Around the Network

I actually remembered to do this on Saturday like I’m “supposed” to this week. Go me!

Well, Christmas is well and truly on the way now. The MoeGamer Awards 2018 are underway, celebrating the games and experiences I’ve had over the course of the last year, my house is festooned with decorations (Patrons will know all about this already!) and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is out.

Life ticks ever onwards, however. Hit the jump to see what you might have missed this week.

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MoeGamer

Sunday Driving: Pipped to the Post… Twice – We continue our adventure beneath the glorious Sega blue skies of OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast as I discover the folly of clipping the last corner on a long race. Oh dear.

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: Most Terrifying Room – This year’s awards start as I mean to go on: with an exceedingly specific, detailed award that celebrates something that left an impression on me. In this case, it’s a room that was, like, well scary innit.

Quick Patreon Update – More on this in a moment. Or you can just read this.

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: Weirdest Character – So which character I encountered this year was the most outright strange, weird or otherwise off-the-wall? Well, check out this award post to find out.

Warriors Wednesday: Rocket-Launcher Spear – We’re into the Wu campaign now as we leave our Samurai friends behind for the first time. Sun Ce and friends are in cahoots with Orochi, it seems… but not by choice. What would you do?

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: Best System to Collect For in 2018 – Which system have I enjoyed expanding my library for the most in this last year? Well, it’s a close-run thing, for sure, but one stands out in particular.

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: Best Common Architecture – Environmental design is an underappreciated artform. So which of the games I’ve explored this year left a positive impression on me with nothing more than the architecture of its common buildings?

New Game Plus: The Definition of Insanity – Collecting ghosts is fun! At least until you come across one in particular who makes himself very awkward to snap a good photo of…

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: The “This Game Has An Excellent Female Lead And Is About Being a Girl, Stop Whingeing There Aren’t Any Games About Such Things” Award – Ah, Twitter. How you are full of people who like to spout off without any actual knowledge of the things they’re spouting off about. Such as, say, the complete and total lack of any games that are about being a girl. Except we all know that’s not true. So here’s an award celebrating a particularly good one.

Atari A to Z

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This week we dredge up two of my favourite games from the “olden days” — a brilliant little exploration-centric platform game for the Atari 8-Bit, and a classic but underappreciated colour-matching puzzler.

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#oneaday

Right, now on to that Patreon update I mentioned earlier. Those who have known me for a while will know I used to run a daily blog. You can still find it here, in fact. On it, I blogged every day continuously for 2,541 days. Then I stopped for various reasons.

I’ve been trying to think of something I can provide my generous $1+ Patrons for a while now, and it struck me: I can start daily blogging again. That way, $1+ Patrons can get to know me a bit better outside of MoeGamer, I can feel a bit better about providing some sort of “perk” to everyone, and I might even attract a few more Patrons in the process, too. So that’s got underway this week. If you’re not a Patron, here’s what you missed… and if you are, here’s, uh, what you might have missed:

First Steps – I talk a bit about the previous #oneaday project, why daily blogging is important to me and why you might want to follow me.

Season of Giving – Ponderings on the fine art of buying gifts for people who don’t update their Amazon wishlists.

A Painful Awakening – Don’t get a hernia. Especially don’t get a hernia when you’re fat.

A Smashing Day – Looking forward to a weekend of Super Smash Bros… and Atelier Rorona DX, which you can enjoy a detailed feature on (along with its two sequels) first thing next year.

The Halls Are Decked – Come on in and have a look at how festive our house is!

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Cool Stuff By People Who Aren’t Me

This is a new section for Around the Network for “sharing the love” purposes, highlighting a few posts by other people that caught my eye this week.

Fallout 76 Review (Digitiser2000)* – Super Bad Advice’s guest article for Paul “Mr Biffo” Rose’s Digitiser 2000 site is an excellent rundown of the problems the game has right now… and why it might be hard for Bethesda to recover from this one.

CheapShow Episode 105: The Brookside Tiger* – The “economy comedy podcast” shares a Tales from the Shop Floor from YouTuber and longstanding friend of the show Stuart Ashen, and Paul and Eli explore a forgotten cassette tape featuring a rather unusual bedtime story.

My Favourite Childhood Video Games (A Nerdy Perspective) – I love me some Wii, so it was cool to see this post from A Nerdy Perspective sharing some favourites from childhood. And mildly depressing when I consider how far removed from my childhood the Wii’s release date was.

Top 5 Reasons to Keep Blogging (I Drink and Watch Anime) – The ever-inspirational Irina shares some top tips for those who might find themselves struggling with motivation.

Stardew Valley: The Game That (Re)Defines Me (Normal Happenings) – This piece is the culmination of a really impressive collaborative effort, where a bunch of bloggers got together and wrote passionately about the games they feel truly “define” them. Don’t just check out Matt’s piece here; take some time to read through the whole lot, it’s a wonderful extended feature. There’s a full “map” here.

Also, make sure to check out the new episode of Digitiser: The Show* tomorrow night at 9pm UK time. In the meantime, check out the previous episode if you haven’t already here. Be prepared for chaotic comedy if you haven’t yet experienced it.

Thank you as always for your support, whether it’s through patronage, Ko-Fi donations or simply liking, commenting on and sharing my written and video content.

Now I’m off to grind out some more character unlocks in Smash… I still have a way to go, and I’m seeing friends who will want all those characters available on Tuesday, so I better get to work!


* I am a Patron of Biffo and Cheap Show, so you’ll probably see a fair bit of stuff by these fine folks in this section!

Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this article. I’ve been writing about games in one form or another since the days of the old Atari computers, with work published in Page 6/New Atari User, PC Zone, the UK Official Nintendo Magazine, GamePro, IGN, USgamer, Glixel and more over the years, and I love what I do.

If you’d like to support the site and my work on it, please consider becoming a Patron — click here or on the button below to find out more about how to do so. From just $1 a month, you can get access to daily personal blog updates and exclusive members’ wallpapers featuring the MoeGamer mascots.

If you want to show one-off support, you can also buy me a coffee using Ko-Fi. Click here or on the button below to find out more.

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