Nothing is stopping existing owners from downloading the offline installer backups, but existing owners will still have access to their games through GOG regardless. Delisting just means that the games will no longer be purchasable, so if there’s a game you want to “own”, as long as you buy it before it’s delisted, it will remain accessible to you for the foreseeable future.

That’s much higher than normal. A quick google suggests between $200-$500 is more in line with a normal student loan monthly payment, which is still a burden on someone just starting out.

I never got too deep into it, but I enjoyed ~10 hours of it before getting distracted by other games. It felt more like a park business simulator like Roller Coaster Tycoon, rather than an elaborate park and ride designer like Planet Coaster.

It’s totally worth $15 if you want to scratch that itch.

There’s a fantastic LotR total conversion mod for TW: Rome. It was also ported to RW: Rome Remastered, so very easy to play even on modern hardware.

EDIT: Search for Lord of the Rings: Total War (Remastered) for the most recent version of the mod.

Weirdly enough, Yakuza 7: Like a Dragon. I’d dipped in to the Yakuza series here and there, but never had one grab me. LAD played with some classic JRPG mechanics (specifically inspired by the Dragon Quest style games the protagonist would have played in his youths), and combined that with a mature protagonist (in his early 40s at the start of the game) who still managed to radiate the relentlessly positive himbo energy that was refreshing and fun.

Of course, the story itself is bonkers and fun in a way that the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series has always been. I went in not expecting much, and found it to be the most refreshing game I’d played in years.

Trader Joe’s has been owned by Aldi* since 1979. The fact that they managed to maintain the image of a wholesome company as long as they have is astounding.

(there are actually two different Aldi companies from Germany, owned by two brothers who split from the original company to make Aldi Nord (North) and Aldi Sud (South), that go by different names depending on the country they’re in. Aldi Nord is Trader Joe’s in the US, and Aldi Sud just goes by Aldi in the US)