New Year's Resolution 2022

2021 was unlike any other year I’ve experienced in the past 11 years.  A lot of plans went accordingly while others were thrown out altogether.  With the threat of the COVID-19 virus still prevalent in the world, we were still reluctant to go out anywhere for the first half of 2021.  It has been both an interesting year and a painful year in 2021.

I started the year purchasing an Oculus Quest 2 and delving into Virtual Reality games.  I expected it to be a fun little distraction I could partake in.  But VR turned out to be a life changing experience for me.  Having been home for the past 11 years, the sudden and constant flow of stimulation from being in new environments and new experiences did wonders for my mental health.  I expected VR to be more of something I did alone, but I quickly learned that a lot of VR games can be played online with friends.  Having my friends standing next to me, even as fictional virtual characters, brought me closer to them than any other videogame was capable of doing in the past.  Another huge surprise was how much physical exertion was required to play some of these VR games.  I was playing VR everyday for nearly 2 months before I cut down on the time I spent with a headset on.  I found a balance between working out on Ring Fit Adventure and playing games in VR for exercise and I managed to drop to the weight I was at coming out of college.  It has since gone back up a little ever since we started going out to eat again.

Early March, I learned about Moses McCormick's (also known as 老鼠 - lǎoshǔ 'Mouse') passing.  As mentioned in the post that month, he was a polyglot Youtuber that surprised people by speaking their native language to them.  I enjoyed his videos and respected his ability to learn so many different languages, and thus saddened by his passing.  Around that time, I was playing VR Chat and tried to look for Japanese players to practice speaking Japanese with.  What I eventually found were players from around the world ALSO trying to practice Japanese but also spoke different languages.  I met people from France, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Russia all wanting to learn Japanese.  So with those two events in mind, it inspired me to start learning different languages.  Throughout April, I focused on learning Korean, practicing guitar, and exercising.  It was also around this time that Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 came out and I was studying on how to get better on the two.  I actually forgot that it was within this past year that I learned new setups on Tetris and learned how to do a GTR setup on Puyo Puyo.  While it sounds silly to learn such unpractical skills, it was fulfilling and was proud I made progress in getting better at those two games.  I eventually made progress in practicing guitar and recorded a cover/arrangement.

While I did not mention it in my posts in May and June, I think I’m willing to talk a little about it.  In May, we received news that a close family friend of ours had a sudden heart attack and passed away.  It was shocking and heart breaking.  He lived in China and with the travel restrictions in place due to the pandemic, we wouldn’t be able to go pay our respects to him if we wanted to.  Then less than a month later, my aunt passed away from an aggressive form of cancer.  The following months were difficult, and a lot happened in between, though that’s as much as I want to say on the matter.

It was around this time that my family and I got vaccinated and started slowly going out more again.  I saw friends and family I haven’t seen in a long time.  I finally got to see my sister, who I haven’t seen in 2.5 years.  We’ve never been apart that long our whole lives.  I was practicing a lot of Guilty Gear Strive at this time and it was the first time I felt like I was getting somewhere in learning and improving in a fighting game.

The past few months have been kind of a blur as I spent half a year learning a piano piece.  I finally learned the whole piece, but it required dropping everything else I was doing.  Because of this, I didn’t work on any large audio projects for the entirety of 2021.  No remixes, no compositions, only one recording of playing guitar and the recording I did for piano was so poor that I didn’t even count it.  I’m still trying to get better at playing the piece before I record it again.  I forgot to mention that I drew something in 2021.  It’s been an interesting year since I tried to do a lot of things I normally don’t do or haven’t done in a long time: drawing, practicing guitar and piano, learning new languages, and putting actual time and effort into learning a fighting game.

In any case, it’s time to see what resolutions were actually fulfill and which ones weren’t.

Reflection of 2021’s Resolutions:

1) Work on even more original music.  2020 is the most amount of original work I’ve ever created in a year and they were far greater than the remixes I made in the same year.

