My last 5 books: Mostly YA!

1. Eliza and Her Monsters, by Francesca Zappia. Only reason I decided to pick this book up several years ago is because Hannah of A Clockwork Reader kept gushing about it on Booktube. I went in with absolutely no expectations, but I was hooked almost immediately. I resonate so hard with both Eliza and Wallace, being that socially awkward person in every context. When Eliza described herself in one of the first few chapters saying she should've grown out of it I knew I was hooked. And then Wallace's stepdad saying those absolutely parent things about his writing is so close to everything I've been told myself. And finally Eliza's parents refusing to understand what's going on despite it being clear as day if they made even the smallest effort. Even her parents have brushed her off as "She's weird, we don't understand" and then still claim that they're trying. News flash: you're not, stop lying. This book made me cry on the commuter train. 

2. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, by Mackenzi Lee. This is another book that Hannah of A Clockwork Reader talked about on Booktube. It came highly recommended by her which is why I picked it up. As much as I enjoy historical fiction and as much fun the plot of this book was, it didn't wow me. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad, it just was. As much as I tried to relate to Monty, he mostly just exasperated me and I found myself wishing for more Felicity and less Monty. Percy was genuinely the best character in the book. I did enjoy the alchemy stuff, though, as I find alchemy to be an incredibly interesting subject. I might give the sequel a try since it'll be about Felicity. This is one of few books that actually had me read the author's notes at the end. 

3. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. I went into this book expecting YA so it was very jarring to realise that this book read like Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It's absolutely beautifully crafted and the characters are immensly interesting, but the plot took its sweet time to get going. I think I was around 200 pages in when I finally got to a place where I found the book hard to put down, instead of just remaining mildly interested in where this story would take me. I'm not a fan of the ending. I don't like Isobel. I wish Hector and Alexander were given more room and didn't just amount to "father-figure the young people complain about", because their backgrounds and motivations and personalities are all there, just below the surface, being teased but never properly utilised. There were two shocking moments in the book that had me actually pause and then reread the page. I can't decide if I like this book or not. It definitely has its strengths, but at the same time it just feels very very long. Sometimes unnecessarily so. And getting to the end was very unrewarding. But I really like Celia. In the end I think I liked it more than I didn't like it, but it definitely requires a specific mood to be enjoyed. 

4. Den Tusende Följaren, av Jenny Milewski. Ni vet den där känslan när en vuxen person som inte har en aning har försökt sätta sig in i en grej för att relatera med kidsen och framstå som modern? Den känslan är hela den här boken. Stella är sjutton år och småkändis på Youtube men hon råkar få en stalker/troll på halsen och hennes småtrevliga celebritet blir plötsligt en mardröm. Tycker det är grymt fascinerande att Stella har haft en närvaro online sen hon var tretton år, men aldrig fått en dickpic skickad till sig innan det här trollet kom in i bilden. Hela boken känns som skrämselpropaganda för unga människor att "kolla hur farligt internet är!" Samtidigt ska det här vara en ungdomsbok och huvudpersonen är sjutton, så det skär sig lite med en detaljerad sexscen mitt i alltihop. Dialogen är glättig och uppstyltad. Och på något vänster kommer det fram att storyn egentligen inte ens handlar om huvudpersonen. Den tvisten var mindre uppskattad av mig i alla fall. Milewski's författarskap har hittills varit väldigt hit or miss för mig. Jag har tidigare läst Yuko och Skalpelldansen. 

5. Vita Tigern, av Christin Ljungqvist. Okej så den här boken tilltalade mig inte alls till att börja med. Avalon var en bråkig skitunge, texten kändes hackig med alldeles för många korta meningar efter varandra, och world-buildingen var minimal. Men efter att jag hade lyckats ta mig ungefär halvvägs så blev förbättrades storyn radikalt. Avalon insåg att hon hade varit en bråkig skitunge och tog sig i kragen och blev därmed spännande och intressant att läsa om, man fick veta mer om världen och det blev färre korta meningar och bättre flow i texten. Slutet störde mig dock. Det kändes för plötsligt med så många obesvarade frågor. Och hur dum är Avalon som totalt dumpar Teodor efter att hon får veta att han är "in on it". Borde inte det vara något som för dem närmre varandra?! Ja, han kanske var utsänd att hålla ett öga på henne, men allvarligt? Alla hans intima gester och känslomässiga snedsteg hade knappast med det att göra och Avalon är så dum jag orkar inte. Jag vill ha en uppföljare.

