Hello again, it’s finally time for another blog update. Things are quite busy again, and there’s a lot to talk about.
I know many people feel that 2022 is kind of a slow year for gaming, but I disagree. Sure, there haven’t been as many AAA games as usual, but I’m actually fine with that. There are loads of indie games coming out all the time, and that seems to be where most of the innovation and unique gameplay is coming from. I’ve been enjoying lots of retro first person shooters, Vampire Survivors and similar style games, and a variety of other indie surprises. PoweWash Simulator is also still a pretty regular addiction.
One AAA exception though is The Last of Us Part 1 for the PS5. This upgraded version now includes all of the accessibility features found in The Last of Us Part 2 from a couple of years ago. It also adds a few additional accessibility features, including audio descriptions for cutscenes. I bought the game, and played through both the main story, and the Left Behind add-on, and like TLOU2, al the accessibility features made the game so much easier, and fun to play. I remember playing the original version back on the PS3. I finished it, but did struggle in several places because some things were hard to see. Between text-to-speech, high contrast, and the navigation assist, the PS5 version is definitely much more accessible, and is totally worth the money. Naughty Dog clearly put loads of time and effort into this version, and it’s not a cheap cash-in, as many people would have you believe…
Things have been, and are remaining busy outside of my day job too. I have had a couple of game accessibility consulting gigs over the past couple of months. Due to NDA, I’m not at liberty to say much more than that, but it’s great to see more developers starting to take game accessibility more seriously.
In October, I may have a couple other consulting opportunities, that I unfortunately cannot talk about yet. I can talk about GAConf though. I was again asked if I’d be interested in presenting as pat of a panel. This time a few of us will be hosting a panel on mobile game accessibility. I could talk about this topic for hours on my own, so this should be an interesting panel. We will be pre-recording the session ahead of time, but I will be in the live chat during the conference. The Game Accessibility Conference has become one of my favorite times of the year. I highly encourage everyone to register for the conference. It’s free if you attend virtually, and there are limited paid seats available if you wish to attend in person.
The fall is here, and that means lots of games to play before the end of the year. I’d love to be a part of The Game Awards again for the accessibility category, as there are several great nominees this year. Sony in particular is killing it, with The Last of Us, and the upcoming God of War sequel. I’m not sure about every accessibility feature included, but some features have been announced. Some type of navigation assist especially caught my attention. No word on text-to-speech yet though…
After the fiasco of my HP desktop being sent back for a refunt earlier this year, I’m still in the market for an updated gaming PC again. I’ve been putting it off because of all the rumors about NVIDIA’s 4000 series of graphics cards, but hopefully we’ll know what’s happening this week. NVIDIA is supposed to make some announcements on September 20th. This is great because then I’ll be able to decide if I want to wait for the 4000 series of cards, or just get the 3080 again. There are also some good deals on current generation cards too, because the crypto market kind of carashed, and manufacturers are sitting on lots of unsold inventory. So… I’m hoping that I might have another updated gaming rig before the end of the year, but we’ll see.
The YouTube channel has also been quite active. I’ve released lots of videos for blind and low vision accessible games, some hardware reviews, apps, and other stuff. I still have a hardware review for the Steam Deck coming shortly, as I finally got my pre-order a few weeks ago. It’s a great device, but sadly Valve still seems to be ignoring any form of accessibility. I also just got my Apple Watch Series 8, so expect a review of that in the near future too.
Since late June or so, I have taken a break from streaming on Twitch. This isn’t necessarily permanent, but I don’t forsee myself streaming nearly as regularly for now. I have lots of other projects going on, and sometimes I just need a break too. Thanks to everyone for supporting the channel and stream.