A Quick Look Back

I’ve been exclusively running and writing ElderlyGoose.com for nearly five years now and given the burnout a new financial year can cause I’ve no tasty video game content ready for you this week. Instead of another bizarre post of ranting or lists of very good games to play I thought I’d share a few website achievements I’ve had my eye on for a while. Heck, maybe you’ll see something you missed that you’d like to go read? Business as usual next week!

Every Wednesday has had new content

As of the 6th Sept 2017 every Wednesday has had new content in some way shape or form. While it might not seem like much, as other small content creators will tell you, this is no easy thing. When your full time job can’t afford to be content creating you’re always balancing a lot of busy and quiet periods in video games with life and work commitments. There’s always a backlog, things you want to write about and there’s always work to do but you juggle it all and carry on regardless. I still do it because a part of me loves it.

The First ‘Early Bird Review’ was BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle – PS4

You don’t know how good it is to not only receive your first review code before launch but have it for a title you’re incredibly hyped for. That rush is something else and I can understand the drive that video game journalists have to be the first review out there the second that embargo date hits (it’s not the pay) I still stand by my 9/10 and the game is still an absolute joy to muck about with (there’s a reason I made 3 different “Who will be DLC” joke posts) and there’s a good reason it was at EVO two years running. I’ve respect for PQube taking a chance with me on that.

Started November 2016 and STILL NO ADS!

ElderlyGoose.com maybe a small site chugging away as a fancy blog for me to voice opinions, reviews and ideas but I’m still glad that after all this time the button for Ads was never pushed. It was incredibly tempting at times, when the “Characters that will turn up in the Super Smash Bros™ Ultimate Fighter pass” content went live the site exploded overnight. I’ve always stuck to my guns on this as I feel like the content should speak for itself, I do have a Ko-Fi as I’m not sure there’s any extra side content I could provide worth a Patreon. What do you think?

100th post – Sega heroes review

What a way to celebrate the 100th post with one of the lowest scores on the site. If you want to know why, be sure to have a look but as a SEGA fan, sitting typing this in my office surrounded by Sonic and SEGA IP merchandise this one was rough. It’s quite surprising how drastically some games have changed since Sega Heroes came out (but Sonic 2 remains a classic) Animal Crossing Pocket Camp was just a fantastic little mobile game for when you’re feeling sick but now the microtransactions are so bad I wouldn’t go back to it for all the bells in Nook’s vaults. We were treated to a Doom Eternal / Animal Crossing launch though.

Year on Year the views have gone up and up

This should be obvious by now but with every year ElderlyGoose.com has been seen by more and more eyes. It’s always a surprise looking back over which posts have had the most traffic and just when you think you’ve understood what everyone wants you’ll watch an old post rocket. It’s no surprise that posts such as “Where to start with the Disgaea series” (which there’s an update in the works for) and “Where to start with the Dice Funk Series” always get steady traffic as I know I’ve looked for similar content over the years. It’s when “Anime worth binging on Crunchyroll” takes of that things get really interesting. I think the internet just wants the same good stuff and I’ll try to carry on, I know I’ve reviewed enough Atelier games that there’s something brewing for that series…

200th post – Marvel’s Avengers – Exp Ops

What a mess that was. There are a few Exp Ops on the site where I’d play a beta and put a pin in playing the full game and either current review codes have come in or it doesn’t seem relevant anymore (slowly looks at the dust on Anthem and Disintegration) I do still stick to my code of reviewing anything sent into the site regardless of how new it is and this has varied from a drawing tablet (where after a few tests I played some games with it) to the incredible Yes, Your Grace where I was lucky enough to get a physical copy. I’ve never forgotten a game or item sent and they will all get a spotlight over a live service.

Retro is the new cool and that’s great

Having now written lists for the Saturn, Dreamcast, GameCube and Playstation2 (and more in the works) on what’s best to try to emulate and what’s easily obtainable I’m still blown away with the response from the retro community. We’re now treated to incredible Chinese pocket gaming devices that can play all the way up to PSP and everyone with half a PC can play libraries of absolute classics no longer lost to the ages. Things are in that sweet spot for retro right now and the fact you can jump onto Fightcade and play Street Fighter 3 with multiple people with rollback netcode is absolutely wild! Enjoying retro gaming is like enjoying classic cars and it has never been easier to enjoy!

The Future?

I have always stuck to a few rules with ElderlyGoose.com; Always review anything sent in and always be give an honest opinion. I still plan to. There are a few reviews, previews and features I’m still working on and a lot of people who were kind enough to send me code that really do deserve more eyes on their games. There’s a lot of work that goes into the site and I’ve a few side projects I’d like to give more attention to. My partner’s streaming has been taking off (be sure to check out Amethyst Pandora here) as streaming is just not for me and we’re all busy playing Elden Ring so who knows? Keep them peeled for more, feel free to drop me a message, oh and…

THANK YOU FOR READING!

A Special Thank You to ICO, Koei Tecmo, NiS, PQube, Super Rare Games, Team17, No Robots, Super Cool Comms, Forever Entertainment, Player Two and everyone who’s contacted me about games. You peeps are great!