I grew up in a very religious, rural part of the country (US) and in a time when sexism and racism were the norm. I’m now an atheist and now recognize how damaging all of that is to the individuals it harms and to society as a whole.

Haven’t played the sequel yet. Waiting to get it on sale if/when it shows up on GOG. That said, I don’t have big expectations. Sequels rarely live up to the original.

No, it’s not bad. You have a best friend and that’s great. Assuming there’s nothing amorous going on between you, the fact that they are the opposite gender as you shouldn’t matter.

Just be careful to invest time in your relationship with your boyfriend as well. Remember that they are also your friend and even if they trust you they may tire of the situation if they perceive they are being neglected. Just saying this because I have seen relationships fall apart because of similar situations.

Fair enough. There were a lot of weapons and variations of the weapons and I’d agree that some things weren’t explained well or at all. But for me part of the fun was experimenting and figuring out what worked and what didn’t.

As for the story, it really didn’t click for me either until later in the game when the how and why of that world became clearer. Prior to that it felt like just another derivative (post-post-)post-apocalyptic story. But from that point on I was fully invested, which made the ending all the more impactful for me.

If you don’t mind me asking, what specifically didn’t you like about the game?

Horizon Zero Dawn - From what I saw from the marketing seemed just odd. Relatively primitive looking humans fighting animal shaped robots. It just looked a bit too gimmicky. Several years after it’s initial release I saw that it was on sale and gave it a shot. I was genuinely surprised by the depth of the story. It was much more emotionally impactful than I expected and the story now feels almost prescient.

I drive a small car with stiff (sport) suspension. In my area manhole covers typically aren’t aligned well with the road surface making them quite bumpy to drive over. This can jarring and even painful for me due to medical issues that I don’t care to get into here. So I routinely avoid driving over manhole covers.

Not sure that’s a universal thing with cats. Unless she’s really hungry, the current feline resident of my household most definitely will turn her nose up at a dish if it’s the same as she was fed in the last meal.