March Parched 2023
Writing
Indiegames
The D.I.C.E. Awards winners were unsurprising, with Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök taking many awards home. I won't be commenting much on either of these games considering they are just not in my wheelhouse but for those of you who have played, I wonder if you agree on all of the wins? Full disclosure I do work for Ubisoft so seeing Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope win was a nice feeling.
The Independent Games Festival will take place later this month on the 22nd. Of the featured categories, there were some that I'm very eager to know the results for: Excellence in Audio seems tough, with my personal favorites South of the Circle and We are OFK in the running. For Excellence in Narrative, I'll also need to dig into Butterfly Soup 2 (I didn't even know there was a one, honestly), Immortality, and Norco which are the only three I hadn't played yet.
The 2023 BAFTA Games Awards nominees will be announced on the 2nd this month, with the awards show being streamed on Twitch on the 30th. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the winners in the April issue of my newsletter, but really hoping that we see some more games that are not just fan favorites winning some categories.
Last month we were able to check out SEASON and First Bite: Bad Blood ! Be on the lookout for my quick review of SEASON on Ko-fi at some point in the future, and Bad Blood honestly spoke for itself without more thoughts needed. If you haven't seen the livestream VOD, please do and make sure you have something to keep you cool ;) I did get the chance to quietly drop my quick review of A Space for the Unbound for my Ko-fi supporters so do have a read at your leisure. For those who would like to see some new, free content I provided my first impressions of The Pale Beyond over on Youtube and I had the best time in this narrative survival game (though my sailor voice needs work).
Finally, we will be playing Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire this month during my weekend streams, so really most of the games I had been excited about we were given the opportunity to provide coverage for... thanks to your support and making the channel shine with me :) One game we won't be waiting to confirm coverage with is Mr. Saitou, I already know I'm dropping all my money on that for its release.
Boardgames
Steam Up just shipped last month and I am eyeing the tracking like a hawk! The other package I'm looking out for is Book of Villainy, which also just released tracking information to me. Depending on the complexity of either game, it may or may not make it to my blog but I will be sure to share any brief first impressions here in the newsletter when I can.
Fiction
Version 2 will be sent off to my best friend this month and from there the pitches for Version 3 to agents and/or publishers begins! I'll be giving it up until when preparation for NaNoWriMo 2023 begins, which for me starts mid-September. If no one bites by then, I'll be looking into e-publishing so folks can get it on their digital reading devices for a more affordable price than hard or softcover. Excite :O
Video
Streaming
I finished the hat for my partner (off stream) and am making nice progress on the scarf for me which debuted on my Mental Health Monday stream. We've been having a lot of fun with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and defeated our first Divine Beast, Vah Ruta (or as I like to fondly say, Vah Russy).
We're making our way through Minute of Islands on stream, and the publisher provided a cute overlay for us to use. I really appreciate when they do this as it makes the coverage more special than just "here's a key, go".
For those of you that were able to join us for the IRL stream (which has been unpublished for safety and privacy reasons), thank you so much for being patient with how wonky it was. We had a nice walk through the Crystal Springs segment, should you ever find your way to the Bay Area I highly recommend it! Our cooking stream was also a success, for those in the U.S. looking to try a subscription basket feel free to use my Sunbasket link to get up to $90 off across your first four deliveries.
Short Form
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild continues to deliver me top tier TikTok content and this time in the form of learning exactly how far lightning can arc from a single object. Namely, a weapon on the ground to... my body. If you're not already following, please do!
Personal
Currently Playing
I'm still obsessed with Zelda! Been trying to get a steady source of income to help fuel my bomb arrow addiction and so I can afford new upgrades to prepare for the next Divine Beast takedowns on stream. In between exploration sessions I have been trying to make some time for more in-game time surviving The Pale Beyond.
IRL
Well, let's give you some of the not-so-great news first. Last month I had to drop some streams due to pain, which came from a mild case of shingles I found myself with. I was surprised that my immune system had tanked that much so we did some quick blood work. I am now taking daily fish oil and Vitamin D to try and get my body back under my control. My new psychiatrist also has me on new medication to help with my anxiety and my mood cycling so that should help with managing the stress (and thus, my immune system's response). We also had to replace most of the food in our refrigerator because of the multi-day power outage we had so that was also not great.
With that out of the way, we have some great news about things I'm looking forward to. My partner and I will be seeing our first musical in a long time (fully armed with masks and my portable air purifier of course) called SIX. I'm a big fan of modern takes on history and historical fiction so this musical about Henry VIII's wives is going to be fantastic. We're also going to see Depeche Mode for the first time and are looking forward to classic fan favorites and their new music.
Picture of the Month
I had no idea that there was such a thing as Calamansi pilsner and one of our favorite Filipino restaurants had it stocked. Highly recommend for a tart drinking experience!
Feel free to reply directly to this email to let me know your thoughts, or perhaps any content that you'd like to see or questions you might have. Otherwise, sending you all my warmth for the month and I look forward to writing to you in April!