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.

Top left: Oldrim. Top right: Special Edition. Bottom: Anniversary Edition

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. 

Top left: Arena. Top right: Morrowind. Bottom left: Oblivion. Bottom right: Skyrim.

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! 

Left: Cradle of Shadows in 2016. Right: Victory in Halls of Fabrication in 2017

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. 

Left; The Elder Scrolls: Blades. Right: The Elder Scrolls: Castles

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!

Let's end this massive post with a song (one of the best version of this song that I've ever heard):

Game completed: The Outer Worlds (twice)

Been hearing lots of good about this game so I picked it up. It's been a fantastic ride! One of my favourite games for sure. Only complaints are basically that it's too short and there's no romance (Maaaaaaaaaxxxx ♥♥♥♥)

So for my first playthrough I went in completely blind and without any clue what the game would be and how it worked. Lockpicking took me a while to figure out: how the magpicks and the skill levels worked together. I was on the regular edition but with both DLCs. I played through Murder of Eridanos before I even met with Sophia Akande and was stumped when max level turned out to be 36. What kind of arbitrary number is that? I was level 36 before I even started the Gorgon DLC and it kind of ruined the game a bit that there was nothing more to be gained really. No more growth left. So I decided to finish up the story on the regular edition and then play the game again on the Spacer's Choice edition that released last year where they scrapped the level cap. This decision made me rush a bit through the rest of the game. 

So for my next playthrough on Spacer's Choice I decided to focus on the Stealth, Tech and Dialogue skills and let my companions bring the fire power. No lock or speech check could stop me. I explored every inch of every map and ventured to unlock as many achievements as I possibly could. Which included separate saves so I could get all the achievements for branching story paths. Ultimately I made some different choices on this playthrough than I did on my previous one. I saved as many people as I could.

As for the companions everybody loves Parvati. But while she's very sweet she's also so awkward that it hurts. Her banter with other companions is just all fluster and nerves and I eventually stopped bringing her because I couldn't stand her stammering. Ellie and Nyoka were a fun combo and I really like them both. However, my favourite companions became Max and Felix and I brought them along for basically everything all the time. Their banter is priceless. 

My favourite areas to explore were Eridanos and Terra 2. Edgewater even brought a Morrowind vibe with that volcano and big mushrooms. Although Groundbreaker was a really cool place and I love the effect of entering it for the first time. It's so pretty. 

Can I have a sequel, please?

Doctor Who: The 2022 and 2023 specials

Eve of the Daleks.

This one was actually pretty good. One of Jodie's best imo. New Years Eve. Time loop. Unrequited love. Daleks. Does it get any better? Probably not by much. 

Legend of the Sea Devils.

I wanted to like this one. Bringing a Classic mosnter into New Who is something I'll always approve of, but this was badly done. They should've updated the Sea Devil costume, modern TV requires more than what they did with them. You can't just slap a 70s costume on actors and expect it to work today. It'll only look amateurish. The story should've been cool with pirates and stuff, but it just fell short.

The Power of the Doctor.

Master is back. Classic companions are back. UNIT is back. Friends and enemies from Jodie's era are back. This was such an amazing send-off! Easily the best thing that has come out of Jodie's tenure as the Doctor. And that regeneration... ♥ Fantastic send-off!

The Star Beast.

Tennant is back. Donna is back. UNIT is back. The Meep is a fantastic villain. It's got fast-paced banter and all the hilarity from the Doctor trying to avoid Donna while the universe keeps pushing him towards her. It would've been fantastic if it wasn't so preachy. I suspect RTD thought he was very clever in reutilising Donna's "binary, binary, binary, binary" this way. There's a right way to be inclusive and declare you're an ally, this wasn't it.

Wild Blue Yonder.

This episode was amazing! Just the right amount of creepy, but also hilarious due to the comedic duo that is Donna and Tennant. This episode brings to mind Midnight and Flatline, which were both amazing episodes in their own right. 

The Giggle.

