Renowned Explorers: International Society (Video Game)

Renowned Explorers: International Society is a fun little game I got from a Humble Bundle a few months ago. I've played through the campaign a couple of times now and the second time was actually just yesterday so I figured I'd write about the game a little bit.

The idea of the game is that you're an explorer in the 19th century looking for treasures all over the world and your goal is to become the most famous one (basically you need to get a higher score than your rival Rivaleux). You can choose your explorer crew of three from 20 different characters and they're all very different personalities so you have options for plenty of very different teams.

Mass Effect: Andromeda (Video game)

I did it. I finally finished the game I've been slightly struggling with since March. I'm a huge fan of the Mass Effect games so naturally I had to get Mass Effect: Andromeda the moment it came out. Actually, since it was available in Origin Access as a trial a week before the actual launch I also did that, because that's just how excited I was. And well... Anyone who is interested enough to read this probably knows what a rough launch the game had. Bugs, weird animations, dead eyes and all that stuff internet yelled about. Personally I got lucky and actually didn't have any issues with the game during the trial and I was interested enough in the story that I didn't feel bad about buying it.

The Dark World (Book)

Hello I'm here again with another Books and Tea read-a-long book! This month was dedicated to one of our author members, S. C. Parris, because she's a lovely person and we like her a lot, so we all either picked up The Dark Word, which is the first book in her series, or continued the series if we had read the first book already. My fiancé had actually gotten The Dark World for me for Christmas but I already knew we had the read-a-long coming up so I saved it for this month. 

"Her name... is Alexandria Stone."

These are some of the last words Xavier Delacroix hears from his beloved Eleanor Black... just before she bursts into a Lycan Creature. And if this wasn't enough to rattle Xavier's brilliant mind, other Vampires - namely Dracula - are becoming elusive and speaking only in vague air about Xavier's supposedly brilliant blood. 

But with a human to find, Lycans to kill, and a World to protect, Xavier is not so sure what to believe anymore... or who.

The Bone Witch (Book)

So the Books and Tea Discord server did an #OwnVoices themed read-a-long last month and we ended up choosing a book called The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. I wasn't even going to participate at first because I've been trying to avoid doing too much impulse shopping, but of course the book conveniently went on sale on Amazon so I picked it up anyway. And boy am I glad I did! My only regret is that I got it as an ebook instead of a physical copy because the book has such a beautiful cover.

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she's a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha - one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles... and make a powerful choice.

New Game! (Anime)

Let's continue with the very anime theme from last time!

I recently stumbled on an anime called New Game! which is about a girl called Suzukaze Aoba who gets a job at a video game company after high school. It's based on a manga by Shoutarou Tokunou. Since I'm also interested in making video games I was instantly curious about this anime and it turned out to be really cute and funny. The actual game development/character design side (Aoba works in the character design team) is mostly a thing that happens in the background and the anime focuses more on the characters' silly antics, but that was fine because honestly, good luck making an interesting show about people who stare at computers all day unless they're interesting people.

Persona 5 stole my heart

I just finished this game yesterday so I just want to talk about it a lot okay? Don't worry, I'll stay away from spoilers and all that spooky stuff.

Persona 5 is something I waited for years. I was first introduced to the games around 2010 and Persona 4 is like the game that finally got me more into gaming, so Persona games are pretty close to my heart. I mean I had played games before, but I none of them had really had stories that made me care enough to stick with them until the end. Persona 4 basically had me crying over some of the things in it so I had no choice but to finish it even though things got ridiculously difficult towards the end. Persona 5 turned out to be no different and I didn't even feel bad about completely dropping Mass Effect: Andromeda after only two weeks when Persona 5 came out.

Current Obsession: Outlander

Hi, it's been a while! I've been busy with university and things so haven't really had anything to write about, but since I finished reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon a few days ago I figured now would be a good time.

So, Outlander. The story is so complex that trying to explain it shortly is super hard, but the basic idea is this: Claire Randall, a combat nurse from the 1940's, goes to Scotland with her husband and they find a stone circle. Claire touches one of the stones and ends up in the 18th century.