Welp.

Haaaa...so it has been a long time.

Listen, I think the trouble I have with keeping up with this thing stems from my inability to make decisions about, like, anything.  I'm always all like "Hmm, am I supposed to pick a topic and just write about that or...I don't know, detail my day or what?  What do?"  And then I just decide to give up and go on Reddit for 3 hours because it's easier than choosing.  So maybe let's try topics?  I don't know.  Let's do games today.

See, up until the last year, I've been mostly a console gamer.  I own an Xbox 360, PS3 (Christmas present from Christmas 2011 yayyy), Wii, and now a 3DS and a Wii-U.  Console stuff was easy because you didn't have to know specs or whatever and the system can run anything that comes out for it.  Buy it, pop it in, go about your business.

But then Luke started introducing me to PC gaming, which is what he likes.  Slowly I began to learn the joys of Steam sales (I've spent so much money, it hurts to think about it) and making the (surprisingly easy) transition to keyboard/mouse controls rather than a controller.  Now, a $350 video card and 78 Steam games later, here I am, converted.

That's not to say I'm entirely giving up console gaming, because it definitely has its place.  And there are even games I have on my computer that I prefer to play with a controller, whether it's because they were originally designed for it or the interface simply makes more sense to me.

The thing is, PC gaming is just wayyyyy cheaper.  Yes, the initial investment to get your computer up to snuff can be a little daunting.  I got lucky in that I only needed a new video card and a stronger power supply.  Within a year, though, I'm going to need a new motherboard, more RAM, and possibly a new hard drive, because, while I can play all the newest stuff, I'm just scraping by.  My video card performs admirably, but I'm getting bottlenecked by the other stuff, which is why it all needs replacing.

But as far as games go?  Shit.  It's ridiculous how cheap some of it gets, even when it's still pretty new.  I bought Borderlands 2 for $30 a month or two after it came out.  Physical copies for consoles still retail for $50-$60, and I didn't have to actually leave my house to obtain it.  I also recently scored the season pass, originally $30, I picked it up for $10.  And let's not even talk about humblebundle.com , where I frequently get between 4 and 8 (usually) indie games for roughly $7 (it's a pay what you want kind of thing...and I love parentheses today).

And then we've gotta talk about the pretties.  Oh goddddd the pretties.  I've always been a big advocate of "video games are an art form", because I really think that some of them do qualify.  I never needed convincing on that point, but goddamn if my computer didn't solidly cement my opinion.  All it took was Skyrim.  I maxed out everything I could, climbed halfway up a mountain and turned to look around.

Honestly, one of the most gorgeous landscapes I've ever seen.

So yeah, my gaming habits have gotten a little more intense of late.  I bought Bioshock: Infinite when it came out, beat it like 2 days later.  That's a really solid game.  The environment was pretty and unique, the gameplay itself was fun (and exactly like the first two entries in the series, which I also enjoyed), and the story was cool.  It was a little short for my taste, though, and I had a lot of trouble understanding the ending. But neither of those things is a dealbreaker, at least not to me.  I plan on playing through at least once more to try and find stuff I missed and generally have a different view of it all, now that I know how it ends.  Plus, the lovely(?) people of Reddit and the internet in general have some really neat theories on the ending that can help you make sense of it.

Now that I have written entirely too much, I need to finish studying for my Essentials of Finance test tomorrow (kill me) and then try and get a little sleep.  These last three weeks are going to kick my ass.

Summer, please hurry.