-I never had time to work on anything in 2021 because I put so much time and effort into learning a guitar track and a piano piece.  This was a resolution I made back in 2018: learn one difficult piece on piano and one hard track on guitar.  I really put in the effort this year and learned how to play Awe of She (Dizzy’s Theme) from Guilty Gear X on guitar and Chopin’s Op. 9 No. 2 Nocturne on piano.  I spent around 3-4 months on guitar and 5-6 months on piano.

2) Mix in new activities this year.  I haven’t watched animé in years and I managed to watch through 19 shows over the summer in 2020.  It was such an incredible feeling watching animé again and changing up my daily routine.  I also created one drawing.  I’d like to do more of that this year: read more books, watch more anime, draw more, practice more musical instruments, and work on other non-music related projects.

- This was my whole year, essentially.  I got into VR and lost a lot of weight.  I created one new drawing.  I was learning and studying eight languages.  I learned a hard guitar track.  I learned and improved on Tetris and Puyo Puyo.  I put in the time and effort to learning and improving Guilty Gear Strive and Melty Blood Type Lumina where it’s the first time I felt like I was getting anywhere in a fighting game.  And then I learned how to play Chopin’s Nocturne, something I’ve wanted to do my whole life.  I got swept up in everything I did in 2021 and concentrated more on what I wanted rather than what I needed.  It felt very liberating from my own conscious of always trying to work towards my career.  I do feel sad that I didn’t make any time for watching animé or reading books.

3) Find even more ways for self-improvement.  Each day, I strive to better myself as a person in body and mind.  I’ve been doing pretty well with taking care of my health, and I think I still have plenty of room for improvement.  I made new discoveries on mixing and mastering in music production.  I’ve been trying to improve in fighting games the past 2 years and I want to get better (and Guilty Gear Strive releases in April).  Maybe fulfilling resolution #2 will allow me to learn new things or gain new experiences.

-Yes, 2021 was a year I spent a lot of time on self-improvement.  I can’t remember if everything I was able to do in 2021 was actually planned or if I was saying in general that I wanted to “learn new things or gain new experiences”.

4) Apply for jobs.  I have enough work to compile a new portfolio.  I’m ready.

-I had zero motivation to look for and apply for jobs in 2021.  We were still in lockdown in the beginning of the year, and I honestly wasn’t expecting to spend so much time on practicing guitar and piano.

5) Control yourself!  I can’t believe I’m making this my resolution once more, and I’ll probably fail considering how many games I’m (now, after seeing what’s in store for 2021 shown at the Videogame Awards) looking forward to this year.  But if possible: spend less money, finish more games than acquired, and reduce that backlog!

-I was doing so well throughout the year…In 2020, I finished 141 games and acquired 184 games.  In 2021, I finished 150 games but acquired 217 games.  The three factors that caused this was: I bought a lot of new VR games after getting the Oculus Quest 2, I subscribed to Humble Choice for a year because of a discount offer for new customers, and a lot of the games I wanted to get all came out in the last few months.  Needless to say, I utterly failed on this resolution.

So I did exceedingly well on two of the resolutions, but absolutely failed on three of them.  It was a year filled with unexpected turn of events and focusing on self-improvement rather than moving forward in life.  So in 2022, I need to take what I've learned and experienced in 2021 and channel it towards what I want to achieve this upcoming year.

My Resolutions for 2022:

1) Get back to working on projects.  I have a lot planned.

2) Continue learning languages.  Focus on Chinese and Japanese.

3) Watch Animé, read books.  I want to do more of this.

4) Update resumé and portfolio.  I really need to make that first step, again.

5) Play more fun games.  I seemed to have played a lot of mediocre games in 2021.

