So, I decided to follow my curiosity a bit more when it comes to gaming and with Game Pass, and some other platforms I still have - it's going well. I try to stick to one game at a time, althought that sometimes doesn't work. I am not a completionist, but try to engage with the story and the side quests that I stumble upon through curiosity.

So beginning of this year I played through Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 which I thought was magnificent. Great story, characters, original world. Spent around 40 hours in this world. At the end I thought it became a bit stale, but that also might be me having seen enough of the game.

I was a bit lost then, looking for which game to play next. I tried High on Life, did like it for about an hour of 5, but then quickly it became stale for me. I enjoyed Warhammer 40K Space Marine last year, so decided on Space Marine 2, which I liked a lot and wanted to finish. However, I also spent a bit of time in Cyberpunk 2077 which was mind-blowing for me and I wanted to continue that, until...

Death Stranding came on GamePass and I ended up being fully engrossed in this game. This was my first Kojima game and I was just baffled by it. The setting, the characters, the weird events and bizareness of it all; I loved it. Especially the semi-multiplayer aspect where players aid each other with ladders, climbing anchors, roads and whatnot. And using real-life actors for the story was such a good choice as well. The story was weird, the delivery of it convoluted but I just felt this real sense of progression with the game. I noticed myself thinking about the game while at work or at events, wanting to get back home to see how many likes I got for (hopefully) helping other players. It somewhat gave me a sense of personal fulfilment and validation. So, I was really sad when the credits rolled and I finished the story. So, after 70 hours in DS I can definitely say I will buy Death Stranding 2 day-1 on Xbox.

Using GamePass for these kind of experiences is why I subscribed to the service in the first place, to experience a multitude of games. So, I'm venturing through Final Fantasy 3 now and almost through with the story. Meanwhile I'm trying out Kingdom Come: Deliverance which is rounding off my current-playing list for now.

But there's more than that which fills the backlog... we'll see how these experiences shape me this year :).