Last weekend, I finished BioShock. Immediately after finishing BioShock, I installed BioShock 2, and I will play through BioShock Infinite after that. While this is going to be a review, it’s going to be difficult to write an unbiased review. BioShock is a game that got me into console gaming, as it was the first game I played on my Xbox 360 after only playing Halo 3 for months. It’s one of the few games I have replayed multiple times. I want to say this is at least my third or fourth time playing through BioShock. It’s been enough that I have lost count. I don’t really have anything new to say about BioShock; I think the game still holds up nineteen years later.

BioShock opens with Jack, who survives a recent plane crash. As the sole survivor, he swims away from the wreckage and finds a pillar in the middle of the ocean connected to a set of stairs. Upon climbing up, he walks into a sphere that lowers him into the sea to a city called Rapture. Rapture was created by Andrew Ryan, a place he had hoped would be a utopia, free of government control. What Jack finds is nothing of the sort. He’s attacked by splicers, enemies that are addicted to a drug called ADAM, which changes someone’s genetic makeup. Jack can find Plasmids, which give him powers like shooting fire or electricity. He’s contacted by Atlas, who encourages him to find his family. Unfortunately, his family is seemingly killed by Andrew Ryan, so now Jack needs to confront Andrew Ryan and try to save Rapture to the best of his ability.

The most impressive part of BioShock is the graphics. For a game released in 2007, this game still feels modern. Rapture is still the gritty, underwater, dystopian city I was familiar with. Rapture has elements of the 1940s, and it feels like the city is trapped in time, which adds to the horror element of the game. I’m the first one to admit that I’m not a horror game person. You will not catch me playing Silent Hill any time soon. BioShock has elements of horror without having too many jump scares, which works for me. Sure, you can hear the splicers off in the distance, and they can sneak up on you, but I find that isn’t too much.

While I have played through the story several times, I find I like the familiarity. Andrew Ryan, as a villain, isn’t the most physically imposing, but he still is a villain nonetheless. He’s a billionaire type who went into this with good intentions, and then things turned south. I think it makes Andrew Ryan scarier in a way because he’s not unlike the billionaires we see in today’s society. The Big Daddies are still as formidable as ever. Big Daddies protect Little Sisters who carry ADAM, so to progress in the game, you need to take them out and harvest ADAM. You can either save the Little Sisters or kill them throughout this process. I’m too nice in video games, so I saved them rather than killing them. It also unlocks the better ending in the game. I played the game on Medium because I wanted a challenge, but also, I wanted this to be a relaxing experience. I don’t need to play every game on the toughest difficulty anymore. Frank Fontaine, he sucks. He’s arguably worse than Ryan, but he gets his comeuppance in the end.

While playing BioShock, I love all the details. The collectibles in the game are audio logs from several key characters. There are a few from Andrew Ryan, Dr. Tenenbaum, Fontaine, and even some audio recordings from minor characters. It makes collecting things in the game fun because you unlock so much more of the story when you do. I found myself combing through various rooms in each level, trying to find the next recording. With BioShock being a horror game, it helps to go through every safe, finding ammo, money, and other trinkets to help craft items such as different ammo. It hinders the game if you only try to play through the story because you will run out of items fast. I loved getting lost in the game and not focusing on the main objective simply because I wanted to collect what I could find.

BioShock is still the game I remembered it would be. It remains one of my favorite video games of all time, and that will never change.

When was the last time you read a magazine? I asked myself this same question, and I genuinely can’t remember. I used to read Seventeen and Teen Vogue when I was younger, and then transitioned to Cosmopolitan. I haven’t had a true magazine subscription in years. I was delighted when I discovered Cozy Companion, a cozy games and fiction magazine published by game studio Snowbright Studio. What drew me to Cozy Companion was getting more cozy game recommendations. It didn’t matter to me if those recommendations were video games, board games, or TTRPGs. I have since read two of their digital issues, and I can’t recommend the magazine enough.

Starting with gaming, there are different games being featured and interviews with game studios. In the October 2025 issue, I found out about Dredge, a sinister fishing game. I have since added it to my wishlist on Switch. It was interesting reading the interview with the developers to understand why they made the game and what drew them to the cozy horror genre. When reading this section, I saw some of the other recommendations, including the board game Mysterium, Call of Cthulhu, and Arkham Horror, which are all games I either own or have played extensively. In the November 2025 issue, there’s an exclusive interview with Archeron, who’s publishing Pumpkin Spice, a cozy RPG set at a coffee shop. I had this system on my radar as I had signed up to follow their campaign on BackerKit. Each issue of Cozy Companion I have read so far has been entertaining to read.

Besides gaming, there’s more that each issue has to offer. There’s a section on crafting, either with crochet, and one issue featured how to make a felt dice tray. I have a lot of admiration for those who are crafty because it can’t be me. The crafts don’t interest me, but I think they would probably interest other people. There are also short stories, recipes, and interviews with the artists who design the cover of each magazine. There’s something here for everyone, even if you are a casual gamer.

I haven’t signed up for a regular subscription yet, as I have been buying some of the back issues as digital copies. Each subscription allows you a choice of either digital or print. Once I get caught up on their back issues, I see no reason why I wouldn’t subscribe to Cozy Companion.

I came across an article in which Paradox, the company aiding in the release of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2, reported lower profits due to Bloodlines 2 not performing well. I finished Bloodlines 2, and I don’t feel at all surprised by this admission. It’s unfortunate, considering Bloodlines 2 had a lot of potential to bring new players into White Wolf and the other World of Darkness TTRPG games. There will be additional DLC released later in the year focusing on Benny and Ysabella. Once that happens, I think Bloodlines 2 will be left alone. This made me think about White Wolf as a company and what I’d love to see for the franchise’s future.

I’d love to see more marketing of these games, specifically Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Hunter: The Reckoning. It feels like these games aren’t being marketed well, or that there aren’t many live plays where groups are actively playing them. To play devil’s advocate, it might be that I don’t know these live plays exist, and these games could be played more often than I’m made aware of. If so, help a girl out. Feel free to drop any live play recommendations for these games in the comments below. In scrolling through the World of Darkness YouTube channel, there are a few live plays for these games, but they are far and few in between. I’d love to see World of Darkness promoting and boosting smaller creators who livestream these games, as I think it’s a win-win for everyone. White Wolf can promote channels playing their games, and small creators get more viewers from other gamers, like me, who want to watch these games being played. I feel that there isn’t enough of that right now, which is a shame. It’s a big missed opportunity as Vampire: The Masquerade is arguably the more popular game, but it also has more content, which helps people buy more TTRPG books.

Speaking of promotion, I’d like to see more TTRPG books that highlight a specific city. I’m reading Chicago By Night now, and I find the book fascinating! I have been to Chicago several times, so it’s been fun to see specific areas of the city being highlighted and which vampire clan has control. I think it helps build up more lore for the games if there were more books dedicated to highlighting various cities around the globe.

The other thing that I notice is how much is invested into “Month of Darkness”. “Month of Darkness” is when World of Darkness has various prompts throughout the month in honor of Halloween and the spookier season. This creates a lot of buzz and excitement for the franchise. Once October is over, though, it seems like nothing happens. I went to the World of Darkness YouTube channel, and since October of last year, there have only been eight videos uploaded, the most recent one uploaded a month ago. Without being repetitive, it would be great to see something happening on the channel in the other months.

Now that Bloodlines 2 has been released and the financials are public, I’d like to see more live plays and advertising from White Wolf and World of Darkness for both Werewolf and Hunter. If they don’t invest in these games, why should I?

I bought Vagrant Song at Gen Con in 2023. I was drawn to the game originally because of the art, which reminds me of the game Cuphead. I liked how this game is cooperative, and that there are several different scenarios to play. I get the most value out of board games that offer a ton of replayability. Vagrant Song is a game I occasionally bring to my family’s board game days. We succeeded in playing two different scenarios, “When You Dig My Grave” and “Suffocation Station”. Eventually, I’d love to say that I played every single scenario in the base game.

Vagrant Song is one of those games where you have to relearn how to play the game if it’s been a few years since you last played. When we last played, we took pictures of our characters to save our game and items. These pictures were dated from November 2023. It’s wild to me that it was almost three years ago. It makes sense since we rotate out the games we play. It took about an hour to re-read the rules and set up the scenario. In the first scenario, “When You Dig My Grave”, we had to put the haint, the terminology Vagrant Song uses to describe a ghost, to rest. Each scenario includes a series of rituals, and if you complete the ritual, you can unlock various power-ups after the scenario concludes. In one such ritual, we unlocked a vial of poison that my character has on their character card. It’s neat to be able to take items into future scenarios in the game. Once we finished the scenario, we realized we played the game wrong. We had all our characters take a turn, then the haint would take their turn. Instead, the haint should have had a turn after each of the characters. Oops. If I type this out in this blog post, maybe we will remember to play the game correctly in the future.

In the second scenario, “Suffocation Station,” the goal was not to free the haints, but to complete all the rituals or the events on the board. I liked this a lot. It made the game different since our strategy had to change. Most of the scenarios in the game include giving humanity to the haints, so they can be put to rest instead of wandering the train, which is why this scenario was unique. After completing this scenario, we packed up, took pictures of our characters, and saved the game.

Vagrant Song remains one of my favorite board games in my collection. I like how there is still so much of the game that we haven’t discovered yet. This has become one of our favorite games we play, and hopefully, we will get to the point where we have played every single scenario in the scenario book.

Last month, Animal Crossing: New Horizons released its new update. The main addition was adding the hotel, which sits on the ocean alongside the pier. With the hotel, players can now decorate hotel rooms and see different villagers visiting their island. The update has invigorated my love for Animal Crossing, as I have been playing the game every chance I can. I have gone through a recent slump where I went eight months (the game reminded me of this) without playing. With the update, I have been playing Animal Crossing regularly, and I feel motivated to go back and accomplish things that I was missing.

Starting with the hotel, I like being able to decorate the rooms. I find the task itself to be relaxing. When beginning to decorate a room, you can choose two different themes. From there, each room has various furniture items, flooring, and wallpaper, so you can choose how you want the room to look. I find that I do this every time I log into the game. The more rooms that are decorated, the more items are unlocked in the hotel’s souvenir shop. One of my favorite items I unlocked is a cat plushie that sits in my LEGO-themed room. I’m not sure how many more items I could unlock, but it’s been fun to see what else is included in the update. Another task that’s kept me busy is crafting items. Outside the hotel is a box where you can craft items to put into the box that are shipped off the island. It’s an easy way to get more currency to spend at the hotel.

Speaking of the update, another feature I like is the multi-craft feature. Before the update, you could only craft one item at a time. Now, you can craft multiple of the same item. For example, I’m trying to complete my fish encyclopedia, so having fish bait on hand can help attract the fish I need. Before, I could craft one fish bait, but now I can craft seven at once as long as I have the materials needed. Another way that I’m using the multi-craft feature is to craft flimsy tools, so I can break them to earn more Nook Miles I was missing. The last thing I will say about this is the ability to use items from your home storage. This is so slick! I don’t have to carry everything in my pockets anymore. As long as it’s in my home’s inventory, I can pull it to craft with it. Crafting has been made so much better thanks to this update.

The final thing I have done is create a guide to everything I still need to unlock in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have a table of all the fish, sea creatures, and bugs I need to catch, along with the Nook Miles I haven’t unlocked yet. I have highlighted certain creatures that are available this time of year and what time I need to play to unlock them. This has been super helpful! Since I created the guide, I have caught at least two fish and two insects I was missing. My husband asked me if I could change the date and time on my Switch to the times of year I need, and I could, but that’s cheating! I want to unlock this fair and square.

The new update has made Animal Crossing: New Horizons fresh again! I’m glad that this update was made for both Switch and Switch 2. I don’t think I would have upgraded to the Switch 2 solely because of this update had it not been made available on the Switch. I’m not sure how long I will keep playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but I know this update will keep me busy for the next month at least.

In my bedroom, there’s a tall white shelf. On the shelf are all my favorite video games from all different consoles. These are games I loved or games that mean a lot to me. I didn’t realize this, but my husband told me that the Xbox Series X can play Xbox 360 games. Once I realized that, I went to my shelf to figure out what I wanted to play first. My eyes immediately went to BioShock, and without any hesitation, I pulled it off my shelf. This is the year that I will spend replaying games that carry sentimental value for me.

I treated video games like I treated books, where once I finished playing the game, I’d move on to something else. It was rare for me to replay a video game or re-read a book. I want to be better about this. If I loved something, why would I only experience it once? BioShock is an exception to the rule, as I have replayed this game several times, although it’s been a while since my last play-through.

I’m looking forward to continuing to replay games I enjoy. I will still buy new games and play new releases if something suits my fancy, but for now, I’m going back to reliving the games that brought me joy many years ago.

Steam had a major sale for their event called Steam Detective Fest. All detective, noir, or puzzle games were on sale. I played several game demos, and oddly enough, the demo I liked the most wasn’t a detective game at all. As I browsed through their sale, I saw almost every single Nancy Drew PC game was over 40% off. I purchased eight games that I don’t own yet. This should keep me busy for a bit. I decided to play Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice first. Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice was one of my favorite Nancy Drew games that I played.

Nancy is sent to Venice to investigate a series of art thefts. The art thefts are linked to a person called The Phantom of Venice, who wears a mask and a cape during the heists. The Italian Police tell Nancy of a potential suspect, so she spies on them from a nearby building. From there, Nancy is sent all around Venice and even has to perform a heist herself!

I’m biased, as someone who went to Italy last year, I like the setting of the game. While I haven’t been to Venice myself, I thought the game captured the city well. Nancy takes the gondolas to get from place to place and will often walk to the various Piazzas that she needs to get to. Speaking of navigation, I thought this was straightforward. There’s a map of the sites in Venice, and Nancy needs to click on a location that’s adjacent to her. Depending on the location, she may walk, take public transit, or take a gondola to get places. I liked being able to explore multiple locations, unlike some Nancy Drew games, where she’s stuck in one place for the game’s entirety.

Speaking of straightforward, I think this Nancy Drew game was one of the easier games to follow. There are some Nancy Drew games where I spend an hour talking to people, calling Ned, or trying to advance the plot because the next thing I need to do hasn’t been unlocked. I like how this game sends Nancy exactly where she has to go, and each to-do list in her notebook leads exactly where it should. It makes for an easier gameplay experience.

It’s not a Nancy Drew game without mini-games and puzzles. One of my favorite games is a card game that Nancy plays in a nightclub called Scopa. The game itself is pretty straightforward, and while I lost the first game, I was able to win the second fairly easily. There are two instances in the game where you have to play Scopa to get information. I looked this up, and the rules in the game appear to be accurate representations of how Scopa is played. I could have spent multiple rounds playing Scopa for no other reason than I enjoyed the game. The puzzles in this game were also interesting. It’s funny, there’s a locked door in the lobby where Nancy stays. I took the time to pick the lock because if I have learned anything from a Nancy Drew game, if there’s something locked, it’s probably important. Oh, there was nothing. I ended up getting a chicken egg for my efforts and an award at the end of the game. I think that’s the one time I have ever experienced that in a Nancy Drew game.

After I complete a Nancy Drew game, I sort it into one of three Steam folders: Games Completed, Games I Love, and Not Super Interested in Playing. I’d list Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice in the Games I Love folder. This was one of the easier Nancy Drew games to follow. I loved the location, and the mini-games kept me entertained. The next Nancy Drew game I will play will either be Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand or Nancy Drew: The Secret of Shadow Ranch.

There’s nothing quite like a snowstorm to keep someone sequestered for a weekend. It ended up being the perfect time to sit down and complete Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2. I have been playing this game for a few months now. When I play video games, I like to take my time. I don’t want to rush the story; instead, I like to complete a few story missions, then switch gears and focus on the side quests. I spent time feeding on the citizens of Seattle, which allowed me to unlock perks from the other vampire clans. There are many opinions about Bloodlines 2. Some say the game isn’t bad, while others claim it’s horrible. I enjoyed playing Bloodlines 2, although I can’t help but feel disappointed with certain parts of the game.

Spoilers for Bloodlines 2 Below

Bloodlines 2 opens with Phyre, who awakens from Torpor. As Phyre comes to their senses, they hear a voice in their head belonging to Fabien, a Malkavian Detective who’s a Kindred local to Seattle. Phyre questions him, and Fabien struggles to recover his memories. As the two investigate further, they realize Fabien was killed by Phyre after he opened the box Phyre was resting in. If that wasn’t enough, Phyre sees a strange mark on their hand. Phyre feels weaker than they should, and they believe this mark is responsible. Fabien encourages Phyre to seek out the Camarilla for permission to wander Seattle and to figure out how to remove the mark.

I have so many thoughts about this game, so I’m going to list all the things I liked and disliked, then break them down point by point. Starting with the things I liked about Bloodlines 2:

• The Story
• Characters & Contacts within The Camarilla
• Environment
• Customization

Playing Bloodlines 2, the story was engaging. I am fortunate that none of the game was spoiled for me, so I went into it not knowing what to expect. I was curious as to who the Rebar Killer was both in the 1920s and the present day. I liked how Fabien’s story interwove with Phyre. Fabien’s missions were more story-based with no combat, while Phyre was often taking on several enemies at once. I think it was a nice breather to play as Fabien. For any Vampire: The Masquerade (VTM) game, whether it’s Bloodlines 2 or the tabletop game, the Camarilla contacts are the backbone of the story, whether you like them or not. I liked interacting with the local Primogen. Safia was my favorite contact. If there were any flirtatious dialogue options for Safia, I always picked them. She was the one I was trying to romance, which is ironic because of how the story unfolds later. Tolly grew on me, too.

The environment of Bloodlines 2 is arguably the strongest part of the game. VTM is a darker game, and Bloodlines 2 captured this perfectly. Every alleyway feels darker than it should; the neon lights of the city are brighter in a gothic way. It felt like I was playing a VTM video game. I like how Bloodlines 2 allows players to choose the clan powers they want. In the VTM tabletop game, you can learn powers outside your clan from a clan contact who has that ability. This is how Bloodlines 2 is set up, too. While I committed to playing Ventrue, I could still pick abilities from other clans.

Now onto the things that I didn’t like about the game, or things that I felt could be improved in a future update.

• Keeping Bloodlines 2 as the title of the game. One option could have been: Vampire: The Masquerade Seattle by Night.
• Where are Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Malkavian playable clans??????
• Creating my own character vs. playing as pre-made characters
• No custom waypoints
• Autosaving is only for story missions, not side quests.
• Open-Ended Story

Let’s start with what I think is the most obvious: the name of the game. Bloodlines 2 references that this was supposed to be a sequel to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, a VTM game released in the 2000s. This game is a cult classic and is brought up in VTM fan spaces. I think it was a mistake to call this game a sequel when it feels different than the first game. I genuinely believe that if this game were named something else, it would have decreased the negative press surrounding the game. Something as simple as Vampire: The Masquerade Seattle by Night would have been perfect, or Seattle by Night would have sufficed.

While Bloodlines 2 unlocked a few clans from a paywall before release, the game is still missing clans. I have used this analogy before, but it’s as if Baldur’s Gate 3 came out missing some classes like Barbarian, Wizard, or Rogue. Fans would be pissed, rightfully so. In Bloodlines 2, I’m specifically citing that Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Malkavian are missing as playable clan options. Gangrel is a core clan, so why weren’t they included? There was exactly one Gangrel contact, but they were barely in the game, and they were murdered. Cool. For Nosferatu, you might be thinking, “How would this game incorporate a Nosferatu playable clan when they are often deformed? Wouldn’t this break the masquerade?” Excuse me, but Tolly is in the game and gets around perfectly fine. There is no excuse for not being able to play as a Nosferatu. While Fabien is a Malkavian, I don’t think that counts. It would have been interesting to see Phyre and Fabien play off each other had Malkavian been included in the game. It’s a missed opportunity to leave out some of the clans that people love to play.

Grouping a few minor criticisms I had, starting with being able to create a character. Since Bloodlines 2 is based on a TTRPG, I’d expect that I could create my own character instead of playing as pre-generated characters. This didn’t bother me as much, but I’d like to see a true VTM game where I create my character from scratch. Another minor annoyance is that you can’t set a custom waypoint. This would have been helpful while completing the side quests. Speaking of side quests, the autosave feature of the game doesn’t save progress on side quests. This is silly. In one instance, my game froze, and I lost progress on the items I collected. If this could be included in a future game update, it would make the game better.

The final item on my dislike list is the open-ended story. I know I said I like the story, and overall, I do. However, I disliked how the Rebar Killer plot line was open to interpretation. In the game, Fabien investigates a serial killer who takes out several Camarilla contacts (including Rosalind, the other Prince). Fabien finds out that Lou and her ghoul, JJ Campbell, were responsible. In the present day, the killings are repeated, and Fabien is sent to look into it. When Fabien realizes Lou and Campbell’s involvement, his memories are wiped, and as such, this part of the story is unresolved. Was Fabien behind the killings because his subconscious wanted him to remember? Was it Safia using the killings as a distraction for her plan? It feels like a bit of a letdown considering this was a major part of the story, and yet we don’t find out what happens.

Speaking of Safia, I’m so bummed that she ended up being the one responsible. She was my favorite. If it were an option, I would have gladly been under Safia’s mark to take out Lou Graham. Lou Graham sucked, and karma needed to come back for her. If there were a DLC created focusing on Safia’s story and how she got involved with the Sabbat, I’d play it.

This review is going to end, I promise, but I want to talk about the ending of Bloodlines 2. Bloodlines 2 has five, potentially six, endings depending on the choices made. I won’t spoil all the endings, only the one I unlocked. In my ending, Katsumi takes over, and Lou Graham is hinted at being thrown from a balcony to her death. Phyre remains as the Sheriff and works with Katsumi directly. Seattle becomes an Anarch city. Good riddance. The Camarilla was corrupt and needed to be dethroned. While I wish Lou’s death was something that Phyre could witness, it was still satisfying. I read the other endings, and I felt this ending was the one I wanted.

Is Bloodlines 2 a bad game? I don’t think so. I’m glad I got to play it, rather than if the game had been permanently shelved. I would have loved it if Bloodlines 2 were an excellent game; it could have led to people wanting to learn and play the tabletop game. The reception around Bloodlines 2 wasn’t enough to generate interest, and it’s a shame. I’m disappointed because I think this game could have been so much better than it was.