Honestly, I have no motivation to work at the moment.  I’m still burnt out from learning Chopin’s Nocturne in the past half year and all I can think about right now is playing some videogames and I feel like I haven’t been doing that, even though I clearly have.  Going back into language learning, watching animé and reading books also sound nice, but I think I’ll eventually get around to working on recording piano arrangements first since I’ve been practicing piano lately.  Moving forward with videogames this year, I think I should play more quality games, console games, and handheld games instead of playing so many small PC games and mobile games.  Judging from the past two years, I think it’d be prudent of us to move forward with caution rather than optimism.  Please be kind to us, 2022.

Videogames of 2021

I can't believe another year has passed and I'm back to talking about another year of games.  Much has happened this year and a lot went according to plan and not according to plan, but I'll discuss that on a different post.  2021 turned out to be an...okay year for Videogames.  Picking up an Oculus Quest 2 and delving into the world of Virtual Reality games turned out to be the biggest change in my life.  It has done wonders both for my physical health and my mental health.  I had lost around 5 lbs from October 2020 to January 2021 from playing Ring Fit Adventure.  When I got the Quest 2 in January 2021, I played a lot and ended up going from 148 lbs down to 136 lbs!  I haven't been that low since college from 11 years ago!  The stimulation of being in different environments, standing virtually alongside friends, and participating in new experiences in VR has made me happier and a bit closer with my friends that no other videogame has done before.  I played so many VR games this year that I just made a separate list for it.  While I did play some fun games this year, I felt that I played a lot of mediocre games as well.

Like last year, I've added a few games to my top 10 that I haven't actually finished yet and will be marked with a * next to them.

Top 10 games of 2021:

10) Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 [PC] - Improvements to the game are minor, story isn't as long or as funny as the first game (but still pretty funny), and the game technically only adds one new mode.  Still, I managed to squeeze out 99 hours out of the game this year from how much I played it.  I like the new additional characters (old returning characters) and I do think the new mode where you team up with friends to fight a boss is really cool.  I see myself still returning to this game and playing it in the futurer.

9) Battlefield 2042 [PC] - While I had a lot of fun playing BF2042, I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed in it.  I haven't played BF online multiplayer since BF4 which was 8 years ago, and somehow I don't feel any significant changes or improvements to the game since then.  A lot of its new original maps are large, wide open, and kind of boring.  What I really liked is its new mode where it brings back maps, weapons, and units from older games like Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 3.  All sorts of new modes and events are cycled each week for something different.  Again, I had a lot of fun playing the game and will probably play more, but I question if it was worth the $90 spent on it, especially compared to:

8) Halo Infinite Multiplayer [PC] - I can't believe they made this free.  Much like Battlefield, I haven't played Halo multiplayer since Halo 3 and the changes to mechanics and weapons are significant, new and interesting to me.  You have gadgets that can improve combat engagement, new weapons that I've never seen before, you can sprint, you can aim down sight with an assault rifle, and a lot of the maps have a lot of dynamics to them.  I'm so impressed by Halo Infinite's multiplayer.

*7) Outriders [PC] - So I'm still in the middle of finishing this game, but I've been having a lot of fun with the 10 or so hours I've spent on it.  It's been criticized for its lack of content, but I haven't gotten far enough to have an opinion on it.  I'm planning to finish playing this soon and hope to play a lot more of it afterwards with a friend who wants to participate in end-game content.

6) Back 4 Blood [PC] - I honestly haven't played nearly enough of this game yet and want to.  I have finished the game twice, but haven't played enough of the harder difficulties.  While it didn't live up to the expectations of a lot of Left 4 Dead fans, I found the experience to be new, exciting and fun if not challenging.  Gunplay feels smooth and polished, and the challenging difficulty makes for a much more engaging multiplayer than most games I've played with friends.  I hope I still play a lot more of this game.

*5) Scarlet Nexus [PC] - I'm almost done...with one character's story.  I'm actually not sure if this game really belongs on the list.  I was extremely excited for this game and I played quite a bit of it in the beginning.  But I kept getting distracted and found it difficult to find the motivation to finish it.  I think combat is solid and fun, I love the graphics and music, and I really enjoy the characters and story.  But I also feel like I'm progressing slowly in that game, even though I'm not.  While I'm really enjoying the game, I can't help but feel that perhaps my expectations were too high.