I was excited for this episode from the time I saw it announced. They brought back the Toymaker! A villain from the 60s! Hartnell era villain! I was so excited and holy shit NPH didn't disappoint. More Classic companions! More UNIT! And omg Bernard Cribbins ♥ And 10th finally got the family he wanted. I was so so happy for him. That dual-regeneration was weird though. But at a first glance - Ncuti seems really fucking great as the Doctor.

The Church on Ruby Road.

Ncuti's first real episode as the Doctor and it was a blast! Ruby seems like a great companion too! The goblin song number was pretty cringe, but aside from that this was a really solid episode and a great introduction. I hope that old lady will show up again and play a bigger role! 

Two years, three Doctors. Not bad :D

We survived The Forest (twice)

After Grounded we set our sights on another survival game: The Forest. This game is immensly popular and so neither of us had missed the broad strokes of what the game was about. 

We decided to make our camp at an almost island since the cannibals can't swim and felt so secure there that we didn't really bother to build anything in the way of defence for a really long time. We took our time exploring the island, fighting cannibals, crafting everything we possibly could, and going into every cave we found. 

And then our camp was attacked by three Armsy, two fatasses and two of those shaman looking cannibals. And we had no defences. They completely demolished most of our camp before we managed to kill them all with the help of explosives and molotovs. After that we spent several play sessions just building our base; a big wall around the entirety of it, at least one of every kind of trap available, every kind of effigy available, shelves for extra explosives and even a rampart we could use to stand on to throw explosives and molotovs down on any attackers. I also had to rebuild my cabin and bed after they destroyed it. And I made sure to put in some extra decorations this time around. After all that and the only attack that came was from a half a dozen ordinary cannibals and then nothing more for the duration of the game. We completely demolished the forest for no reason lol.

The To-Do list was our go to for what to do besides base-building. But once our only objectives left were to find a way to the bottom of the sinkhole, find Timmy and find what happened to the passengers we resorted to look online to find out what we had missed. There were two caves we had missed: the Lawyer Cave and the Chasm Cave. The Chasm Cave then led into the sinkhole and the entire ending of the story. We went inside there at around 2am and I just wanted to keep on playing because we were so close to the end. We ended up finishing the story at 4:30am xD The final boss battle was crazy and we wiped once, but thankfully the boss didn't reset and we only had a couple hits left on it before it died. 

The Forest was so great for so many reasons and just like with Grounded I feel like I could start it up and just play around with crafting and building

When we finished the story of The Forest we set our sights on Sons of the Forest. 

Sons of the Forest gave a very different feeling compared to The Forest. As soon as we started out we went to find a good place for a camp, set up some basic shelters and a rudimentary wall and then went exploring. Which in The Forest would've been an entirely plausible thing to do. But in Sons of the Forest when you only have the stick weapons it's basically suicide. The mutants are tanky as hell and hit like trucks. Soooooo many deaths in the beginning and we got so annoyed at re-emerging in the middle of mutant camps, having to snatch up our gear and run like hell just to not get killed again and have to do it all over again. 

So after getting sick of dying we decided to return to camp and just build for a while. Kelvin was a big help (most of the time) in gathering crafting materials. The one big thing where he failed was that he never considered which direction the trees would fall in when he chopped them down to gather logs and he completely demolished my walls more than once. 

After the first winter we started to get a hang of things and the game picked up. We managed to completely explore a bunch of caves and bunkers that we previously had had to abandon either because we lacked equipment or because we simply couldn't manage all the mutants with our basic weapons. Once we got the shotgun though... Hahahahaha come at me, fuckers! 

The thing we missed the most from The Forest ended up being the To-Do list. As rudimentary as it was, it gave a clear idea of what we had left to do and how much we probably had left of the story. Without it, the end of the story came as such a surprise. We didn't even realise the story had ended until the pop-up that told us that we had (accidentally) chosen to remain on the island. 

The most annoying thing was the artefacts, which probably came from us playing this in the last month of early access. We quickly found the first piece, then two more. Then we found a note saying they had shattered the artefact into six pieces. We found the fourth piece and then the story abruptly ended. All confused we went about trying to find the last two pieces. But we ran out of caves and bunkers after the fifth piece... Looked it up online only to find out that the sixth and final piece doesn't even exist in the game yet. You'd think the game would be pretty much done when there's only one month left to full release... We spent the entire game referring to these artefacts as "the bzzzt", because they were always crackling with electricity when found.

