Game completed: Dragon Age The Veilguard

To say I was excited for this game is an understatement. Ten years I've waited for this game! In 2022 I replated DAO and DA2 and this year I replayed DAI as preparation for this game's release. 

As usual I refrained from watching anything but the initial showcase. I wanted to go in as blind as possible while still having a hum of what I could expect. So let's dive in. I'll put all the story stuff and spoilers at the end and warn beforehand. At the start it will just be gameplay, mechanics and technicals.

The game is so beautiful I hardly knew what to do with myself but stop and stare every few steps. 

I've heard a lot of good about the character creator, but I struggled a bit with it. Felt like no matter what I tried my Rook looked old and tired with sallow skin and a man jaw. But I figured it out eventually and ended up with a cute little redhead. 

However it happened more than once that I'd load up the game and the Rook the game loaded up was the character preset and not the one I had spent most of an hour creating. Most of the time I just had to reload the save again to get my Rook in, but sometimes I had to reload five or six different times, which sucked some of the joy out of me because even installed on a SSD the load times were sometimes stupid long. I checked the Steam discussions on this and found many people had the same problem with a character preset being loaded in place of their OC. One suggestion was to go to the mirror and your Rook would be saved or you could redo it. Nobody with the issue was keen on redoing their Rook every time they started up the game and at least one person even said that going to the mirror broke all their saves... So I stuck with reloading until the game loaded correctly. 

My playthrough took 66½ hours and I CTDd twice in that time. First time I got a warning saying something about my GPU. I knew it had been on the absolute verge of being too weak so I lowered the graphics from Ultra to High after this. Game was still insanely pretty so it didn't bother me. The second CTD happened without any popups or warnings or anything. Just boom straight to desktop. 

Another slight annoyance was how long it took the game to load up environments and every time I entered a new zone the game would stutter for a bit before everything was properly loaded. I figured it was my GPU again, but found that people with 4060s also experienced stuttering so maybe the game just isn't properly optimized. 

These few technical annoyances aside I had a really great time with the game. I played as rogue and I enjoyed the fact that Veilguard doesn't lock your rogue into either bow or daggers. You can use both, although you'll probably end up speccing in favour of one of them. I mainly used my daggers, but the bow was great when I didn't want to run across the entire battlefield or to reach things at a distance. I ended up using both quite often. 

Combat was fast and reactive as rogue. Blocks had to be perfectly timed and lots of dodging and fast reactions. I enjoyed that I didn't have to babysit my companions through combat anymore and regardless of class they could all help with healing and buffs. It made for a fun combat experience. I also enjoyed how they all encouraged each other and Rook when they made a cool move or got a kill. Such team spirit :3

The Veilguard is more in line with Origins and 2 when it comes to level design. You have a handful of zones you can go to and that you'll keep coming back to, but you gain access to more of each zone as the story progresses. Some parts will be blocked to you when you first get there, but as you do more quests you'll discover more things, more loot, more collectables (although there isn't much of that and all the collectables have a game mechanic purpose). Throughout the whole game I had such strong Origins and 2 vibes. 

The preparatory stages reminded me a lot about Mass Effect 3, where you spend time and resources to improve the strength of each faction. And you'll want to have them all at their best, in true Bioware fashion. 

Before I go into the story and spoilers I want to address the accusations of "too much woke" in this game. Aside from one character you have to really go look for it. It isn't thrown in your face. Yes, the character creator has options for upper surgery and bulge regardless of gender, but just because those options exist it doesn't force you to use them. Cyberpunk2077 had those same options. As for that one character, yes they talk about it because it's important to them. I saw a comparison with Dorian from DAI and they complained about how Dorian's entire character was just him being gay and how this was similar. But honestly, Dorian's quest, while political, is all about him healing from and overcoming trauma. His father tried to change him with blood magic ffs! That sort of thing will linger and become part of your character whether you want it to or not. When it comes to the character in Veilguard their entire story is about them finding themselves and understanding who they are, and honestly? Their whole arc is handled better than that god awful conversation with Krem in DAI. Let's not forget that Dragon Age has always been progressive with the LGBTQ stuff. Back when DAO was new it was progressive that they had gay and bi companions and relationships. DAI had an openly trans character. I'm not at all surprised by this development for the Veilguard, and I don't mind it. 

Now let's head into the story. 

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

The game picks up from where Inquistion left off, but it's been ten years. Varric and Harding have recruited Rook and chased after Solas all over Thedas. The very first part of the game is the same part shown in the very first showcase. It's a bombastic start to the game and it really got my excitement up for what was to come. 

