Left 4 Dead 2 : The Last Stand (2020)

2020.09.27
Any given day I start Steam I have to click through the ads. Usually I click through them quickly, hardly looking, as what I really am looking at for updates is my wishlist.

Today I am halted in my tracks by an official update to L4D2.

This should not be. The L4D franchise, like all Valve games, has been abandoned for years. Reading the text, its not that much of an update, so much as an elevated community map and some bug fixes, but still. Valve has been like a stone statue for so long, it really is news when it does anything at all.

2020.10.03

Played it. Nice bit of nostalgia. Brief.

Unfortunate return of RSI. Wasn't missing that.

June's Journey (2017)

2020.09.14
I've been playing this 'casually' on a house iPad, never really admitting to myself that I'm playing a FaceBook game. And now, I've started my own instance on my PC. I have to admit the reality of it to myself now.

2023.04.13

I can't stop playing this because of social reasons, but I can stop playing it so much. It eats up so much gaming time, I barely play my regular rotation games, let alone start new games.

I've been going very slowly, leveling only every few days at most, sometimes not even once a week. I play less comps, less league, less memoirs, less detectives needed, less sweep the board - etc. - but somehow it still eats up more time than it is socially useful.

I had a list of goals, the primary one being to get to level 500. I always felt that was the core of the story, and once I did that I would be mostly done. Recently one of the endless mini games, mystery secret something or another, started to encroach into the main story. I feel it's going to spoil the main story, which I've been slowly doling out to myself over the years.

Now I feel I have to rush through the story, and maybe still get spoilers. It doesn't sit well, but maybe it's not so bad. I'll probably never stop playing this game, but at least I can be done with it.

2023.08.17

Finally made it to 500 (on Aug. 7); got the commemorative planter and everything. Now I don't care about the story. I've already seen most of it in another instance, and it's not worth following.

That took almost 3 years, but I expect it to pick up pace now. No need to slow things down, I can just burn up new scenes as fast as I like.

status 2020.01 - 2020.09...

2020.01.01
Steam Winter Sale 2019 almost over. Sort by price, picking off by cheapest:
$4.99 Gunpoint Special Edition
$3.99 Gone Home + Original Soundtrack
{ Max Payne 1 + 2... still $3.50, already played, these can wait }
$4.48 World of Decadence (Age of Decadence + Dungeon Rats)
{ Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, a reviewer warns to get the 20th Anniversary edition instead... checking on GoG, no they don't have it either, but I see some sales I need to get in on }
$5.99 Transistor + Soundtrack
$7.19 Undertale - Game + Soundtrack Bundle
$8.99 L.A. Noire Complete Edition

I think that's enough for this sale.

On GoG, my wishlist... I have Serious Sam First and Second on Steam, removing those...
$3.79 Day of the Tentacle Remastered

2020.04.09
Must play something other than GTA5 Online... how about L4D. Steam says haven't played since 2017.12.06. I believe it. Install...

2020.05.10
Hardly recall playing L4D. Guess it didn't do much for me.
How about reinstalling another old classic, Team Fortress 2. Last Played 2015.10.31. Play Time 538 hours.
Install.
...five days later... no lasting memories of playing TF2 either.

2020.05.26
About that TF2. I do recall playing some more a day or two later, and I figured out how to bring up my old list of favorite servers -- some of which were still online. Playing some large (32) games brought back that old feeling, of playing for your team instead of yourself. It was a good moment.

Steam sales.
$2.99 Dungeon Siege Collection (Includes 4 items: Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege II, Dungeon Siege III, Dungeon Siege III: Treasures of the Sun) {will i ever play these again? unlikely.}
$1.99 Life is Strange 2 - Episode 1 {still haven't played the first one}
$2.99 Thief (2014) {still haven't played the 90s version!}

2020.06.04
$8.39 This War of Mine: Complete Edition

2020.06.18
Eye of the Beholder trilogy free on GoG. Why not.

2020.07.09
Steam sale.
$1.97 A Bird Story + Soundtrack
$3.49 Finding Paradise
$2.99 SOMA
$3.74 The Walking Dead
$3.74 The Wolf Among Us
$1.99 Tooth and Tail
$1.49 Ultimate Doom
$1.49 Doom II
$1.49 Doom 3
$0.89 Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil

2020.07.26
$3.89 Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers

2020.09.06

Playing too much TF2; I'm at over 600 hours now.

It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't make it easy to mindlessly play all night.

Uninstalling will at least install a speed bump to make me think a second before wasting another entire night on it.