Atomfall gave me all the vibes

Atomfall had been on my radar for a long time. It's described as British Fallout, but as soon as you get out of the starting bunker you'll realise that this is very different from Fallout. First of all it's Britain, second it takes place in 1962 - five years after the Windscale fire (which was a real thing). It's obvious as soon as you get out of the bunker and into the world that this is no mere nuclear explosion. This isn't radioactive fallout. This is something else entirely. And as you go through the story, find writings and talk to people - where every dialogue choice offers up a different avenue of clues, you'll slowly find out the truth of what happened at Windscale back in October 1957. 

When the game starts you wake up inside a bunker within the quarantine zone. You don't know who you are or how you got there - the zone has been closed off for five years. You emerge from the bunker with the objective to get out of there, but you end up having to find out what really happened before that becomes an option. 

The base game has six different endings, the DLC offers you three more, with all the dialogue choices and mission choices this game offers a lot of replayability. Some of the characters you meet will ask you to do things for them to further their own agendas, and if you do this for them they'll help you escape from the zone. But several of these characters actively work against one another and if you go too far helping one character, another might end up dead. 

All of the endings are very open-ended, some of them gave me more questions than they answered, but that provides possibilities for more DLCs or even sequel(s). 

Personally, while I played I didn't get any Fallout vibes, but it gave me some We Happy Few vibes, some Generation Zero and a little bit Dishonored.

There's enough variety in the world that it never gets boring to explore. There are your plain old enemy NPCs, but the world is also full of tripwires that set off bombs or traps when tripped, there are environmental dangers like bees, rats, leeches, crows, electric eels, exploding/spittting/thumping plants, infection clouds, Skethermoor even has landmines all over, and dark places are homes to ferals. Always pick up everything you find, and always make sure you have Molotovs and/or sticky bombs.

The big bad robots became less scary as soon as I had any gun that could shoot fast and did High or Very High damage. You want to upgrade your weapons and to do that you need two of every kind and the skill perk Gunsmith, which you unlock by finding or buying the Crafting Manual. There are three tiers of guns in the game: Rusty, Stock, and Pristine. To get a Stock level gun you need to combine two Rusty guns (of the same kind) in the crafting menu. To get a Pristine level gun you need to combine two Stock guns. Inventory space is always a hassle to manage, the Pneumatic tubes found inside bunkers saw freqeuent use, and more often than not I'd make a sidetrip to a nearby bunker to either dump things, craft things, or take things out to hand to the trader so I could buy the manual/recipe/battery/ammo they had. 

I really appreciated the Lovecraftian vibes provided by the Wicked Isle DLC, especially the aquatic ferals that gave me strong Shadow Over Innsmouth vibes. I also loved the historical context and aspect provided by the DLC. Weird islander folk, indeed xD

And then you finish the whole game and take a breath and immediately this amazing song plays for the credits. Worth it to finish the game again just to hear it.

Recommendations for playing this game: always pick up everything, make frequent use of the pneumatic tubes, don't fret too much about trading because pretty much everything they offer can be found by exploring. When you wake up talk to Nat and Molly and then go directly to the Village. Talk to everybody there, then head to the Woods, then back to Slatten Dale, and then go to "The Entrance" there. Basically find out as much as you can from the outside before you head to the place they're all talking about. Don't worry, you'll go back and forth between the outside and the inside quite a bit. 

I played through the game twice and managed to unlock five out of six base game endings and two out of three DLC endings. I'll probably play this game again at some point. This has been fantastic!

(And no, Atomfall isn't Atomic Heart lol)

Game completed: Ghost of Tsushima

When this game first released I never thought I'd get to play it. I'm very bad with controllers and thus I play on console very rarely. But then it re-released on PC and I was so excited to get to play it. 

Naturally, I played it with Japanese speech and English subtitles. The subtitles were a crutch to lean on, but several times throughout the game I was just sitting there shaking my head at the translations because "that's not what s/he said". Like when Yuna tells Jin: "Shinu na", she's literally telling him not to die and the game just "Good luck!" I suppose they were going for a similar vibe with the translation, but I don't think telling someone not to die is a similar vibe to wishing someone luck on their mission. Maybe that's just me. 

The game is incredibly beautiful to the point where I just had to stop and stare several times, and the stories are so well-crafted you get emotionally invested in all the characters. Towards the end of Act 2 and the beginning of Act 3 several deaths happened that just left me feeling devastated.

The gameplay was varied enough that it never felt boring, not even towards the end when I was running around doing nothing but collecting flowers so I could unlock the last few equipment dyes was I bored. I used MapGenie as I went to make sure I missed nothing at all before moving on to the next zone and the next Act.

Ultimately I didn't want the game to end. Once the third act started I was both reluctant to continue playing because I knew I was approaching the end, but at the same time I didn't want to stop. Once I reached the end and NG+ unlocked, there was a part of me that considered going through the whole thing again. It was just that good. Instead I started poking at the Legends mode and quickly realised it wasn't for me. 

I made sure to play both versions of the ending. I would really like a redemption arc for Jin, some way that he could regain his status even after everything. Like how he redeemed his clan on Iki even after everything. I quite liked the DLC.

As usual I died more trying to climb to the shrines than I did fighting enemies lol. At that first boss fight I thought I failed the game before it even had started, but no, I was supposed to fail that fight. 

And then there's Yuna. There's so much unresolved tension between Jin and Yuna and I was hoping for a kiss between them several times throughout the main story line, but no dice. Instead I turned to fanfiction and luckily there are a lot of fans of the games who seem to think the same as me. 

I want to go again...