The part where I had to choose between Treviso and Minrathous took me by surprise with how early in the game it happened. I saved Treviso and spent the rest of the game apologizing to Neve and trying everything in my power to make her like me again. I succeeded, but every time Neve brought up the situation in Minrathous in conversation I apologized, and kept apologizing ^^; 

Lucanis stole my heart from the start, but when I was on the outing with Emmrich to light candles for the dead he tugged at my heartstrings enough that I started flirting with him too. Way later when Emmrich dropped the bomb about him wanting to become a lich I suddenly found myself needing to choose between him and Lucanis. I couldn't vibe with my boyfriend being a lich so I declined and continued chasing after Lucanis instead. It was all for the best though. Emmrich and Strife make a really cute couple :3 After Lucanis gets with Rook and Emmrich is dating Strife, those two have the best banter. 

Taash is very young. She's immature and juvenile and she's still working on growing up, which is so clear from all the interactions with her mother and the other companions. She mellows out once she finds herself and it's amazing to see. At the start I thought Taash would be the one who annoyed me the most, but it ended up being Bellara. She's so bubbly and talks with such forced positivity all the time that she just comes across as incredibly fake to me. Yes, I completed her questline, but aside from the serious or sad moments she's always so... much. She's too much. 

With all the Warden and Blight stuff going on I had hoped to see some old characters make a return. I get why they didn't include the ones who could be left in the Fade in DAI, but there are a whole bunch of others. I'd love to see Nathaniel again for example, or since they included choices from DAI in starting the game they could've included whether Blackwall was made Warden and had him play a role if he was. Defeating the demon of Unending Despair in the Wetlands and then gifting it flowers once you complete the Wetlands questline was a really neat thing. Turn Despair into Hope by providing proof that life endures no matter what. 

I loved Treviso and Arlathan. Any excuse to go to either of those zones was fine with me. I could just stare at the scenery for ages. 

There was way too little romance :P

I loved seeing Dorian, Maevaris, Morrigan, and the Inquisitor again. I liked how the game referenced the books and the comics. Although Morrigan never mentions the Well she describes how she came to be Mythal. She references the events of her companion quest in DAO even. Great callback. Mythal is splintered to hell, poor girl. I hated remaking my Inquisitor in the character creator. No matter what I did she looked old and tired, and my last quizzy had really pale blonde hair and that option wasn't even available. At least I could give her Fade Breach green eyes. 

The reveal about Varric broke my heart, but it made me think back to every single instance with him only to realise the truth, like the first time watching The Sixth Sense.

The final fight against Ghilan'nain took me by surprise. Even with all the vibes from the ME2 suicide mission I didn't think anyone would actually die. Not with how prepared I was. Everything and everyone maxed out. Poor Neve went through so much. First she loses her home when the archdemon attacks Minrathous, then she gets taken by Elgar'nan and blighted. She's so strong. I love her. Next time I'll save Minrathous for you. 

As for the main story I love how it all ties together from the very start. I've seen some complaints that Veilguard retconned Solas' character and ruined established lore with him as the villain, but... they didn't. Even in DAO Fen'Harel is described in stories as the trickster god who fought a rebellion against the Evanuris. He's used as a boogeyman byt he Dalish to scare kids into doing their chores and being obedient. And that's pretty much the same thing throughout 2. However, in 2 Flemeth hints to being something much older. In DAI we find out that Solas is the Dread Wolf and he created the Veil to imprison the gods in the Fade and now he wants to bring down the Veil, which was an accident, and return the world to how it used to be in ancient times. That fits with the god leading a rebellion - imprisoning the gods. But when he tries in the very beginning of Veilguard he accidentally lets out two of the Evanuris - Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan, and as the story goes on we find out that Fen'Harel fought his rebellion over millennia but he could never win so imprisoning them was a last desperate measure. He still wants to bring down the Veil, which will destroy the world as we know it and he justifies it with "People always die! It's what they do!" and that when the survivors see the beauty of the old world they'll understand. He's still that villain. But Solas' villainry seems a bit less urgent when two other gods are attempting to enslave all the mortal races and cover the world in blight. So Solas becomes a temporary ally - the enemy of my enemy is my friend etc. He backstabs us at least once and ultimately the only one who can talk him down from destroying the world is... Mythal. The one he did everything for to begin with. It fits. It's poetic. I like it. 