All in all we had fun with Sons of the Forest too, but not as much as with The Forest. Seasons was an interesting addition, but aside from winter the seasons weren't all that noticeable. And winter was annoying. The majority of the resources were covered by snow and ice. And even after we found the winter jackets we had to walk around with the torches constantly to not have half our stamina stolen by "You are cold". You'd think the winter jacket would help. After the first winter we learned to properly hoard for the next winter and our camp looked like a fishery with all the drying racks with drying fish (and body parts) on them. I really missed the warmsuit from The Forest whenever winter showed up. Animal pelts can only be used to craft hide armor and nothing else. 

Clean water was an annoyance, because even after we had managed to craft the canteen it could only hold two gulps of water (basically two gulps, you can drink twice and then it's empty) unlike in The Forest where the canteen had four gulps iirc. We got the cooking pot and tried to boil the dirty water clean, but nope it can only be used to make soup. Did make some ramen though. And all those water bottles in the bunkers can't be used to refill the canteens. So we lived off energy drinks and dirty water because it was what was available. 

Enough complaining. The overarching story was pretty cool aside from its abrupt end. I'll never forget the time we went into a really long winding cave and then we came to a fork in the road. On one side was a dead astronaut and I decided we should follow the astronaut. In the tunnel leading from him was another and then another and then another, until the tunnel opened up into a large cavern with a spaceship in it being assaulted by lightning strikes. It was so cool. 

Finding out how all the mutants came to be via information in the bunkers was also pretty cool. Each bunker leads to a new bunker if you remember to interact with the laptops. 

The most important gear are the tin man costume, the shotgun, the shovel and the rebreather. The vehicles spread throughout the world were fun but ultimately unusable because of the uneven terrain. 

There was a larger variety of gross mutants that dropped creepy armor (my go-to for protection) but even the lowliest mutants are super-mega-deadly unlike in The Forest where the lowliest mutants can be poked thrice with a crafted spear and then they die. 

Our camp got raided a lot more frequently in Sons of the Forest than our camp did in The Forest and I built multiple traps of every variety all around the outer walls and they worked really hard. We got so many skin pouches just from sitting in camp and letting the traps take care of the enemies. Skin pouches are the best loot in the game xD

After we finished the story and ran out of caves and bunkers to explore we decided to keep the game installed until after full release and then maybe start it up again and play it a bit more. We hope they'll add some stuff immediately upon release and fix a few things as well. But all in all, we had a good time. 

The Ranch

Toni originally watched this a couple years ago and late last year he decided it was time for me to watch it with him. I was uncertain I'd like it. Mainly because of Ashton Kutcher, because everything I've seen him in he's been playing the "I'm so dumb it's a miracle I can walk and talk at the same time, but I'm pretty so it's okay" character. And I hate that character. But I decided to give this show a shot.

It was so worth it. 

This is a story of a family of characters who all do their best to survive the changing landscape between corporate economy and family-owned businesses. Throughout it all there's a lot of love, family, drama and real profound sorrow. So many issues they work through together without ever sacrificing their individuality.

Beau is my favourite character. Maggie gets too preachy. Abby can be a bit entitled but generally I like her too. Joanne is great. I never liked Rooster. Colt is a personification of Linkin Park's song "In the End". 

I didn't like the storyline they made for Mary after Rooster, but up until that point she was one of my favourite characters. Heather got some real substance beyond season 1 and she really grew on me. 

Just do yourself a favour and watch this show.

Game completed: Baldur's Gate 3

My journey with this game has been quite something. When it was released as early access I was moderately curious after having played the first one several years ago. But I wanted to wait for proper release. When it did release properly last autumn I was busy playing Starfield and I ended up completely pissed off at this game due to everyone comparing Starfield with it and everything that was wrong with Starfield was because it did things differently from Baldur's Gate 3 according to these people. I wasn't going to play it at all as a protest, but as much as everyone talked about the game my curiosity eventually won me over and I started to play it in December. 

