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I just finished Cyberpunk 2077 and I don't think I'm emotionally ready for the game to be over.

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Games I Played in 2024

These are the games I played this year. Not all of them were released this year, but this is how I spent my game time. The list order is roughly how much I enjoyed them from best to worst. These are brainfarts, not reviews.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 - This is the best RPG of all time. There, I said it. I’ve just passed 666 hours of gameplay. With mod support released, this is shaping up to have the same replay value as Skyrim.

Vampire Survivors - I normally hate bullet hell games, but this is a font of dopamine. It’s like $2 on Steam. You unlock attacks with each level up and watch your enemies explode like popcorn. 

Palworld - Pokemon with guns. It’s SO much fun. Build a base and make your minions work for you. Be a morally dubious menace. 

Dystopika - This is a very simple city builder with atmospheric cyberpunk visuals. The soundtrack slaps. Perfect to play while stoned off your ass.

Enshrouded - This is a Valheim-style game set in a post-apocalyptic magical world. Build really elaborate bases with furniture, murder zombies, climb towers and glide across the map, grow crops, recruit villagers, etc. Great at deleting your free time.

Path of Exile 2 - I’m having a blast with early access. This game is shaping out to be the perfect successor to the original.

Cyberpunk 2077 - I know, it’s been out for ages. But I pushed it off until after the bugs were fixed and kinda forgot about it. Started a new game last week and so far it’s baller. 

A Little to the Left - a casual game where you sort items. Very satisfying. This is candy for the neuro-spicy brain.

V Rising - Valheim with Vampires. If you want to play as the bad guy, play this.

World of Warcraft: The War Within - I fully acknowledge the sunk-cost fallacy happening here. But this is the best expansion since Legion.

Tiny Glade - Cute town builder. Very intuitive controls. You can make adorable cottages and castles and take pictures of them. That’s it. That’s the game.

Terra Nil -  A puzzle game with a nature/eco theme. You’re cleaning up environments ruined by pollution. 

Last Epoch - If you’re looking for a happy medium between Diablo and Path of Exile, play this.

The Sims 4 - Another sunk-cost game. Expansions continue to be hit or miss. Lovestruck was buggy, but Life and Death was a lot of fun.

Wildermyth - Cute D&D-esque RPG with a pen-and-paper art style. 

Mind Over Magic - 2D Terraria-esque game where you build a quirky magic school while also fighting off zombies.

Dorf Romantik - Mindless tile-matching game. Love the art style.

Fabledom - Whimsical as fuck city-builder.

Claws & Chaos - Autobattler with adorable animals. You’ll need a good bit of strategy to advance in the game, so it’s not completely brainless. The units are wildly unbalanced, so half the strategy is just figuring out which units are OP and which are useless.

Crime Scene Cleaner - I was expecting a mindless House Flipper-style game, but it has a pretty sad story. You play a dude cleaning up crime scenes for the mob to earn money for your sick kid. Play this if you want some narrative with your cleaning sim.

Fantasy Map Simulator - Super stupid sim game. I name the different countries with dirty names and see how fast the “Rugmuncher Empire” can take over the “Kingdom of Incel Tears.”

Tropico 6 - It’s a Tropico game. If you have earlier entries in the franchise, just play those.

Technotopia - A fun puzzle game with an art deco aesthetic. There’s a narrative that goes with it, but I skipped cut scenes because tl;dr.

Faefarm - A Stardewcrossing game with faeries. It’s fun, but there are better titles in this genre at lower price points. Unless you want to date a white-haired faerie twink, then do play this.

Terrascape - City builder. Not terrible, but it really doesn’t have any stand-out features that make me want to pick this over similar games. I liked Fabledom better.

ISLANDERS - Minimalist city builder. Got bored after 20 minutes.

Diablo 4 - YAWN. I decided the expansion was not worth the money. I liked the initial campaign, but the seasonal content is not doing it for me.

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What is this "owner" bullshit? Pretty sure the cats are the ones in charge in my house. Sorry, their house.

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Remember these terms for professions to help encourage gender neutral language!

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Today's piece is The Lamb gleefully flicking everyone off.

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I had to draw the mental image I got every time a story came out about whales attacking yachts.

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Just a dog and his evil shadow twin.

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how the fuck did my mom suddenly become relatable (and rude at the same time)

@ottpop @bugwolfsstuff @half-shadowgalra

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Thanks for the reminder. I'll have to get Satan something for the baby shower.

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Taters. T_T

half way through my Karlastarioctober :3

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Astarion and Karlach's hot date. They're such a pretty couple.

More screenshots below the jump.

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Gale is a Disney Prince.

I think the approval bug early on turned a lot of people off to the Gale romance. I gave it a try and I loved it.

Spoilers for Gale x Tav romance below the break.

Now that they've fixed Gale's approval so he's not in love with you after five minutes into the game, I decided to give the romance a try

He's the kind of nerdy, awkward guy I would totally go for IRL. I played a fellow wizard because I feel like Gale loves to bond over shared interests. It certainly makes passing the checks easier. He gets adorkably happy showing you cool magic things. It's like dating someone who wants to show you their Magic Cards or favorite TV shows. He wants to include you in on the things that make him happy.

My initial gut reaction was to tell him, "no, I don't need any grand gestures. I just want the real you." Because that's what I would say to an actual partner. But this is a fantasy game and Gale wants to be Aladdin and show you "A Whole New World."

During the cut scene where he takes you into his illusory world, if you say yes to letting him show you more, he'll start by showing you his home in Waterdeep.

Look at how happy he looks! Also, this is the cleanest bachelor pad I have ever seen.

He seduces you with his magic sex book. Because of course he does.

Then you proceed to do Kama Sutra moves in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace.

Fast forward to after the encounters at Sorcerous Sundries and meeting up with Mystra, he goes from being Aladdin to being Prince Eric for a magic boat ride.

Kiss da girl~

The ending I got has Gale pledging to find and reforge the crown, but then hand it over to Mystra. He asks us to marry him and meet his family. He also gushes about how excited he is to cook you dinner and properly meet Tara.

I think with this ending, he realizes that his whole thing with Mystra wasn't good for him. He decides to drop the moniker "Gale of Waterdeep" and just be Gale Dekarios again. He has a shot at a normal, healthy relationship.

Also, fuck Mystra. Even assuming Gale was fully an adult when that relationship began, the power imbalance made that whole situation very toxic. Even before she asked him to unalive himself.

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Third playthrough. I decided to give Origin Astarion a go. They are gorgeous together. BOY HOWDEE I was not prepared for that ending.

We had to choose saving the spawn because, of course, Karlach helps him realize he can be the better person. But therein lies the crux of the problem. Without the tadpole or being an ascendant, Astarion is forced to hide from the sun while Karlach dies alone.

Look, I'm down for a tragic ending now and then, but I wish Astarion would have stayed with her until the very end, skin burning, hair catching fire, clinging to each other as they both go up in flames.

Or you could let us fix her engine already.

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"I would like to assume!"

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