Aywren's Nook - Gaming and Geek Blog

OSRS: Membership Subscription Price Increase (Again)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:29:22 +0000

This week, RuneScape and Old School RuneScape players were informed that the cost of the membership subscription would be increasing. Again. This is the second time this has increased since I’ve started playing, and it’s not a good look.

FFXIV: Level 80 BLU

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:20:14 +0000

This past weekend in FFXIV, I spent some time focusing on leveling up the final job on Amon to cap. This happened to be Blue Mage.

FFXIV: Red Mage Obscurum Phantom Relic Weapon

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:52:54 +0000

It’s been what feels like a very long road, but last night, I finally earned the Obscurum Phantom Relic for my Red Mage! Much thanks to Syn who stuck by me for all these roulette runs even though she’d finished hers a lot earlier than I did. This is because she also does weekly raid runs, and even at 8 tomes a run, those add up.

Sims 4 Announces New Virtual Marketplace

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:59:37 +0000

Remember that post I wrote last month with rumors of an incoming Sims 4 virtual currency? Turns out, it wasn’t a rumor (to no one’s surprise). Two days ago, EA announce the official Sims 4 marketplace, with a video and full FAQ and everything!

FFXIV: Riding Home to Mateus

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 20:48:43 +0000

Yesterday, something important happened in FFXIV – patch 7.45 dropped. What came with that patch was something I’ve been waiting on for many months. No, I’m not talking about new the Variant dungeon, which is apparently getting a mixed response. I’m talking about my home server finally opening for transfers and new characters.

FFXIV: Completing Dawntrail Again -- Grappling with Burnout

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 17:37:53 +0000

I have a goal of finishing up Dawntrail for all of my alts before Fanfest in late April this year. I buckled down and made it through Dawntrail on Ben last night – this makes my 5th time through the expansion. I have one alt left to push through, which will probably be my toughest alt given it’s Tai on Reaper, and I have little to no experience playing melee in this expansion’s difficulty level.

FFXIV: 1,000 Commendations – FINALLY!

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 18:27:06 +0000

Last night, I finally scored my 1,000th commendation in FFXIV. But Wren, I hear you say, you’ve been playing this game for almost 13 years – how can you only have 1,000 commendations?

Steam Deck: Emulating Retro Games

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:03:32 +0000

One of the first things I explored on my Steam Deck when I realized what it was capable of was emulation of retro games. That being said, I’m actually not that big on emulation in general. I’d much rather purchase and own a physical copy of my games. My physical Switch library is proof of that.

Review: Don’t Touch the Snail – Anti-Cozy Idle Game with Permadeath

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:16:02 +0000

Take a long moment to think about this experimental game concept – the permadeath in this game is truly permanent. If you reach the game’s fail state, you can never play the game again. Done is done. One run is all you get.

Steam Gaming: Tiny Bookshop

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:23:38 +0000

Tiny Bookshop is a cute indie game about running a mobile bookshop in a small town. I picked this up over the holidays specifically to try out my Steam Deck, and it’s been one of my main go-to games on the system. It’s turned out to be exactly what I hoped, and more, from a cozy book shop simulator!

The Fall of The Sims: Sims 4, Project X, Project Rene

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:51:49 +0000

As a life-long Sims player – I began playing back when Sims 1 first launched in the year 2000 – I’ve grown increasingly discouraged with the direction that the Sims franchise is going. I wanted to take a moment to write a post about where I stand with The Sims going forward, which is something I’ve meant to do since we first got news of the notorious EA Buyout last year. The bad news has kept on coming, and now it’s finally piled up to a point where I’m going to tackle it all in one post.

Playing GOG, Epic, and Prime Games on Steam Deck

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:05:43 +0000

One exciting feature of owning a Steam Deck is that you are not locked into playing just the games you own on Steam. In fact, there are a couple ways that I know of to install and play games from other launchers including GOG, Epic Store, and Amazon Prime Games.

I’ve Become a Steam Deck Fangirl

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 01:28:36 +0000

I’ve been exploring my Steam Deck for soon to be two months now, so I finally think it’s time to write about my initial impressions. To be completely honest, it’s blown all FOMO for the Switch 2 out of my mind because I’ve fallen completely in love with the Steam Deck’s functionality.

Review: Flufftopia – An Idle Clicker Game That’s NOT What it Seems!

