I think I may have made a “mistake.”

I know the pull Animal Crossing: New Leaf has on me, but I was thinking about autumn in my town and I caved and booted the game up on my 3DS.

Oops.

From the moment I heard the sound effects of starting it up, I was smiling like crazy. I proceeded to wander around my town, digging things up, pulling the solitary weed, and visiting with my townsanimals. I was greeted by Isabelle (she is never not adorable) who told me things had changed since I was last there: an RV park was built, and the addition of Amiibo were brought in.

Now I don’t have any Animal Crossing Amiibo (and very few Amiibo, period), but I got all excited to see new things in the game. I was told I can visit Tom Nook to expand my house with a storage area (I’m excited to do that once I’ve logged in while he is open), and that crazy pull Animal Crossing has over me got stronger and stronger. I started updating my town with appropriate flowers and plants and I was like…what am I doing?! I have way too many 2017 releases to get to; why am I dorking around in Animal Crossing?

Apparently I need to be dorking around in Animal Crossing.

It felt soothing just to be back and to see the familiar sights and to hear the familiar sounds. The game is so darn relaxing. It’s the equivalent of a weighted blanket for my brain; I love it so much. So, if I do find myself checking in on Xanadu (my town) over the coming weeks, I’m not going to give myself a hard time about it. I’m going to take the good where I can.

Late last week I finally finished South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Overall, I had such a ridiculous and fun time with the game but, in my opinion, the last 10% dragged on and fell apart. It was a shame, too, since the rest of the game was such an enjoyable experience. I did nearly everything I could minus one optional boss (which looks tedious), so, for now, I think I can close that chapter.

Today, I’m going to hop back in to Wolfenstein: The New Order in hopes I can wrap it up and roll directly into The New Colossus. After that, I’m itching to finally play Assassin’s Creed: Origins. I’m also looking to finish Everything this week (I don’t want it to end!), as well as pop in to play some of the shorter downloadable games that released this year. I’m also consistently thinking about how and when I can squeeze in Horizon: Zero Dawn, NieR: Automata, Persona 5, and Yakuza 0. I feel like if I get serious, I can knock at least a decent number of them out before December 31st.

My friend and I also talked about popping back in to Ghost Recon: Wildlands. At this point, I don’t care about the side quests; I want to mainline the story. I have no truck switching the difficulty to easy just to see those credits roll sooner than later.

Also, for the past couple of weeks, my left thumb has been terribly uncomfortable. I have a sneaking suspicion I fractured it somehow, and it has made playing games physically unpleasant. I didn’t play anything either Saturday or Sunday, so hopefully the time off allowed it to heal a bit.

As you can see, I have my “work” cut out for me this week. I feel like I can make progress, I just have to cut down on some time I spend elsewhere, namely social media. I’ve been expending far too much time and energy there, and I need to be directing it elsewhere. I’ll still pop in each day, but I’m planning on setting a timer so I don’t get lost to the interwebs.

I’ve also been getting back into my hands-on creative side. I’ve been feeling the need to paint again, as well as create various other things. I’ve been catching up on correspondence as well, something I always enjoy doing.

With that I ask: what are you hoping to play this week?

Cheers, friends.