your series.

A rare moment where Isabelle gets a breather from
her hellish schedule to hang with Doomguy. He loves
shooting the shit

Ass-slappingly un-fucking-real that it’s already been five years since these two games launched in what’s felt like a blink of an eye. Even more wild when you consider these games not only launched on this very day five years ago, but it was right about that time in the U.S that the lockdown was announced due to Covid-19. In the before times…the long long ago.

Everyone had to be socially distanced more than
six pixels apart back then

Definitely in large part due to the pandemic, but not solely so, these games thrived. Mind you, many (including myself) have been humble fans of both since there relative inceptions (decades for either at this point), but when one has little else to do but fear the plague, sitting down to find some peace and quiet with a little bit of cozy comfort gaming is always an easy call.

Pictured: A piece of quiet(ening)

Even though I moved on from Doom: Eternal sooner than New Horizons, I still play both series as a duology back to back daily, having just finished doing so in the last ten minutes. There is technically still stuff for me to do in AC, even after five years (see the egregiously paced Nook Miles goals as to why), and there are nearly endless number of Doom WADs in the original games to enjoy at this point (custom level packs made by fans), so that I technically *still* have something new to look forward to, which is super groovy. One wouldn’t necessarily think that these two series would have forged such an unlikely bond between fandoms, but I think it is a rare moment that highlights how multi-layered gamers can be. There are many out there who love to get down on both the cozy and the chaotic, and once they’re done mowing down hordes of the demonic, enjoy hosing down and tending to some relaxing horticulture in their well kept gardens.

What most peoples Animal Crossing islands look
like when they finally log back in after time away

Both are games that share an under representation here on ATE, though they find themselves within a grouping of titles I so regularly and often play, alongside Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Elden Ring, that I’m not sure if I avoid talking about them due to the notion they feel so familiar and therefore so inane in consideration, or that everyone and their mother discusses them due to their popularity, and I feel as if I just truly have nothing to add to that conversation. I guess at least in terms of Animal Crossing, there has been no new news on the game or a follow up in some time. Nintendo is set to go into greater detail about the Switch 2 come April 2nd, and I’ll be amazed if they don’t showcase something from the next AC, and especially given the turn around time they’ve had on the last title, I’ll be even more amazed if they don’t announce an end of year release date.

Come on Nintendo, let’s both enjoy the sweet sound
of “bells” ringing come the holiday season…

There’s always news on the Doom front of course, as the original game continues to be ported to nearly every conceivable platform and device known to man, though I’m sure most are deadlocked on the release date for Doom: The Dark Ages, which is the direct sequel to Doom: Eternal, and set to launch on May 15th. Thinking about it, I’m a bit dumbfounded at myself for not having discussed the fairly constant stream of news regarding the title on ATE as of late, but the schedule has jammed up on my end by an almost complete lack of free time. C’est la vie. I’m going to pretend for a second that my schedule is somehow magically going to open up at some point in the next 24 hours, where then I will be struck by both a creative fervor, and somehow (insanely so) stumble onto a bunch of free time into which I may do a more in-depth follow up post of some kind detailing what I love about both series, and or even bring more focus unto the news and or culture involving both magnificent stable of games…but the devils in the details, and if we’re going by the mess left by Doomguy on a regular basis, those details have been blasted all over the god damned walls of the underworld.

What the devil must look like every time he gets
the news Doomguy has breached the walls of Hell

~Pashford