A game for book lovers: Tiny Bookshop

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you.

 

The game Tiny Bookshop came out in two copies at the library, and no one was interested in borrowing them. Not even me, but I decided to make the sacrifice.

 

 

Luckily I did, because I really enjoyed the game. And best of all, I got lots of tips for new books to add to my reading list.

 

 

The most interesting example for me is Leonie Swann's Three Bags Full, where sheep solve the murder of their shepherd. This book was made into a movie this year, called The Sheep Detectives! That's a movie I want to see.

There are several Stephen King books in the game.

From a Finnish perspective, it is worth noting that the game also features Moomins and Alvar Aalto.

 

 

 

Cat in a bookstore?

In the game, you can adopt a dog, a cat, and... a murdered mascot. As long as you first find out who murdered the mascot.

 

 

In the first location of the game, you can get seagulls to become paying customers. In fact, you have to recommend suitable books to them. What kind of books do seagulls like? At least some crime books, and classics like Dracula. Surprisingly, bird books don't seem to be suitable for seagulls.

 

 

There's even a trophy for petting a sheep a hundred times. Of course, I did that right away.

 

 

Tiny Bookshop's book recommendation system is a bit broken. It can be frustrating, and even laughable.

 

 

Tiny Bookshop is a perfect game for those who like to both read books and play games.

 

Copycat video game review (PS5)

Copycat (affiliate link) is a sad little game about terrible people who abandon their cats. It made me hate people even more than I already did. If you can't cope with people neglecting animals, don't play this game.

 

I played Copycat on my late cat Tabitha's birthday, so I chose to play as a black and white cat in memory of her. There are six different cats to choose from.  

 

 

Copycat game story

Olive is an old, sickly woman, freshly out of hospital. Her cat Dawn is missing. So in her wisdom she decides to adopt a similar looking cat from a shelter, and names also her Dawn. 

 

 

So what happens to the copycat when the original cat returns home? 

If you adopt a cat from a shelter you can't just abandon it if your previous, missing cat comes back home.  

Listen, lady. If you are old and sick you can't take a pet. Unless you have a system with someone to check every day that you are still alive. Otherwise there's a risk that you'll die, and because of that your beloved pet dies of starvation. Unless they eat your corpse of course.

 

 

The lesson of this game is that people who don't like cats are also murderers.

Copycat endings 

Which ending would you choose? Living as a stray cat, or go back to the people who have abused you? Is there a happy ending to this game? You can view Copycat's both endings here.

 

 

Copycat game: How long to beat?

My first playthrough lasted for 3 hours, so it's a short game. Copycat was made by a small Australian studio of only two people. 

 

 

Copycat gameplay: Full game

 

 

The Animals of Disney Dreamlight Valley

This post contains affiliate links.

 

Disney Dreamlight Valley is a popular game with lots of content. I had waited for years to play it. I have now spent most of my summer playing this game, and I loved every second. I loaned the game from the library, and unfortunately the DLCs weren't included.

 

 

Dreamlight Valley is a very addictive game. It was difficult for me to stop playing it. There's so much to do. After 180 hours of playtime I finally finished all the quests of the base game. Well, almost all of them.

 

 

 

Disney Dreamlight Valley characters

Disney has so many iconic characters, and not all of them are (yet) in the game. From the start Merlin, Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck and Goofy are there. A bit later Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse and Daisy join the fun. Along the way the player unlocks more characters, biomes and realms.

 

 

What I personally hate that the Fairy Godmother is in the game, but there's no Cinderella. She happens to be my favorite Disney Princess, along with Jasmine and Belle. I'm sure she's going to be added to the game at some point. But is she gonna be free content? I doubt it.

 

 

My favorite character in the game has to be Nala. I must admit that I have never even seen The Lion King, even thought I have wanted to for literally decades. I especially want to see the original version, because there actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is voicing young Simba. Yes, I used to be a big fan of Home Improvement. 

 

 

Nala in Dreamlight Valley is simply very adorable. Makes me want to see the movie. So thanks to this game I'm finally going to loan that movie from the library, luckily it's there.

 

 

Another adorable character is Frozen's Olaf, I fell in love with him too. That's yet another movie I haven't seen. I guess it would be easier to list the movies I have seen.

