February 2023 Update

"Monthly Update" Thumbnail.

This blog somehow reached its second anniversary and I don't really know what to say. Again, I don't really have anything specific planned for this Update in particular. I'll try to follow the example of February 2022's post by highlighting some notable moments in blog's existence over the last twelve months, and then I'll talk about a bit of everything. Although I suppose that some recent updates to blog in the last couple of months make up for what might be considered as "underwhelming post".

Well, you can say that about Ilko's Hall as a whole. After all, I'm the one who writes all this mess. And really the only one who reads it as well, which is fine by me. I have no idea why you, silent readers, are coming here and open up posts of this blog. That's probably the best way for "going out of my comfortable zone" could've worked out for me, so I guess I should be glad my luck keeps working in its own weird way. No idea what are you seeking here, but I hope you were able to find it.

Second Year Has Passed...

Well, it sure was a year. Plans were made only to be broken for all sorts of reasons. At the end, I believe that not tying myself to specific schedule is healthy for myself and blog. Despite various disappointments, I've managed to publish 43 posts. This year started off with me solidifying my approach to writing "articles" and picking gaming topics for them. Making each Category slightly more distinct with consistent types of posts.

The goal of Ilko's Hall is not to be a successful blog in terms of having huge view counts, and this year's results definitely prove that. While there're a few "articles" that somehow managed to get some replies on Twitter, ultimately this blog exists in its own dark corner no one looks at for their own safety. Fine by me. So, what posts were the most popular among those who stumbled into here?

• The "rocPortraits" Mystery: My most popular posts here are all focused on Warcraft 3, so this shouldn't really surprise me. And it doesn't. I will say I have mixed thoughts about this one as it was written in a period of time when I started to reflect on my routine. It's fine though.

• Don't Forget the "Abuse" Game: This one was pretty fun. I really enjoyed writing these posts that go through specific games I'm interested in. Especially for Abuse since I couldn't recall its name for a long time. Some might say that me talking about titles I haven't even installed is ridiculous, but that's kind of the point. 

• Potential Future of Battle.net Launcher: I've tried to also switch things up sometimes by picking different topics at the time. There's really nothing much to say about this one. It was just a sudden idea about popular topic and I got inspired by seeing comments and messages that anticipated the end of Battle.net Launcher.

Unlike previous year, I didn't have any great moments of random indirect predictions. Things were silent for Commander Keen and Wolfenstein franchises, so that's a failure on my part. Let's see how it goes this time around, maybe I shouldn't discount these posts just yet. It's good to keep an open mind and take things easy sometimes. I guess you can say that's my theme this time around. My decision to take a step back from Warcraft 3 and Blizzard stuff will definitely make things interesting for Hall's statistics since I'm basically shooting myself in the foot here. Again, not that I care about that.

I'm going to take blog slowly right now. This month will get two more posts and after that it would be another silent period. I intend to go back to my take on new MCU's Spider-Man trilogy in Just an Idea Category because it was really fun and I have some general ideas in mind. Aside from that, there're only two "articles" considered for the near future. I've been thinking a lot about going in a new direction. Again. Not just writing something wacky like The Achievement Parable, but doing something totally different. Who knows what it will be in case I won't just fall into despair yet again. I must avoid that outcome.

Derpy Completionism.

If you read previous updates (probably not, you're not even here), you might remember me procrastinating with Thanatophobia achievement for Rogue Legacy. It seemed like the hardest and most time-consuming task in this game. Even though I tend to pick up guides or even cheesing in certain cases, I was ready and even started my Thanatophobia journey at the beginning of the month. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I've recalled something I read about Rogue Legacy's 5th Anniversary update: developers added a button combination for players who completed all achievements prior to this patch. I was sure that this feature was disabled, but this time I've decided to try it out for luck... It worked. That was pretty funny. I even sent a mail to techninal support of Cellar Door Games and got confirmation that they ended up leaving this trick working after getting complaints from people about Thanatophobia years after its inclusion. So yeah, another great perfect game on my list.

In comparison, Minecraft: Bedrock Edition kept up a good fight. This journey was rather complicated for me even back in a day (2017-2018), but nowadays it seems even more broken. Achievements don't always trigger, so you have to be either overprepared for them or hope for the best with random new world or seeds if you just want to be done with it. Relogging into Xbox Live doesn't do much. I gave up on getting an actual notification from completed achievements. You might note that there're custom maps specifically for farming achievements, but I believe they might be going against the rules of Xbox Live and therefore I've avoided them just in case. Either way, I'm really close to being done with this mess until Patch 1.20 comes out. Although I won't say this is the hardest obstacle here. Despite being in creative mood for Minecraft, among other things, I struggle to actually express it. That's also probably one of the reasons why I don't go for Java Edition currently.

Well, what game I'm going to beat and complete after Rogue Legacy? I don't know, actually. Initially I considered returning to Terraria and deal with 2/3 of its achievements, but now I'm thinking that perhaps I should take a break from this kind of 2D perspective. Go on "vacation" by picking something more relaxed and/or easier. Stardew Valley might be just the right candidate here, so I'm currently considering it. Especially after having a few streams of it on background while writing posts for Ilko's Hall or wasting my time in different ways. Meanwhile, I returned to HROT yet again for its latest achievements. Full release is on the horizon, and I'm just patiently waiting for the moment when I can declare that it dethroned Ion Fury as my favorite retro first-person shooter: the "throwback" kind, not an actual old-time classic. On that front, it's both Quake and Hexen: Beyond Heretic.

Speaking of which, even these two games might be overthrown by different franchise. I think I might've talked about Marathon series in one of these Updates before, but I've had it in the back of my mind for a few months now. This franchise sounded intriguing before, but, after learning more about it thanks to MandaloreGaming's reviews, I kind of wanted to really jump into Marathon and its narrative. Starting with Pathways Into Darkness, because reasons. There're many freeware titles in my backlog that I'm avoiding in favor of dealing with my Steam library, so I'm a bit hesitant here. Perhaps this will force me to "sidetrack".

Everything Else.

My routine has been as mundane as ever. I went back to my copywriting gig pretty much the day after January 2023 Update was published, which is ironic since at the end of it I suspected that it won't restart until this month. Naturally, the only thing that slowed down there is payment. So nothing unusual here. There was a small chance for me to get a new laptop, but that's just not happening because I'm not that lucky. Getting new computer hasn't worked out either, largely due to me not getting my due payment and something I would call "my desire to stay as calm as I can". Because someone just couldn't leave me alone after I mentioned this idea of mine, and it's easier for me to shut up and forget it. Just another reminder that, more often than not, I only have an illusion of a choice and freedom.

Not that I can handle my leisure properly. I wanted to keep going with my Spider-Man: The Animated Series marathon by rewatching Season 3 and onwards, but then I thought that I should rewatch some films as well. Not Spider-Man ones since I've done that already a few months ago. There're more movies I found really enjoyable. Like, it's been a long time since I've seen Ocean's trilogy and I only recently discovered that Ocean's Eleven from 2001 is reimagining of Ocean's 11 from 1960! I don't think watching The Shawshank Redemption yet again would be a terrible idea, and I should think of some truly cozy and kind movies like 2018's Christopher Robin. Will probably start with Ocean's trilogy and alternate them with remaining seasons of The Animated Series: three films, three seasons. Sounds like a solid plan to me. No idea what TV or animated series I'll watch next and if I will. Don't want to go straight to The Spectacular Spider-Man, but maybe I should go for it in the same way I did with the films. But one thing is for sure, I have a lot to think about.