Sunday 31 March 2024
My last 5 books: Mostly YA!
Monday 25 March 2024
Happy 30th, Elder Scrolls!
On March 25h 1994 The Elder Scrolls: Arena was released and a franchise was born. This franchise has come to mean a lot to me for a lot of different reasons, and because today marks its 30th anniversary I'm going to take you on my journey.
I started playing Skyrim in 2012. The first mention of the game on this blog is from April 2012. Skyrim wasn't just my first Elder Scrolls game, but my first open world game and my first RPG, and it opened the world of gaming for me in a way no other game I had tried before had managed. 2012 was my first playthrough. 2021 when Anniversary Edition released on the game's 10th anniversary is to date my most recent playthrough and I still come back to it. I have Skyrim screenshots from every year from 2013 to 2021.
After I played Skyrim I became interested in the other Elder Scrolls games and I played both Oblivion and Morrowind in 2013. As a skybaby my first foray into Morrowind didn't go at all smoothly, but with some tips and tricks from an online friend on Steam I managed to play through the game and Morrowind became one of my favourite games of all time. I also tried my hand at Arena and Daggerfall around this time, but didn't complete them.
Having played all those games in the same universe I got a little bit curious about lore and started reading about the different races of the world. Especially the extinct races caught my fancy. But I didn't delve too deep into it at that time.
Because in 2014 Elder Scrolls Online released and for the next few years I was stuck. In 2016 I joined a guild called Masters of Eternia where I met a bunch of people who later formed the Guild of Adventure in 2017. These guilds are what prompted me to join discord and through these guilds I met a lot of people who've become close friends. Some of whom I've even met IRL now!
I was a guild officer for both guilds until I left MoE in 2017 and GoA in 2020. I'm still in contact with a bunch of the guildies though! Joining discord for the guilds prompted a whole new era of Elder Scrolls for me. In 2019 I joined the server for this youtuber and quickly became a staff member of that server. Via this server I joined the r/Skyrim server in 2021 and once the youtuber server era came to an end (for reasons I don't need to go into here) the Skyrim server became my main server on discord. I joined the staff team there on April 2nd 2022. Turns out a lot of the Elder Scrolls related servers on discord share members so via the Skyrim discord I joined a whole bunch of other servers (most notably the r/Oblivion server) and now spend most of my days with other TES fans. Via all these servers I've gotten to know so many people and many of them I consider real friends.
As for the games... In 2017 I played Legends, the card-game spin-off, which didn't impress me much back then but I might give it another shot. Last year I started playing Blades, the mobile RPG, and this year I started playing Castles, the Fallout Shelter TES replica, as soon as it was released in Sweden.
Last year I also started to delve deeper into the lore. As they say in Doctor Who: it's bigger on the inside! I'm having a lot of fun learning about the history, cultures and metaphysics of the Elder Scrolls universe and love seeing how all these things connect both in-universe and with RL inspirations. The lore is badass and messed up and wonderful. Have this amazing fan video of Pelinal as reference:
As for fun things that have happened over the years I've been involved in the games/fandom:
• In both 2017 and 2018 GoA did madness runs of trials (12-person dungeons), completing them with severely underlevelled characters.
• We accidentally started the cult of dagothwave on the Skyrim server and to date the dagothwave song has been played over 2000 times. Listening sessions are called "wavin".
• I discovered a total overhaul mod of my favourite Total War game, placing it in Tamriel rather than Europe, and played that extensively.
• Last year was the first year I bought an advent calendar since I was a kid, and only because it was Skyrim.
The Elder Scrolls have given me so much enjoyment. Not only in the terms of hours of gameplay, but also in the form of shenanigans and hijinks, intellectual discourse from lore stuff (so much comparative religion omg), and so many friends. I'll be forever thankful that I decided to try Skyrim that day and that it opened the world of gaming and TES for me ♥
Today, as part of the 30th anniversary celebration, Bethesda released two announcements. Both of which reference the next Elder Scrolls game, and I'm hopeful this means we'll see a new TES before the 20s turn into the 30s!
