Two hours ago I finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and I couldn't be happier. While all the DA games are a bit rough around the edges, Veilguard was the first that felt joyous for me to play, somehow less compromised by creative choices that divide the game between something I liked and didn't.

The last two games I put a lot of time into are Blue Prince and Deathloop, and they are total opposites in terms of how much notetaking is automated by the game itself. Blue Prince offers none, and Deathloop gives you a virtual conspiracy board. It got me thinking about if they were reversed.

Discovered today that two local classic rock radio stations have Third Eye Blind and Staind in their song lists now. State legislature should pass a law banning such behavior.

Finished watching the Fallout TV show last night. Ended up liking it more by the last episode. It conjured some fun memories, not of playing Fallout, but of one of my creative writing pieces from high school, the last one I wrote senior year, which was around the time Fallout 3 first released.

Like everyone else, I've been playing Monster Hunter Wilds. I got into the series only very recently, and only because I ran out of Dragon's Dogma to play and it looked like a decent substitute. Worlds didn't click with me until Wilds Beta got me to try it again. Wilds is an upgrade for me.

I just searched for Google Maps in Google Maps, how is your day going

"Maybe I'll try playing Balatro on my phone while using the exercise bike, one run = one session"

I immediately lose in Ante 2. What good are new year resolutions anyway

Started playing on the Codenames app, loving the daily challenges. It's always been a wonderfully creative game, so being able to see what clues people create and how they fare in testing is such a good idea. Seeing yesterday how "professional" and "occupation" had different responses was wild.

Thinking about my favorites games this year, and like most recent years, I did not play a lot of new video games. I didn't even play Shadow of the Erdtree!

I did enjoy the hell out of Dragon's Dogma 2 though, just loved it, especially the new music.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFeh...

Replaying Horizon Forbidden West without a time crunch has been nice, but I'm still ignoring the Machine Strike minigame just like last time. Just doesn't have any charm for me, and it's oddly elaborate too. Pour one out for the hopeless addict in every settlement who will be waiting on me forever.

After a week of playing Balatro which I resisted getting into all year, it's a pretty cozy game for me. It feels like a game of MTG Commander to me, in that you're not building some robust engine, you just want to pick a thing to do and do it as hard as humanly possible and conjure infinite chips.

This time last year, a local game store would host "Thanksgaming", an open gaming potluck for those without somewhere to go, or in my case, those that celebrate another day. They closed earlier this year, so the world needs two more Thanksgaming stores to take its place.

Took her long enough, but my niece/god child is finally the same age I was when I learned how to play Magic: The Gathering. Good timing too with Foundations just releasing a week or so ago. So guess what I did this weekend?

As part of taking a break from Destiny 2, I tried out the Monster Hunter: Wilds open beta, which then prompted me to go back and try MH: World for the 4th time. Previous attempts at playing it were hurt by me not really seeing the appeal of anything I was doing. Wilds beta changed my view on that.

Listening to Rise Against tonight, no reason.

Once more shouting into the void