Blogging 2015 overview

It took some time, but I finally managed to compile a list of all the articles I wrote last year. These were 223 in total, a big step up from 2014’s 76, 2013’s 120, or the humble beginnings of 77 in 2012, 14 in 2011, and 38 in 2010. Numbers obviously don’t mean much if people don’t read or like the posts, and last year was a very strong year. As it’s always problematic counting views, visitors with various bots or tools for anonymity, suffice it to say that the number of people was staggeringly high, considering that this whole blog started out as an experiment in writing and has become even more important and dear to my heart than writing for another website (excluding Future Sack of course).

Now working through the list of articles (thanks to Excel), I thought it might be a good idea to categorize the individual articles, while also finding a better solution for the non-alphabetical headings of individual reviews, news, etc.. As you know I’ve always tried to give interesting, often crazy titles, but what I didn’t think about was that with so many games or movies reviewed, it might be difficult to find one’s way through them. Using tags and a menu system definitely helped, but I’m thinking along a more user-friendly solution. If you have any suggestions or ideas how one can handle this or what makes it easier to navigate through the articles, please let me know!

Gaming was obviously the most prominent topic last year with the following reviews:

Anna’s Quest
The Blackwell Legacy
Blackwell Unbound
Blackwell Convergence
The Blackwell Deception
The Blackwell Epiphany
Broken Age
Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today
Double Dragon Trilogy
Dropsy
Fire
Fran Bow
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers – 20th Anniversary Edition
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
A Golden Wake
Grim Fandango: Remastered
Her Story
The Last Express
Moebius: Empire Rising
Pokémon Shuffle
Randal’s Monday
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
The Samaritan Paradox
The Shivah: Kosher Edition
SOMA
STASIS
Supreme League of Patriots
SQUIDS Odyssey
Technobabylon
The Witcher
The Witcher Adventure Game

There were also many news articles about released games:

GOG Release: Afterlife
Albedo: Eyes from Outer Space
GOG release: Al-Qadim: The Genie’s Curse
Apotheon
Armello
Armikrog
Bethesda Softworks on GOG
The Book of Unwritten Tales 2
Broken Age – Act 2 + GOG creative writing contest
GOG release: Card City Nights
Darksiders II – Deathinitive Edition (PC)
Game release: Dead Synchronicity + GOG fiction contest
D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die – Season One
Dreamfall Chapters – Book 2: Rebels
Dropsy
Dungeons 2: A Game of Winter
80 Days
Else Heart.Break()
Fire
A Fistful of Gun
Forgotten Realms on GOG
Fran Bow
Game of Thrones – Episode 3: The Sword in the Darkness
Grandia II Anniversary Edition
GOG Release: Grim Fandango Remastered + Fan Art Project
Hard West
Hotline Miami 2 – Wrong Number
Hot Tin Roof – The Cat That Wore A Fedora
Human Resource Machine
Impossible Creatures
Kholat
Life is Strange – Episode 2
Little Big Adventure – Enhanced Edition
GOG Releases: Lucasfilm games Wave II
Minecraft: Story Mode – Ep. 1: The Order of the Stone
Mini Metro
GOG release: The Moment of Silence
More LucasArts titles on GOG
GOG Releases: More Lucasfilm Games, Syberia + Supreme League of Patriots
GOG releases more Quake and Wolfenstein with censorship issues
GOG releases: More Telltale Games adventures
Morning Star – Descent to Deadrock
Mushroom 11
GOG game release: “Never Alone – Arctic Collection” (PC)
Oceanhorn – Monster of Uncharted Seas
Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty
Ori and the Blind Forest
Pillars of Eternity
Pokémon Rumble World
QuestRun (iOS, Android versions)
Read Only Memories
GOG releases: Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale” + “Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters
REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR
Rockfest
GOG release: Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut
Solar Shifter EX
SOMA
GOG release: Starship Titanic
STASIS
Sublevel Zero
Sunless Sea
GOG Star Wars Day releases and sales
GOG release: System Shock
More GOG Telltale Games releases, a contest and a big sale
GOG Release: Toonstruck + creative contest
Valhalla Hills
GOG Release: “The Void”
GOG Releases: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment wave
Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut
White Night
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone DLC
GOG Release: “World of Goo”

Pre-order articles weren’t very prominent, though, with only these showing up:

Double Dragon Trilogy
Grim Fandango Remastered

A few more about game announcements were added, but weren’t nearly close enough to the numbers of release-related articles:

Batman – A Telltale Games Series
Day of the Tentacle: Remastered
Morningstar – Descent to Deadrock
Shooting Stars (PC)
The Walking Dead: Michonne – A Telltale Games Series
The Witcher 3 Expansion Pass + GOG The Witcher promo

With so many games on offer and not enough time to review them all, covering sales and bundles, predominantly from GOG, was a big deal as well:

GOG Weekend Promos: Atari, Rebellion, Mount & Blade series and The Witcher Adventure Game
GOG and Bethesda Happy Holidays sale + free game “Bio Menace”
GOG Big Fall Sale
GOG Big Winter Sale
GOG Double Insomnia Sale 2015
GOG Halloween Monster Hunt Promo
GOG Indie Piñata
Only on GOG Sale
GOG Silver Bullets Sale
GOG Weekend Promo: Timeless Adventures
GOG Weekend Promo: DRM-free Valentines
Groupees: Lovecraftian Bundle
Groupees: Remute’s Does Time Really Exist? Bundle
Humble Weekly Bundle: Brawlers
Humble Weekly Bundle: Monochromatic

A bit less coverage was done on gaming events (in contrast to 2014):

PLAY15: 8th Creative Video Gaming Festival
Retro Gaming 2015 event this weekend in Geilenkirchen, Germany
Retro Gaming 2015 at Haus Basten, GK, Germany: The location
Weekly game development, Train Jam and Indie MEGABOOTH

Finally, there were quite a few articles which haven’t really been given a specific category yet. These mainly consisted of news about GOG or featured videos which could actually be attributed to game announcements or previews:

Christmas 2015 games special, Part I
Christmas 2015 games special, Part II
New CRYENGINE trailers: Licensee + Tech Showcase
GOG Galaxy multiplayer stress test
GOG Goes German
GOG Goes Russian…with Love
GOG “reclaim games DRM-free style” initiative
Happy Easter with Jazz Jackrabbit
J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars – Valentine’s Day special sale + new gameplay video
Game trailers: “Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom” first Director’s Cut trailer
Nintendo Amiibo sell out-sold out rampage
GOG 1000+ digital games achievement and Bundle Tower
A short history, the present and future of episodic games
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” epic trailer
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – PAX East 2015 Gameplay Video
The Witcher 3 universe gameplay trailer
The Witcher Battle Arena “Friends and Foes” update

Movies were a big deal as well, with even more reviews than the year before:

Afflicted
All Hallows’ Eve
Anaconda 1-4
Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% Is Santa?
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bloody Birthday
Bullet to the Head
The Collector + The Collection
The Cabin in the Woods
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Horror Story
Cypher
Demonic Toys
Die Hard
Die Hard 2
Dollman
Dolls
Elysium
Ender’s Game
A Field in England
The Final Girls
Freddy vs. Jason
Friday the 13th I-X and remake
Graduation Day
Hatchet I-III
Kristy
The Last Horror Film
Mischief Night
A Nightmare on Elm Street 1-7 and remake
Osombie
Reindeer Games
Sabotage
Scream 1-4
See No Evil 1+2
Silent Night (2012 remake)
Star Wars movies: “Episode I: The Phantom Menace”
Star Wars movies: “Episode II: Attack of the Clones”
Star Wars movies: “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”
Star Wars movies: “Episode IV: A New Hope” (original)
Star Wars movies: “Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” (original)
Star Wars movies: “Episode VI – Return of the Jedi” (original)
Star Wars movies: “Episode VII: The Force Awakens”
Tales of Halloween
13 Sins
Trancers
Wer
WolfCop
Wrong Turn 1-6
You’re Next
Zombeavers

Discussing trailers and therefore serving as some kind of previews brought these to life:

The Angry Birds Movie
A Christmas Horror Story
Goosebumps
Krampus
The Night Before
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Ratchet & Clank
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
Sky Sharks

But it wasn’t all about big blockbuster or indie movies, with some amateur/fan videos joining the video club as well:

The craze of the “Power/Rangers” fan film
Lego Matrix lobby scene video
“Star Wars: TIE Fighter” anime video

If this wasn’t enough, then the addition of some fun videos also helped to have more variety:

Funny videos: “AT-AT Day Afternoon”
Funny videos: “Pokémon Battle: Rise of Pekachu” + “Luigi Death Stare @ Anime Expo 2014”
Funny videos: Rémi Gaillard’s “Tetris”, “Pac-Man”, “Mario Kart” + “Sonic”
Funny videos: “Star Wars Disney: Let It Flow”

The written word (read: book [pun intended]) wasn’t forgotten either with these reviews and one feature:

The Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett Legacy
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Tales From Lovecraft Middle School 1-3

Last but not least, non-gaming topics not only dealing with blogging but also involving some theme park and weather action showed some potential:

Apocalyptic weather in NRW, Germany
“Encouraging Thunder” Blogger Award
Reasons for writing and not writing
Theme parks: Dismaland
Total eclipse or total failure?

Now all these links might only seem like a very long list of articles, although they’re already put in categories which have been added over time on this blog. We’ll have a bit more in-depth analysis of the individual parts (at least for gaming and movies), but of course it’s not all about what I like to write about. It’s also what you like reading about, dear readers and fellow bloggers. So let me know if there’s a particularly interesting article from last year or if there’s one category I should cover more. Any other new ideas which haven’t shown up yet are also welcome. The same goes for suggestions for structuring the site.