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I got the chance to play The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Beta this weekend. It was short and the story and voice acting could use a bit of work but I look forward to it filling the Mass Effect void when it releases next year. #OsirisReborn 🎮🪐

I've been swallowed by #CrimsonDesert. Here's an update on how that's going. 🎮🏜️

Two new glorious art books have arrived this week after a long wait! #EldenRing #BaldursGate3 🎮

After a baking drought I've returned with another Basque Cheesecake in ube and pandan form and also Earl Grey rice crispies. The flavour in the crispies could use some work but they were still delicious. #Baking

Romeo is a Dead Man is a visually spectacular katsu cooking and bastard raising sim. I need to play more Suda51 games. #RomeoisaDeadMan #GrasshopperManufacture 🎮🧟

I've finished up the original Divinity trilogy with Divinity II: Developer's Cut. It's a fun action RPG full of X360 energy where you spam attacks, inhale potatoes and become overpowered by the time you meet the final boss. #Divinity 🎮 👼

If you can call Beyond Divinity anything, it would be ambitious. You have to admire it for trying a lot of new things even if it's considered the bastard child of the series. I liked it as much as Divine Divinity for this, though the later acts probably go on for a bit too long. #Divinity 🎮 👼

In preparation for #Divinity I'm playing the series from the beginning, starting with Larian's very first RPG Divine Divinity. It's part fantasy, part silly and feels like a mix of Diablo and Baldur's Gate with a main quest as urgent as Skyrim's. 🎮👼

Finally I've finished Bloodborne. Like the other Souls games, it's just comfy exploring the books and crannies for loot and killing some Lovecraftian nightmare of a boss. And it only took 7 hours to beat Orphan of Kos! #Bloodborne 🎮👁️‍🗨️

Alan Wake II is intriguing, visually spectacular and perhaps the best ode to Twin Peaks I've seen albeit only let down by frustrating combat. The musical almost makes up for that. #AlanWake 🎮💡

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader is my first 40k game and also my first Owlcat game and I could not stop playing it. It perfects the modern CRPG. I'm looking forward to replaying it when the last two DLCs release this year, maybe this time as full heresy (don't tell Heinrix). #RogueTrader 🎮💰

Final bake for 2025: Pumpkin Coffee Cake (AKA crumb cake if you don't want confused people). Super fluffy and moist but probably tastes more of pumpkin spices than pumpkin. #Baking 🎃

Another busy Christmas of baking. Limoncello tiramisu, Swedish nuts, Amaretto biscuits and Kabocha Basque cheesecake. #Baking #Christmas

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection once again has me wondering how everyone in the series has such phenomenal grip strength. #Uncharted 💪

Another busy year but it's not over yet! #SteamReplay #HowLongToBeat

#Routine is like being in a 70s horror movie. The aesthetic and sound design drew me in and the horror made me stay, getting weirder and more unsettling the deeper I went. It's definitely something special.

The Evil Within 2 is another surreal and grotesque journey, this time centred around the hub town of Union. It's a little bit Twin Peaks, a little bit House of Leaves and a more enjoyable game overall compared to the first. #TheEvilWithin 🎮 🧠

#TheLastOfUs Part 2 is about grief, revenge and how we each deal with those emotions. Heroes and villains are flipped. Just as gorgeous to look at as Part 1. 🎮🚤

Inspired by the TV show I played #TheLastofUs for the second time and the first time for the DLC and remastered version. Just like Uncharted, the characters feel real even in an unreal environment and this is what makes Naughty Dog's games great. I'm looking forward to Part 2 and Intergalactic. 🎮

The Halloween pick this year was The Evil Within. Ripe with PS3 energy, it reminded me of Alone in the Dark (2008), Silent Hill: Homecoming and, of course, Resident Evil 4. Nicely surreal in parts but feels like it goes on for just a little bit too long. #TheEvilWithin 🎮🧠

Let the Christmas baking begin! It's been a busy weekend making egg nog and Christmas fruitcake so they can age in time for the big day. Two bottles of brandy were sacrificed for this noble endeavour. #Baking #Christmas 🎄

Fallout 2 is bigger and better than the first game in a lot of ways but the fetch quests can start to drag by the 20 hour mark. Nothing that can't be fixed by unleashing a modified FEV on some Enclave. #Fallout 🎮 ☢️

In honour of Fallout Day I played the Interplay original Fallout. It was great seeing the origins of the themes that run through the whole series but most of all I love these 90s plasticine looking talking heads. #Fallout #FalloutDay 🎮☢️

Successful adventure to Shadow Baking in Adelaide today yielded a pandan and coconut brioche, an iced vovo croissant and mushroom and cheese croissant. Not a bad replacement for The Sugar Man now that it's shifted gears. #Baking #ShadowBaking

5 years, a new DLC and a new PC later I replayed #Cyberpunk2077. The 2.0 patch makes it feel like a finished game and addressed some of my original disappointments. The story doesn't hit as hard the second time but I enjoyed it. Four photos aren't enough to convey how picturesque it is.