4) Melty Blood Type Lumina [PC] - I've waited for so many years for a chance that a new Melty Blood would actually be made.  I was extremely excited for this game as well.  I do like it, but I also have some mixed feelings as well.  While the music is pretty good, I feel that it isn't nearly as catchy and memorable as the music from previous iterations.  It's new shield counter mechanic has been met with a lot of controversy of whether it's good, bad, fun, unfair, or random.  I think it's an interesting change to the game, but also unsure if I like it as it makes player interaction messy.  I've put in 53 hours into it and feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what available yet and hope to play more this year.

*3) Resident Evil 4 VR [Quest 2 VR] - I considered putting this as my #1 game played this year.  Despite being a decade and a half old game, the experience in VR is so exceptional that I think I enjoy it more in VR than the original.  A few games were recreated for VR and they often feel awkward and poor imitations of the original game.  But Resident Evil 4 VR's experience feels so natural that it almost feels like the original game was meant for VR.  I'm not quite done with it, but I'm pretty close to finishing it.

*2) Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis [PC] - I've played a lot of this game, and yet made very little progress on it.  I haven't found the time to really move forward in the story, but I've been having so much fun with its gameplay that I spent the majority of my time with it doing daily quests.  It currently lacks content and doesn't quite give the player much to do.  But the core gameplay is really fun and exciting.

1) Guilty Gear Strive [PC] - I had no doubt that Guilty Gear Strive would be my #1 game this year.  Having racked up a record 304 hours into the game (I've never had that many hours into one game within a year), this was the first fighting game where I felt like I had a chance to keep up with others and improve faster.  I'll admit, the story was a bit disappointing to me, its single-player content is severely lacking, but its core gameplay is so simple to pick up and so fun that it makes sense why I accumulated so many hours in such a short amount of time.  The graphics are incredibly beautiful with a somewhat more mature look to its previous game.  The soundtrack was shocking and surprising as lyrics for character themes wasn't something I expected to work so well.  Not to mention that its rollback netcode has been a blessing after years of playing fighting games with delay based netcode.  I've taken a huge break from learning and practicing fighting games and Guilty Gear Strive the past few months to focus on practicing piano, but I'm hoping to get back into it a few weeks from now.

I barely touched my game consoles and handhelds this past year and focused a lot of PC and mobile games.  I've been trying to break away from Genshin Impact and a few other mobile games so I can have more time to play other games, but I've been still mainly playing games on PC.

Honorable mentions: Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth [PC], Blaster Master 3 [PC], Tetris Effect: Connected [PC], Rounds [PC]

Top 10 Games played not released in 2021:

10) Black Future '88 [PC] - This was a very tough Action-Platformer Rogue-like.  I liked the soundtrack and its graphical aesthetics.  But the difficulty made it tough to stick with it after finishing one run after 10 hours of trying.

9) Sunset Overdrive [PC] - The PC port is a bit buggy.  There were times where the game felt frustrating or slow in order for the game to feel somewhat lengthy.  For the most part, I found the game to be pretty entertaining with its various weapons, its method of traversal, and its goofy humor.

8) Uppers [PC] - I've waited for this game to release for so long, but it did take a bit of time before I got around to finishing it.  Some fights and objectives made the game frustrating, but it was mostly straight forward if not a bit shallow.  While it wasn't anything particularly special, I'm glad I finally got to play the game.

7) Katamari Demacy Reroll [PC] - I've wanted to play this game for a very long time and glad I finally got the chance to.  The game is a lot more challenging than I expected it to be, and it made it a little stressful on certain stages.  But I loved the music, the humor, and its colorful presentation.  I finally understand why so many people talk about this game now.