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:37:58 +0000

I love a good indie idle clicker game! Heck, I spent weeks playing the Cookie Clicker browser version (until it got reset for some sad reason). So, when Daniel dropped me a key to their game Flufftopia: Fluffmazing Edition, I was stoked to try it out. What I didn’t realize is while the game has all the elements of a clicker game, it’s also something cleverly different in the end.

Steam Quickplays: February 2026

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:51:47 +0000

Many of these games I played back in January but waited to document until I had a solid number of games to write about. I also have some bad news and something to admit… I broke my own rules and bought a game bundle this month. So, now I’m back under 75% of my backlog played. -sigh-

FFXIV: Completing Dawntrail – My Fourth Time Through!

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:48:37 +0000

Over this past weekend, I finished Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail patch 7.4 on my fourth character – Tad, who mains Machinist. I’ve been buckling down and pushing all of my on-level alts through Dawntrail at this point since I’m able to craft them decent end-game gear that will carry them all the way to the next expansion.

Steam Gaming: Grandpa’s Bee Haven

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 18:39:13 +0000

Grandpa’s Bee Haven is a cozy, idle game currently in development for an upcoming release in April. You can try out the demo for free on Steam if it’s of interest to you!

VR Gaming: Coffee Quest VR

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 19:10:25 +0000

Though I’m not a coffee drinker, the concept of playing as a barista at a coffee shop in a VR environment sounded like fun! Given that I picked up Coffee Quest VR on the Meta 3S for only .99 cents, I figured it was worth a try. You can find this game at both Steam and the Meta store.

FFXIV: The 2026 Valentiones Event is a Co-Op Cooking Mini-Game!

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 18:03:16 +0000

It’s been a while since the FFXIV team released a new instanced mini-game for a seasonal event. This year, Valentiones surprisingly got the mini-game treatment and “treat” is the right word all around!

Project: Gorgon Launches into 1.0!

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 18:02:30 +0000

This past week, Project: Gorgon, a quirky old-skool type MMO that has been in development for quite a while, finally launched to 1.0! I Kickstarted this game over a decade ago, and first blogged about it later that year in the pre-Alpha state.

Playing Quest Calendar 2026: The Souls of Saraku

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 18:26:11 +0000

I’ve been playing the solo, DM-less, RPG quest calendars created by Sundial Games since 2022. This is a D20 tabletop game that comes in desk calendar format. Every day, the quest story progresses a little and you have tasks and choices to make, just like a tabletop RPG – but, you can play it completely by yourself.

FFXIV: Learning How to Make the Obscurum Phantom Relic Weapon in Patch 7.41

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 19:50:58 +0000

Final Fantasy XIV patch 7.41 dropped yesterday bringing a new step in the Phantom Weapon relic questline. Much of this echoes the previous step in terms of how to complete it with a crafted portion and a grinding portion. Here’s what we’re looking at!

Blog Makeover 2026 Edition

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 23:08:42 +0000

So, the astute eye may have noticed that I’m updating the layout of Aywren’s Nook. I know this comes on the heels of having finished moving the site into this HTML format a few years back, but I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I want to do with this site, and I landed on this.

FFXIV: Finishing Dawntrail 7.4 (Again)

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:23:10 +0000

I’m somewhat back on my alt kick in FFXIV, working to move more of my characters through the Dawntrail MSQ. Now that I have the ability to gear alts up with the ilvl 770 crafted pieces, I’ve been somewhat motivated to buckle down and get some gaming done while I still have the time.

VR Gaming: Across the Valley Farming Sim

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 16:52:06 +0000

The first VR game that I tried out this year was a farming simulator called Across the Valley. I got this on a pretty cheap sale when it was only 99 cents, and was excited to try out what a farming simulator could be in VR.

Learning How to Fish in Enshrouded

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 21:39:53 +0000

Back in November, Enshrouded launched the Wake of the Water update which added water and water mechanics to the game. Syn and I were quite excited for the update, for adding water environments to our base would make for something lovely! Not to mention including the concepts of fishing and swimming in an already sizeable exploration game.

Blogiversary: 12 Years of Blogging

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 16:49:08 +0000

Twelve years ago on this day, I launched this blog! This is the yearly post in which I reminisce a little about this long-term writing project I started all those years ago, not knowing how far into the future it would stretch. In a time when blogging isn’t as popular as it used to be, to have a blog last as long as this has is a pretty exciting milestone!

