What a start to the new year, with everything in the news already the last thing I expected was to fall sick for three weeks in the middle of Summer.
Don't go shopping when sick. The retail workers don't want or deserve your sickness, and neither do their loved ones.
Three weeks, two doctor visits, one round of antibiotics, I'm finally back at work. Routine is a strange thing to relearn after so long just sleeping, eating and resting.
I used games to distract myself, keep out of my head and help pass the time.
(4 minute read)
I generally don't give myself a chance to play games, despite really enjoying them. Since I was experiencing dizziness and was uncomfortable when sitting up, I had to come up with things to do that wasn't crochet.
I've been coming back to visual novels more and more in recent years. Last year I shared my love for a game called Arcade Spirits. It's an indie game set in the near future where the main character starts working at an games arcade.
It's wonderfully inclusive and beautiful story with a lot of great nerd humour throughout. After playing it through I decided to make a crochet pizza bagel, which is reference throughout the game.
I attached this to a key chain for my bag, an obscure and fun detail for when people ask about it.
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| Pizza Bagel Key Chain |
I later transformed the pattern into a donut pattern which can be found as a free tutorial on my YouTube, shown below.
The following are the games I played while I was sick over the last month. I chose them specifically because they were easy to pickup and put down even when I couldn't focus for long, they can be played with the sound off (as I was suffering sound sensitivity at times), and had low stakes if I made mistakes. Best of all, I could lay down on the couch when playing them!
Sims 4
I've always enjoyed Sims, having played each generation at one point or another. Last year Origin had the base game for Sims 4 available for free so I picked it up but didn't get to play it. I know it's a binge game for me and a easy time sink.
The first day I was sick, when I thought it would be a 1-2 day cold, I got it installed on my laptop and dove in. That's all I did for the first five days I was sick, and part of how I knew I was properly sick because I should have been bored after two days.
The chill music and lack of conflict in the game helped distract me from my fever and sore throat, more importantly it allowed me to rest and easily stop the game to sleep as I needed.
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| Weird and Wonderful World of Sims 4 Decorations |
Pokemon Sword
I hadn't played Pokemon since ... Gold? Though I had dabbled in played Go and Let's Go Eevee, I've been playing through Sword since I got it for my birthday in November.
Before I fell sick I hadn't been able to give it the time or attention to really get through the story, instead regularly getting distracted wandering the wild lands and relearning how the types interact.
The low stakes game and smart design meant that even though I was sick, I could follow the queues enough to finally become Champion and finish the gyms. The fact I could take it with me when I had to leave the house for doctors was a great help to stay calm.
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| Pokemon Sword Logo |
VA-11 Hall-A
Valhalla is a "cyberpunk bartender action" game where you mix drinks and meet a host of awesome characters. I started playing it over Christmas, but found it a really soothing game to pickup when I needed a story to follow. Sims and Pokemon are a "one more objective" time sinks, where visual novels are all about story.
This is an interesting twist on the genre where you're not given options on replies, instead how well you meet customer's requests decides how the story will unfold. I cannot recommend this enough and am very excited for the sequel coming out this year.
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| VA-11 HALL-A Logo |
Do you have any games you turn to when sick? Drop a comment below with suggestions as I'd love to check out more when I've finished more of my back catalogue.
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