6) Halo CE Remastered [PC] - It's been a while since I've played the original Halo.  While it was nostalgic and fun to revisit the game, I realized some parts of the game didn't age well, such as the copy-pasted rooms used throughout the game.  I know there were fans that didn't like how the remaster made some stages brighter while making enemies darker (and harder to see), but I really enjoyed the remastered look and loved being able to switch between the original graphics with the new one with a press of a button.

5) Senko no Ronde 2 [PC] - While it does remind me a bit of Acceleration of Suguri 2, I found Senko no Ronde 2 to be unique, challenging, and full of content for what it is.  I spent quite a few hours just to get all the story scenes.

4) Torchlight 3 [PC] - I can understand the disappointment people had with this game.  TL3 has less content than TL2, its skill trees and classes don't make enough interesting builds for experimentation, and there isn't a support for user created mods.  For what it was, I enjoy the game.  I ended up playing on the hardest difficult with a friend for better loot and a challenging gameplay.  I died a lot and it ended up being pretty frustrating at a certain point.  I liked the game for the most part.

3) Minoria [PC] - I waited for it to drop back down to the same discount price of its lowest from 2 years ago.  I was a bit worried going into this game as a lot of players that came from the creator's previous game Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight didn't seem to like this one.  The game is tough and everything (including peons) kill you in two hits, but you're capable of parrying everything.  I enjoyed the challenge and played through the game twice before I felt done with it.

2) BPM: Bullets Per Minute [PC] - I had stopped playing this game for a while because my previous laptop just couldn't handle the graphics and it always caused me to lose.  When I finally got a new computer, I started up the game and finally beat it for the first time after a couple of runs and getting that one run with armor, life steal, and high damage.  BPM combines First-Person Shooters, Music-Rhythm games, and Rogue-likes all into one game for a unique experience that's constantly reward as you match up each shot, reload, and dash to the beat of the music.

1) One Step From Eden [PC] - I didn't expect a Mega Man Battle Network Rogue-like to work so well, and yet it does.  I finally got through one run this year and haven't had a chance to go back and play some more.  This is definitely one of the games I had the most fun playing in 2021.

Top 10 VR Games played in 2021 (I'll try to brief with these):

10) Superhot VR - It's simple, visually appealing, and give some freedom to how you want to approach each engagement.

9) Contractors VR - I really like the single-player options this shooter provides over the other shooters.

8) Zero Caliber VR - Call of Duty for VR.  This is still the best game to play for a campaign shooter.

7) Pavlov VR - Counter-Strike for VR.  While single-player isn't the best, it has the best multiplayer.

6) Boneworks - Half-Life for VR.  Probably my favorite VR Shooter as it provides the player with a lot of creative freedom on how you want to play or approach an answer to a problem.

5) Blade & Sorcery - While I really like the feel and look of Hellsplit Arena, Blade & Sorcery definitely has much more content, weapon/enemy/level variety, and creative freedom.

4) VR Chat - VR Chat is a mixed bag of experiences.  You have kids running around shouting expletives, people being uncomfortably creepy, and people being annoying or hateful.  Other times, you run into people have interesting conversations, you meet people all over the world, you can practice different languages with others, and there's a ton of user created worlds, games and avatars that keep the game/application fresh and different each time to hop on.  It's the one game that made me feel closest to my friends when we all got together and karaoke'd, played games, and hung out.

3) Until You Fall - A stylish rogue-like hack-n-slash.  I love the music, the gameplay is challenging, and while I wish there were more content, it has a decent amount of replay value.

2) Beat Saber - Anyone that has a VR headset should buy this game.  It's simple, it's fun, and the amount of user created content is unreal.  This is definitely going to be the one VR game I play the most.

1) Pistol Whip - While I like Beat Saber a lot, I consider Pistol Whip my favorite game.  It's a shooter mixed with a music rhythm game.  While it sounds confusing, it feels incredibly rewarding once you understand it.  Its presentation is unlike any game I've played in VR where every song has a unique theme, stage, and look to it.  I like every song, which is incredibly rare for a music rhythm game.  And even after a whole year of playing it, it's still the one game I really enjoy and get the most workout from playing.

