December is always a month of reflection and celebrations for me. This year, like the rest of 2020, nothing is like it “always” has been, and thus we roll forward.

When I don’t have something to focus on, my mind can become a dark and less than healthy place. It took me decades to learn this, but now that I know, I always look for something to fill any created void.

Yesterday, final grades were due, and that marks the full end of the semester. I find myself on winter break. I’m confined to the house, without everyone I love here, and making sure I keep finding things to keep my mind active and far from idle.

While I’ve enjoyed video games my entire life, I don’t play them all that often. This year, they’ve been my escape. To supplement the books I read, the music I listen to, and the videos I consume, I wanted something more. I needed to focus in new ways.

Escaping to a near-future London, Watch Dogs: Legion allowed me to avoid the endless doom scrolling and news watching that many of my friends battled with following the Election.

Riding around ancient Europe sacking wannabe Kings in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla kept me occupied while a similar orange stain in our country was whining. Every time he got to me, I’d grab my spear and hammer and smash in some heads to clear my own.

This past week I’ve been exploring a post-war, future version of California in Cyberpunk 2077 where your phone never stops ringing, there is always a crime being committed, and I’m constantly trying to find enough money to put some more technology inside of me.

I play games because I love the characters, world-building, and stories. I don’t need a multiplayer shoot-em-all type of game. Those are only fun for a few minutes, and I become bored. Plus, the amount of toxic assholeness in those games makes it the last place I want to spend time.

But, give me a huge world and a compelling story, and I’m hooked. Give them to me on my sexy new Xbox X and they are even better. (not sponsored)

Watch Dogs was fun because I got to hack my way around a city that I love in real life. It fell into the missions all look the same trap that many games die for me on.

I completed Valhalla and found the ending disappointing, but I’m super curious where the next chapter will take us, and I’m looking forward to the DLCs forthcoming from Ubisoft.

Night City continues to be a place I’m having a ton of fun exploring and even after days worth of playing I know I haven’t even scratched the surface.

Yesterday, I decided that instead of missions, I’d go for a photo walk. If you are not aware, many games these days have a photo-mode you can go into, and CD Projeckt Red promised a top-notch one in their latest game. Hell, they even created a separate trailer for it.

I had no idea how happy this would make me. How good it felt to go for a walk just like I do in any new city I visit in my travels and stop and take photos of whatever catches my eye. It was night, and I was in a rough part of town, but I still found beauty among the wreckage, and when I was done, I had that same feeling of an accomplished explorer that I love feeling.

Best part? No COVID-19 worries as I walked about this fictional space.

I feel I’ll be doing more of this as I work my way through the game’s narrative. I keep thinking I’m close to the end, and then I’ll go down another rabbit hole and discover more to it. These photos also don’t begin to show how big and diverse the world is. I’ll have to go out into the Badlands and spend some time with my camera in Pacifica so you can really get a feel for it.

Needless to say, I didn’t have “play video games to stay sane” on my 2020 Bingo Card, but back in January, I don’t think any of us had most of what we’ve had to place chips on this year.

I hope you find ways to cope, escape, and find some smiles among all the tears. We have to. We can’t let this damn virus or the stupids win.