January 08, 2024

My Top 10 Games I Played in 2023

By Insomniac Games - https://blog.playstation.com/2023/06/08/marvels-spider-man-2-arrives-only-on-ps5-october-20-collectors-digital-deluxe-editions-detailed/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73989403

I played so many video games in 2023 that I can actually write a top-10 list on my best games I played in 2023. Just a reminder, this is NOT my top-10 list on games released in 2023, but rather my top-10 games I played in 2023. Some of these games came out before 2023 (though most of these games are from 2023). 

December 27, 2023

Cultured Individual's 2023 Recap And Plans For 2024


The year of 2023 is finally coming to an end, and it is time for me to reflect on the year I had in general, as well as what I wrote on this blog. I would say that 2023 was a memorable year for me, with my biggest highlight being my European mega-vacation touring Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey. I was able to play my fair share of video games this year as well and wrote some good reviews. There were some events and stories this year and I want to talk about those as well.

December 22, 2023

"Sea Of Stars" Is An Excellent Tribute To SNES RPGs

By Sabotage - Giant Bomb, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72375507

I just finished playing Sea of Stars, which is a turn-based RPG from Sabotage Studio, which has had heavy influence from the Super Nintendo RPGs that came before it. There is so much influence from those SNES RPGs that Sea of Stars feels like a tribute game, or a love letter, to that genre on that system. Part of the fun of Sea of Stars is identifying which classic games influenced this game.

December 18, 2023

Looking Back On The "Gears Of War" Series


I had a trial for a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and last month was the time for me to use it, because I had the craving of playing the Gears of War games all in one go. I have not played a Gears of War game since Gears of War 3 came out in 2011. I thought it would be as good of a time as ever to relive the original Gears trilogy, as well as play the newer Gears games (4 and 5) and give my brief thoughts on those games as well.

December 11, 2023

Around Athens In Three Hours


My voyage on-board the Celebrity Infinity came to an end, docking at the port of Piraeus, just southwest of the city of Athens. I have talked about the Celebrity Infinity in two previous blog posts but for this post, I am going to talk about our brief tour of Athens before we had to go to the airport to catch our flight. While on our city tour in Rhodes, our taxi driver connected us to a tour company in Athens who was able to show us around the city for a few hours before taking us to the airport (for a reasonable rate).