Most of the games I enjoyed the most this year is from VR.  It might be because it's such a new concept and experience.  I hope more VR games with better quality continue to release this year.

Here are all the games released in 2021 that I was interested in.  Ones marked with * means I already bought the game and haven't played through it or at all yet.

Skul: The Hero Slayer

Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy

Cyber Shadow

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

Gal*Gun Returns

Märchen Forest: Mylne and the Forest Gift

Sword of the Necromancer

*The Yakuza Remastered Collection

Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World: The Prophecy of the Throne

*Ys IX: Monstrum Nox

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case

Curse of the Dead Gods

Persona 5 Strikers

*Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos

Cotton Reboot!

Darius Cozmic Revelation

*Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection

Bravely Default 2

*Neptunia Virtual Stars

Loop Hero

Saviors of Sapphire Wings & Stranger of Sword City Revisited

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV

It Takes Two

Poison Control

SaGa Frontier Remastered

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

New Pokémon Snap

Returnal

Resident Evil Village

Miitopia

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster

Earth Defense Force: World Brothers

World's End Club

Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2

Edge of Eternity

Neptunia ReVerse

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

*Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance

The Caligula Effect 2

Legend of Mana Remaster

Samurai Warriors 5

Mario Golf: Super Rush

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed

Cris Tales

Death's Door

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Neo: The World Ends with You

The Ascent

Fuga: Melodies of Steel

Grime

Boyfriend Dungeon

No More Heroes III

F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch

Sonic Colors: Ultimate

Tales of Arise

WarioWare: Get It Together!

Deathloop

Eastward

Metallic Child

Skatebird

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

World War Z: Aftermath

*ActRaiser Renaissance

*Castlevania Advance Collection

*Diablo II: Resurrected

Lost Judgment

New World

Far Cry 6

*Metroid Dread

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars

Call of Duty: Vanguard

Blue Reflection: Second Light

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

*Shin Megami Tensei V

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

Chorus

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Aiko's Choice

Rune Factory 4 Special

Halo Infinite

Praey for the Gods

Fantasian

That's a surprising amount of games I missed out on.

Here are the 5 top mobile games I enjoyed playing in 2021:

World Flipper

Alchemy Stars

Punishing: Gray Raven

Revived Witch

Blue Archive

It's been a good year for older gamers as a lot of games were remastered, remade, and ported to new systems:

Capcom Arcade Stadium

NeoGeo Pocket Color Selection

SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millennium

Castlevania Advance Collection

Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection

ActRaiser Renaissance

BlazBlue Centralfiction Rollback Update

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX

Crysis Remastered

Final Fantasy Perfect Pixel Remasters

NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...

And finally, here's a list of games releasing in 2022 that I'm interested in:

Demon Gaze Extra

Monster Hunter Rise (PC)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction

Windjammers 2

Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX 2

Pokémon Legends: Arceus

Dying Light 2 Stay Human

Lost Ark

Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires

The King of Fighters XV

Horizon Forbidden West

Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream

Elden Ring

ELEX II

Babylon's Fall

Triangle Strategy

Phantom Breaker: Omnia

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin

Rune Factory 5

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl

Forspoken

Starfield

Azure Striker Gunvolt 3

Baldur's Gate III

Bayonetta 3

DNF Duel

Earth Defense Force 6

Echoes of Mana

Evil West

Ghostwire: Tokyo

Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

River City Girls 2

River City Girls Zero

Shadow Warrior 3

Sol Cresta

Sonic Frontiers

Splatoon 3

Star Ocean: The Divine Force

Trek to Yomi

Much like the previous year, I focused too much on PC even more than last time and really need to find the time to play through some console games and handhelds.  It's going to be a crazy year of games coming out in 2022.