Amanda Kay Oaks

This is so funny! One of my friends is also playing a Tortle monk who's basically a Ninja Turtle right now. It is indeed very fun.

Hello, I have been summoned! Big D&D (and Pathfinder) fan. Currently playing a halfling bard in my group's short campaign.

Yeah, on the GameStop side of things it seems like a smart move (though from the looks of it, shareholders don't think so lol). But yeah, not sure how to feel about that "Amazon competitor" comment. I doubt they'd shut down TCG Player though, regardless.

I have seen surprisingly few spoilers for the actual plot, just thirst posts about the adult Gaang mostly. So while I do have to imagine some people will watch the leak and therefore not tune in for the "real" release, I'm optimistic that fans will still show up when it comes out. I know I'm waiting for the actual release.

I live a second life as a book person when I'm not gaming, so I'm always reading something lol. Currently working on a modern Greek myth retelling called Daughter of the Hunt that's been really interesting so far.

My husband and I recently finally started watching Severance. We're a little late to the game but have managed to avoid any major spoilers so we're really enjoying it so far.

GameStop recently made a bid to buy out eBay, which also owns TCG Player. It's hard not to wonder what this could mean for the resale market for Pokemon cards & other TCGs. I wrote about my take, but I'm curious what other TCG collectors think? Do you see this as GameStop making moves to secure a firmer hold on graded Pokemon card sales?

Yeah it's wild. They're even trying to scalp the Pokemon Pop Tarts from Target. And the Goldfish aisle in my local rural grocery store was looking ROUGH from the Pokemon collab (though I did get a bag of those).

Alas, I'm going to have to be basic here. Mine are Skyrim and The Sims 4. If I fall back into either of these, you can expect not to hear from me for at least a few days before I re-emerge lol.

I'm excited for Pokemon TCG's next expansion, Chaos Rising. It comes out on the 22nd and fingers crossed fans can actually get a hand on any of it before the scalpers descend.

Sounds like a great weekend of gaming!

I've had my eye on NTE but haven't checked it out yet. I was off in the mountains this weekend so I'm behind on gaming time lol.

It's the first weekend of a new month and we had a couple of great games release right at the end of April. What's your gaming look like this weekend? I'm hoping to get into inKONBINI, which has been getting pretty positive reviews.

Ugh, the worst feeling! Hope you're able to get one and play it soonish!

I am with you. I don't mind paying for DLC on occasion, but I don't like spending on cosmetics or in-game boosts. I love free-to-play games, but I'm almost always entirely F2P. I'll grind for in-game currency, but I don't spend on it. The exception is the occasional Remote Raid Pass top-up in Pokemon Go so I can raid with friends, but that's a gameplay feature rather than something that's purely cosmetic.

When I game for fun, I often toggle down the difficulty because I don't want to be smashing controllers. But when I play for review I make sure to try out the different difficulty settings. And boy did I have a time playing through Hades 2 that way haha. I also have childhood memories of being absolutely befuddled by early Legend of Zelda games because the lack of direction could be brutal at times.

You're welcome for the reminder? Lol.

We're almost done with April, which means it's time to look ahead to a new month full of video game releases. What's on your radar for May? Personally, I'm excited for Outbound (cozy survival game), Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, and Coffee Talk Tokyo.

I love doing side quests and will try to finish all of them I can. But collectibles tend to get overwhelming for me, so I mostly ignore them if they aren't related to completing the main story/specific quests.

I'd love to start collecting Pokemon cards more intentionally if I had the budget. I buy and rip packs, but I'd love to have a binder of every card featuring favorites like Psyduck, Umbreon, etc. Alas, that's beyond my budget for now.

I've got the Essential subscription right now for the handful of PC games I sometimes play, and have been meaning to cancel it. Ultimate isn't really worth it for me, since the Xbox is more my husband's thing. So the price drop isn't going to make a difference on my end, at least for now.

I just started the Apple TV+ adaptation of Margo's Got Money Troubles and I am immediately hooked.

No one does side quests like Bethesda, tbh.

Finished the third Apothecary Diaries light novel and they are so much fun. Definitely a nice way to make the wait for Season 3 feel a bit less terrible. Also spent some time getting back into Dave the Diver, which was really nice. Just a great gameplay loop when you want something chill.

I'm a side quest hoarder and absolutely love games that have a ton of compelling side quests to take on. Naturally, I'm curious... what is the most memorable side quest you've ever played, and why? For me, it's probably Skyrim's Boethiah's Calling, just because it forced me to abandon my nice guy treatment of NPCs if I wanted to check it off the list.