 

 

My favorite Disney movies are Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, and characters from those are in the game. I especially love Belle in this game, she's a quiet book nerd, just like me. 

I like Scar's negative attitude towards everything. 

 

 

Among my favorites is also Donald Duck, he's so funny in his anger. And yet also so polite.

 

 

But when it comes to Prince Eric... I want him for myself, so step away, Ariel. I haven't seen The Little Mermaid either. 

That is one thing missing from Dreamlight Valley, romantic relationships for the playable character. I suppose it's undestandable, it would be too horrible to steal spouses of well known and iconic characters. But I got used to romance in My Time-series, and it's hard to be without.

 

 

I don't like the game's latest addition, Peter Pan. I have always hated his misogynistic attitude, or his attitude in general. 

 

Dreamlight Valley's Cheshire Cat

Disney Dreamlight Valley is full of animals. From Lion King's Simba and Nala to Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire Cat. This cat is a bit quirky, and likes to cause mayhem and disappear. But I love him anyway.

 

 

 

Dreamlight Valley's Companion Animals

Squirrels (peanut), rabbits (carrots), turtles (seaweed), raccoons (blueberry), foxes (white sturgeon), crocodiles (lobster), sunbirds (flowers that match their feather color), ravens (5 star meals). Those are the companion animals of the base game, and listed after them are their favorite foods. You have to feed them so that they'll become your friends. Then you can choose to have them with you on your adventures. They also gather extra resources and backpack slots for you. 

 

 

There are also some special companions, such as Magic Carpet from Aladdin. 

The DLCs have even more companion animals. My favorite of them is the capybara, I wished to get one.

The Premium Shop also sometimes has companions, including cats. 

 

 

 

Disney Dreamlight Valley Trophies

This game lost me at trophies.

With better/more trophies I would have bought this game. Because of the lack of trophies I only loaned Dreamlight Valley from the library.

With implementing more/lot of trophies the game makers can only win. Every game should have at least story trophies, and a game like this could have soo many trophies. But no, Gameloft chose a different path.

Whenever I'm planning on buying a game I always check the trophies first. No platinum? Not interested. Not many trophies and/or all the trophies hard to get? I'll pass. 

 

 

Still I enjoyed every second of Disney Dreamlight Valley, and wished there were even more free content to play. This is a great game for Disney fans, and for those who love cozy games.

 

 

 

Resident Evil 4 Remake: Review (PS5)

I get commissions for purchases made through the links in this post, at no cost to you.

 

The good, the bad and the cats

 

I have had a Resident Evil website for 25 years. Now I finally bought Resident Evil 4 Remake. Of these previous new Resident Evil remakes, I have only played Resident Evil 2, of which I only played the a-scenario, b-scenario I stopped playing early on. Despite the fact that Claire Redfield happens to be my all time favorite game character. And I haven't even bothered to play Resident Evil 3 Remake, even though it's in my game library.

The original Resident Evil 4 is one of my all time favorite games. It's not a good Resident Evil-game, but otherwise it's great entertainment and for some reason the replay value is very high. 

 

 

Having watched a lot of game streams, I knew that Resident Evil 4 Remake wouldn't reach the level of the original, but I have to say that RE4 Remake is my favorite of these Resident Evil Remakes. After the first playthrough, I eagerly started a second one.

There is a good amount of both old and new here. RE4R is clearly more of a survival horror than an action game. And it's darker than the original. Leon S. (Sexy) Kennedy is more depressed. And unfortunately he is more blonde... hey Capcom, Leon is not a blonde but a brunette.

 

 

Ashley has of course also experienced a transformation, and not necessarily only in a more positive direction. I didn't like what a coward Ashley has been made out to be. Her basic stance and essence is shit-in-the-pants level, argh.

 

I don't like the trend that has plagued Resident Evil-games since Resident Evil 7. That is, that they try to be as vomit-inducing as possible. Even here you can find the obligatory crap pots. And there has clearly been an attempt to make Salazar and Saddler more nauseating.

