Game completed: Dream Daddy

While my computer was broken I watched Markiplier play this game and I completely fell in love with it. So the first thing I did when I got my computer back was to buy this game.

As an overlook:

• Brian's dates were the most fun because they included the most minigames.
• Damien's dates ended up being my favourites because Damien is a lot cuter than he leads you to believe.
• On Mat's dates I understood less than half of the references he used, so those were mostly just guesswork from me.
• Craig and Joseph had the same problem for me - they were too wholesome, to the point where to me it seems forced and frankly a bit annoying.
• I really enjoyed being with Robert, but I appreciate how they ended his story.
• Hugo ended up being one of my favourite character's of the game, for much the same reason as Damien. He's a lot cuter than he leads you to believe.

 1). Because this scene was everything ♥ 2). Because this! This is exactly what fishing is!

What makes the game really interesting, though, is that there's a secret ending that no one has been able to unlock yet. A player discovered the parameters for this ending in the game's code, but there seems to be no way to unlock it. The achievement for this ending is visible on Steam, so either this ending will be added at a later point or it's just so complicated to get that no one has managed it yet.

Dream Daddy was a lot of fun, full of hilarious dad puns and I might actually be interested in playing it again. And here you go, all the seven postcard style pictures you get for completing a dad's story:

Left: Robert. Right: Craig.

Left: Mat. Right: Brian.

Left: Hugo. Right: Joseph.

 Damien ♥

Sightseeing in Stockholm

Two weeks ago I decided it was time for me to make use of a work perk. We have cards that allow us free entry into lots of museum and sightseeing in Stockholm, and I decided to borrow them for the weekend and use them to run around Stockholm as much as I possibly could.

So here comes a long post full of snippets of Swedish history (that I already knew) and what I found out at the museums.

I have a weird interest in history, especially royal history, and Stockholm has lots to offer in that aspect (like 500+ years), and I knew that there were lots and lots of royal museums in and around the royal palace. So I took the train to Stockholm and the bus to the palace. I started out with the Tre Kronor Museum. It's in the basement of the current royal palace, and basically tells the story of the old renaissance castle that used to be on that exact same site, which burned down in a fire in the 17th century. They had incorporated old walls that were still standing into the museum, and old bits of archeology that told the story of what life at the castle was like in the 16th and 17th centuries. The lighting in general was really bad, to give some atmosphere, so I didn't actually take any pictures in there. The pictures I did take of a model of the old castle comes from the royal apartments that I visited later. It was interesting to read how they dealt with the investigation afterwards. I don't think there even was one. The guy who was the boss of the on-site "fire brigade" that were supposed to prevent fires (+ two other guys) were sentenced to five gauntlets. Which meant they had to run back and forth between two rows of soldiers five times (one lap = back and forth) while the soldiers were hitting them with clubs. If they lived, they were forgiven; if they died, they were duly punished. That's the 17th century for ya!

Next I went to Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities. Gustav III is one of the most well-known kings of Sweden. His rule was at the end of the 18th century and he was a big fan of France, theatre and art. French was the court language back then, fyi. Anyway, this museum was created already in the 18th century to show off the king's impressive collection of antiquities, and he had a habit of travelling to Rome to buy new pieces. It was definitely impressive.

Next I had to wait for the changing of the guards to be over so I could go into the royal apartments. The royal apartments easily took the most time to go through and they were easily the coolest thing of everything. I loved reading all the descriptions of the rooms, especially since I've now read Barnbruden (The Child Bride) which takes place during the reign of Gustav III and all of these rooms were used by the royalties living at the palace during his time. It was really cool, and of course I also had to snap a picture of the bust of the main character of that book. Within were also the rooms which are sometimes still in use for official state visits, though they were a lot more modernised and not as impressive.

After that I went to the treasury, which was sort of a disappointment. I expected something grander à la Tower of London, but it was really really small and no photography allowed. So I went through that pretty quickly and then made my way to the armoury. I've been to the armoury several times before, and it's probably one of my favourite places in Stockholm. I just love looking at the old armours and weapons and clothes :3 My favourite thing to look at, read about, and contemplate on (will make me totally morbid) are the clothes worn by Gustav III when he was shot at the masquerade ball. They've allowed his shot shirt to be as-is, and you can still see the bloodstains. I just really like to think about what happened when it happened and the aftermath of it, trying to figure out reactions and actions of the people around him. Because all we're told about this story is that the people were unhappy with him and one man shot him at the king's masquerade ball. The wound didn't kill him immediately, but he died in bed some days later. That's it. And somehow I feel like a situation that terrible deserves some more details. Is that weird?

In any case, after a nice tour around the armoury I went to my last stop of the day, which somehow felt kind of awkward. Across the street from the palace is the royal coin cabinet, a museum which tells the story of coins and money in general. But when I went in, I was the only one there, which made it feel very awkward.

Afterwards I went to meet up with a friend and go to the cinema. The rain was pouring so hard, which was both annoying and kind of cosy :P

Two days later, me and all the colleagues were invited on a pizza cruise which took us around the closest islands of the archipelago all the while eating amazingly delicious pizza.

Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind

It's been out for over two months now, but with my computer dead it was hard to make a proper blog post about it. So here goes.

I was so hyped about this release, mostly for nostalgia reasons (and I didn't even play the original that long ago! is 2014 long ago enough to qualify as nostalgic?) The fact that Seyda Neen looks exactly like it does in the original Morrowind is slightly lore breaking, but I'm one of those people who Just.Didn't.Care. I was half-expecting Fargoth to show up when I was walking around Seyda Neen in ESO and being dazed by nostalgia. Ofc he didn't, because no one lives to be that old (except Mannimarco). Once again being able to take silt striders across the island of Vvardenfell and listening to the sound they make was ♥♥♥ And the new intro!!! They incorporated the original soundtrack of Morrowind!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D *fangirling*

Ok, so with that part out of my system... Let's get a bit more serious.

The island of Vvardenfell is the single largest addition of game area since ESO launched, and you kind of notice that going through the main quest. Vvardenfell is just one single zone, but it feels larger than any one single zone from the base game. The main quest revolves around you helping Vivec, which takes you around the whole island of Vvardenfell, which consistently brings you to all the places you visit in the original Morrowind, even the Cave of the Incarnate. And of course every single town that the main quest takes you to have their own quest lines. My personal favourite is the quest line found in Sadrith Mora, but I also really liked the one in Balmora.

There was also an addition of a new class; the Warden, which is the first class addition since the Templar came around a few months after original launch. The name Warden brings immediate Dragon Age associations to me, which I'm sure it does to lots of other people too, so while I haven't actually played much Warden yet, I did log on to quickly create a Warden and grab that Dragon Age name I wanted (Elissa Theirin). From what I've heard from guildies and other players, the Warden seems extremely versatile (like the Templar). It has class specific healing abilities, which makes it a good healing class, and I've seen it being used as a tank successfully so there's some good sustaining there too, and like every class it makes a good dps.

Something new that was added was Battlegrounds. ESO's PvP has been lack-luster for a very long time. Duelling was introduced late last year, but before that all we had was a large scale two-front PvP war in a zone that was larger than all the other ones. Battlegrounds added some classics like 4v4v4, Catch the Flag and Deathmatch. While I'm not a super fan of PvP, I did try it out and it reminded me of that time I played the PvP in Bioshock 2.

We also got a brand new trial (12-man dungeon or raid) called Halls of Fabrication, which is basically the other trials on steroids. There's so much mechanics required even on normal difficulty. When we did that first blind run we spent two hours on the first boss, and then had to give up at the second to last boss (because it was Sunday and people had work/school in the morning). Just a week before my computer died, we managed to complete it for the first time and it was soooo good :) So much cheering and applause as the final boss died.

Apart from these big things, there were also two public dungeons added, in which you can collect fragments (either Dwemer or Sixth House) and when you've collected a certain amount of them you can combine them into collectables. There were also a few new crafting motifs added, some new dailies, and a whole bunch of achievements related to exploration.

My last 5 books: Vampires, ghosts, sci-fi and a bit of Japanese

1. Fairest, by Marissa Meyer. This is the story of Queen Levana, the Evil Queen of the Lunar Chronicles, based on the Queen in Snow White. While this book didn't do much for me, it was interesting to get some background to Levana. This book didn't justify any of her horrible actions, but it ventures to explain how she became that way, and it shows how she truly thought that she was doing right by her people. It explains the ban of mirrors, and more in detail what Cinder saw when she saw past Levana's glamour. It explains where Cinder came from, and how Channary died. It explains how Winter became her step-daughter. From an outside perspective it also explains how someone who endures life-long abuse, goes on abusing others, and not realising that that's what they're doing, because they themselves have never known anything else. As a story this book didn't do much for me, but it gave a lot of depth to Levana's character and for that I really appreciate it.

2. Stars Above, by Marissa Meyer. This is a short-story collection, in which all the stories take place in the Lunar Chronicles 'verse. A few of them were a little too fanfiction-y for my taste, but they still gave some extra depth to the main story, and explained a few aspects that were left out from the four main books.

1. The Keeper. This story explains how Cinder came to be in the care of Michelle Benoit. It also features a very young Scarlet. 
2. Glitches. A story about how Cinder was awakened from her life-long coma and sent to live with her new family. It also tells how it happened when Garan got the plague and how Cinder figured out she was good with mechanics. 
3. The Queen's Army. This one tells the story of how Wolf was recruited into the special ops and how his brother came after him. It explains more why Wolf isn't a full-on wolf-hybrid like the Queen's footsoldiers, and how he came to be an alpha. 
4. Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky. The true story of what really happened with that classmate that Cress admired him for saving from the bullies. Also explains where he came from, and gives him a nice background story. 
5. After Sunshine Passes By. This is the story of how Cress came to live in the satellite. 
6. The Princess and The Guard. The story of Winter's and Jacin's childhood together. It also says what happened that made Winter stop using her ability and the immediate consequences of it. 
7. The Little Android. A futuristic re-telling of The Little Mermaid (re-telling of the original not the Disney version). It briefly features Cinder, otherwise there are only brand new characters.
8. The Mechanic. This is basically the first chapter of Cinder but told through the eyes of Kai. Their first meeting and how he viewed her. 
9. Something Old, Something New. This story is set 2 years after the event of the four main book. All the main characters get together and share stories, and the occasion is the upcoming wedding of Scarlet and Wolf. 

All in all I enjoyed these short stories. My favourites being The Princess and The Guard and The Little Android.

3. My Darling is a Foreigner, by Saori Oguri. Way before I picked up this book I had seen the movie, and I really liked it, so when I found this book I immediately bought it. I have never lived in Japan long enough to recognise all of the situations depicted in the book, but there's definitely some recognition and it made me laugh several times. It's nice that it's both in Japanese and English, because my kanji-reading has deteriorated terribly so when I couldn't make sense of something the English was there to back me up.




4. Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman. Let's play spot the reference! When I saw this book my thoughts went like this: "Ooooh, vampires!" "Ooooh, Neil Gaiman commentary!" "Ooooh, Kim Newman! That's Gaiman's 80s comics buddy!" Those three things made this book into a must-have for me. Reading it quickly became a fun game of spot the reference. Being very interested in Victorian stories this was a lot of fun for me. Especially the off-handed comments about Count Orlok (from Nosferatu) and Sir Francis Varney (from Varney the Vampire). I really enjoyed reading this twisting retelling of the Jack the Ripper legend, the only thing that brings the overall grade down for me was the lack of a defined plot. Half-way through the book I still wasn't sure what the plot really was, but I still enjoyed reading it so it didn't bother me that much. Still, a book should have a clear plot to be considered amazing.

5. Brännmärkta, by Lena Ollmark. Part 2 of a horror series for children. I loved the first book, and this second one was good too. Not as good as the first one because I found it confusing. What where we really up against in this book? Who's the bad guy? And every time I'd come as far as thinking that this must be the antagonist of this book, it's all turned upside down and I had to start over. I'm still not really sure what was happening. The ghost influenced the girl, ok, but where did the school cafeteria lady fit in? Was the ghost influencing her too? If there's one thing I really liked about this story is the part where Teddy makes a video game, and it makes the ghost stronger and makes her aware of them and what they're doing. That feels very inspired by Asian horror and I thoroughly enjoyed that part. Really looking forward to reading more from this author. Except the fact that it was a little confusing, there's really nothing I can complain about. I was even scared by this book, which is hard to achieve.

July favourites 2017

Two weeks late due to computer problems. But it's all solved now so here we go.

Books: With no computer there was a lot more reading. I read 9 books in July. Best one probably has to be Cress by Marissa Meyer.

Music:
• Alice Cooper - "Take it Like a Woman" & All That Remains - "This Calling"

• Amberian Dawn - "Talisman" & Berryz Koubou - "Ai wa Itsumo Kimi no Naka ni"

• Bowling for Soup - "Since We Broke Up" & Cherry Filter - "Nang Man Go Yang-i"

• The Cranberries - "Zombie" & D'espairs Ray - "Kogoeru Yoru ni Saita Hana"


Games: I did manage to play a little bit of ESO and Trine 1 and 2 before my computer broke. But most of July I played Fire Emblem: Awakening on my 3DS. Best game is definitely Fire Emblem.

TV shows: Due to broken computers there wasn't much watching. But I did watch a bit of Buffy and Angel, and also some Doctor Who. Best of those is easy.

Other: In July there was Toni's birthday party and also our annual trip to Malmö, to visit my parents and the annual smalltown festival in my hometown.