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.