As for the mind-blowing pieces:
• The original elves, the Evanuris, were spirits. They stole lyrium to make their bodies, which created a war with the Titans whose lifesblood is lyrium, which ultimately ended with the Titans losing everything, including their connection to the Fade and their ability to dream. Which is why the dwarves can't dream, can't use magic because magic comes from the Fade, are the only ones who can mine lyrium safely, and who can feel the stone in their guts and hear it sing. They came from the Titans.
• The blight that exists in the world is only a teeny-tiny piece of the real thing which is also imprisoned in the Fade. This is what Ghilan'nain and Eglar'nan wants to bring into the world. All of the blight. They brought more with them when they escaped and Ghilan'nain molds it into whatever she wishes, using it as a tool of creation. In DAO we can see on the in-game map how it blackens as the Blight spreads from Ostagar and north. The Inquisitor's letters describe how the blight loosened into the world has blackened most of Ferelden. We can see it ourselves in the Hossberg Wetlands. But the blight boils are new and the darkspawn are different, courtesy of Ghilan'nain. 
• Solas didn't want to take on corporeal form, but he did it for Mythal. When she joined the Evanuris he betrayed her, but when he found out about the Big Blight and how the Evanuris wanted to use it, he returned to Mythal to ask for her help. She confronted the Evanuris, and they killed her. He did everything for Mythal. He fought for Mythal, and in the end only Mythal could make him stop. 
• The tablet from the First Invasion of the Qunari mentions fleeing from the Devouring Storm, and there were spread mentions throughout the game of things beyond the sea and wanting to find out what it was, if other places suffered the same kind of things as Thedas. Blight? Elves? Evanuris? Could the Devouring Storm be Blight? Were the First Invasion not actually invading, but fleeing from the Blight? Are we getting more than Thedas in a future DA game?
• Harding brings up the Andrastian faith when you watch Solas' memories. That the Maker created the Golden City, but Solas' memories confirms it was the Evanuris, and Elgar'nan calls himself "the creator of this world" just before the final fight. Elgar'nan is the Maker :3 I can genuinely see how Solas awoke to find the world a frustrating and broken mess. Everyone got everything so wrong xD
• The Secret Ending which you get post-credits if you've found the three mysterious orbs in-game references all of the previous DA games ending with "We come". The Blight seems to be concious. Is it the Blight? Or more gods, like the old gods of Tevinter? Or... the magisters who blackened the Golden City? Corypheus was only one of them. Could I please get a callback to the Architect, pretty please?

Digging myself deeper into the Elder Scrolls hole

It's been pretty quiet over here for most of the year and it's mainly been due to the hole I've been digging since July 2023. 

Let me start from the beginning. Since early 2021 I've been part of the r/Skyrim discord server and since 2022 I've been a moderator there. The server has hosted lore tests since forever, and while the lore test has been reworked and remodeled several times over the years sicne the server's inception in 2016, the main purpose of the test in recent years has been to pass it to get a role which will show you as a knower of the lore. The Elder Scrolls lore.

Anyone who has poked beyond the game's story varnish of any Elder Scrolls game has glimpsed the expansive behind the scenes of the games. TES lore is huge.

In July 2023 I decided I wanted to learn so I started to study a bit, reading the books, taking notes, observing lore discussions on discord, listening to podcasts and watching (vetted) Youtubers. 

But that also meant I immersed myself completely into The Elder Scrolls. I finally got around to play The Elder Scrolls: Blades, I picked up The Elder Scrolls: Castles as soon as it dropped in Sweden in early February this year, I started a new character in The Elder Scrolls Online and replayed all the content from the beginning to the most recent chapter, and I started a new playthrough of Skyrim.

When I wasn't playing Elder Scrolls, I was watching or reading Elder Scrolls. 

In March of this year I attempted the lore test for the first time, and while I did pretty well I didn't pass. Thursday last week I attempted it again and this time I passed :D 

I still have lots to learn, but hopefully the obsessiveness will pass a bit now :P 

Great timing for all of this when it's Elder Scrolls' 30th anniversary and ESO's 10th anniversary :3

There'll be lots more TES coming xD

The Good Place

For the past month we've been watching this show and it's been a wild ride. About four people and their struggles in the afterlife. 

It's been a lot of fun and we both just adore Jason. 

In my opinion the first two seasons were the best. The third got a bit off track, only for the fourth season to bring it back. The ending was very final but also very fitting. It was sad, but I liked it. 

It's pretty hard to say anything at all about this show without spoiling the plot, but it's a fun show, with great characters and a good story. You should watch it!

Alice in Borderland S02

This is long overdue. The second season released in December 2022 and we've just been putting it off regardless of how much we enjoyed the first season. 

But we finally watched it! And it was amazing!

That last game was *chef's kiss*.

And yet they still don't know why or how this whole thing happened. But it looks like we have another season coming!

