Summer may be slowly drawing to a close, but there’s no need to feel down: cooler days and longer nights just means less glare on the monitor while we’re trying to play video games! A massive thank you to all of our 537 followers for joining us on our blogging journey – we’ve listed you over on our dedicated page to prove how amazing you all are.

The awesome posts keep on coming from the WordPress community and there’s always something new and interesting popping up in our reader. Here are some of the highlights we’ve picked out from over the past month:

I backed the Kickstarter campaign for The Long Dark but haven’t played it yet as I’ve been waiting for story mode! Here are thoughts from Shelby at Falcon Game Reviews.

How has the internet changed gaming? Information is power, and gamers are pretty powerful – a great read here by Chris from OverThinker Y.

It’s amazing how video games can help so many people in so many different ways. A really uplifting post here by Athena from AmbiGaming.

Forget your SNES Classic grief – devote some more time to that sweet 2017 backlog instead. TonyBalonii from The Nerding Grounds explains the five stages in this post.

We often talk about game endings, but their beginnings? Not so much! Cameron from Dragon In The Castle discusses some of the best in this post.

Last month, Kim was…

Doing:   going to Kitacon and Insomnia
Feeling:   tired
Playing:   the Blackwell series
Writing:   YouTube and ‘perfect gamer’ pressure

We all have those periods where we feel exhausted and want to wrap ourselves up so we can hide away from everyone. Nothing particularly bad is happening right now but I’m tired, and a lot of it is to do with work; I just can’t get behind some of the business decisions being taken at the moment and it’s making me feel pretty demotivated. I work with an excellent team of people who deserve more opportunities than they’ve given and I hate not being able to do extra for them. Anybody want to employ me?

I’ve recently been trying to play Life is Strange but I’m finding it difficult because of how I’m feeling. I’ve made it halfway through the second episode but it’s just too emotional; right now I don’t want to be subjected to any more emotions when I’m already feeling anxious enough as it is. Instead, I’ve been playing through the Blackwell series – something that’s familiar and allows me to be in control of the situation I’m presented with, as described in this post by Teri Mae on Sheikah Plate. I think I might write something more about this at some point over the coming weeks.

On a lighter note, attending both Kitacon and Insomnia 61 in August has been a pleasant distraction. Unfortunately we didn’t get to spend as much time at the former due to a missing-cat-disaster but it was great seeing everybody dressed up in their amazing cosplays (despite going to a panel with a somewhat inappropriate message about body confidence); and the latter gave my stepson the opportunity to see one of his favourite YouTubers. That was a weird experience, considering the pressure Ethan feels due to his videos and how some of the games he plays are slightly inappropriate for his audience – more about that soon.

Another lovely distraction has been all of the collaboration going on over the past several weeks. If you haven’t listened to it already, check out the track that Chris from OverThinker Y wrote for me after we chatted about games and music. There’s also Luna’s post about gaming bailouts over on GamersUnitedGG Blog; all the Blogger Blitz action going on over on Adventure Rules (very well done to Luke from Hundstrasse for winning our match!); and keep your eyes open for a collaboration here this month about our weird gaming habits.

Coming up this month…

Following on from Kitacon and Insomnia 61, we have another event coming up in a couple of weeks: EGX. I’ll be dragging the other-half back up to Birmingham for the third time in a month for a couple of days of gaming, and so far I have my eyes on Lake Ridden and some titles due to be in the Leftfield Collection area (always one of my favourites) – although that list is very likely to grow as more games are announced.

There’s also yet more collaboration going on: as well as the posts about gaming habits mentioned above, we also have another blog party coming up on Friday, 22 September 2017. Put the date in your diaries and come along to mingle with your fellow bloggers, find some amazing new posts to read, and add new people to your WordPress reader.

Look after yourselves! – Kim   ❤