Sweden Rock Festival 2025

Due to circumstances we started out later this year than previous years. Tuesday morning at 10am we started the journey south and we arrived at 4:30pm. Got the tents up, exchanged our tickets for wristbands, got some food, and then we could finally get the party started. The festival started properly on Wednesday. First band I saw was Wind Rose. I had previously only heard their version of Diggy Diggy Hole so that was the only song I knew. They were really great live, though, and once they finished I ended up saving their This Is playlist on Spotify to listen more to them later.

Next up was Jinjer. A band I had heard a lot about, but never really listened to. Still, other people in the camp were going to see them so I decided to tag along. It was an experience for sure and they were really great. Amazing stage presence! Another This Is playlist saved on Spotify. 

After Jinjer I decided to head to the official merch stand and get my first Slipknot T-shirt since I was fifteen. Skillet was starting 15 minutes after Jinjer ended, but I figured I could get my shirt and head to the stage in 15 minutes. It's usually possible. However, they had payment issues and it took me FORTY-FIVE minutes to get the T-shirt. I managed to catch three songs of Skillet. Luckily one of them was my favourite song by them. Unfortunately this was probably the weakest concert I went to this year. 

After Skillet I headed to the festival brand merch shop to get this year's T-shirt (gotta have one for every year), and then I met up with a couple camp mates to watch Within Temptation. They're here like every two or three years so I've seen them like six times at this point, so my excitement wasn't peaked this time. However, they always deliver and I got chills throughout most of the concert. Stand My Ground live keeps bringing me to the verge of tears. The first song I heard by them, back when TV still had entire channels dedicated to music videos. 

Back to camp for a bit more partying before heading back in the festival area to see Slipknot. I had previosuly seen them at Metaltown 2009 and Metaltown 2013, but it's been twelve years and this was probably my most anticipated show of the entire year. They delivered. This was the show where I went so hard my neck hurt for the rest of the festival. Worth it! Only criticisms I have are that the vibe check pauses were too long, ending the set with Scissors probably wasn't their best decision, and where TF was Before I Forget?

After Slipknot we chilled with some food and drink in camp before bedtime. 

On Thursday I headed back to the festival early with some camp mates to see Brothers of Metal. Same situation as with Wind Rose in that I had only heard one of their songs earlier, Yggdrasil, and so I only knew that one. They were amazing live, though, and I saved their This Is playlist on Spotify as well. 

After Brothers of Metal we went to have an ice latte and watched Dark Tranquillity on the big stage from a bit of a distance. We wanted to see them, but neither of us were that into that band so a bit of a distance, hiding under the shade of a parasol was optimal. I've seen Dark Tranquillity before and they always deliver. 

Afterwards we returned to camp for some partying, except the sky opened up and we got torrential rain for an hour during which we all hunkered down in our tents. When the rain stopped the party continued. Later I returned to the festival area alone to see Sex Pistols. When I started to listen to them alongside Ramones and The Clash back when I was 16 I never thought I'd ever get to see the Sex Pistols live, so this was kind of a dream come true.And holy shit they delivered, it was a great show.

Back to camp for some partying and later in the evening we all returned to watch Korn, which for me ended up the disappointment of the year. Yeah they sounded great, the music was spot on, but when I left after an hour they had said absolutely nothing to the audience, the crowd work was non-existent. They went out on stage and did their thing and that was it. From time to time Jonathan would aim the mic at the audience for us to sing, but there was never any prior interaction, so whenever he did aim the mic at us everyone was caught off guard and it only ended up in awkward silences. Last time I saw them at Metaltown 2013 I remember it being very different. 

Instead of finishing the concert I went back to camp to hang out, have some food and a couple last drinks before bedtime. 

Friday was cold. The sunshine had been exchanged for clouds and strong winds. The morning had some rain, but it didn't last. Unfortunately the constant strong winds made the weather terrible. Whenever the wind temporarily lulled the day was actuially pretty warm, but the wind just ruined everything. The first band we went to see was Apocalyptica, which we watched from the opposite stage waiting for Orbit Culture.

Orbit Culture is a band I've heard a lot about, but never actually listened that much to. That will change after this show because holy shit, this was probably the best show of the year. Another This Is playlist saved on Spotify. That mosh pit was one of the biggest I've seen. There was a short spout of heavy rain during the show. Me and the camp mate I went with just looked at each other like "It'll pass" and continued headbanging. 

After Orbit we returned to the camp and spent the rest of the evening trying to be party while the wind was trying its best to make us miserable. Most of the camp had lost interest in going inside to see Scorpions in the evening, especially considering it was oh so bad the last time we saw them at Sweden Rock Festival. But me and one camp mate eventually decided to go anyway. It was definitely a weak performance. Musically they hold up, but vocally... it's bad. At least they managed to get the crowd to sing along this time ♥

After Scorpions I went directly to bed. After the chilly Friday I felt very ready for Saturday to be the last day and then go home. 

On Saturday we woke up to more of the same wind situation. At least there was no rain. We packed up half our things before heading in to watch the last show of the year. Joddla Med Siv. Back in 2023 they had them on a smaller stage and they severely misjudged how popular these guys are. The entire area was packed with people, all the way through the entrances. People were climbing the fences and the surrounding trees to watch them. So this time they put them on the largest stage, the gig felt less intimate as a result, but at least there was room for all the people. Yet they filled the entire area and it was a huge party. 

Once the show was over we packed up the rest of our stuff and headed to the car to start the journey back home. We arrived home at around 11:15pm. I had a shower and unpacked, chilled a bit in front of my PC and then went to bed. And slept for 12 hours. 

Sweden Rock Festival is always the highlight of the year and always a constant party, but at the end of the Friday most of us are always like "I miss my bed. And my shower. And my fridge. And my bathroom. And not having to queue for everything. And not having constant noise." Best damn week of the year but it's always amazing to come home. See you next year! ♥

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