Arisu and Usagi finally got their shit together ♥ Chishiya is still my favourite character ♥

Resident Alien S01

We wanted something to laugh at and this seemed fun from the trailer so we picked it up.

It was really great and we both liked it although it turned a lot more serious than we initially thought it would be from the goofiness of the first couple episodes.

It's about an alien who comes to Earth with a mission, but his ship crashes and he is forced to assimilate while he tries to find his device and make his ship functional. There's a lot of crazy happening while he tries to learn to be human.

When the first season finished we looked up whether there was more and found that season 2 and 3 in Sweden are exclusively on the streaming service of a ISP that we don't have :C 

Honestly, genuinely, fuck exclusives. 

The show is great though. Watch it!

The Umbrella Academy S04

Last season of The Umbrella Academy and as great as it was to see the characters have their own lives and struggle in their own ways with the mundanity of being without their powers it makes for a very underwhelming start to the season. 

My favourite episode this season is probably the one where Lila and Five are lost in the subway.

Jean and Gene were highlights of this season (also known as Ron and Tammy lol).

The ending of the season (and the entire show) left a lot to be desired, and I've heard even the actors didn't like it, but that it was due to Netflix shortening it so they scrambled to rewrite and make a final ending. So it wasn't supposed to be this way, dammit.

Dealing with backlog: Evil West

This has been a long time coming. Once we finished Redfall back in May, we chose Evil West as our next co-op game. It's vampires meet the wild west with definite weird science and gothic noir vibes and I love the aesthetic and general vibe.

Unfortunately the gameplay aspect seemed haphazard and the co-op aspect seemed like a last-minute addition without much thought to it. 

The haphazard feeling came mainly from the key bindings, which was probably intended for a controller, but even then I feel like it'd be too many buttons to keep track of. Why not just have a weapon wheel and 1,2,3,4 for abilities? Instead pressing X for this, Y for this, Z for this, F for this, R for this, Q for this. Click 1 for this weapon, click 1 again to switch to this other weapon. It was confusing af to keep track of with the result that we ended up mostly using the same 2-3 things all the time because it was what we could each remember how to use. 

And why we got the feeling that co-op was a last-minute addition? Because we were both playing the same dude. Only the host gets gameplay progression. And the game literally doesn't allow you to explore without the other person tagging along behind you.

For generic enemies the game went with the tactic that "more advanced means more HP" which in reality meant that higher tier enemies were supreme bullet sponges and tedious to fight. 

Why does the game tell me what I missed in each chapter if it isn't going to let me go back and replay that chapter in an attempt to find what I missed?

The boss fights were all really cool, though! The fight against William especially. All of the boss fights required tactics and figuring out mechanics, which was a nice pace from "dodge when it charges and hit it when it doesn't".

The story was pretty generic as far as vampire stories go. Enslave humanity, blot out the sun. The usual. But the different varieties of vampires and how they were made were really interesting. Some of them were very wtf.

I got a bug towards the end where every time I opened the skill perk menu the game sound would vanish and when I exited the skill perk menu the game would lag and stutter considerably until it simply crashed to main menu, where I still had no game sound. I needed to restart the entire game to get game sound back, and yet the same thing would happen every time I opened the skill perk menu. To the point where I didn't dare to assign my new perks until we were safely behind an autosave. Because there's only autosave, you can't save manually at all.

So all in all, amazing vibes, poor execution.

Sweet Tooth S03

The very last season of Sweet Tooth with so many questions left to be answered. What happened in that cave? Where did the hybrids come from? Will they reverse it?  Where did the virus come from? Will humanity survive? Who's the caribou man? Will Gus make it to Alaska?

And all of those questions got answers in the end. Although I didn't particularly like the end, it became clear well before we got there that it was the only viable option.

I spent the entire season feeling sorry for the wolves. They are this season's reminder of "Monsters aren't born, they're made".

I was so disappointed that the super power Gus seemed to have had in the first season where he could affect wildlife was never mentioned again. Like I imagined a herd of caribou or something to come charging when he screamed during the last fight. And there was nothing.

Still, it's been a nice ride. Good show until that ending.

Gen V S01 and The Boys S04

After waiting ages for the fourth season of The Boys, we decided to wait yet a little longer because it had been recommended to me that we watched the spin-off Gen V first, since the plot in Gen V in some ways would tie into season 4. 

I'm glad we watched Gen V, not just because of the plots tying into each other, but because Gen V is totally awesome! Lots of action and high-stakes decisions mixed up with questionable teenage choices - straight up my alley! All the characters are wonderfully flawed. If she hadn't turned out to be totally psycho, Cate would've taken the spot as my favourite character, but at this point I think I'm going with Marie, as boring as that may be because "main character".