 

The dogs

At the very beginning of the game, you see a dog carcass, and a terrible fear gripped me: isn't there a dog to be saved? Spoiler: yes there is. And if you save the dog, it will come back to help you in the Gigante battle just like in the original RE4. It's one of my favorite scenes in the entire game. The first time I played, I missed it because I killed Gigante right away with a rocket launcher. Big mistake...

 

And what about the enemy dogs? They have a lot more teeth than they did in the original RE4. Scared the shit out of me.

 

The cats

And since the name of this blog is Cats in games, here is something related to that matter. I had waited a long time for the treasure Golden lynx, fearing that it wouldn't be in the game. But yes it is. And it wasn't until my second playthrough that I found out that there are as many as two of them in the game, I had missed the first one earlier.

 

 

The chickens

The chicken are back to the remake, and they still lay eggs. But you can't farm the eggs like I always did on the farm in the original RE4. I stayed on the farm until my inventory was full of golden eggs.

 

 

Also the cows are back, with the addition of pigs. But the fate of these animals may not always be so sunny, so be forewarned. 

 

And as for the merchant, according to one opinion, his voice is too... British. And I'm not at all surprised that Ada's voice actress has not been liked.

In the remake, you can buy certain things with spinels. It might be a good idea to save spinels for an exclusive upgrade of a weapon. I got a Handcannon from the Mercenaries, and I immediately got infinite ammo to it with spinels. That made the game a lot easier, although Handcannon's aiming system sucks.

 

 

There is one thing in this game that drove me to the brink of rage many times: the collectibles. Collecting collectibles has been made damn hard. If you buy the collectible maps from the merchant and think that now you will find them all, you won't.

Just before the castle, I thought I'd get the last collectable of the village area. Well, it wasn't the last one. I had missed the very first collectible of the game. When there wasn't even a merchant map available yet. Warning: after the cabin fight, you can no longer go back in the village.

 

Later, I also missed a key while playing as Ashley. Well, so much for those collectables of the castle. How shitty. Yeah, those collectables don't matter, but I happen to like trophies.

So here's a pro tip: save often, and to different save slots.

RE4 Remake seems to be hard for PS5 to run. For the first time ever, there was a warning about the PS5 overheating. Scary.

 

Here's my gameplay video from the very start of Resident Evil 4 Remake:

 

My Time at Sandrock: Best bachelors to romance

I get commissions for purchases made through the links in this post, at no cost to you.

There might be some spoilers in this blog text/photos, so read at your own risk. 

 

In My time at Portia choosing a husband was pretty straightforward for me, because the trophy said it had to be Gust. On my own I would have never chosen him, he was always so rude to me. Until he fell in love with me... I always thought that I'd divorce him and marry someone else, but in the end I found myself wanting to be with him forever. Love works in strange ways.

But in My time at Sandrock I was free to choose my own husband. And it was so difficult, there are 21 love interests in total. This blog post is about the bachelors, not the bachelorettes.

Early in the game I kept running into Arvio. But when he said how handsome Fang is I realized that he must prefer the company of men. So as a female builder that meant no Arvio for me. But if you don't date Arvio you miss his reverse confession, and his clingy behaviour afterwards. It's really easy to romance Arvio. Just choose heart options during the picnic, and that will trigger his confession.

 

What is a reverse confession?

In the context of this game reverse confession means an NPC initiating a romantic relationship with the player. Some bachelors/bachelorettes can do reverse confessions, some don't. 

Which bachelors have reverse confession?

Bachelors with reverse confession are Arvio, Unsuur, Qi and Logan. So don't try to give them the heart knot, they have something special planned for you!

Burgess got on my bad side right from the start. On my third day in Sandrock, he commented how tired I look. That day happened to be my birthday! Thank you for the compliment, you really have made my day!

 

Then out of the blue comes Unsuur. He makes a surprise reverse confession early in the game.  So in my opinion Unsuur is definitely the easiest bachelor to start a relationship with. I was not interested in Unsuur before his confession, but found it difficult to turn him down. And instantly regretted saying no to him. Unsuur is the easiest bachelor to romance. You don't even need to gain relationship points with him, just advancing in the main story will trigger his confession.

