I’ve never been one for chasing the latest and greatest games and platforms, preferring instead to find games that I can spend a lot of time with. Case in point: I played The Sims 2 from 2004 to 2018 (when a sale finally convinced me to give The Sims 4 a shot), and still boot up the original Mafia (2002) at least once a week, usually so I can play 1930s cabbie while listening to a podcast. For the last few years, my mainstays have been The Sims 4 and Red Dead Redemption II. The Sims 4 is more of a “give hands something to do while listening to podcasts”, though I do share ‘stories’ at The Sims forum. These two games largely maintained their lock on my time, aside from occasional diversions like an October play-through of Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare and a December visit to Mafia II, which I enjoy doing during that season because it opens in a wintry version of New York with Bing Crosby singing Christmas songs. I experimented with a few newer games: I played the demo of Old World and picked up Humankind when it was dirt-cheap, but despite my interests in them, at the end of the day they’re more mentally involved than I want when I’m in a gaming mood. It’s the same reason I have yet to finish a game of Civilization VI: it’s narrated by Sean Bean, it looks gorgeous, but there’s too many numbers. When I’m in a gaming mood, I want to relax — doing things like fishing for cartoon bass, running around the Skeld trying to do chores and not to get murdered by a shapeshifting alien, or getting into drunken punchups. I did get passionate about one new-to-me game, though: Stardew Valley.

It was probably CallMeKevin who whetted my interest in this game, though I was already primed by being a fan of Farming Simulator 2019 and the nostalgia-inducing graphics. I began playing this in July, and — I’m sorry, I need to check my crab pots, and it’s Abigail’s birthday so I need to go give her a pumpkin, and — aw, man, I forgot about the cranberry patch I have on the other side of the property, I’d better go harvest those first. Oh, look, blackberries! And more blackberries! And more blackberries! ……what I was I doing again? SDV is easily one of the top five most addictive games I’ve ever tried. It hits multiple sweet spots for me — the art, the lovely music, the cozy village life, and the elaborate farming system. There’s also the variety of activity, from fishing to exploring dungeons full of dangerous creatures (the Skull Caverns are aptly named) and rich minerals. It’s frankly amazing that a game created by one person — art, scripting, music — can be this good, but it is, and has a huge player community nearly ten years after release. It’s reasonably good to listen to podcasts with, especially when I’m doing something like fishing or watering. Amusingly, Sims 4 has been incorporating more farming and crafting elements in deference to the popularity of games like SDV and Animal Crossing, and I’ve been muddling the two myself, plopping down SDV villagers from the gallery as townies in my Sims 4 saves, and listening to the SDV soundtrack while playing the game.