Dealing with backlog: Tomb Raider

I first tried to play this game in 2013, but I was too much of a noob back then and I kept getting stuck on the QTEs because I just couldn't time them properly. This year I decided to try again. Hopefully something had happened to my skill in the past 6 years. I watched Toni play it back in the day so I wasn't new to the story.

The first thing that struck me was how old it suddenly looked. I played it on High and I remembered it as this beautifully gorgeous game, and now it looked old. Funny how time does that.

I went for 100% completion and got it. The story was still really cool and I loved the environments in the different areas of the island. While I remembered the big strokes of the story I had forgotten the details so things like Roth's death and Whitman's betrayal still came as major surprises to me.

Apart from being a really cool-looking game, what really drew me to this game was the Japanese influenced mythology of the story. That really got me and I enjoyed every piece of Japanese-y thing the game threw at me.

This game paces its action perfectly, but when there's action it's ACTION! So much of it omg. The QTEs are never boring and a lot of the time I sat wincing at every new injury Lara sustained, especially when you missed a beat during the QTEs and had to watch Lara die in the most gruesome ways. 10/10 would miss again.

The challenges were nice and mostly easy and just gave me all the more reason to keep running around in all the stunning areas.

This game is an amazing reboot and I'm really looking forward to playing the two sequels now.

Game completed: Vampyr

I was very curious about this game when it was first released, but I mostly am whenever something with vampires shows up.

The game starts off with an exteremely generic story, but the story is so open-ended that you can decide it for yourself. I started off wanting to try my best to be a good guy, but the more I got to know the citizens the more I felt like "You all suck. You're horrible people." So I decided to let my good-guy vampire doctor become the villain and just slaughter everybody. I love that you can become the villain and not being stuck being the good guy like most games do. The turning point came after I was forced to kill my sister.

The game's strong point is definitely its NPCs. Talking to them, finding out their backstories and helping them with their needs/requests is the backbone of the game. The romance that popped up midway felt forced and I was quite happy when she broke it off after discovering that my vamp doc no longer was the innocent little newborn vamp that she'd have to protect and nurture.

The lore in this game is quite deep and I really enjoyed discovering the bits and pieces of it scattered throughout the game.

The only bad thing I can think of is the combat that felt a bit clunky, but imho it wasn't game-breakingly clunky. It was a bit odd, but not odder than you could get used to it.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this game and I could definitely see myself playing through it again at a later point as a 100% good guy who doesn't kill anybody.

Final Fantasy XIV

I've been curious about this game for quite some time and I finally decided to download the trial and play that. The game was incredibly cute, but I wasn't sure about the fighting (it seemed clunky) or the fact that there's sometimes voice acting but not always and the PC is always mute. It was so jarring to me.

But after getting to around lvl 15 I decided that I liked the game enough to actually buy it. The base game story is looooooooooong. Exceptionally long and it doesn't go by any faster with the constant distractions in the shape of dungeons, side quests and omg-you-can-be-every-class-on-the-same-toon-imma-do-everything!

Because the base game story is so goddamn long it also takes forever to actually get things happening. Most of the time it's just running all over the continent to fetch stuff or talk to different people. It's not until the attack on the HQ that things actually start to happen, and by then your character has passed level 40 (the end of the base game comes around level 50). From being some of the most boring content, the main story picked up towards the end and became totally epic!

Earlier on, when it became time to choose which Grand Company you wanted to belong to I chose the pirates and moved my home point from Gridania to Limsa Lominsa. Mainly because Merlwyb is totally badass and she's the main reason my little archer girl is going to be a machinist so I can run around and shoot guns too!

Funnily enough, none of the Scions really grew on me during the game although those were the characters with which you spend the most time. Most of them seemed a little bit too high and mighty. I wanted to like Minfilia and Alphinaud but they were just way up there with their attitudes. Yda is probably the only one I actually came to like the most. Smart but aloof.

My favourite regions to explore became La Noscea quite early on. I've never been much of a fan of desert areas in any game so Thanalan was mostly out. Gridania was very cute, but seemed a bit generic. La Noscea was absolutely stunning and no other regions had me stopping every few seconds to get screenshots. Except maybe Mor Dhona, but it's so small.

Despite all its faults FFXIV grew on me, and although I'm still not entirely comfortable with the fighting mechanics the game has grown on me enough that I'm really looking forward to continue on playing Heavensward and Stormblood and later on Shadowbringers.

Stay tuned~~♥

Sweden Rock Festival 2019

We left home early in the morning on the 4th. Packed ourselves into the car and rode south. The trip usually takes around 6 hours with time for a few rest stops and this year was no different. All the way down we had heavy clouds and rain and the closer we got the more nervous we got that this was the year the weather would be crap all week long. But once we got really close the weather cleared up. And then we spent the whole week in perpetual sunlight without a cloud in sight (except for the last day).

This year we had bought a new tent so ofc it took us forever to put it up, but now we know how it's done so next year it will be quick and easy again :D During the time we put up the tent I managed to burn my shoulders, which meant tank tops were out of the question for the rest of the festival. Lucky I also brought t-shirts! The rest of the first day was then spent drinking, singing and generally having a good time in the camp. The first night is always special because that's when people move around the most and there are always random guests showing up at the camp, staying for a beer or two or a song or two and then moving on. The most wtf moment of today was that the song Space Unicorn came on exactly the same moment a dude walked by wearing a unicorn onesie.

This year we had only managed to get 3-day tickets instead of our usual 4-day tickets, so the next day went in pretty much the same style as the first day. Woke up around 7.30 and crawled out of the tent due to "I'm meeeeeelting!" and then went to buy breakfast and a 1 litre water bottle. Alcohol then recommenced around 11am when the water bottle was empty and the party kept on until around midnight.

The third day, which was Thursday, was when we could finally enter the festival area! :D For the first concert of the year we split up. Most of us wanted to see Powerwolf, but I wanted to see Three Days Grace. I wanted to see Powerwolf too, but they've been here twice in the past five years and Three Days Grace never comes to Sweden. So Three Days Grace it is! The concert was amazing and afterwards I went to buy t-shirts and food and then met up with the guys in the camp again.

A few hours later we went back inside the area and saw Amon Amarth, which is probably my favourite concert this year. Just so good ♥♥♥♥

Right after Amon Amarth was Tenacious D. Every year there is a disappointment, I'm just so sad that it had to be Tenacious D this year. The sound was off, the skits they made on stage had school play quality and there was zero interaction with the crowd. Songs like Beelzeboss and Tribute that should've been given sing-along songs got barely any response. Just such a disappointment. And we were standing pretty close too! We didn't stay for the whole thing. Def Leppard would've been cool to see but I only know one song by them so I skipped it.

Friday was mostly party all day long. We went inside in time to catch the last few songs by ZZ Top. We bought turkey legs for dinner and got some weird stares while we munched like cavemen :D

The main attraction for me today was Disturbed. It's been 10 years since I last saw them live and I was so excited. It was so so good!!! But it was obvious that the death of Linkin Park's Chester had taken a big heavy toll on Draiman. He was a lot skinnier and looked much older and more tired than he usually does, there was a big tribute to Chester and all the other rock icons who've died in the past few years during their concert, as well as a rally for awareness for mental illness. Disturbed are so amazing ♥

We decided to skip Kiss. It would've been cool to see but we were told Paul Stanley's voice couldn't carry the songs anymore. Also we were too tired. The sun had been so relentless every day and it was finally taking its toll on our energy. We went back to camp set on going to bed early but somehow ended up partying some more.

Saturday was the last day and only one of us (from our road trip gang) had something they wanted to see today so he got to decide at what point we were leaving. In the end he decided to skip his band so we packed up our stuff and left the festival at 4pm. It's the earliest we've ever left the festival, but arriving home at 9pm felt amazing and gave us the time to unpack and shower before falling into bed.