 

Scientist Qi is heavily involved in the main story, so it's easy to gain relationship points with him. I kept giving him just power stones and data discs as gifts. Also Qi makes a reverse confession, and suddenly he had become my sweetheart. Qi is really adorable in his nerdiness and social awkwardness, and he's definitely the type I would fall for irl.

 

 

I was interested in Ernest right from the start, because he is a writer. But I never seemed to find him, to be able to advance my relationship with him. Finally I realized that he spends his time at the church Apartments, but still on too many days I forgot that he even exists. Ernest ended up rejecting my heart knot twice, which really hurt. I think it could have been because I hadn't done all his friendship missions yet. Nonetheless then he finally said yes to me. But when he talks about his love for me... because of those earlier rejections I just feel empty inside. I mean, earlier you didn't love me and now you do? I don't buy it.

 

Sandrock's doctor Fang is a total weirdo at first, not even speaking with the player. He communicates through his pet bird X. It's difficult to even start any kind of social interactions with him. It takes forever to get in speaking terms with Fang, or to be able to give him gifts. In my opinion Fang is the most difficult bachelor to romance. First you have to participate to his medical trials enough times, and those are only available on Wednesdays and Fridays, by his clinic. It's also a nice tip to know that on Sundays Fang spends some time at the graveyard.

 

 

But when you finally get to speaking terms with Fang he's just so nice. Always being worried about you. He worries do you take care of yourself and sleep enough and bring his medicine with you. It's so refreshingly different from the arrogant pricks such as Gust and Qi. I'm swoon by Fang's caring nature.

 

 

But like I said it takes literally forever to romance Fang. When you finally get the gifting option you get a mission where you need to buy something from the Mysterious man. For me this mission triggered of course so that I had almost a month to wait for the Mysterious man. Then you have to plant the seeds and wait for them to grow. And even after that it takes weeks before the next mission in this storyline becomes available.

 

 

But is Fang worth all the trouble and waiting? Yes. His backstory is heartbreaking. 

Which bachelors have reverse proposal?

There are only two bachelors who do a reverse proposal, Owen and Logan. So if you are an old fashioned gal like me who wants the man to propose marriage, you only have these two options. For me Owen was not an option. I even gave him a very special birthday gift: manure. "I guess you win... This will be an unforgettable birthday for me..." Poor guy...

Logan is the supposed bad guy, and arrives late in the main story. So you have to be patient if you want to get in cahoots with him. I just didn't understand his appeal. Yes, in the end he turns out to be a good guy. Or does he? Logan beats me up on at least two occasions, and I'm supposed to fall for him? I'm sorry but it doesn't work like that. If he's violent towards me then I'm not interested. Of course I did romance him, for research purposes. To experience Logan's reverse confession and proposal, and his romance missions. Later I did realize something horrific, but I'm gonna write about it in another post. 

 

Pen is a jerk who only loves himself, and I used to hate him. Then I realized he's the comical relief, just like Trevor in GTA 5. Now I regret that I didn't date Pen on my first playthrough. I could have been a part of his baker's dozen... But you should know that you can't marry Pen, he will always reject the proposal.

 

I also regret not romancing Miguel, for reasons I won't disclose here. But I'm correcting that mistake on my second playthrough.

 

Zeke has some fans who wish it would be possible to romance him. I hear you, but personally I wish I was able to marry Mort. I think I'm in love with his beard. What is this age racism, Pathea?!

 

But in the end I realized who is the love of my Sandrock life: X. 

Yes, you read that right. I totally fell in love with Fang's pet raven. It happened around the missions where X does something illegal just to get another bird Coco to be his friend. When X realized how stupid he had been and cried, it broke my heart. Poor bird, so desperate for friends.

 

 

So I'm choosing X. Fang can move in with him if he wants to. 

 

 

So far Fang is the only bachelor who has a unique post marriage quest. So if you want to see this special content you know what to do.

 

Later I'm gonna post a guide about marriage. And in another upcoming post I'm gonna reveal everything about my three (!!) marriages! We are also getting on the Logan hype train!

 

 

Oh yes, I'm obsessed with (Logan &) My Time at Sandrock!

 

My Time at Sandrock Collector's Edition for Playstation 5 is currently on sale on Amazon.