Once we finished Gen V we finally started watching season 4 of The Boys, and while the show is still fucking amazing this season wasn't as good as the rest (still awesome though). While the story of this season surrounded Butcher's affliction, it seemed like it spent a lot of time stomping in one place and not really going anywhere. There was a lot of relationship stuff going on in this season and while I hope it's only for building up characters and background and bases for choices that'll happen in the next season, it got a bit stale. Deep still can't catch a break. 

Two weeks being a tourist in Stockholm

So for the past two weeks I've had an American friend from Discord visit Sweden and I've been taking him around Stockholm. So here's a post about what we did!

July 15th: I had just come off a week of night shift and he had just arrived in Sweden the day before, so we were both jetlagged. We took a walk around the Old Town. I showed him the tiniest alley, then we walked to Kungsträdgården and had ice cream before going to have dinner. I then took him to a rooftop bar to get an overview of the city and have some drinks. 

July 16th: We started early and went to the Palace to do all the things. We got there just as it opened at 10am and we did all the things I had previously done, but I love history so who cares. We started in the Palace basement where they have the foundation and surviving walls from the old palace that burned down in the 17th century. Having gone through that we went to the Treasury which is very small, before heading outside into the scorching sun to watch the guard change. Once that was over we went into the Royal Apartments where they held court in the 18th century. And lastly to one of my favourite spots: the Royal Armoury. We then had a very late lunch at 3:30pm, took a boat around the city, walked around some more in the Old Town, and then called it a day.

July 17th: We went to the Vasa Museum to look at the massive 17th century warship that was an embarrassment that sank 20 minutes into its maiden voyage, but survived on the bottom of the Baltic sea for 250 years and when brought up became an item of national pride instead due to now being the only surviving 17th century warship in the world. It's hard to not be awestruck when you enter the museum and see it for the first time. We had lunch at the museum restaurant and then turned to the Viking Museum close by, which is pretty small, so once we finished there we went to the Museum of Wrecks next door. Thanks to its brackish water the Baltic sea is great at preserving wrecks and the museum was dedicated to the very many wrecks found on the bottom of the sea while also explaining the process of discovery and recovery with many interactive elements. After this we returned to the city and had dinner before calling it a day.

July 18th: We were pretty tired of reading at museums at this point so we decided to go to Skansen and look at the animals (and have ice cream and lunch). When we felt done there just after lunch we decided to head out to a suburb where they had the butterfly house and aquarium. It was a lot smaller than I expected so we finished in there in less than an hour, but it was still pretty cool.

July 19th: We headed out to the archipelago and its closest islands called Fjäderholmarna. We started out with lunch and then took a walk around the island, including dipping our feet in the water :3 We then got on the boat back and finished the day with a trip to the Hallwyl Museum, which is an old mansion from the late 19th and early 20th century donated as was to be a museum. We also visited the Nobel Prize Museum, which ended up being not at all what we expected.

July 20th: Easily the hottest day of these two weeks. We headed out to Drottningholm palace, which is where the king and queen live, but parts of the palace and the grounds are open to the public. After walking around there and having lunch we were both beat from the heat and decided to call it a day. 

July 22nd: After a day of rest we started up again with a trip to the Army Museum, which was all about Swedish military history from the Swedish Empire of the 16th and 17th century all the way to modern day. We then had lunch and called it a day.

Jul 23rd: He took the bus out to my city instead of me going to Stockholm and we spent the day first visiting Tom Tits science park, which was honestly way too hot and filled with kids, so after ice cream and drinks we took the bus up to Torekällberget for a walk among historical buildings and watching some more animals. It's basically a mini Skansen. Due to it being so hot we were beat after all this time outside and we ended the day there.

July 25th: This day was spent at Gröna Lund amusement park and we went on all of the rollercoasters. Including the ones that go upside-down which I had never been on before because I can never find anyone who wants to go with me xD

July 28th: Last day together and we started out with Sweden's Museum about the Holocaust, which was mainly about Sweden duiring WW2 as well as the fates of seven people who survived the Holocaust in different ways and made it to Sweden. A separate exhibit told the story of Raoul Wallenberg who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary, before he was taken by the Soviets and vanished. What ultimately happened to him is still unknown. After lunch we headed to the Museum of Meditterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities and took a walk through ancient Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Roman Empire. 

Young Sheldon S07

We had been patiently waiting for this last season to complete so we could watch it all in one go. My only complaint is that it was too short. Other than that the show was just as good as usual, lots of laughter until the last two episodes when things took a sad turn. 

