Category: Video Games

I usually like to take a look at the results of the Epic Games Store early in the year but, for some reason, the Epic Games Store 2022 Year in Review was delayed this year from the usual release in January to an unusual release in March. Nonetheless, it has now been released and presents some interesting information although one particular aspect has made some wonder if there are some signs of trouble for the Epic Games Store. However, it’s not an outright bleak view and, having spoken about the store several times in the past, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the figures they provided as well as the current state of the store.

As you might’ve expected, we should start by taking a look at the brand new year in review that Epic has released. Let’s start with everything besides the one glaring sign of trouble so we can delve a bit deeper into that specifically. First up, the total PC users of the Epic Games Store has grown from about 194 million in 2021 to 230 million in 2022 but, more importantly, the monthly active users has also increased from 62 million to 68 million. Their social media has also seen some mild growth with their Instagram increasing from 5.8 million to 5.9 million followers while their Twitter has grown from 4.4 million followers to 4.8 million. Their Facebook page has been stagnant at 1.3 million followers but they’ve also set up a TikTok account that has gained 300,000 followers. Interestingly, Epic seem to be taking a page from Valve’s book by categorising the top games by player spending and engagement into abstract tiers of Mythic, Legendary and Epic.

The four year in review charts that Epic has provided.

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I’ve been playing some games from the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection recently on my Steam Deck after I saw that it had been given a Steam Deck Verified rating. I had previously played several games from the collection on PC but being able to play them portably and to suspend during gameplay has really renewed my enthusiasm for these games. However, what it has also made me wonder and long for are some collections for many of the classics from the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast.

Before I talk about what I want from these collections, I think it’s worth briefly touching on Sega’s history as a console developer as well as the history of the SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection. Sega first began developing consoles in 1983 with the release of the SG-1000 and, over the course of the next couple of decades, would release other consoles such as the Master System, the Sega Mega Drive, the Sega Saturn and the Dreamcast. However, the failure of the Dreamcast led to Sega stopping production on hardware and becoming a third-party video game publisher. Sega, beyond the games they continue to make after their exit from hardware, has a large back catalogue of wonderful games and Sega has continually made use of that in various compilations. The SEGA Mega Drive and Genesis Classics collection was originally divided into several volumes released for PC before releasing a consolidated collection later. In 2016, Sega updated the collection with the hub, an update that featured both a virtual room to play the games in and mod support. Soon afterwards, it was announced that the release of the hub had resulted in a surge of sales and, in 2018, they released the collection for consoles, Mac and Linux while introducing even more updates such as online multiplayer, achievements, the ability to fast forward or rewind in game etc. It has truly become an outstanding collection and something I’ve got to admire about it was Sega’s continual work on improving it over the years.

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You’ll know that I’m a proponent of games being as hard as their creators desire them to be but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find frustration with game difficulty from time to time. However, there is a special type of frustration that I occasionally come across. If I consider a game to be poorly made or unfairly difficult, I’ll just stop playing it but, if I truly love a game, then facing a difficulty roadblock can be distressing. In these cases, I’ll buckle down and keep persevering until I become good enough to overcome the obstacle. Even then, there were times when I thought to myself “What if I’m never able to beat this?” and so I thought it might be interesting to share some moments in video games when I almost gave up.

One of the most vivid moments when I experienced this was when I was playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for the first time. As someone who loves the games of FromSoftware, I was excited to play, at that point, Hidetaka Miyazaki’s newest game. While the combat system took some getting used to, I found myself quickly enchanted by the rich world, incredible bosses, wonderful exploration etc. However, I had heard tales that the final boss of Sekiro was perhaps the hardest FromSoftware boss ever but I was sure, with my prior Dark Souls experience, that I was up to the challenge. I will refrain from saying who the final boss is, since it’s an amazing moment when you realise who it is, but I quickly found myself being destroyed by them. As I fought against them again and again, I slowly began to lose faith in myself and considered the distressing possibility that I might never finish Sekiro. However, the boss’ design is truly impeccable as it’s a test of almost every aspect of combat that you’ve been learning throughout the game and I managed to eventually overcome them. Last time I played Sekiro, I managed to defeat them in one try, showing how fair they become once you’ve mastered the combat and I consider the game as a whole to be a masterpiece.

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I’ve recently been playing a game called Celeste. I had heard many talking about how difficult Celeste is and, as I played through the game, I remember thinking how, while the game is certainly challenging, that it wasn’t as difficult as people had made it out to be. Then I came across a cassette tape that unlocked the B-side of a level. Playing through the B-sides of these levels truly shows how tough Celeste can be with many demanding near perfect timing and knowledge of some of the more advanced mechanics in the game. I’m now working my way through the C-sides but something I realised was, as much fun as these levels can be, a strong motivating factor is my pursuit of the achievements. Therefore, I thought I’d share my thoughts on achievements in video games, why I like them and my personal policy when pursuing them.

I first heard about achievements some time after the announcement of Gamerscore which would be implemented in the Xbox 360. Not owning an Xbox 360, I didn’t think too much of it. However, Valve, within a couple of years, began incorporating achievements into Steam which, given that I’m a PC gamer, drew my attention. I also owned a PS3 which later developed Trophies, a variant of achievements, but I never committed myself to earning Trophies. I can’t remember when it was that I actually took an interest in earning achievements but I do recall that my rarest achievement showcase, on my Steam profile, once showed that I had somewhere around a 25% game completion stat, that being 25% of achievements earned across all games that I had at least one achievement in, and I now have a 66% game completion stat.

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