Weekly Update 107

Hello everyone! Welcome back. In case you forgot; this is where I, Seth Oberlender, keep you apprised on my quest to become an author. So far I have not accomplished my task. I have continued to send queries and will continue, so do not fret!

Outside of begging strangers on the internet to like my book I have been playing fighting games.

We don’t talk about that a lot, but I am a somewhat-large fan of the genre. I did not play fighting games growing up outside the odd Mortal Kombat. I eventually got into fighting games due to a certain video from years ago. Cosmonaut Variety Hour’s Why You Should Play Fighting Games - And How is a great way to get into the hobby. After watching it I tried to jump into the twilight years of Street Fighter V. I bounced right off. The game was fun but difficult to figure out. Thankfully, years later, Street Fighter VI came out! I played SF6 the week it came out and fell in love with the game play. It felt like a puzzle to solve and like a new language to learn. I studied the game for days and days… only to lose to my friend Jakob every time we played. I still play SF6 but I have a new love to discuss: Guilty Gear: Strive.

I love fighting games. I love anime. So, it should be no surprise that I have loved playing my first anime fighting game. An “anime fighting game” is very similar to other 2D fighters like Street Fighter but with one major difference: anime! It is flashier, faster, and just cooler! Guilty Gear has been around for years but Guilty Gear: Strive is the latest release. I wanted to get into the game after seeing game play and at the end of this year Lucy from Netflix’s Edgerunners. So far I have been having a blast, even if Jakob continues to absolutely destroy me.

Alright! Time to get back to practicing my quarter circles and stringing combos. See you all next week!

Weekly Update 106

Hey. Welcome. My name is Seth Oberlender and I am a writer. I wrote a book and I am seeking representation for it, and it has taken a little over one-hundred and six weeks to get an agent. My book is good… according to my close friends and family. I did have some strangers read it and they told me they liked it, so, I am left to believe it is perfect and has no flaws.

Outside of my quest to get an agent I am a teacher. This year has been hard. I don’t know how to say it other than that. I am trying so hard to turn it around and it feels harder every day. Still, I persist. Just like my writing journey. My middle name is “Persist.”

Have you heard of Final Fantasy? If you have not, I am sorry to say that I cannot accurately describe FF. All I can say is that it is a fantasy video game series, but also a science fiction video game series. I decided to dive back into Final Fantasy XIV (14), an MMO. I’ve already talked about my love/hate relationship with MMOs, and with 14 I am in love. Sure, it is weird. Whenever I look for tips or advice I have to google something like “ffxiv arr msq in order,” which is in fact a valid series of acronyms. It has been a blast and I hope I can continue enjoying the story when I have to pay for the subscription next month.

The last quarter of the year. We can do this. See you all next week!

Weekly Update 105

Ahhhh… Oh, excuse me. I’m just enjoying my break. Spring Break is here and that means a week of no kids or angry parents. Despite how fun that might sound I have had a problem with enjoying breaks in the past. Since I became a teacher I have over-thought my time away from the classroom to the point of obsession which tends to result in a nigh catatonic state of decision paralysis. I want to enjoy my time so if I don’t make a decision on how too soon I will be wasting my time.

I have had some good breaks since my first year but I am still fighting the decision paralysis demon. Oh, and I am a writer who is looking for an agent. That must be why you are here.

In my writing life I have not had the great moment of getting an agent. I don’t know what I would do if I did, but I am sure you would be able to tell just from looking at my website.

In my normal, personal life I beat two indie games back to back! Indie Games are games made independently from a major game studio, and they have been around for years. I never liked Indie games as a kid because they never felt as polished or as cool as bigger games (Triple A Games), but as time has worn on Indie games have only gotten better and better. Most are considered art more than the biggest Triple A Games and I love when games are art.

The first game I played was Mouthwashing. I heard of the game years ago and finally decided to get it for the Steam Spring Sale. Mouthwashing is an emotional psychological horror game that absolutely destroyed my world. I went in blind (not knowing anything about the story) and so should you. But once you do play it, you should find all of the wonderful Tik Toks made by the fans!

The second game I played was The Forgotten City. This one is a weird one because it first started as a mod for Skyrim years and years ago. The same team that made the mod designed the entire game, preserving most of the story beats from the mod. The game is… I wish I could play it for the first time again. I just love the environment and the characters and the story… I had a dream I was there the night I beat it! Just like Mouthwashing there are some great twists and revelations that I don’t want to spoil here, so go play it. Both games are very short and well worth your time.