I really appreciated the snippets of present day with Sheldon and Amy in the last episode. 

I wish there had been more Paige in this season to tie off that loose end, but I guess they ran out of time. 

This season was totally worth the wait :3

Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road

This was a long time coming. As excited as I was about the lore aspect of Ithelia, I wasn't actually all that excited to play it and the new scribing system didn't speak to me at all, but eventually I got going with it anyway. 

I did the prologue which was pretty cool, especially the underwater sequence, and then I started on the scribing stuff, which was actually a mad annyong rampage across the entirety of Tamriel. Just a whole lot of back and forth through portals and wayshrines and it just turned into a whole lot of loading screens. While it was neat to learn more about Ulfshild and Shalidor and the consequences of Sheogorath taking Eyevea, it wasn't very inspiring gameplay to jump around the world map. 

And then we got going to West Weald and the story proper. Ithelia's story is overall a sad one without a satisfying ending. The Dawnwood was pretty interesting though and may hearken back to the jungle that Cyrodiil was supposed to be according to early TES lore, but I don't like the wildburn as an infection that spreads through the creatures and the nature. 

I had a lot fun using the Daedric artefacts throughout the main questline, especially the sword, and the final boss fights against Torvesard and Ithelia were great. The entire thing at Hoperoot was cool too. 

I was not a fan of the Mirrormoor Incursion world events, which are this region's anchors/geysers/dragons/harrowstorms: there was way too much running around involved.

I recommend not playing Gold Road immediately after Dragon Age Inquisition if you played a female Inky with the British voice. All I could hear whenever Ithelia spoke was my Inky xD

All in all I'd say it was a decent chapter, but the lore was more intriguing than the gameplay. 

Grey's Anatomy S20 and Station 19 S07

I've been so bad at watching shows on my own lately.

S20 of Grey's Anatomy was a wild ride. I was worried what the show would be like without Meredith Grey/Ellen Pompeo, but she sticks around and shows up every few episodes and she still does the narration for every episode intro and outro. The new interns have really grown on me and I really like the new peds attending. Catherine seems more concerned with PR and image than medicine, which I suppose is great for the shareholders but less great for the doctors, and that creates friction and secrecy throughout the season. The events of the S19 finale has consequences for the intern throughout this season, but it looks like they're gonna overcome them. Maggie and Winston need to get their shit together. Love to see Amelia is finally in a good place. I'm not ready to let go of Webber. 

S07 of Station 19 turned out to be the last. The show was cancelled, and while they tried to wrap the whole thing up in the last episode it still felt very sudden. The wildfire three-parter was absolutely amazing and I love this entire show so much. It's the best spin-off Grey's has ever had and I don't want it to be over and done. The episode celebrating Pride and Maya's subesequent confrontation with Mason portrays the changing political landscape in terrifying clarity. Warren going back to be a surgeon is a good thing imo. I still want Sully and Andy to be together, but Sully's and Natasha's engagement party made for a great episode. I want more Station 19, please bring it back!

Game completed: Immortals Fenyx Rising

It's been over a week since I last played and at this point I don't think I'll continued with the DLCs. I had previously seen bits of gameplay from this game from watching Toni and ti0 play it, and then it was gifted to me on Steam, which ofc meant I had to play it too.

The RPG elements and the Greek mythology story tickled me, but I'm notoriously bad at platformers and this game presented so many instances of me wanting to tear my hair out because I couldn't time a jump. 

Still, the Greek mythology RPG aspects drew me in and I had a lot of fun exploring the map and 100% everything. I loved the aesthetics of the game and I had a lot of fun combining armor fashion with Phosphor and the mount to make them all match up nicely. 

My favourite part of the story and map to explore and complete was Athena's. Afrodite was too cringey, Ares was too toxic masculinity, Hephaistos was pretty cool. As much as Hermes tried to be funny I mostly found him annoying. Zeus' area was easily the most annoying part of the game; the whole freeze mechanic didn't appeal to me and I died more to the environment in that area than I did in the entire rest of the game combined. 

The vaults were fun for a really long time but towards the end of the game I was so very sick of them. Like so so so sick of them, and this contributed to why I didn't continue with the DLCs: I couldn't stand the idea of having to do a whole bunch more vaults. 

I really enjoyed all the huge story-related vaults though! Especially the last one where you fight Typhon. 

Prometheus just can't catch a break. Speaking of Prometheus... The entire time I played I could recognise his voice but I couldn't remember from where. It's the same VA as Sam Coe in Starfield! 

So yeah, I had a lot of fun with this game, but it got a bit repetitive and much in the end. Worth it, though!