Sunday 24 March 2024
Game completed: The Outer Worlds (twice)
Monday 12 February 2024
Doctor Who: The 2022 and 2023 specials
Tuesday 30 January 2024
We survived The Forest (twice)
Wednesday 24 January 2024
The Ranch
Saturday 20 January 2024
Game completed: Baldur's Gate 3
Friday 5 January 2024
Movies I watched in 2023
1. White Noise (2022). From the trailer this looked like it would be a fun post-apoc movie with some good banter in it. Instead it was a snooze-fest of contemporary social commentary and no apocalypse in sight.
2. Life (2017). Accidentally watched this twice. The first time we chose it on Netflix and it was pretty alright as far as alien movies go. Calvin was a pretty cool "monster", but if you've seen the movie Alien you know how this one goes as well. The second time we stumbled upon it on TV at my parents' place.
3. In the Tall Grass (2019). This is an adaptation of a Stephen King story and it shows. It's really weird. I was hoping for psychological horror, but it just ended up being weird. Not that good.
4. Renfield (2023). I was looking forward to this movie! We watched it at the cinema and it was everything I hoped for. Dark comedy with some decent homage to various vampire interpretations. I really enjoyed it!
5. We Have A Ghost (2023). David Harbour was brilliant in this! The movie was hilarious and sad and it was such a good time to watch. Totally worth!
6. Murder Mystery 2 (2023). We watched the first one in 2022 and I wanted to watch this one as well. Not a fan of Adam Sandler overall, but in these two movies I've been alright with him. This sequel wasn't as good as the original (as per usual), but it was still a good time.
7. Population 436 (2006). This movie has been hanging around our Netflix watchlist for ages and we finally decided that it was time. It wasn't good. The entire thing felt stilted and extra theatrical like movies from the 60s or 70s sometimes seem today because acting has evolved. We both thought the movie was at least 20 years older than it was.
8. America: The Motion Picture (2021). Extremely over the top and totally hilarious! This movie is a good time. It's about the founding of the US, but not in the way that you know it.
9. Slumberland (2022). Totally heart-warming movie about a little girl that is sent to live with her bachelor uncle after her father passes away. This movie personifies childhood hopes and dreams and adventure.
10. Next Gen (2018). This was a really cool animated movie that gave us a bit of Big Hero 6 vibes, but very poignant and modern as well.
11. Prey for the Devil (2022). We wanted a horror movie, and this one was really great. This was the movie that finally convinced us to dive into the Conjuring universe. See below.
12. Nightbooks (2021). A very cute adventure movie. Probably technically for kids but it was still a lot of fun about a nerdy kid saving the world by telling stories.
13. The Conjuring (2013). Even after having watched all the other movies in the Conjuring universe this is still probably the strongest one. It had me on the edge of my seat and I was actually terrified towards the end. Strongly recommend.
14. The Babadook (2014). I had been wanting to watch this one for years because the trailer made it seem oh so good. In reality it was a bust. Such a disappointment. The monster wasn't scary, the ending was just "wut", the characters weren't engaging... Just so disappointing.
15. Annabelle (2014). I hate dolls. I hate dolls. I hate dolls. This movie seemed very classic horror, but it was good. Really good.
16. The Conjuring 2 (2016). Pretty much the same as the first Conjuring, but in England. I really enjoyed this one as well. This movie has the first mention of Valak.
17. Annabelle: Creation (2017). This story is incredibly sad, but I felt this movie was better than the first Annabelle movie. Very well made.
18. The Nun (2018). Heeeeeeere's Valak! This movie was really, really good. I love how the story was told from several perspectives and you never knew which one was true until the end. Also, nice way of connecting this movie to the beginning of the original Conjuring movie.
19. The Curse of La Llorona (2019). Easily the weakest movie in the Conjuring universe and the only obvious connection to the rest of the universe is the priest who shows up in both this one and in Annabelle.
20. Annabelle Comes Home (2019). This one was great. Really amazing. I loved how it's about Annabelle but they incorporated all the other stuff in the Warrens' basement.
21. Lamb (2021). This one was weird. Me and my mom stumbled upon it on TV when I was visiting and it was just really strange. Based on Icelandic folklore (I believe), a lamb that's half lamb and half human is born on a farm, and things just spiral out of control.
22. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021). While this one was cool, it was different from what they usually do. More witches and not so much demonic possession (although there was that too).
