Amanda Kay Oaks

That really is the pitfall with these live series that have young actors. They age so quickly! Gonna be just a couple of middle aged benders by the time we get there lol.

Back in college, I shared an account with a friend before switching to my own. So my true hours of lifetime play are fortunately lost to time lol.

That sounds like a fun way to spend time together! There's lots of dress-up in Infinity Nikki too, though I haven't played it since I apparently went hard at the start of the year. Too many games, too little time.

I'm pretty surprised by my list, actually, mainly because Infinity Nikki is my top game and that feels like something from years ago at this point. My top 5 are: Infinity Nikki The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 EA Sports PGA Tour Genshin Impact If you couldn't tell, my husband clearly uses my account for one of those games that's not like the others, lol. I agree the monthly breakdown would've been nice to see.

For books, I love having physical copies around. But the reality of a small house and the fact that I read a lot of advanced copies means I do a little over half my reading digitally these days. I always want a physical copy of books from my favorite authors and any manga I read, but the fact is my shelves are running out of room so I have to make choices. With other media, I've pretty much gone fully digital. I don't buy physical copies of games or movies because I just don't have any place to store them, and I don't personally like the look of displaying them like I do my books anyway.

I will never get over how Marvel did Captain Marvel dirty with the "sequel" movie that was The Marvels. Just completely ditched the story set up at the end of the original movie for a team-up film that seemed almost intentionally designed to fail so they had an excuse to stop making Captain Marvel movies. I also still routinely think about how bad Spider-Man 3 (from the OG Tobey trilogy) was. Every few years I watch it again to see if it's actually as bad as I remember, and it's somehow always worse... even if Bully Maguire is one of my favorite memes.

Kind of hard to tell with how dark the image is, but the costume and vibes are spot on! I got distracted by how much older Aang looks though.

Yeah, there's nothing like those games we played back in the high school/college days. I played most of my Skyrim during grad school, which in retrospect is kind of wild haha.

DDV is definitely up there for me. It just doesn't have the years of obsession behind it like Sims 4 does... yet. lol.

The dedication is impressive! I would 100% have gotten too frustrated to keep going.

With the news that Skyrim is getting ANOTHER re-release, I've been thinking... what game have you replayed the most? Or if it's not linear, what do you have the most hours in? I've definitely played the full story of Skyrim far more than any other game, but it might not quite beat out The Sims 4 for total gameplay hours. It's a close call, though.

Definitely hoping we get more from Captain Marvel, but with the way a certain contigent has acted about Brie Larson's portrayal I'm not sure it's going to happen. And I'd like to see the rumoreod Scarlet Witch appearance, as well. Would love some more X-Men characters to appear as well with the lineup having some of the actors from the early films set to return. Rogue, perhaps?

My hot take is that Stranger Things has collaborated with enough at this point lol, but that's as someone who hasn't watched the show and is tired of seeing it everywhere. I'm curious to see if we get any K Pop Demon Hunters crossovers out of this, since that's the up and coming Netflix property at the moment. Maybe WB Games can get to work on the almost inevitable K Pop Demon Hunters video game.

The Game Awards isn't usually huge for my favorite space of cozy games, but maybe that alleged new Hogwarts Legacy-style Lord of the Rings game or a new LOTR something in general. My pipe dream is always Elder Scrolls 6, but I think we already pretty much know that isn't happening.

Oh gosh, my graveyard of partly finished games is weeping at this question lol. I'd love to finish Oblivion Remastered, but I know I won't by the end of the year. I do think I can manage my goal of unlocking all the recipes in Kokoro Kitchen, though lol. I do need to go back for Dragon Age: The Veilguard as well but it won't be any time soon.

I'm really curious to see if this one doesn't get smacked down as too monopolistic before it goes through. Seems like Netflix is giving up on gaming to focus on buying up TV & movie properties instead. It makes more sense for them, but I don't love it for fans.

I think the first one was the only one I went to, but it was so fun! I just want the next generation to have that experience for new movies, even if I know I'll be in bed and seated for a matinee instead lol.

This is largely how I feel about the state of things, too. Every movie and TV show being so interconnected and self-referential makes it hard to enjoy the stories themselves. It's all about the big cameos and connections to things that happened in this obscure show over there. I miss solid superhero origin stories with emotional resonance and growth, that let a story be a little bit more self-contained than what we have now. That said, I did largely enjoy Multiverse of Madness. Having the focus on just Wanda and Dr. Strange made it a bit easier to follow. Even with the multiverse nonsense, it still told a compelling story. Though I'll never forgive the MCU for handwaving Wanda's character development from "I'm truly sorry for the harm I caused in Westview" back to "I will destroy the actual world to find my kids."

In general, I miss midnight releases of new movies. In my soul I know I'd probably never be willing to stay up late for one again, but going to see Twilight at midnight is a core memory for me. Everyone lined up and hyped in the middle of the night was so cool.

For someone who loves superheroes, I haven't played as many superhero games as I probably should. I'll be honest, I tend to prefer playing games with female protagonists (or custom characters) since that wasn't an option for much of my childhood and I've done my time as Mario, Link, and the little pixel guy you had to be in the first few Pokemon games lol. And since we haven't really seen a game with a main female hero since the travesty of Catwoman, I haven't picked up many of them. Loved the X-Men: Legends games, but I do think those get a good bit of love.

We've got the new Seven Deadly Sins: Origin open-world RPG coming out next year, which got me thinking... what other anime need to get their own video games? It could be one that's had games before, but not recently (Sailor Moon) or something entirely new. Personally, I'm dreaming of a detective sim with potion-making elements based on The Apothecary Diaries. And I've love some Western translations of the Sailor Moon games, since so few of them ever came out in the U.S. What about you?

That's a really interesting idea! I don't go to the movies very often anymore, so I'm always eager to enjoy some movie theater popcorn when I go. Also an extra butter, Diet Coke person - plus some extra salt. Never thought about changing my snacks to suit the theme.

My family is obsessed with Elf, so we tend to watch it every year. But now that I'm married, we alternate which family we spend the holiday with, and Elf has become an every other year tradition. It's honestly nice that way because then I look forward to it more.

Yeah, I never trust the hype with things like this, so I'm sure it won't live up to what everyone is hoping for.

Even though it's been a few days, people are still speculating about the Game Awards teasers shared by Geoff Keighley and the official Game Awards account. (Here, if you haven't seen it yet) Initially, some people were speculating it was related to Elder Scrolls 6, but I'm not counting on it. Reliable insiders have now confirmed it's not Gears of War or Diablo 4. What are your theories?