Doctor Who S14 (S01)

So apparently Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor onward is a new reboot so this should be S01 and not S14, but that's confusing as fuck so I'll keep it as S14 tyvm. 

I was very excited for the first proper season with the new Doctor and Ruby and just like every season there were some episodes which were just plain cringe (Space Babies), some which were just plain boring (The Devil's Chord, Boom), and some that were just plain amazing (73 Yards, Rogue, The Legend of Ruby Sunday, Empire of Death). 

The Dot and Bubble episode felt like a Black Mirror episode. 

And we still don't know who Ruby's old lady neighbour is and why she knows the Tardis. But all the callbacks to Hartnell's Doctor in the finale double episode gave me all the feels and so many hopes for upcoming seasons with Gatwa!

Ruby was a great companion and it makes me sad that she seems to only be in this season.

The change in showrunner is very noticeable. By bringing back RTD it feels like we're bringing back early reboot Who (Eccleston and Tennant) and I'm all for it!

Parks & Recreation

Just like The Office I had never seen this show, but I had seen all the memes. Toni has been on a binge lately getting me to watch all the sitcoms that I haven't seen: Brooklyn 99, The Office, The Ranch, Community, and now finally Parks & Rec. 

Just like with The Office I didn't like the first season of Parks & Rec, but just like with The Office the show grew on me over the seasons. As annoying as I find Leslie I loooooove April and Ron and Ben. 

The worst part about any episode was the Saperstein twins. I hated them so much!

Like I mentioned I wasn't a fan of the first season, but then the show just got better and better and better until the last season when they dropped the ball - exactly like Brooklyn 99 and The Office who also dropped the ball on the last season. 

I wish the covid special they filmed was still available somewhere, anywhere.

I replayed Dragon Age Inquisition

In December 2022 I replayed both Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2 with the intention to replay Dragon Age Inquisition too at a later point. After the reveal of The Veilguard coming later this year I decided it was time to complete the trilogy and do a playthrough I had thought about for quite some time: a very pro-mage elf who finds herself sharing Solas' worldview and wanting to find him to join him, not stop him. 

The game allows for most of that, although Trespasser is pretty rigid in which direction you should go regarding Solas. I wish it were a bit more open for roleplay a Solas romance Inky should have the option to remain loyal to him and not just be heartbroken, angry and vowing to stop him. She's a mage. She's an elf. He's one of their actual gods. I want her to remain by his side! Why are you not letting me?! T_T

Anyway I resolved to do a 100% complete playthrough, including requisitions and side quests and war table missions and all the goddamn shards. I still hate the Forbidden Oasis. Hinterlands is very big. Hissing Wastes is very empty. Forgotten Mire is very annoying to loot. But nothing gets even close to the rage-inducing annoyance that is the Forbidden Oasis :@

I tried to recruit all the Agents and do all the Judgements in a way Solas approved of, and I maxed out his approval pretty early on. I tried really hard to make Vivienne my Divine this time, but I still ended up with Leliana. Every single time it's Leliana.

Corypheus walking through the fire at Haven is still the coolest scene ever and it still gives me goosebumps. 

As for the DLCs, Jaws of Hakkon was still underwhelming. It still feels like a filler. The Descent was more amazing this time than the first time I played it, probably because I now get the mindblowing implications better. Trespasser just makes me sad. Behind all the lore and the implications for future games, it's just so sad. The links above are from when I completed each DLC for the very first time. (The Trespasser post didn't age well)

Going back to read my original posts about Origins, DA2 and Inquisition from when I completed them all for the very first time was a lot of fun. 

Now I really can't wait for Veilguard!

Sweden Rock Festival 2024

I was really looking forward to Sweden Rock Festival this year, but it turned out a bit different from previous years due to us missing a couple people who were otherwise always there. One of them missing meant I had to drive all the way there, which I wasn't thrilled about, but it went really well considering I hadn't been behind the wheel for seven years. 

We finally arrived around 2pm and got the tent set up. The others were already there, and this year we had invested in a cart so it was easier to transport all our stuff from the car to the camp. Setting everything up went surprisingly smooth, and as soon as everything was settled the party started. I went to bed relatively early, though, being exhausted from driving for seven hours. 

On Wednesday we only had one concert planned: Electric Callboy, and it was absolutely amazing! They played all my favourite songs and the crowd went wild for Hypa Hypa and We Got the Moves. It was great! I also saw the first couple songs by Five Finger Death Punch, but because they aren't a band I really listen to I didn't stay for the whole thing.

On Thursday I saw W.A.S.P and Journey. Two classic bands I had never seen before. Journey was really good, although I wish they had interacted more with the crowd rather than just do their thing on stage and then leave. W.A.S.P. wasn't as good as I'd hoped with Blackie being essentially stuck to one place, leaning on a stool due to either injury or illness (I don't remember). My video of Don't Stop Believing is too big to upload directly T_T

On Friday I went to see Evanescence, which was one of the shows I had looked forward to the most. I had wanted to see them since I was 13 and finally, FINALLY, I got the chance! When they played My Immortal there wasn't a single dry eye in the audience. It's a special feeling to see really big, buff, Viking-like metalhead dudes cry xD In the evening we returned to the festival area to see Judas Priest and Dimmu Borgir. Toni was stoked for Dimmu and he stayed for the whole thing, whereas I left after a few songs. 

Saturday was the last day, and we had resolved to leave in the evening after the last band so in the early evening we started packing everything up. But not before we saw Steel Panther! There was only one band I really wanted to see today: Alice Cooper. Avantasia played immediately after and most of the camp wanted to be front row for that so they camped out in front of the other stage for them, and nobody else was as stoked about Cooper so I went there alone and camped out in front of the stage. Front row for Alice Cooper! I was so excited! Eighth time seeing him live, first time at front row! It started raining halfway through his set, but it didn't matter! The ambiance was amazing, the crowd was intense, it was so great! (My phone couldn't quite manage the volume of front row though lol)

After Cooper I lingered a bit to watch the first couple songs of Avantasia and then I went to the car, where Toni and our friend (and designated driver) were waiting. We got going and arrived home just before 8am today. 

The weather this year was kind of chilly which put a bit of a damper on the party - who wants to drink cold drinks when they're already cold? But aside from that this was a really good year!

Game completed: Ghostwire Tokyo

It's been a month since I completed this game and I think it might be one of the best games I've played this year so far. I was curious about this game as soon as it was announced at E3 2019, but other things kept taking priority. 

I love Japanese mythology and this game really delivered on that part and it was both cool and weird to run around Shibuya like: "I've been here!" So trippy. 

I had some issues when I first started in that I got sound but no cutscenes, the screen was entirely black, so I had to do some troubleshooting first thing, which kind of killed the mood to play it a bit. But I'm glad I stuck with it and played it because it was amazing *w*

I found the fighting really cool. The weaving was just very aesthetically pleasing to me. The parades were scary at first but after that first time I just charged into them whenever I encountered them. I also had a great time grappling around the tops of the skyscrapers. 

The added content from Spider's Thread was mostly cool. The graffiti was a bit annoying to find at times, but the spirit photography was cool and the quest in the school was the scariest shit I've played in a long time. Once that mannequin started moving and following me I was just running around like "I don't wanna. I don't wanna. I don't wanna T_T"

I loved the shinobi outfit which changed the bow for kunai and wore that most of the time. 

After I finished the game I also played through the free prelude, which is a visual novel type game that sets the scene for the game. However the prelude spoils some things from the story of the main game so it's recommended you play the prelude after the game itself as some extra background of some of the characters. 

Eurovision Song Contest 2024

It's been a week, but that's enough time to gather all my thoughts. This year was great with a pretty high level on all the songs. A surprisingly large amount of songs that I actually enjoyed. 

Last year I watched Eurovision totally not understand Lord of the Lost or their music as they got a whopping zero points and came in dead last. So I while I loved Ireland's song this year I was totally prepared for them to not even advance from the semi-final due to the song being unconventional. Imagine my surprise when it didn't just advance from the semis but actually came in top 10! *surprised Pikachu face*

Ukraine's song was incredibly beautiful and I couldn't get it out of my head for days despite not understanding most of the song. 

There was an unusual amount of songs not in English this year and it wasn't all bad. Italy and Lithuania were catchy af. I loved Luxembourg and France. Both Spain and San Marino were great. Serbia was repetitive but not bad. Armenia and Greece were so not my thing, but they did well. No clue what Estonia was on. Norway had another unconventional song that somewhat grew on me over time, but apparently didn't grow on the people and they finished dead last in the final. 

Cyprus looked like it could be taken from the early 00s/late 90s and not miss a beat. And Austria sounded like it was straight from the 90s.

Croatia won the people's vote, but Switzerland won the contest and deservedly so imo. Switzerland's song showed multiple musical styles and so much talent. As fun and catchy as Croatia's song was, Switzerland's song was my damned favourite of the competition and I'm happy it won.

What happened to the Netherlands was unfortunate and too harsh and coloured the entire final. Eurovision is supposed to be non-political, but if you're denying Russia entry due to the war, then you should be consistent and do the same to Israel.