I needed more Eora after Avowed so I played Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2

Like the title says and like I said in my post on Avowed: after playing it for 2½ times I still didn't feel done with Eora, so I went and got Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2. 

Pillars of Eternity is more in the old style of RPGs, but that has never been an issue for me. More TTRPG, more point and click, and more storytelling and narrative. More tactical and less hack-and-slash combat is also a major positive for me. 

As always with a new game there's some confusion at the start. I was not prepared for Calisca and Heodan to die first thing lol. But okay so now I'm a Watcher and Awakened and I'm off to find Thaos to make him revert whatever he did. 

The first time I entered Gilded Vale it cast a really dark vibe with the tree full of hanging people and finding out about the Hollowborn "plague" was grim. Babies born without souls. 

Gilded Vale is also where I got my first two companions: Edér and Aloth, and I immediately fell for Aloth, after which I was so disappointed there wasn't even any minor romance in PoE1. I also liked Pallegina, Kana and Sagani. Durance never grew on me, Hiravias was simply crude and cringe, and I could never really get a grip on Grieving Mother. Yet I completed all of their companion quests.

I really enjoyed uncovering the maps and fixing up the stronghold, Caed Nua. I even went as far to complete the Endless Paths (omfg that was so long). And having a soft spot for war table mission, I had a lot of fun with the stronghold adventures I could send companions on. 

I wish the faction quests in Defiance Bay were longer, or that there were simply more of them, like fullblown faction questlines rather than one introduction quest and then you’re involved and here's another quest to piss the other guys off. I ended up going with the Dozens because I didn’t realise I'd get locked out of the other fiction simply by accepting the second quest. I thought I'd have to complete it to state my allegiance, but no. The subsequent riot and the agenda against animancy were both intetesting and appropriately gasp worthy story sequences. 

The battle at the Yenwood was way more difficult than it needed to be because I messed up a few quests that could’ve given me allies and instead I had to do the fight mostly alone. That was... wow. Another fight that was way more difficult than it needed to be was the siege of Crägholdt and the Concelhaut fight. That was just omfg so much trial and error ._. But eventually I got through it! Having Concelhaut's skull as my pet was a perk I didn’t expect but it was so amazing lol.

Then finally the descent into Sun in Shadow and omfg the revelations. NOW THE GODS' REACTIONS TO SAPADAL MAKE SENSE!!! 

As soon as I was done with PoE 1, I ventured into PoE 2, and immediately I recognized a bunch of things I had been told of in Avowed. Eothas wreaking havoc in the Deadfire, the storms of Rauatai...Thanks, Kai. AND OMG LÖDWYN!!

I loved the ship mechanics. Sailing the world is just such a vibe, whether it’s Assassin's Creed Odyssey, or Total War, or PoE 2 it’s just really enjoyable. I love the sea shanties! I could just sit around and listen to them :3 I also liked the increased importance placed on food and drink in Deadfire.

I was so happy to see Edér and then Aloth and Pallegina again. Hello, my friends :3 But for the new companions in PoE 2 I really came to like Tekēhu, Ydwin, Rekke, and Fassina. I wish I liked Serafen, but I bought a slave to infiltrate the slavers and he blew up at me even though I freed the damn slave after I bought him and brought him aboard as a paid member of my crew. Serafen still talked to me like I was despicable, and I just sat there like what else do you want from me? Xoti was too religious, I don't like that in any context. Maia was cool, but she only served to remind me of Kana and I missed him. 

I love the romance in this game, as sparse as it is. Once you get to a certain point your followers will initiate dialogue and you'll have dialogue choices that settle whether you’re friends or romantically involved. Like I said, I fell for Aloth already in PoE 1 so when he stammeringly confessed to caring for my Watcher I just dropped all pretense told him same and kissed him on the spot. After that there were party banter from everyone else talking about how Aloth would stand very close to the Watcher or noting how they’re spending a lot of time together lately and I just \*w*/

At the end of one of the DLCs, Llengrath asks what my Watcher plans to do next and one of the dialogue options is dead-ass just "Aloth." So I picked that and Aloth just sputtered "W- Watcher!!" and I giggled like crazy. Love it! 

There was a lot of really cool exploration in Deadfire. I ventured to land on every island and take what I could from it, but every tim I stumbled upon one of the Mega-Bosses I'd slowly back away. As max level, just before heading off to face Eothas, I decided to give one of the mega-bosses a shot. I did better than I thought I would, but it still wiped my whole team. 

Then off we went to fight Eothas and holy shit... SO MUCH MAKES SENSE NOW WTF.

I thoroughly recommend playing Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2 if you liked Avowed, and vice versa.

And the comment when the Kraken showed up again in PoE 2: "Didn’t we already kill this guy?" Yes, yes we did. In the White March, but do you think the gods care? :P

And now I'm off to do my second playthrough of PoE 1, probably followed by a second playthrough of PoE 2. Who cares about backlog xD

Game completed: Avowed (twice!)

I was very excited for this game. Partly because it was Obsidian, partly because I really enjoyed The Outer Worlds, partly because it reminded me of Dragon Age, and partly because it looked hella cool!

I've seen so many people saying Avowed is just The Outer Worlds but fantasy, but as I played it I got more Dragon Age vibes than Outer Worlds vibes. Outer Worlds is absurd and humoristic with a dark undertone. Avowed isn't like that. The darkness isn't an undertone, it's prevalent and everywhere, any humor is just to defuse serious situations. Threats of famine and invasion with subsequent subjugation are imminent and very real, on top of that there's a plague decimating the population. 

Playing through Avowed I could definitely see that it had the same devs as Outer Worlds, but Avowed is in no way a carbon copy of Outer Worlds in a new skin. 

So, the story. You're a Godlike from the Aedyran Empire sent to the Living Lands to investigate a plague called the Dreamscourge. You're sent as an Imperial Envoy by the Emperor personally, to see whether this plague he's hearing of will hinder the plans to incorporate the Living Lands into the Empire. The people living in the Living Lands are not fans of the upcoming Imperial annexation and there are a lot of rebels and opposing forces going around. As you follow in the wake of the plague you become entwined with the locals and the politics of the Living Lands, and the Dreamscourge has a deeply personal revelation in store for you too.

For my very first playthrough I got as far as the end of the second zone. The big thing that happens there shocked me so much I had to look up whether it was possible to have it end differently. And it was. That's also when I discovered that I had missed a whole heap of stuff. So I decided to restart the entire thing. 

The next playthrough I played all the way to the end and once I got there I immediately started another playthrough to make different choices and get some achis I didn't get the first time around. I think I prefer how this last playthrough turned out. 

The major choices have major repercussions. As it should be.

For my first complete playthrough I played Wizard class. I spent the majority of my time running around with a wand in one hand and a shield in the other :3 All the wand waving made me think of Hogwarts Legacy tbh. 

For my second playthrough I was a Rogue. The game allows for two weapon load-outs and I had bow in one and sword and shield in the other. There was an achi for parrying with a shield, hence all the shields, also I suck at timing things, do the math. 

I absolutely loved all of the companions. Marius took some getting used to and a lot of work to break through his walls, but my heart ached for him once I discovered why he had those walls at all. Giatta and Yatzli are my girls. I loved running around with an all girl team with those two. 

To nobody's surprise, though, Kai *cough* Garrus *cough* is my favourite. Avowed doesn't have much in the way of romance, and that's fine, but there's one instance where you can tell Kai that you like him and then the end slide shows them together afterwards. Warm, fuzzy feeling :3

I fell to my death misjudging a jump more than I died in combat xD Climbing is dangerous.

After having played through Avowed two and a half times I still didn't feel done with the world. So I went and got Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, both of which take place in the same world as Avowed. 

I replayed all of Starfield for Shattered Space DLC

When Shattered Space released I was deep inside Dragon Age The Veilguard, so it wasn't until very late last year that I finally picked up Starfield again. And then played nothing but for over two months. At the point of writing this it's been almost a month since I stopped playing, but I've been distracted from blogging. 

So I wasn't all that happy with my original character which brought me to the decision to simply replay the entire game from the beginning with a new character to eventually play the DLC, rather than do it on my old character. For this playthrough I also added a bunch of mods, and if you know me it's mostly UI changes and added questlines, nothing that changes the game too much. Same deal when I mod Skyrim. 

So I made a new character and started my journey, went through the entire main quest until the point of no return, all side quests, companion quests, mod quests etc, before I jumped into the DLC. Doing this was probably a really great choice because going through Shattered Space as a worshipper of the Great Serpent was eye-opening and there were so many dialogue options related to that single trait which wouldn't have been available if I wasn't devoted to the Great Serpent. And of course I had Andreja with me the whole time I was playing this DLC.

The Oracle starstation was hell. Not because it was bad but because I really really hate the no grav environments. I hate navigating them and I hate dealing with weapon recoil in them during battle. But aside from that what happened at the Oracle starstation was pretty cool and definitely invited more questions and, to me, incentive to find out more. So off we go to the Va'ruun homeworld.

Va'ruun'kai is crazy beautiful, though. With it's pink/purple sky and ebony-like creatures. I was in awe throughout most of time there. That promo picture of a citadel? It's really real. It really looks like that and it's so pretty *w* The new grenades you can make with the remains of the new Vortex enemies are really cool, and generally I enjoyed the new enemies and the reasons for how they came to be. The Promised were nice little mini bosses (or just really tough enemies) scattered throughout the world.

The main quest of the DLC then has you complete a pilgrimage followed by being accepted by each of the Houses. So, so, so many parallells to the Morrowind main quest omg. Once all of that was out of the way most of the main quest would be completed, but it should have given you incentive to explore the area and pick up a bunch of sidequests which give you more on the people and culture of the Va'ruun'kai, which in turn gives you background for how did we get to this point?! There are some real choice and consequence sprinkled in there. You can flood an entire farm as the end result of one quest or choose to save the farm, but then you'll have to stick to the status quo in the place you're at, which uuuuh... probably isn't good in the long run. Which is the lesser evil? Up to you.

The DLC has multiple endings, the impacts of which aren't readily noticeable in true Bethesda fashion. Which ending you get is up to you and the implication of each of them are some pretty great changes for the Va'ruun as a whole. 

Throughout the main story you'll get to interact with the Speaker, and each and every one of those interactions gave me strong Dagoth Ur vibes. There's really so much Morrowind in this DLC. Generally, the Va'ruun is just how they inserted Elder Scrolls into the Starfield universe. They worship the Great Serpent (that's just Satakal) and their society is run by Houses (that's just Resdayn). Not to mention that the name of the Va'ruun Ambassador in New Atlantis is Bal'Mor. Balmora. All Elder Scrolls clues. There's a lot more, but you get the idea. I really wanted to post a Va'ruun prayer or chant to the Great Serpent to pick it apart with Elder Scrolls lore, but I can't find a written version and I don't fancy watching a bunch of Youtube videos in the hopes of finding one so we'll have to make do without it. Why doesn't every game have a UESP?

After I finished the DLC I decided to play enough that I unlocked the last few achievements I was still missing. One of them was to get to level 100. I was around level 85 at the time and figured I could just do mission board things until I got to 100, but that became really repetitive really fast. So I went through the Unity and started all over again in NG+. And then I continued playing way past level 100 while waiting for Avowed to drop. 

Unfortunately, my Steam installation corrupted halfway through this playthrough, when I was mostly done with Va'ruun'kai, and I lost almost all of my screenshots. 

Ghosts S01-03

We stumbled upon this show on Netflix and thought it looked fun. It was so much fun! Netflix only had the first two seasons, but we found the third season on a different streaming platform so all good.

So the show is about a young married couple. The wife inherits an old mansion from a relative and the couple decides to move in there and make it a B&B. Only issue is that the mansion is very haunted, which the couple are blissfully unaware of until the wife has a near-death experience and comes out of it able to see and talk to ghosts. Chaos ensues.

I adore Isaac and Sasappis. 

Squid Game S02

Finally we watched the second season! It wasn't as fantastic as the first season (when is it ever?), but it was still really good and the stakes seem higher even though the game is still mostly the same.

Can't believe Gi-hun really thought all the games would be the same as the last time around. How did it never occur to him that they'd switch it up so he wouldn't have any insights to share? But tbf I didn't see it coming that the boat's captain was part of the game so eeeeehhh...

I really enjoy a lot of the characters this time around and I hope more of them survive and it won't be like last time when Gi-hun walked out the only survivor.

Yet that riot at the end doesn't look promising for everyone's survival. Can't wait for the third season!!

From S01-03

We picked up this show on a whim because the trailer looked interesting and it turned out to be so good.

So the premise is that people seemingly randomly arrive to a town with surroundings that you can't leave. Once you're there you can't get out. If you try to drive out you'll somehow end up in a circle and right back in town where you started. During the night there are monsters that come out to eat you. They look just like smiling friendly people until you get close enough and then they're just monsters with too many teeth who'll disembowel you and eat your insides. Lovely stuff. 

The first season follows a newly arrived family and their issues with accepting that they can't leave all the while figuring out more about the place. The appointed sheriff, Boyd, has been in town for quite a while and is on a similar journey to find out how the place even functions. 

The second season follows in much the same vein and towards the end of it we found it has become pretty repetitive that every new thing they try is met with eventual failure. However, the third season is when shit goes down. Every single episode was a rollercoaster and that season finale... omfg. 

Just as with Resident Alien we found the show on Netflix, but Netflix only had the first two seasons so then we had to go on a quest to see if we could find the third season anywhere. We found it on a separate streaming service, provided by one of the ordinary TV broadcasters. Signed up and paid for a month to finish the show, only to find out that despite paying this streaming service has ad breaks several times through a single episode. It's just like TV ._.

Anyway, great show. Can't wait for season four :3

My Top 20 Most Played Games

1. The Elder Scrolls Online (~2500 hours)

2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (1568 hours)

3. Dragon Age Inquistion (605 hours)

4. Immortal Diaries (353 hours)

5. Starfield (289 hours)

6. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (281 hours)

7. Red Dead Redemption 2 (277 hours)

8. Assassin's Creed Valhalla (258 hours)

9. Merge Mansion (225 hours)
I enjoy idle gaming lol

10. Cyberpunk 2077 (220 hours)

11. Fallout 4 (207 hours)

12. Total War: Medieval II (201 hours)
The listed hours are actually mainly the Elder Scrolls overhaul mod... ^^; I played this extensively outside of Steam back in 2007/08 though!

13. Dragon Age Origins (200 hours)

14. Assassin's Creed Odyssey (192 hours)

15. Fallout 76 (176 hours)

16. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (175 hours)

17. Hogwarts Legacy (155 hours)

18. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (154 hours)

19. Mass Effect: Andromeda (139 hours)

20. Dragon Age 2 (128 hours)