23. Uncharted (2022). This movie got a ton of flak for its casting, but we both ended up liking it. Tom Holland did a good job as Nathan Drake. The fan movie still gets more things right, though.
24. The Lost City (2022). I wanted to see this movie since I first saw the trailer, because it seemed like the kind of humoristic adventure movie that I enjoy, and I wasn't wrong. This movie was a riot!
25. Love, Rosie (2014). Not the kind of movie I usually watch, but I caught this one on TV when I visited my parents and ended up actually enjoying it. Drama movie about how life happens and gets in the way of your plans, but somehow everything works out in the end anyway.
Thursday 4 January 2024
Games of 2023 - This year has been insane
This year has had way too many amazing new games coming out and I've been struggling to keep up tbh.
Fire Emblem Engage. 81 hours. What a start to the year. A new Fire Emblem! Admittedly it wasn't as great as Three Houses, but it was still really, really good. I had an amazing time with this. When's the next one?
Hogwarts Legacy. 87 hours. Easily my game of the year. It doesn't get any better than this. I cried so many times while playing this. Mostly tears of fangirl and happiness. I've wanted an open world Potterverse game for 20 years and they fulfilled my every expectation ♥
Atomic Heart. 20 hours. The overland was annoying and the enemies were repetitive. But story was good and gameplay good and characters memorable. I had fun with this. Might replay it for the DLC, even.
ESO: Necrom. I haven't been this excited about a new chapter since Morrowind released. Archanist was a great class addition and the story was good. I really like Torvesaad, although I'm not sure why. Lore implications of this chapter are massive and I really want a continuation of this story.
Starfield. 175 hours. The most anticipated game of 2023 if I dare say so. The community's expectations were through the roof and unfortunately not many of them were fulfilled. That said I still go that Bethesda feeling from this game and I had a lot of fun with it. My playtime ought to speak for itself.
We Were Here Expeditions. 2½ hours. This game came out of nowhere. It wasn't expected, but it was definitely welcome. We enjoyed the other We Were Here games and had a lot of fun with this one too!
AC: Mirage. So Connect doesn't show the amount of hours played for this, but it does for Valhalla and Odyssey. I dunno what's up. I had a good time with this. They were banking hard on people's nostalgia and pulled out all the stops to make it relatable for people who've been with the series since the beginning. I kept seeing Aladdin while I was playing as Basim running along the rooftops of Baghdad.
Sons of the Forest. 22 hours (so far). We finished The Forest earlier this fall and started with Sons of the Forest immediately after. We had a blast with the first game and figured this game would be just more of it. Sons of the Forest definitely has its quirks though, and so far it isn't as great as The Forest, but it's also still in Early Access with full release coming in 2024. With the way things are going we may still be playing at that point :D
CP2077: Phantom Liberty. 110 hours. I haven't played Cyberpunk since February 2021, but I decided to replay the entire thing for Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0 and it's been amazing! This game is fantastic, although I did experience more bugs in the game now than I did in 2021, go figure. Phantom Liberty has a great story with so many twists and turns I hardly knew who to trust at the end, which is the entire point. There were a few badass boss battles and a bunch of cool new gigs. It was quite the ride!
ESO: Endless Archive. Why does a MMO need a roguelite mode? I knew this wasn't going to be the regular small zone DLC that they usually do in autumn, but I expected something more than a room of spawning enemies, unfair bosses and effects to add to yourself as you went on. I didn't struggle at all until I ran into Z'Baza. A Sload boss that kept spawning AoEs and adds and never remained in one place, making him hard to actually hit with anything. I'm not too excited about this DLC overall, and I suppose it will be added to the ever-growing list that is Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows that I never complete. But as always, I'll give it a few more tries.
Baldur's Gate 3. 61 hours (so far). I immediately fell in love with Astarion. I also really like Gale and Karlach, and Wyll grew on me. I played the first game some years ago and it's been really nice seeing references to what happened in that game. Other than that first game I'm generally clueless about The Forgotten Realms. I'm playing a kinda reckless character, making shit up as I go along. At the time of writing this I'm running around the Shadow-Cursed Lands, trying to infiltrate the Moonrise Towers and being constntly encumbered because I pick up everything that isn't nailed down. Will do a proper post once I'm done, but until then have a screenie of my character sitting on Yurgir's throne: