Expedition 33 has no business being this beautiful

It's been impossible to avoid this game for all last year. And now I get it. Wow. I need to process this. 

I'm avoiding spoilers.

I was specifically recommended this game when I said that I enjoy turn-based combat. Something got lost in translation there because when I say turn-based combat I mean Baldur's Gate 3, XCOM, Wasteland, Shadowrun, Total War, Civilization, etc. Not JRPG. Generally the combat of JRPGs gets a bit stale for me after a while, but I decided to give it a go. 

I'm glad I did. I don't think any other game has made me feel so many things so much all at once before. 

Everything about this game is beautiful: the aesthetic, the characters, the environments, the story, the music, holy shit. I love how unapologetically French it is, yet willing to poke fun at the Frenchness (the mimes and the baguettes omfg). The ever-present mélancolie in French media/culture served this game well. So beautifully utilised. I've had the soundtrack stuck in my head for weeks. 

(This is my fave but I also love Alicia, Maelle, In Lumière's Name, and Une vie à t'aimer)

Each act swung plot twists at me like damn sledgehammers. I saw none of them coming (which is an achievement, congratulations). 

The game starts by telling you that it plays better with controller. I laughed at that, because I won't play better with controller. I would've missed every single parry and dodge because I'd have to look at the buttons to remember which one does what, instead of only missing half of them because I still suck at timing things.

I'm one of those gamers who like to do everything in the world before heading for the main objective. I was very confused by how little of the map was available to me, yet it seemed like I was getting close to the supposed end of the story. At least the point you think is the end in the first half of the game. So I had to look it up, afraid I'd miss something. Turns out the map doesn't truly open up until after act 2. So I kept playing.

Act 1 ended with a gut-punch that took me way too long to recover from. I'm not sure I've recovered yet tbh. The end of act 2 was both satisfying as hell because the puzzle pieces started to come together, but also HOLY SHIT WHAT. I struggled so hard with the choice in act 3 and I think I'll need to replay the game at some point just to see the other ending. 

The gestral beaches had me tearing my hair out. Especially the ascension tower. I think I tried to climb that thing 20+ fucking times and I could not get it done. I kept mistiming jumps, going too far or not far enough. In the end I asked my bf to try it for me. He did it in two tries T_T All the other ones I managed on my own, after way too many attempts. 

Endless Tower was a gauntlet, but I got it done. I got so much XP from that, and I had hoped that I could redo stages of it to grind the last few levels until max, but turns out you get 0 XP from the stages once you've cleared them once. The Flying Manor was interesting. The Painting Workshop was cool. Renoir's Drafts was cool too, until The Abyss. Fuck Simon. Hate that guy. I'll get your optional ass in NG+.

Unable to beat Simon and unable to find enough XP to get the last few levels to max, which kept me from earning the last three achievements, I went and finished the game. The boss fight now turned ridiculously easy because I was way over-leveled for it, having completed everything the map had to offer besides Simon. 

The Thank You Update added a few new bosses in the Endless Tower, as well as a new zone with new mechanics, new enemies, new bosses, new weapons and gear, and a bunch of new stuff to do. Verso's Drafts ended up being one of my favourite zones, except for that last boss T_T And I thought Simon and The Flying Manor were bad. At least I managed to defeat this one. I went in to fight one of the new bosses in the Endless Tower, immediately mistimed the parry and it almost wiped my whole team. Then I noped out of doing any of the new bosses. 

So much frustration went into this game as I mistimed parries and dodges. So many boss mechanics which seemed unfair until I had found the proper equipment combinations. But then I'd do some story or exploration or hang out in the camp and all that frustration would just melt away. 

This has been fantastic. I want to go again, but I think I need a cleanse. To process. 

For those who come after.

Third time playing Hogwarts Legacy

Just before Christmas last year I booted up Hogwarts Legacy again for my third 100% playthrough. Since my previous playthrough they added a few things with free updates, like the previously PlayStation exclusive quest Minding Your Own Business, and a photo mode, among other things. 

I decided to go with my default Ravenclaw House. This time I made a slight roleplaying choice of having my character's hair get longer with each season. She started out with chin-length hair, which then got shoulder length in autumn, and then even longer in winter, and in spring it turned into a huge bun. 

What I was most excited about for this playthrough was the new quest. And it isn't available until winter... I started the quest pretty late in the evening and I think it was past 2am before I finished. It's probably the longest quest in the game. But it was one wild ride. 

I did not sign up for a horror game. When those mannequins started moving I got immediate Ghostwire Tokyo DLC flashbacks and I half expected to be sat here wincing "I don't wanna" while trying to get through it. But fortunately these mannequins could be fought and obliterated and that made them a lot less scary than the damn stalker in Ghostwire. 

The one thing I didn't like about the quest was how forceful my character suddenly became. Like throughout the whole game I had been playing this diplomatic, cautious and intellectual person, and now she's suddenly yelling at adults that she's old enough to own a store... Girl, you're not acting it. And where did that come from T_T

My favourite things in this game are flying around on my broom, breeding beasts, and playing The Sims in the Room of Requirement (decoration and management).

I've played through all the House specific quests, but now I have two full Ravenclaw playthroughs and one full Slytherin playthrough.

I'll definitely play this game again. 

The Witcher S04

Season 4, here we go. 

Hemsworth was great, but I still miss Cavill. Hemsworth looks too nice. As if he'd be just as inclined to hug you to death as slice you up. He did do a good job as Geralt, though. 

The entire season was amazing. Yen's fight against Vilgefortz, Geralt's desperation to find Ciri, Ciri trying her damndest to escape her destiny... It was absolutely great to follow all three storylines.

I had Regis figured out way before the reveal. 

Season 5 is allegedly going to be the last season. I really, really hope the end is as good as this season. I need this to end on a good note. 

Atomfall's The Red Strain DLC was like something out of Fallout New Vegas

A new DLC of Atomfall meant a new playthrough of Atomfall and two new endings to explore. 

Ngl, Atomfall feels a lot like a comfort game to me. I enjoy every aspect of it and I still love to explore the world even though I already know it.

Going into this third playthrough I still had one base game ending and one Wicked Isle DLC ending left to explore so I did my best to play through the game in a way that would let me explore all the endings I had left. And I succeeded. 

Gaining access to the new DLC was interesting in and of itself. There was very little hinting towards where you should go. I found a note or two referencing the elevator in Slatten Dale mine, but that was once I had already explored most of the base game lol. 

When you go to the new Test Site Moriah, make sure to bring atomic batteries - you're gonna need them. So the story from Tes Site Moriah is that a strain of fungus, seemingly unrelated to Oberon but still affected by Oberon/Windscale was being researched. They found a lot of useful properties in it, but also discovered that it was full of unpredictable side effects and the site was closed down. However, the Windscale explosion made the Red Strain break free. As the only functional human around it's up to you to decide what to do about it. 

And if you go to Test Site Moriah and start poking around, but then end up doing an ending not related to the DLC... The ending slides got things to tell you about it lmao.

Spoilers after video.

The brain in jars really makes me think of the Robobrains in Fallout and how they behave and interact brings me squarely into New Vegas territory. The ending where you help the brains escape Test Site Moriah to allow them to develop a cure to the Red Strain in peace is very New Vegas coded. Especially with how the brains misinterpreted extraction. I laughed at the monitor when I got that ending. 

Generally, knowing that the Red Strain most likely has escaped I feel like the ending of the world ending is less extreme than it actually is. Having the entire world potentially infected by the Red Strain already means an end to the world. 

All in all I had a good time with The Red Strain, although it felt like a side-step from base game and Wicked Isle. Like a side story that becomes tangentially related due to being affected by the Windscale explosion. 

Movies I watched in 2025

1. Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare (2025). We watched this one at the cinema. I love these dark adult spins on fairytales (that are technically dark to begin with, unless Disney-fied, but let's crank it up to a thousand). There were a few gory moments where I was sat hiding my face in my hands, but overall this was a good horror flick. 

2. Nosferatu (2024). I adore the original 1922 movie and I had high hopes for this remake. Let's be real - a 100 year old movie can stand to have a remake. It was amazing. Absolutely brilliant. I loved how it stuck to the theatricality of the original (acting has come a long way in 100 years) yet managed to modernise it at the same time. Lily Rose Depp was brilliant. The story was kept intact and surprisingly faithful. The only thing I didn't like about this movie was the moustache. They claim they gave Orlok a moustache because a person from his time period would absolutely have a moustache, and yeah I don't disagree with that, that's true. But as a vampire he had lost all other hair on his body, yet the moustache frickin sticks?!?! Come on. 

3. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017). We decided it was time to give the reboot a proper watch. It was fun. I like that they referenced the original and even brought some inspo from the cartoon. I do enjoy the video game spin on things though.

4. Night at the Museum 2 (2009). Stumbled upon this while visiting my parents. Just something to watch on TV. It was alright. Pretty fun.

5. San Andreas (2015). Disaster movie about California experiencing The Eartquake that everyone's fearing and expecting. Pretty standard as far as disaster movies go. 

6. Day After Tomorrow (2004). We continued the disaster movie trend with this one. I watched this one way back in the day as a teenager when it was new. Already back then my mom and I commented on how ridiculous fake the wolves looked. The CGI had not improved with age.

7. Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). The second movie of the reboot. Not as good as the first one, but still decent. I can't decide whether I liked having Nick Jonas in it. I'm still surprised when I see him in any other context than music. 

8. Terrifier (2016). Bf really wanted to watch this one. I hate clowns. So we watched it. It was really good. There was too much going on for me to really focus on the clown aspect. A bunch of gore, but I can't remember having to hide my face, so it wasn't too bad. 

9. Midsommar (2019). Everyone talked about this movie for a while, so we decided to watch it. Neither of us understand why people talked about this movie. It was extremely slow to start, to the point where it felt like it never really kicked off, before it ended in a drug-infused orgy. I'm so confused. Ironically, this was shown on TV when I visited my parents for midsummer. I made them switch the channel. I didn't want to watch this one more time. 

10. Saw (2004). I remember when Saw was new. Can't believe it's a classic now. We decided it was time to rewatch this classic franchise. And oh damn, Jigsaw is so great. Both of us had seen this one before, but it had been at least a decade.

11. Saw II (2005). Same as above. 

12. What Happened to Monday (2017). Stumbled upon this when visiting my parents. A dystopian movie where only one child is allowed. A set of septuplets live their lives as one single person, each getting one day of the week each. Then Monday disappears, and the whole thing unravels as the sisters try to figure out what happened. Surprisingly good. 

13. Saw III (2006). Neither of us had seen this one before, but we wanted to continue with our Saw rewatching. This is probably the weakest of the three. Yet that twist at the end... *chef's kiss*

14. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). This was better than either of us expected. We had a lot of fun with it. It's exactly what you expect, but it's really well made.

15. Nimona (2023). Aside from Nosferatu, this was probably my favourite movie of the year. An animated adventure, clearly for kids, but with enough humour that adults can appreciate it. Classic story of embracing differences and good vs evil, but it was humoristic and light-hearted in all the right places, and handled the dark parts really well.

16. The Haunting of Margam Castle (2020). Probably the worst movie of the year. Don't watch this. I'm not even gonna say what it's about. It's shit. Fucking deadpan acting looking like they were all reading off a teleprompter.

17. Five Nights at Freddy's (2023). Neither of us have played the games, but hanging out with other gamers ofc we had the rough idea of what the games are about and what this movie would be about. Funny, gory, dark and scary in all the right places. Better than I expected.

18. Cunk on Life (2024). This got a bit too silly and dumb. It had its moments, but imo it leaned a bit too far into dumb territory, straying from fun and silly. Mockumentary about life on earth.

19. The Thursday Murder Club (2025). I really enjoyed this one. There's something cosy and wholesome about a bunch of pensioneers spending their time solving old crime, because they have nothing better to do. And then a real crime shows up. 

20. Soundproof (2006). Another movie I stumbled upon when visiting my parents. It was really unusual to see a movie where deaf people took centre stage. Generally it was a pretty standard criminal drama, but it played on prejudices and difficulties communicating across language barriers.

21. In Your Dreams (2025). Super wholesome animated adventure movie for kids that just hit all the right notes. This was great. A family on the verge of breaking apart and the children wishes for them to stick together. Then they find out the Sandman can grant wishes.