Girl Gaming: Xbox Edition

Hi everyone, I hope you are well. If you don’t know, I damaged my knees earlier in February and when things were looking good, I ended up injuring them worse. My pain is worse when walking, standing, and even sitting with my knees at a 45 degree angle, so I’ve been spending most of my year in bed either laying with my legs flat or laying down. It’s boring as fuck!! Not gonna lie!! Coupled with the pandemic, I’m not even able to go do activities I could do like movies where the chairs can let my legs lay flat or museums/art installations where it’s a large enough space that I can use the leg attachments on my wheelchair to keep them flat. So besides watching entertainment on Youtube and streaming services in general I have been using video games to occupy my time.

Thanks to my partners myriad of games for every type of console, I have my pick of the litter essentially. God chose to fucking nerf me though because I get really motion sick playing FPS games. It has only gotten worse over time too which is a pain in the ass for me, especially right now. I used to play a ton of Left 4 Dead on PC and Xbox but I couldn’t even imagine trying to slog through a campaign now. I haven’t actually tried lately so I might be able to, but if my recent attempt at playing What Remains of Edith Finch? is any indicator I forsure will not make it. This leaves me little in the way of playing titles I would like to, and unfortunately limits what games I can play with friends or my partner (we tried Halo and after getting on a Warthog I had to tap out). Due to this curse I’ve had to stick with mostly top down games like the older Pokemon games and League of Legends. Lots and lots of Tetris as well, it’s one of my favorite games honestly. For this article, I’ll be focusing on what I’ve played on my Xbox One.

As I mentioned above, I recently played What Remains of Edith Finch? for the Xbone through the Game Pass service. I must say, Game Pass is an excellent resource for me. I rarely buy any games because I fear they will make me sick, and this service allows me to try a huge collection of games I normally wouldn’t try because I don’t want to waste money. I’m very grateful that my partner has it! Back to WRoEF?, I don’t really know what I was expecting, but it was forsure not THAT. The game is a walking simulator slash point and click adventure at its base, with other different game styles sprinkled throughout the multiple story routes. Through sheer force of will I finished the game, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to clear all the routes in the game but I truly don’t think I can stomach trying it again. I absolutely loved the ambient noises in the game and the visuals were pretty good. Without trying to spoil any of the plot, there’s a section where it was essentially a choose your own adventure story and I loved the creativity of that section and story overall. It is definitely the type of game that rewards those who choose to comb over every inch of a game. There’s so much I want to say about this game but if you have yet to play it I truly recommend going into it blind as I did. The story is really interesting and I think learning everything from the game itself is the best way to experience said story.

I also recently finished Boyfriend Dungeon, which was actually really fun to play! I ended up finishing it all in one night. The game is a dungeon crawler slash dating sim which is kind of like what Hades is if I understand correctly (I have yet to play Hades but it’s on Game Pass so I plan to try it soon!)? There’s an accessibility feature in Boyfriend Dungeon that allows you to take -50% damage which helped me sooo much. My hand-eye coordination is pretty shit and playing at first was frustrating as I was constantly dying. I didn’t want to spend forever trying to grind and increase my chances of getting nauseated so this feature was a god send. I think I started to get a little nauseated towards to middle of the second dungeon, but thankfully not too bad that I had to stop.

I kinda fucked up the story progression in the game with how I played it. In the game, as you are warned at the beginning of the game, there is a character that ends up stalking you. I got so pissed off at this person I ended up just ignoring their texts after a while. Unfortunately as I learned throughout my play, the texting feature is how the story advances, and towards the end I had some characters talking about things I didn’t really know about. I think there are some characters you can skip that don’t effect the story much, but after having played it I would say that you should try to advance each route at the same time instead of only advancing one at a time. Some of the different characters stories intertwine a bit so advancing all your routes simultaneously is your best bet at keeping the story straight. I really enjoyed this game much more than I thought I would. I look forward to 100%ing the game!

Also, as it could be prophesied, I have also been playing Tetris Effect: Connected. This is such a crazy and fun way to play Tetris. It took me a while to find a button configuration that I liked but soon I was able to play comfortably. I was honestly fighting for my life and having the time of my life playing. There’s a few different game modes and I mostly played Journey Mode with a little dabbling within the Effect Modes. I literally took a break from writing this blog to try and beat the Journey Mode. Before I started writing I was stuck at Area 6 on Normal mode. I ended up switching to Beginners difficulty and finished the entire Journey route, and it was still very hard for me! I’ve actually never utilized the hold function while playing any version of Tetris, so I’ve been practicing how to use it and not break up my hand-eye coordination. I’m trying to get through the last area right now on Normal mode. My highest number of levels was 81 just a few plays ago.

Jordan Minor from PCMag described this game as an art installation and I have to agree, it’s an amazing visual experience. I do think the background visual effects can make the pieces hard to see, which is kind of it’s intended effect but it super fucks with my hand-eye coordination. There might be an accessibility feature that turns it off, I’ll have to look through the options again. Even still, I love the different themes each level has, and I absolutely love how each time you move a tile it makes a different note sound. sometimes I end up just tilting my piece for a while to make a beat. It’s such an experience to play and I highly recommend it if you can handle the flashing lights.

I’ve tried a few other games that I dropped for one reason or another. I originally started playing Fable but I got so pissed that I got scolded by the farmer from moving from the spot while watching his farm that I rage quit. It’s so funny; I’ll probably pick it up again later but for now I’m gonna keep it to the side. I also tried playing some Katamari Damacy REROLL but my motion sickness coupled with my shit hand-eye coordination made playing a bit difficult. I would love to play it though, I think the art and dialogue in the game is really cute. I would love to play a VR version of the game if I’m ever able to stand/walk again. I think that would be majorly fun!!

I have Mirrors Edge downloaded but I haven’t tried it yet because I’m afraid it will make me sick. I have Night In The Woods downloaded too which I’m just not in the mood to tackle right now. Hitman 3, AI: The Somnium Files, Hades, Octopath Traveler, Touhou Luna Nights, and Wilmot’s Warehouse are a few other games I have downloaded as well in the hopes of being able to play. Which of these do you think I should pick up next? Are there any other games on Game Pass you would recommend for me? Please let me know in the comments below!

I want Xbox friends… if anyone wants to add me please do! My tag is Necara2268. I’m a little sheep! I tried to connect my Twitter and it did nothing so I’m stuck. If you add me please message me to let me know you’re from the blog. I had someone on PS add me say “Hi this is [insert friend name]!” and I accepted but after a bit I didn’t think it was actually said friend and blocked them.

As always, please take care of yourself and your health!!! Don’t get wrecked like me, lol. See you next time.