What I Got Up To This Month (June '24)

June is now over so that means it's time for another one o' these. First off, it was my 27th birthday a few weeks ago so I've been doing some thinking about, you know, life and stuff. Still have some big things I need to work on in my life, but generally speaking I've been happy and doing well. 

I didn't do much special to celebrate the big day, but I did go to see a They Might Be Giants concert a few days afterward and that was a lot of fun. They is the only band I've gone to see live and I've enjoyed each of the concerts I've been to, and this was no exception. I don't listen to them as much as I used to but I still love their music and it was a blast hearing them play some of my favorites again.

I played a lot of Elden Ring this month. I had recently decided to get back to my PS4 playthrough of the game (I was on NG+) and, after finishing that, I sped through the game as quickly as possible (during NG+2) so I could complete the game a third time and get the last trophy I needed for the Platinum. I earned that right before Shadow of the Erdtree came out so I started up a fourth (NG+3) playthrough on my PS5, sped through enough of the main plot to defeat Mohg and Radahn, and set about seeing what new stuff they had on offer. I have... mixed thoughts on the DLC, but given how much I loved the original game back when that came out, I imagine I'll have more to say about this expansion in the future. For now, I want to think about crab city (see attached picture) some more.

A few months ago I started replaying Dragon Age 2 (because I knew a new game would be coming Soon™) and I finished it a week or two ago. Even with its flaws I adore this game and the ending sequence is still a great conclusion. It's controversial, yes, but I personally love it and think I even enjoyed it even more a second time around. It was fun to play this knowing where the series would go (any sort of Elvhen lore that's given feels so different in a post-Trespasser world) and I just generally enjoyed spending time with Hawke and her friends/rivals again. Bioware makes good ensembles. On the subject of Dragon Age, I also read some of the comics (The Silent Grove, Those Who Speak, and Until We Sleep) and tie-in novels (Asunder and The Masked Empire) that were set after Dragon Age 2 because I'd never done that before, and those were also pretty good. They're pretty standard genre fiction but they flesh out the world and some of the characters. Lastly, I've started Inquisition and I figure I've got, oh, a few months to get through that before The Veilguard comes out.

I continued my horror journey by finishing Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, which I enjoyed, and by playing Silent Hill Shattered Memories, which I thought was pretty neat. It's an uneven game and some parts of it (i.e. the chases) are rough, but it has some good ideas and is a fun spin on the original game. It's a weird entry in that it's effectively a reboot that's redoing a lot of the first game, but it's pretty solid, overall.

I've also been watching quite a few things. Game Changer, Dungeon Meshi, and Doctor Who just wrapped up their respective seasons and I enjoyed all of them. The new Star Wars show The Acolyte has been pretty good so far, I'm still keeping up with Critical Role, and Dropout's new seasons of Dimension 20 and Make Some Noise are each off to a good start.