Alright, time to get back to break! See you next week!

Weekly Update 104

Ah! Hello! Welcome to Seth Oberlender’s website! I am a writer with aspirations to become an author. This is where I keep any interested parties updated on my journey and on what I am doing in my life.

So far I have yet to find an agent. I am continuing to search for that perfect fit, and until then, I am coninuing to write. But I am also playing video games.

You guys ever see RoboCop? It’s a movie from 1987 directed by Paul Verhoeven. I’ve known about RoboCop for as long as I have known of Alien, or The Thing. I hadn’t seen it ever before, but that didn’t stop me from getting the 2023 video game on a Steam sale. RoboCop: Rogue City is a first person shooter set after the events of the first film. The reviews on Steam were fairly positive and the sale was rather significant so I got it and oh my gosh is it fun!

It feels like a game from the 2010s, but in a good way. The game play feels fun and polished with a focus on a purpose. I am not a video game reviewer, obviously, so bare with me when I say that RoboCop: Rogue City feels delightfully focused and zoned in on what it wants to offer. If you like the movies or like playing first person shooters I recommended getting it and keeping an eye on Teyon (the developer).

Weekly Update 103

Welcome back to Seth Oberlender’s weekly update blog! I am Seth Oberlender and I am going to be an author. I am not one yet but I am still trying. I have not found an agent to represent my work but who knows; I could find them tomorrow.

I want to talk about science fiction horror. I love Sci-Fi Horror, always have. Alien, Pandorum, Sunshine, and more I have not seen but know of and want to see. I just played a Sci-Fi Horror video game and thought you should know about it.

Stasis is a science fiction horror, point-and-click adventure game released in 2015 by publisher/developer THE BROTHERHOOD. Here is the thing about Stasis… it is so, so good. Every trope you can think of when it comes to Sci-Fi Horror is in the game; cloning gone wrong, mutant super soldiers, derelict space ships, rampant maybe sentient fungus, mega corporations exploiting the common man, robots, unethical experiments, and several trigger warnings I won’t go into (this game goes to some wild places). It was legitimately terrifying and fun to explore the Groomlake, but not just for the gross biomasses and broken machines.

The story of Stasis asks a similar question that every Sci-Fi Horror art asks; How far is too far for science? The Groomlake is an old deep space oil frigate that was modified by the evil (yes, straight up evil) Cayne Corporation to do fringe studies where no laws could tell them to stop. The result is some very crazy visuals and even more shocking testimonies from the crew and scientists aboard the doomed ship. The horror is not actually in what they are doing, but in how it works! The antagonist of the game reveals that through the dark experiments and downright evil-scientist level theories they have successfully cured most human conditions, including cancer. I find this very interesting to explore in a game because the question becomes very understandable.

The question of ethics is not the main focus of the game, but more of a large omnipresent theme as you traverse the dying ship. There is also the more real horror of losing control of your situation through John, the player character. He and his wife and child were placed under cryosleep (a sort of suspended animation) to go on vacation, but John is awoken from stasis on the Groomlake. The ship found theirs and captured it, taking the sleeping humans and labeling them “products” to be used for testing. And that’s just how the game starts. I recommend the game to anyone who likes Sci-Fi Horror, but don’t be afraid to use a walk through for it. I am not used to playing point-and-click adventure games so I would have abandoned the game the first time I had to combine a crowbar and a caution tape unprompted.

Alright, well, time to get back to work. Life persists and so do I! See you next week.

Weekly Update 102

Another week, another update. Hello! This is Seth Oberlender’s corner of the internet where I, Seth Oberlender, keep any interested parties up-to-date on how my search for an agent is going.

Not well. The search isn’t going well. What a concept; an unwell search. Any successful search must end in discovery so does that mean that every search is unsuccessful until it ends? Is any search “successful?” I don’t know. I’m just a guy with a finished manuscript and no agent.

In life I have been trying my hardest at a job that historically has seen very little support in my home country. Teaching is not the hardest job in the world. However, I think there is great argument that it is the most necessary, but I am completely biased. My second year of teaching has been rockier than I would have liked, but it is not without its good parts. I just need to find them soon before the year is over. I am addressing this now because this part of the year is notoriously difficult; fund raisers, meetings, parties, events, tests, and more. Things that all take away from time a teacher needs to do their job. I am not sure how I feel about this week, but I know that I won’t give up.

I also got a new tattoo. For those who have never seen me this may comes as a shock but yes, I am “tatted” up. I got ink. five ink, to be specific. The newest tattoo is the noble team insignia from the Halo Reach video game. If you know me then the fact that I have video game tattoos should not be surprising. I have plans for more but I need to think a bit more on what the next thing might be before I permanently etch it into this mortal coil.

I hope you have an amazing week. If you don’t, I hope you can find the strength in yourself or your loved ones to get through the rough parts. A wise man once said; “There is always a bigger fish,” and I choose to see that as “there is always another day.”

That man was Qui-Gon Jinn from the Phantom Menace, by the way. See you next week!

Weekly Update 101

HEY!

Did I scare you? Sorry, I just wanted to try something new. I think we all need to try new things, but especially here on Seth Oberlender’s corner of the Internet. I (Seth Oberlender) am a writer with great aspirations to become an author. I have been on this quest for roughly one hundred weeks and have yet to find representation. So is the life of a writer.

This week I have no agent news to give. And, next week, I don’t know if I will have any… but isn’t that a little exciting? Well, it is for me.

I have been playing video games. I have no other choice since work has been canceled. School does not mesh well with the current weather patterns and thus I have not been in the classroom much. Even tomorrow there is talk of another winter storm. So, I have been playing video games. Marvel Rivals, my beloved, has lost some of my interest only because I have completed the limited time event. When The Thing and The Human Torch are added I will jump back in with more passion but I have learned after years of practicing this hobby to not force enjoyment. I did find I had an old hankering for single player, story-based games. I decided to try Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, a game I purchased during Steam’s winter sale.

Jedi Survivor is the sequel to Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. I played Fallen Order when it first came out years ago and loved it. Playing Survivor now is very interesting because it continues the franchise’s tend of not feeling like old Star Wars. The newest game is remarkable for including places, structures, and characters from the “High Republic” era of Star Wars (a relatively new era made in the world of comic books that is set years before the prequels). Every environment feels like Star Wars without feeling like Star Wars and I love it. It feels like a property I have enjoyed for years is brimming with new life and I hope there will be a third game… but the owner of Respawn, Electronic Arts (EA), is not doing so hot. I love the work Respawn has done in the world of video games (Titan Fall is amazing and deserves more attention), and I hope they can continue to make games in the future.

Alright. I have an odd week ahead of me and not a lot of time to get things done. Thank you for reading. Reading is supporting, like I said in my last update. I will see you next week!

Weekly Update 100

What a number.

Hello. I’m Seth Oberlender. I wrote a book once. Around 100 weeks ago, in fact. My dream is to be a published author. Specifically to see my book on a bookshelf in a bookstore. To see my name amongst the rows of others. It has been 100 weeks since I started my journey to make that dream a reality. Well, not exactly 100 weeks. Any one who has read these updates can attest to how often I skip weeks. But now, I have updated you for one hundred weeks… and there is proof. It’s right there, at the top of this page.

How surreal. I thought I would have an agent by week fifty, but I hoped I would have an agent by week two. Here I am, on week 100, with no agent and a mountain of rejections. It almost feels like I should have planned something for this. Some sort of announcement, or event. It feels like a birthday, in a way. 100 weeks.

Sometimes I read The Void Full of Starlight and try to imagine I didn’t write it. Would I still like it? The answer is always yes. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise; I wrote something I would want to read, but I can’t help but read it knowing what I meant by every word, what ideas I have for it moving forward, and all the energy I poured into it. The result is… I don’t know if it is good. I have been assured by my family, my friends, and even perfect strangers, and yet I can’t tell myself that I wrote a good book. I think it is because to have written a good book, I would have to be a good writer.

Every good writer I have met or heard of or want to be like is published. Every good writer has an agent, and a series, and book deals, and fans, and expectations. They have their names on books on shelves in stores. After 100 weeks of searching for someone to represent my work, to herald it, to sell it as the next best thing, has left me wondering: am I a good writer?

I don’t know.

All I know is that my dream is still real. I still walk into bookstores and look for where my name would be. Will be. I am very grateful for the support I have gotten from my friends and family, and from you. If you have read even one of these updates you have added to my confidence as a writer and a creative. It is because of you that I still do this. I may not be a great writer, but I can still try and improve. Thank you for reading. I will see you next week, on the other side of 100.

