Ever had peer pressure to play a game. Honestly, I never have, but there is some sort of feeling when you see so many people playing or talking about a game and you aren’t in on it. Maybe it’s an odd social pressure.

Currently, for me, that pressure is Valheim. A lot of people are playing it. A lot of people are talking about it, but here I am on the outside looking in. And the problem comes from looking in, actually. Because what I see is something that I won’t enjoy. Or, at least, that I typically don’t enjoy. The only thing about the game calling to me isn’t even the game itself but the people playing the game. I feel like eventually I’ll give it a go, but I’d imagine by that time the moment will have passed and something else will have taken its place. It happened with Bastion. It’s a little bit different, but there was tons of praise for that game and people playing it but it took me YEARS to finally play it and afterwards I was left with a sense of…what’s the big deal?

Something was missing and maybe it was because I was years late to the party and whatever was done in the game had been done previously for me by the time I played it or…whatever, but something didn’t connect.

Sometimes there’s an expiration date on the zeitgeist.

In the meantime, Ubisoft, it’s been 2,756 days since the last Splinter Cell release (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise or VR exclusive).