Hope you have a blast!! Honestly if I'd go back I'd get the unlimited sprint mod & other gameplay ones for ME2. The combat felt so slow even playing the Vanguard class.

Rewatched it recently & cried through the entire last third. So good

Congrats!!

Cairn! Not very patient haha, oh well

Some of the weapon types in Monster Hunter (Sword & Shield, Lance) have the hunter be left-handed

Monster Hunter Dos! It's so fun to play an old ps2 game with online fan servers. For a Monster Hunter game, it's HARD. You start with no armor, no money, and have to earn everything by the skin of your teeth. Even the smallest wildlife poses a real threat, crabs zoom across the map to singlehandedly harass you while gathering mushrooms.

Luckily, there's a whole community out there to assist. Online hubs are full of people happy to help you out and tell you how to survive. You begin to have an actual safety net, a single loss isn't sending you into poverty. You start to feel competent, and even confident in your hunting skills. Then a Diablos pounds you into the earth & reminds you why this game is known for being difficult.

Hitman World of Assassination! I put off playing it because the purchase model was so fucking confusing, but now that I got it I'm having a blast! These games have some of the best level design I've ever seen, the way IOI integrates story with natural progression through the level is incredible to see. I've never seen a level like Sgail where a player must choose between either climbing the physical structure of the level, or climbing the social ladder through disguises that grant you increasing influence.

I'm on the Chongqing level, and the neon lights look absolutely gorgeous.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). The on-set feel of Italy adds so much to the movie, and Matt Damon's performance is spectacular. You never know what might be going on in his head as he gets himself deeper and deeper into trouble. Incredible how much the movie does with only a few major characters.

Language transfer is amazing! Gets you to a level where you can start learning on your own - I was able to start reading children's books in spanish and work my up from there.

The Italian course is also excellent, gave me enough skills to feel comfortable traveling & speaking Italian

Played through this cute game called Shelter! You play as a Badger mom guiding your cubs through 5 levels of intensifying scenarios. It's super short and still got some emotional moments out of me. My favorite part was when chirping caused all my little cubs to chirp & mimic me.

Yeah honestly on a playthrough of 1 I wasn't engaged in the story missions until Virmire. The pace dragged & all the bland corridors weren't helping.

You're supposed to get lost! At least that's part of the intent. It's less of a working spaceship and more of a dungeon themed like a Spaceship. Something I appreciated about Prey as a successor to System Shock was having a more logical and easier to understand ship layout

I'm disappointed that 4 years have gone by and we've still only been shown Quadratum & the realistic art style. I don't mind if it's the first chapter of the game but I'd be annoyed if the rest of the game is in this art style.

Definitely! I do hope it keeps itself as its own story rather than forcing itself to connect to Chronicles (since that would seem antithetical to the message of 3) but either way I'm excited to play it eventually

What gets lost in the ending discourse of 3 is how the entire game acts as endings to various character arcs and subplots among the trilogy. Some conclusions are utterly spectacular, while others like the ending of the game - can disappoint. Though I will say the Extended Cut fixed a lot of issues fans had with the original "choose a color" ending, and like I said above I was pretty happy with the ending mods I installed.

Some mods like the Diversification Project are great for a first playthrough, while others like the Risky Suicide Mission definitely aren't. The vanilla experience is great on its own but mods can help fill out the universe where the dev team was too crunched or forgot to work on.

Congrats on the night out! Glad you have such a supportive partner & friends (grew up in rural Ohio so I know what it's like).

Voice training is super hard! Honestly early on I just had to get used to hearing my voice on a recording and not get overwhelmed. But it was 1000% worth it getting to that point, helped me pass earlier than I thought I would on HRT.

About your spoiler paragraph, there are lots of non-op trans folk out there. I'd recommend looking into getting an orchiectomy if that's something you'd want.

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler It completely got rid of any bulges and I no longer have to worry about tucking. Being off Spironolactone is super nice for my body and I can still use all my parts the same as before. I highly recommend it for non-op trans women, it was a super easy operation and recovery - I was walking around after a couple days. :::

When I started E I was exhausted for the first couple weeks. Had to take naps almost every day just to keep up. Just remember that second puberty is taking a lot of energy for your body to initiate, I started feeling less tired around the 4 week mark.

That's me and I'm so excited!! The world looks like it takes place in a dyson sphere, Monolith flexing with their world design.

I've seen some people online have complaints about the school setting shown off, but it seems they don't remember how much (XC spoilers)

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler Xenoblade games love to dramatically change the status quo within the first chapter or two. Fiora getting murdered & colony 9 blowing up, Rex getting murdered & resurrected, the Ouroboros party being forcefully freed from military service and no longer bound by their flame clocks. :::

That understanding would be incorrect at least for my case, I can assure you! My partner is a cis woman and we have no issues with that over a year after my surgery.

Obviously

::: spoiler Tap for spoiler eliminates the possibility of conceiving children, but if HRT already greatly affects that for you like it did for me, it really wasn't a trade-off. But everything still works sex-wise :::

Dang!! That's some time! I'm still playing through the main campaign (once I finish a level I replay it 3-4 times), I'm super excited to try out all the extra challenges & Freelancer mode. Honestly the story has pulled me in more than I expected, it's really well told.

I actually started with Hitman 2 back in 2020, but only put a lot of time in Miami. My current favorite levels are: Sapienza (just gorgeous), Miami, Sgail, Dubai, Berlin, & now Chongqing. I love playing with no hints, it's super satisfying figuring out how to navigate the level myself. Shame the game leaves mission stories with full guidance unless you change it - feels way too on-rails.