Here is what I did during the last month of 2023, movies, videogames and other media consumption.
December was packed with a lot of things I managed to do, Christmas happened, a New Year is upon us, and here is what I did in the mean time.
Thankfully, I got some vacation time, which allowed me to do do quite a lot, from listening to more podcasts while cleaning up my room, to playing a bunch more videogames, while watching movies too. Regardless, too many things to list, but I will still try.
Podcasts
Into The Aether: This lowkey videogame podcast was about to upload its GOTY episode, an Epic, with a duration of 6 hours. I couldāve finished a videogame while listening to it, and I am sad that I didnāt. I listen to some previous episodes just to catch up a bit too.
Retro Game Time Machine: This podcast is just cozy and I keep listening to it quite a bit, but I didnāt listen to their GOTY episode just yet, which is only 2 hours long or so.
Stuff You Should Know: During one of my free days I started listening to this podcast while cleaning up my room and it just picked some random episode, all of them were incredibly interesting topics that I should indeed know!
Ars Paradoxica: An audio drama that keeps on giving, I only listened to 3 or so episodes this month, but it was good.
Dungeons and Daddies: Just keeping up with the show, going good, give it a listen!
Movies
I also watched quite a bit of movies this time around, and I also made sure to log them on Letterboxd. Hereās some of them
A Quiet Place: For some reason we picked this movie as the last movie of the year, and we finished it in 2024! The most iconic scene (which I wont spoil but you know if you know) actually happened right when the New Year started!
Spider-Man: No Way Home: We watched this movie together, and it actually ended at 11:00 pm, I wished we had started it an hour later, because it is a more wholesome movie to end the year with than A Quiet Place.
Home Alone: Classic movie of the season that is still very funny.
Home Alone 2: Classic movie of the season that is still very funny.
Midnight: A Korean thriller that follows a deaf woman threathened by a psycho killer. Quite a terrifying plot, not going to lie, tons of suspense. I originally wanted to just play on my Switch but it was just too good to miss.
Spider-Man 2: Classic movie that remains as one of the best examples of what a Superhero movie should be about, a complete masterpiece.
Videogames
As I mentioned in a previous blogpost, I started to record the playing times of games I own, which should give me quite a bit more data to add here too. For now, letās start as always.
Citizen Sleeper: I finished this game mid-December, it was a great, short story-driven RPG with a unique style and characters, I wrote a full review here.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: I got this game to play in couch co-op with my sibling and it is indeed quite fun!
Hades: A fantastic roguelike too, with a pretty great story, which Iāve played quite a few runs of. I am quite fond of its gameplay and mechanics, but I canāt help but feel like my best runs are a result of luck and level-ups rather than actually improving my combat skills.
Spelunky: This is a roguelike I tried recently, and it is really fun! The gameplay is easy to understand, but it is quite challenging and merciless.
Ember Knights: This is another roguelike with similar combat to Hades but it also features couch co-op gameplay, we actually got quite far one time where I was playing with two other friends, and we did quite a bunch of attempts.
Limbo: A very special platformer with a unique atmosphere and great puzzles and mechanics, this is just a must play that everyone should try.
Ori and The Blind Forest: This is a Metroidvania style game that features a beautiful artstyle and wonderful animations, I am playing it at my own pace, it got great platforming but I am not a fan of its combat at all. Still, Iāll keep playing and see what I get.
Hyper Light Drifter: This is a top-down action adventure game, kinda like Zelda, with incredible pixel art and challenging combat, it even has couch co-op mode. I am liking it a lot, but I havenāt advanced much.
Final Fantasy IV: I decided to continue my adventure on this game on my PSP, I almost manage to escape from the Sealed Cave!
Ninja Five-0: This is a small arcade platformer game where I am a ninja fighting crime, the gameplay is surprisingly entertaining and the controls feel quite good.
Manga
I read quite a bit of manga this month, right after I did my blog on my favorites of the year, one of these also became a favorite of mine.
Monster: This manga took me by surprise, I was going to watch the anime, but I just wanted to go a little bit faster and decided to read it instead. This story is truly phenomenal. Its about a doctor who is betrayed by his own morality, involved in a series of murders that lead to him being the main suspect. I canāt tell you much more, just go and read it already.
Fly Me To The Moon: I read quite a bit more of this manga, and got to some really interesting chapters that go beyond what normal slice of life stuff goes, I think it is worth checking out, plus it has a lot of sugar in it too.
Weak Hero: I finished this manhua, and what an ending. I didnāt think a school nerd against the bullies story would work and develop like this one did. The art is great, and so is the plot and the fantastic characters, give it a read, thereās a reason it was in my favorites of the year.
Survival: This also made it to the list of favorites, for good reason. A kid survives in the post-apocalyptic wilderness where 90% of the planet is now under-seas. This is his journey, read it.
Books
Enderās Game: Because of the amount of other things I did, I only read bits and pieces of this book during some free time and commutes. I am still liking it a lot and Iāve read 60% of the story so far.
Device Usage
This list doesnāt really track my Nintendo Switch usage of course, which was quite high during my holiday vacations. Regardless, I would say the amount of games I listed is enough of an idea, so hereās the rest of devices I used!
Laptop Usage
I used my laptop for a total of 75 hours, and hereās some of what I did!
Firefox: 49 hours
Alacritty: 13 hours
Discord: 5 hours
Inkscape: 5 hours
Steam: 1 hour
Android Usage
I used my phone for a total of 174 hours, thanks to the vacational period I guess.
YouTube: 43 hours
Tachiyomi: 20 hours
WhatsApp: 15 hours
Cromite: 14 hours
Discord: 11 hours
Facebook 9 hours
Afterwords
So, yeah, December was quite a busy month right? Remember you can always follow my backloggd to check the games Iāve played!
I feel a little weird right now, I just finished the challenge, but with so many people participating this year, I may as well do it one more timeā¦
These past few months, the amount of posts in this website reviewing books or videogames and things has risen quite a bit, so I just wrote a bit about that.
