$3000 (CDN, after tax)

New build for a friend:

• Ryzen 7 7700X
• Noctua NH-D9L
• ASUS TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS WIFI
• Corsair Vengeance RGB 2x16GB DDR5 5600MT/s C36 
  
• ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 V2 OC
  
• 1TB WD_BLACK SN850X
• ASUS ROG STRIX 850G
  
• Fractal Design Pop Air RGB (Black)

...More RGB than I usually work with (three case fans, RAM, GPU, motherboard, power button) but I got to slap a big ol' brown-on-brown Noctua fan in the middle of it, so I'm good :) Very quiet, too. Didn't go all-out, but it leaves them a nice upgrade path. 12GB 3080s and 3080 Ti cards are either impossible to find around here or horribly overpriced. Considered a 4080, but ended-up saving $600 by going with the 10GB 3080 OC which is already overkill for their use cases. They'll also be putting a few spinning drives in there, and an optical drive - yes, that case has a 5.25" bay!

Anyway, fun stuff:

• Forgot that the 7700X has an integrated GPU; took me a second to figure-out what that thing was in the Device Manager.
• So much RGB software; iCue + Aura plugin for iCue + Armory Crate
• Getting the thing to POST at all with that RAM; BIOS FlashBack to latest revision, boot with single module to complete the update, set EXPO, add second module. While I was figuring that out, I found reports people saying DDR5 memory training can take up to 30 minutes!? Thankfully wasn't that.
  

Early

Early Black Friday deals:

• DEATHLOOP - $26 CDN
  
• DualSense - $65 CDN
• Using it on PC w/DS4Windows for unsupported games
  
• FMR Audio RNC1773 - $160 CDN
• Grey, AC, used; MSRP is $270
• Not actually Black Friday, but a great deal!
• Pixel Buds A-Series - FREE
• $40-off + $100 Google Store credit
• Rez Infinite - $10 CDN
  
• WarioWare: Get It Together! - $51 CDN
• Isn't included in the image for the latest Switch deals list, but is listed in the fine print; could've saved $6 :/

Been playing:

• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (honestly getting kinda boring, but I'm still into it)
  
• Injustice 2 (pretty, but really just trying to get through it at this point)
  
• Kirby: Planet Robobot  (pretty good)
  
• Metroid: Samus Returns (very good)
  
• Yoshi's Crafted World (great entry in the console series; plenty to do)

Kind of cheesed that the $80 PC version of Persona 5 Royal was announced within six months of me picking-up the PS4 version at full price... Also that Ys IX is still generally $60~80 after three years. Kinda want to just get both on Switch, but also not ready to sacrifice that much performance and visual quality :\

...And Sweet.

Played through A Short Hike, and it's perfect. Wrapped-up Prodeus and the post-early-access levels disappointed. Finished Knights and Bikes and it was fine... I just wish I enjoyed it more.

Kirby and The Forgotten Land's post-game stuff is nice (finished in Wild Mode without any support items), but the secret ending boss feels like we're getting into Soulsborne territory... In a Kirby game. Stop with the genre homogenisation, please. Moved-on to Age of Calamity; not a big fan of musou games, but I'm trying for this one.