I played The Order: 1886 earlier this year and fell in love with its intense attention to detail in world building and environment both and also its fantastic characters. Deeply saddened by the prospect of no sequels, I have consoled myself with the hard to find art book. #TheOrder1886

This week was the old faithful banana bread recipe with dark chocolate, walnuts and, for a bit extra, with biscoff. It actually worked really well and too sweet. Whoever called this bread wasn't fooling anyone. #Baking

The famous Grandma Ople apple pie recipe doesn't disappoint. I made some adjustments by adding the usual pie spices, browned butter, brandy and using Claire Saffitz's flaky pie dough recipe. I love eating pie but when baking I'm usually discouraged by they labour intensive nature. #Baking 🥧

Phantasy Star Nova wraps up my #PhantasyStar series playthrough with style. It became my favourite after the original quadrilogy with it's action combat borrowed from Phantasy Star Online 2. It's a real shame this was a Japan only release. The fan translation covers a lot but is incomplete.

Prey (2017) is such a comfy game. Like all the older sandbox games from Arkane and Bethesda, it speaks to my inner desire to loot every nook and cranny then upgrade myself to god-like levels. The locations are gorgeously sleek, retro futuristic and make any screenshot a painting. #Prey2017 🎮

#PhantasyStar Portable 2 brings a much needed revamp to mechanics and the Japan only release of PSP2 Infinity adds a new episode, new Deuman race, full voice acting and more. It's greatly improves on the last few entries but it doesn't make up for the dull reused missions. #RetroGames 🎮

Too many lemons means lemon curd and lemon (poppyseed) loaf cake. It might as well be called tres limones. There's lemon in it, on it and soaking it. And I put the curd in it. Cuatro limones? This is peak lemon. #Baking 🍋

MGS: Peace Walker may be one of my favourites of the series. It's cheesy, silly and nostalgic. The short fun missions, collecting soldiers like pokemon, building up Mother Base and listening to Miller's shenanigans in the briefing tapes make this all a fantastic time. #MetalGearSolid #RetroGames 🎮

100 Hour Brownies are probably the most chocolatey and fudgey brownies I've made so far. In total they're packed over 600g of dark chocolate. If you're patient they are worth the wait. #Baking

New games for the ol' backlog. Don't want the other backlogged games to get lonely. #RoboCop #TheAlters 🎮

I've eaten more oranges this year than any other due to a good harvest in my little tree. Some of this bounty of oranges went into this whole orange cake. It's deliciously moist and best served drowned in fresh cream. #Baking 🍊

Another #PhantasyStar finished with Phantasy Star Portable (2009) on PSP. This follows on from the PS2 PSU games with an even cheesier story and while it's good for some sort bouts, it's doesn't do anything new worth mentioning so it's a little disappointing. #retrogaming 🎮

My Armored Core IV: Fires of Rubicon Official Art Works arrived today. It's full to the brim with delicious concept art. #ArmoredCore 🎮

Baking to clear out the freezer. Banana cake with orange cream cheese icing, Dutch butter cake and cherry amaretti biscuits. #Baking

This weekend was Remnant: From the Ashes (PC). It felt more like a third person Diablolike than the Gunsouls I expected. I really loved the art design (and was sad there wasn't an art book) but I found the procedurally generated maps made each area feel more generic rather than unique. #Remnant 🎮

With a weakness for pastry, I was lured to a couple of #Adelaide 's best patisseries today. A pistachio Basque tart by The Sugar Man and a white chocolate pistachio croissant by Mascavado. #Baking 🥐

I put the slap down on the final Night Lord in #Nightreign, but I'm not quite done with it. I like that #FromSoftware are trying something new though I find Nightreign teeters between addictive and repetitive. Despite that I'm still looking forward to the much needed added content later this year.

In the waiting room for #Nightreign I played Resident Evil 3 (2020) this week. The original was my favourite and this has been a totally acceptable action packed adventure with "Nemesis For Babies" but with so many things missing it only makes me want to reply the original instead. #ResidentEvil 🎮

This week is Indika (2024). A short but unusual and unpredictable journey following a troubled nun that turned a lot of my expectations upside down. I liked the vibe and the ending. #Indika 🎮

ACTUNG ACTUNG I've finished this and it's left me with so many questions going into the next play though that still may not get answered. The visual style tickets a special part of my brain and brings back warm memories of Silent Hill, Resident Evil and even Hellnight. #Signalis 🎮

Alone in the Dark: Inferno (PS3), AKA "I don't have your stone and fuck you anyway" simulator, sure is a PS2 game remade for PS3. #Aloneinthedark 🎮

Every picture a painting. It was a pleasure to be here. @expedition33.bsky.social #Expedition33 🎮

Fahrenheit (AKA Indigo Prophecy) on PS2 by Quantic Dream is their first interactive story driven game that would define later entries. Totally normal story until the final chapter where it goes a little bit sideways, takes some acid and watches The Matrix. #QuanticDream #Fahrenheit 🎮

As I've developed a taste for hojicha I made a tea powder purchase from Yunomi.life. Turns out I still dislike matcha, even fancy matcha. I also recently purchased something trying its darnedest to look like a butt plug but was assured was really a bamboo whisk holder. #matcha #hojicha