Weekly Update 99

Oh! Hey, I was worried you wouldn’t come back! Part of me was worried you would get lost over the week. January is, according to the teacher world, the longest month. Last year I don’t think I had an opinion or was even aware of this common knowledge… but this year? January felt like an entire year. Look at us; surviving the cosmic joke that is the first month of the year. Though I am sure your January was long as well. For reasons. That are political.

…

I’m talking about the president.

Enough of that! What have I been doing? Nothing. No agent. No published book. No fame and glory. I am still trying despite that! I hope that is not news.

I have been reading. I’ve also been playing video games but it is mostly Marvel Rivals. I have been reading a lot more than anything else, and it has all been The Way of Kings. Brandy Sandy is amazing and I can’t wait to keep on reading, but the more I read, the more I am a little sad when the POV shifts from Kaladin. He is so cool. I love Kaladin.

OK, I have to get back to reading. I will see you next week!

Weekly Update 98

Hello everyone! What a week… of nothing happening. No agent, and no major events. Just a lot of healing. I had a kind of rough week and needed a long weekend to refocus myself and I am very appreciative I had that chance. I am now going back to work like nothing has happened, and yet I am changed.

I would like to talk about work-ethic for a second. Is that cool? Good. I got mine from my father and a few other people in my life. I continue to aspire to do be like my father when it comes to perseverance, and I have resolved to do my best regardless of circumstance or outside factors. I am being intentionally vague. All you need to know is that I am trying hard in my teaching life and my writing life, and I can’t wait to see the effect I will have soon. Thank you for reading, I hope you have a wonderful week!

Weekly Update 97

Welcome! This is where Seth Oberlender keeps you, the reader, updated on his quest to become an author. I am not one yet. Hi, this is Seth. I have not gotten an agent yet, and even if you are new around here you can probably tell how long this journey as been. Despite how sad it is, I have cool news!

I have abandoned Microsoft Word. This is big, very big. I have been an avid Word defender for years, wrote a mountain of short stories, and write one complete novel in Word. Why would I leave? AI.

I am not a fan of AI, especially when it comes to art and creative works. I use AI, I think we all do, but whenever I do I am not happy and I do so with a large frown on my face. I opened Word and there it was. “Copilot,” Microsoft’s new AI. Even now it crowds my task bar, but in Word, the button appears on the page. I did some research and decided to try my luck with a little word processor known as “Scrivener.”

Scrivener is a processor made by writers for writers and I have been loving it! This blog post has been written in Scrivener with a large smile on my face. I am very excited, and I hope you will look for it if you are also anti-AI.

I have been on the Brandon Sanderson train for awhile now. Hours of YouTube videos dedicated to his pod cast(s), other essayist talking about his work, and more videos on his coolness. I cannot wait to read more of his books!

OK, time to get back to the Cosmere. See you all next week!

Weekly Update 96

Welcome back! This is the place where Seth Oberlender (that is me) keeps the world (that is you) on his journey on becoming a world-famous author. This week… I do not have an agent. For those who are just joining us; I am searching for the right agent to represent me and my book, The Void Full of Starlight. It is important to me that I try traditional publishing to the best of my ability, and here I am doing that. No agent this week, and that is fine. I still try.

In fact, I have come across a very interesting piece of information. When I started this quest I was fixated on Stephen King’s story. Stephen King got eighty rejections before getting his first book, Carrie, published. I was excited when I started to get my own rejections and was excited to see what my number would be. When I passed eighty, I started to be a little upset. That was my benchmark, and it was hard not to feel failure. Then, just the other day, I heard about Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury got 800 rejections before his first book.

I have been on a YouTube rabbit hole when it comes to Brandon Sanderson, and he said that Ray Bradbury “papered a room in his house.” That is crazy! Bradbury is very important in the literary world, and he was rejected more than eighty times? More than one hundred? More than 500?! Crazy.

And so, I am here. I persist. I am still querying and still trying. Another thing Sanderson does is keep an updated progress bar on his website that shows his work on his books. I cannot do that, but I can show how many rejections I have gotten. So, keep an eye out for my counter so we can all see where I lie between eighty and 800.

…fingers crossed I am closer to the former than the latter.

Weekly Update 95

Alright, back into the thick of it I go. Winter break is done, and now we are on the “down hill slide” of the year. For those you forgot or never knew; there is a quantum event around the public school world that results in the second half of the year being shorter than the first. This is compounded with more holidays, parties, and end of the year events.

Outside of work, I have no agent. I am sad about it, but still I persist. You might feel bad for me… good, it is your fault.

That was a joke.

Life is full of stressful work environments and video games for me. And something else! I don’t know if telling you will cause me to stop, but I have started reading The Way of Kings again. What a good book. A good, very long book. I don’t know if I will finish it at all, but it is very fun. And Universus, still playing Universus.

Ugh, what a time. I find myself fantasizing about being an author more and more these days. Maybe because it feels so close.

Alright, back to work I go! See you next week!

Weekly Update 94

Hello there! This is Seth Oberlender’s weekly update on his (my) journey on becoming the world’s best author! If not, then a traditionally published author will do just fine.

I have not received a positive response to my queries, so no agent. But I still try.

In life I am trying to enjoy my last week of Winter break. I have been enjoying the Steam Winter Sale, specifically a super fun game named Palworld. Palworld made waves early this year for its fun combination of Pokémon, Minecraft, and Ark Survival Ascended. In Palworld you capture Pals like Pokémon and use them to automate facilities and processes like Minecraft. Oh, and there are guns. It is so much fun.

I have also had a growing interest in Universus, a card game I was once very into. I can’t wait to play it as soon as I can with the very small pool of people that know how the game works.

Alright, time to get back to break. I hope you had a wonderful holiday and don’t forget: never stop trying.

Weekly Update 93

I had to leave my dog with my father while I was gone.

I needed to wait for my ride to pick me up, so I got back from leaving Winry in her crate at dad’s and I took a very fat nap. But before I slept and after I woke up, I felt haunted.

When I walked in, I expected to hear her whine, or the tap of her feet on the linoleum of my kitchen. When I woke up on my futon, I thought I could hear her shift her position on the chair and a half next to me. I expected to see her nose and inch from my face, or her yowling yawn she does when she is bored. Nothing.

I made lunch and found traces of her by the trash can. She started grabbing trash and tearing it recently, and some lint from my laundry was torn and chewed on my floor. My clothes were covered in her hair. I slept on the futon, where she mostly sleeps.

I think my dog is haunting me. I dreamed of going on my family’s annual vacation and we ended up in an Air BnB with a bunch of random dogs. It was adorable. I hope Winry will be ok when I cam gone. I hope she will not miss me too much.

Weekly Update 92

…huh. What’s this? Oh, oh hey! Well look at that, it’s my blog. I thought I lost thing thing for being too cringe. Welp, here we are again!

Nope. No agent. And that is all I have to say on that.

Life is going on and on. I have one more week of school before Christmas break and I will not be very accessible for it. I am going on a cruise for Christmas with my mom’s side of the family, so expect some automated updates covering some things I want to say next week.

Marvel Rivals… if you haven’t heard, Marvel Rivals is an Overwatch clone that is so much fun. I have been playing it nonstop for a week now and I am having so much fun! I have not found a main yet, but I have played as Adam Warlock the most but now I am starting to think he is kind of boring.

Ok, one more week. We got this! See you after my cruise!

Weekly Update 91

Ahhh, what a break. A whole week of movies, video games, and naps. I had plenty of fun and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family.

Now that break is over, I will be retuning to the exciting world of American education. Unlike last year, I am not nervous about going back to school. We only have three weeks of school and then we have Christmas break, so all I need to do is survive. I gained that skill last year.

No agent. Ugh.

I am playing Valorant again! My cousin/nephew wanted to try it and while showing him the game I got excited about it for the first time in a long time. I am pleased to say I am having fun, something I kind of lost when I was playing all those years ago.

Alright, time to get back to pushing the site and popping heads like grapes! See you all next week. Keep on keeping on.

Weekly Update 90

Ahhhhhh, thanksgiving break. A whole week away from ungrateful kids and obligation. The crazy part is I remember distinctly being very stressed my first year when breaks came up. Something about not having everything planned led me to be a very anxious individual. Not this year. I refuse to let me get in my way this time. I will enjoy myself if it kills me!

No agent. Dang. Moving on.

Dead Space is good, I am taking a break to give Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader a try. I got this game when Baldur’s Gate 3 came out and even though I really wanted to try it I felt the need to finish BG3 first. If you have ever tried BG3, you should be laughing at that. That game is fun, detailed, arguably perfect, and long. I have sunk 79 hours into that game and despite being in the final act I am days away from completing it (with my play rate more like months). I also started to grow tired of high fantasy, and WHRT (Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader) is hard scifi. I am having a blast but I am not going in expecting to play a lot. I still need to play Dead Space, and Halo, and keep up with Destiny, and this summer I might start my third playthrough of Mass Effect or the Witcher… so in conclusion; I am having fun with Warhammer.

Warhammer as a franchise/intellectual property is hard to explain, so just know that Rogue Trader is a role playing game in a very harsh and dark science fiction world. This week I plan to play it, but I might also play more games I want. No one is forcing me to play something else, which is just great.

Ok, I need to get back to… well, enjoying myself! See you next week!

Weekly Update 89

Man. What a week. Nothing particular happened, but what a week we just had. I am still continuing to act normal after the events of the past month… we don’t get political here. I don’t have a great answer as to why, I just have a weakness when it comes to political issues. I am not informed. My opinions are based off sources I am biased towards, and I rarely do my own research. Despite this, I think we can agree the “hypothetics” surrounding our current president are scary.

And to make matters worse, there is still no agent. I am joking, my woes are not on the national scale. I am still searching and searching for that person who can give me a chance. I think we all need that person.

The past week has been spent catching up with Anime and my YouTube recommendations. I still consider myself an ardent Dead Space fan, but I am even more of a Bungie fan. I have dived deep into the lore surrounding Marathon. If you are a frequent reader with excellent memory, you will recall when I mentioned Bungie (the video game company) was rebooting their old intellectual property into a new shooter. The new Marathon will be an “extraction shooter,” a term that has very little weight in the current gaming sphere. It will be competitive, it will be online, and it will be nothing like the original Marathon.

That is what I have gathered from my hours spent on video essays. The O.G. Marathon was a first-person science fiction shooter, driven by story and combat. A lot like another Bungie title; Halo. In fact, Marathon is Halo. Or Halo is Marathon… I can’t tell. The point I am trying to make is there are a staggering number of similarities between the game Marathon and the game Halo. It is honestly crazy no one told me this in the years I have been playing as Master Chief and Noble 6. If you know how Halo works, I implore you to seek out Marathon. Not only was it a pioneer in first person shooter video games, but it is basically an older first draft of Halo.

For those who have no idea what I am talking about, here is an analogy I whole-heartedly believe: Marathon is to Halo as Star Wars is to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It kind of does feel like a reboot, like someone said, “Let’s just do the story again.”

I am very excited to see what Bungie does with modern Marathon. I hope it is good. I hope it doesn’t get bogged down in modern gaming problems like monetization and power creep… you know, like Destiny.

Oh no.

Ok, time to get back to life. I must teach the future leaders of the world while the current ones try to make my job harder. Yippee.

Weekly Update 88

No agent yet. That is why we do this here, to keep you updated on my journey on becoming a published author. I’m Seth Oberlender, by the way. Welcome to my website!

Even though I am still agentless I continue to query for my debut book The Void Full of Starlight. It is a science fiction action/adventure set in the very distant future. If you like Firefly, or Mass Effect, or even more mainstream things like Star Wars or Star Trek you might like my book! Too bad it is not out yet…

In my personal life, this week was a lot. A tornado (or more accurately strong wind) tore the roof off of my school (I’m a teacher by the way) so we had our week cut in half. The kids were… well, they were a lot. Who can blame them? A lot of fifth graders don’t know how to handle change at all. I had a very relaxing and one could say healing weekend. I can’t wait to make it to NEXT weekend.

I did something crazy. If you have been reading these updates regularly, you will know I recently changed my long-time habit of playing videogames on their normal or easiest difficulty. I took a step further and decided to try a game I have had in my Steam library for years but never played on hard difficulty: Dead Space.

My best friend and I have been playing Alien Isolation together since Halloween, and the environment inspired me to try a similar game. Dead Space on hard is so, so, so fun. There is something so addictive about facing nigh impossible odds and overcoming them with skill and well thought out strategy. Playing it reminded me of playing Resident Evil 2 before Mr. X: The game is just so well balanced and designed that playing it, no matter how scary or daunting it might be, is fun in itself. If you are a fan of Alien or Resident Evil, you need to play Dead Space. I am now a diehard fan.

Alright, time to get back to life. I will see you all next week, same spot!