Hey! Things are good I think? This was definitely one of those "blink and it's over" summers. Honestly got so busy that it flew by. The fires for the half of August didn't really help unfortunately (we're good).

I started but never finished Zelda unfortunately! One of my kids dove in headfirst and played the heck out of it though. I watched most of it through his play through which was honestly just as exciting. I'm looking forward to getting into it on my own one day, but I really enjoyed it from afar. Was a milestone I think. Me watching, him playing.

I see you've started into the spooky season games already! I'm trying to decide what I'm going to play for spooky this year. Maybe an Alan Wake run before 2 arrives.

Hockey gets played this month! I'm looking forward to this season. I'm ready to be hurt again.

Beyond losing yourself to Zelda how was your summer? Hope it was great!

Ha... yea... I don't know what I was thinking? It took me a good chunk of time to even defeat the well spirit.

I'm taking the "it'll be very very hard in the beginning, but will get better the more you play and the more powerful you get" approach. We'll see.

Elden Ring is a spectacular first game of the year! That's another one I need to go back and do another run of.

How are you enjoying it so far? I had very limited Souls experience prior to Elden Ring, and loved every moment with it. It made me want to go back (which is why I have a half finished DS1 run sitting in my list haha).

Haha I'm easing myself in.

I've been holding off for it to be my 'final game' for the longest time, but priorities and time being what they are I don't know when that will be and damnit I want to play it. With the next-gen update coming in hot, them working on the next instalment, and it being roughly *7* years old it's time.

Plus I decided to start it on Death March difficulty. How hard can it be?! (pretty hard at the start!)

Lol once again on those delayed responses. Ended up on family vacation and was gone for 3 weeks.

Edmonton got Jack! I'm super stoked he got his bag. Awesome guy, but glad it wasn't us that paid him for term.

You guys got Mikhayev! That's one of those contracts that is super risky. I love the guy and boy is he fast, but his shot is oof. He if figured that out he'll be great for you guys. Plus on the Nucks he's a lot more likely to get more top line minutes and PP time. He was good on the PK too. Hope he thrives in Van.

We got Murray! And Samsonov! And a bunch of other guys I'm kind of into! Need to shed some salary though.

Also that Calgary and Florida trade?!?! Calgary won HUGE I think. The Atlantic is just.. ugh.

And while it's late the final WAS awesome. Was very happy to see Naz hoist the cup. Scary how good Colorado is.

You're playing Guardians! I found that game very surprising. Really enjoyed it. Nothing that's going to reinvent a genre or usher in a new age, but what a great time.

I am very delayed in this, due to... well, life... but yep.

The way I settled on it was... it didn't hurt less than previous years, and it definitely didn't hurt more. I don't know what you do differently. Was a great series, the Bolts just have the experience of knowing how to close it out. Taking the back to back champs to 7 and making Vasi look semi-human for the bulk of the series?

Shouldn't have been a round 1 series... ugh.

The rest of the 'yoffs have been absolutely crazy and bananas. The Battle of Alberta? Crazy. Avs sweeping the Oil? Lol Mike Smith.

THE RANGERS? Crazy days.

RE: Tonight's game.


UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH.

What a game. Absolutely unreal.

Glad that the Leafs could (once again) be a part of history for the other team.

Leafs nation melting down after that game when we just came off another brutal loss to Calgary with 48 shots. We have so much emotional damage that people are ready to fold the roster after our 7th loss in 31 games. Ah well. The Seattle game and the Pittsburgh game last night got us back on track.

Of course none of it means anything as we're going to draw Tampa or Florida in round 1. *sigh*

You and me both. I fully expected Alan Wake to remain this kind of wonderful singular title (with DLC/Mini Sequel). I found myself feeling pumped when 2 was announced.

Leafs Canucks rescheduled for the 12th! I got notification that my ticket is still good, so we're thinking of making the drive down again. At least the Coq is open this time so if it all falls apart we can just turn around and treat it like a nice Saturday drive.

Speaking of the Canucks, very excited for the Rachel Doerrie hire in analytics. I think she's going to be awesome for your team. Plus the Budreau and winning is helping. I'm not counting them out of a the Playoffs yet.

The OILERS though? Oof. What do you even do at this point? It's not the coach. There have to be fundamental changes, and I think that's going to mean one of the big two goes (and I mean it's obviously Draisaitl if it happens). Plus the Flames being middling and the Habs and Sens being "lol" means You may be the West Coast Canadian hope and we *gulp* may be the East Coasts. Not that anyone that isn't a Leafs fan ever cheers for us haha.

Glad you are liking/liked Infinite. Work and life has been so busy I've barely had time to game so I still haven't gotten around to trying it. It's on the list though. Want to try and spend some time with it and clearing up a bit more of my backlog before the Spring and Summer releases start coming out.

To your Top 10, great list! Hades being in the top spot is completely understandable. A few on your list I've played in previous years and yea, great games. Fallen Order, Cuphead, Night in the Woods. I haven't played Observation or Life Is Strange 2, but there ones I have been interested in.

Mine were:

10 Bravely Default 2
9 Hitman 3
8 CrossCode
7 Dragon Quest XI
6 Assassin's Creed Valhalla
5 The Forgotten City
4 Resident Evil Village
3 Metroid Dread
2 13 Sentinels
1 Guardians of the Galaxy

And honestly the top 5 could be completely interchangeable, as evidenced by the fact that I even swapped a few of them around after I thought about it more haha.