Steam Quickplays: January 2026 Part 2

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 16:21:16 +0000

I’ve been pretty good at playing through some of the shorter games in my Steam Backlog lately. I even spent time breaking out the super short games based on data from How Long to Beat into their own folder. While this is a Quickplays post, I’ve actually played through an entire “round” of all of the games I’m going to talk about today, and even finished one of them!

Steam Gaming - Squeakross: Home Squeak Home

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 21:22:28 +0000

I’d never played a Picross game before I played Squeakross, but now I’m absolutely hooked. And probably spoiled, too, by the looks of it. I’m not sure if there’s another game out there that merges so many lovely elements together to make such an exceptional and addictive experience.

FFXIV: Ranking Up in Achievements First 2026 Update!

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:39:35 +0000

Last September, I wrote about becoming more aware of the achievement log in FFXIV, specifically the low-hanging fruit achievements. These were, in particular, the class hunting logs that dated back to the original ARR in 2013. Much to my shame, I realized there were a handful of classes I never completed the hunting logs for.

Steam Quickplays: January 2026

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 17:29:56 +0000

Welcome to the first edition of a series that I’m calling Steam Quickplays. As I’ve noted in previous posts, there are a number of Steam games that I picked up either through free giveaways or as part of bundles that sit in my backlog but aren’t priority to play.

FFXIV: Gearing Alts, Ready to Go!

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:08:03 +0000

Last night, I finally geared up Zuri with the full Courtly Lover’s Set – the newest crafted gear, which is ilvl 770 for level 100 jobs. While I’m not a huge fan of the way this set looks, it’s been a goal of mine to kit out this character for her path forward.

My Goals for 2026

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 16:04:06 +0000

While I have a lot of IRL things to work on for the new year, I’m going to focus in this post on creative and gaming achievements I hope to accomplish. Last year, I found rounding up all the blogging, coding, gaming, and hobby focuses worked well, and that’s what I’m going to do again this year.

2025 Goals in Review

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 16:44:34 +0000

It’s that time of year again – the final day of 2025 in which I review all that I did in the past year as related to the goals I set at the beginning of the year. Overall, 2025 has been a rough year for me IRL between health issues and the loss of long-time employment. However, I’ve managed to mostly stay the course when it came to my gaming and creative goals.

2025 Giftmas Gallery

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 22:03:27 +0000

Similar to last Christmas, I was on the road this year and received my gifts in person. So, I don’t have a list of individual items to post, but I still want to create a gallery of gifts like I did last year. Since the previous format worked well, I’ve done the same here.

Christmas 2025: Unexpected Steam Deck

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 16:30:14 +0000

First and foremost, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

My Steam Replay 2025

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:41:33 +0000

So how about this year’s Steam Replay? I’m a little late in blogging about it because I’m still out of town on holiday vacation. But similar to 2024 and 2023, I wanted to at least touch on the outcome of my gaming habits this year.

IRL: The 2026 Planner Project

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 22:51:30 +0000

Back during Black Friday, I saw a rather nice looking planner on sale, so I picked it up. I’d been consider trying out a full-on yearly planner for next year. I was using calendar inserts for my Traveler’s Notebook this year, and while it worked, it wasn’t super comfy. Nor was it something I remembered to keep up with.

FFXIV: Groovy Once More!

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:31:30 +0000

Though I haven’t had as much time as I’d like to focus on FFXIV recently, I’m still working through checking off the list of things that I need on Amon-main to make him equal to Amon-alt. One of those things was to reclaim the Groovy Glasses, which is a drop from the Howling Blade raid fight, AAC Cruiserweight M4.

IRL: Unemployed Life Has Been Anything but Quiet!

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:23:18 +0000

It’s hard to imagine that I’m more strapped for time now that I’m unemployed than back when I was working a full-time job. I never thought that would be possible, but here we are. I’m wanting to write a blog post about my experiences and the life lessons I’ve taken away from this… and this might be the first one…

IRL: On the First Day of Unemployment…

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 20:34:32 +0000

…My company gave to me, a severance package in a tree. Well, actually in an email. Since, you know, we’ve all working from home and been quite productive over the past 5 years despite that.

FFXIV: Amon’s Tea and Tomes

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 15:21:33 +0000

One of the perks of changing my main to Amon was that I could finally dedicate my small personal house to his RP business location, known as Amon’s Tea and Tomes. Previously, I’d used this space as a museum to display housing items I’ve collected since 2013 – some which are hard to come by unless you pony up money in the Mogstation now days.