I'm in no way new to the turnbased combat mechanic and as usual Luck was absolutely not on my side. 95% chance to hit? You bet your ass I'm gonna miss. I think I even missed a few 99% chance hits. And sooooo many dice rolls ended up as either complete fumbles or fails because Luck/RNG just hates me. 

The whole companion and camp mechanic gave me strong Dragon Age Origins vibes already from the get-go. Honestly if Dragon Age 4 ends up being like Baldur's Gate 3 I'll be so happy. Open world but still staying true to the roots. Modern but still sticking with the old style that people love/d. 

There will be spoilers in the mix from this point forward.

It soon became clear that the characters were the pivotal driving force of the game. As much as the open world was amazing and full of things to do and discover, and as much as the over-arching story drew the player forward, it's the companions that made the game. Jaheira and Minsc were a great throwback to the first game. Sarevok not so much. I was so happy when I went to Jaheira's hideout in the Lower City and found out she married Khalid. 

I wasn't too keen on Shadowheart at first, but while in the Shadow-Cursed Lands she really grew on me and her whole character arc drew me in. By the time we got to Act 3 she was one of my favourites. Laezel was equally difficult. I didn't expect to care so much for her and surprised myself when Orin kidnapped her in Act 3 and my reaction was to immediately go save her because don't your dare kill my githyanki. Karlach and Halsin are both big cuddly teddybears and I liked them from the start. Wyll was an outlier and it took me the longest to get to like him. Gale was instantly a favourite of mine and for the one hour I had him without the entire team assmbled in Act 1 I thought he'd be the one I'd romance in this game. Then I met Astarion and immediately fell in love with him. His introduction reminds me of Fenris' introduction in Dragon Age 2. 

After I got Astarion every choice I made in the game was the one I thought he would like the most. Except for the choice whether to allow him to go through Cazador's ritual or not. Sorry, but no, I like you the way you are and I'm not replacing one monster with another.

The Emperor was a really cool character, but I put Laezel above him and freed Orpheus. Which made the Emperor leave me for the Netherbrain. I saw it coming and was still sad I had to fight and kill him in the final fight. And he was so mad when I made the deal with Raphael, but dude calm your tits. I fully intended to break into the House of Hope and destroy the contract when I made that deal. Chill. 

My favourite parts of the game were when I talked the Toll Collector into defeating herself, the fight against the Surgeon, confronting Cazador, the fight against Myrkul, and the entire Shadow-Cursed Lands. The Toll-Collector was such a wtf moment, when I passed the persuasion rolls and she ended up blowing herself up without the need for a fight. The Surgeon fight was creepy in every way and I loved it just because of that. Confronting Cazador brought out a whole lot of stuff on Astarion and it was such huge growth in his character. The fight against Myrkul was the first "oh shit oh shit oh shit" moment of the game for me. The Shadow-Cursed Lands were bleak to start but it's also where the game really gets going. Act 1 is sort of a prolonged prologue, Act 2 and the Shadow-Cursed Lands is where the story really kicks off and all the companions come into their own as actual people and not just NPCs and it's just so great. Ngl the fight against Orin was damn cool too.

As for the endings, I chose to destroy the Crown of Karsus with the help of Orpheus who had turned into a mindflayer. Afterwards he asked me to kill him and so I did. Astarion is still a spawn but in a relationship with Tav and out adventuring with her and trying to find a way to let him walk in the sun again. Shadowheart has gone to Selûne with her parents watching over her as moon wisps. Laezel has joined her people as the Comet and his fighting against Vlaakith. Gale retrieved the pieces of the Crown, reforged it, and gave it to Mystra. She freed him of the Orb and now he's a teacher. I broke Wyll's contract with Mizora, he lost his warlock powers and re-educated himself into a Ranger and is still a Blade of the Frontier. I didn't want to force Karlach to go back to Avernus and couldn't find a way to fix her engine so she died. 

I'll probably replay this game a few more times, but as for now this is it. I had a lot of fun with Baldur's Gate 3 and while I don't agree with the people who say that this is the best game ever made and we can just give up now because nothing will ever top this - I do agree it's a good game. 

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. 

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:

This post is for games that I played that released in 2023. I started BG3 too late for it to be included and I played Fire Emblem, AC and ESO elsewhere, but here's my Steam Wrapped 2023: