2000 AD
Prog 2413
I spent so long fucking with Forza that I only found time to read the opening Judge Dredd strip from this issue — though, as this is the extra-long Christmas edition, that is at least the length of two regular strips. Anyway, as I wrote yesterday, I consider anything enough to count towards my catch-up streak, so: Day 11!
Tuesday, 30 September 2025
Games
Forza Horizon 4
Today, worked out how to patch my copy to update it to the final version of the game — went so well, I then tried to install a crack to let me play it online — but that wiped my save data, although after some thinking and fiddling I managed to get it back... which apparently disabled the online stuff again. Not exactly a successful day, then. I did consider just starting over — most of my "achievements" are the auto-unlocked free DLC anyway — but, really, the only reason I want to get online is try some of the online-only features, which I'm not sure I'll particularly enjoy anyway, so... Well, now I know how to back up / swap out save files, maybe I'll try again at some point.
Today, worked out how to patch my copy to update it to the final version of the game — went so well, I then tried to install a crack to let me play it online — but that wiped my save data, although after some thinking and fiddling I managed to get it back... which apparently disabled the online stuff again. Not exactly a successful day, then. I did consider just starting over — most of my "achievements" are the auto-unlocked free DLC anyway — but, really, the only reason I want to get online is try some of the online-only features, which I'm not sure I'll particularly enjoy anyway, so... Well, now I know how to back up / swap out save files, maybe I'll try again at some point.
Monday, 29 September 2025
Comics
2000 AD
Prog 2411
Prog 2412
Day 10! Next up is last year's Christmas Prog, which is bumper-length so might take me a couple of days (2022's did; 2023's didn't*); but I'm not aiming to read "an issue every day", just "some every day", so that won't break my run.
* Note how neither of those was read in December, so this is nothing new.
Prog 2411
Prog 2412
Day 10! Next up is last year's Christmas Prog, which is bumper-length so might take me a couple of days (2022's did; 2023's didn't*); but I'm not aiming to read "an issue every day", just "some every day", so that won't break my run.
* Note how neither of those was read in December, so this is nothing new.
Games
Forza Horizon 4
Nearly three hours in this again today! That's slightly inaccurate, in the sense that I wasted a bunch of time trying to fiddle with settings — for reasons I can't ascertain, in handheld (i.e. regular) mode it will crash after about five minutes, max; but when docked to my TV, it runs perfectly for hours, in Full HD with high graphics. Even reducing those settings, it will still crash handheld. I don't know enough to work out why that would be, but it's frustrating. I mean, I'm happy enough playing on my TV, but sometimes it's nice to have a little play in bed or whatever. (*ahem*)
But I did also spend a lot of time actually playing, because there's so much to see and do! Today I decided to head into the LEGO Speed Champions area… and it's basically a whole extra game! I was expecting a couple of sights to see, a few LEGO cars to unlock, but no, there's tonnes of content, on a map that feels almost as big as the main game. I expect it isn't, but that's more because of how huge the main game's is rather than any fault of the LEGO area. (Google says it's actually ¼ of the size. Like I said, the main one is just huge.)
And there's a whole other DLC expansion I haven't visited yet. Assuming it's anything like the LEGO one, I might just leave it a while.
Nearly three hours in this again today! That's slightly inaccurate, in the sense that I wasted a bunch of time trying to fiddle with settings — for reasons I can't ascertain, in handheld (i.e. regular) mode it will crash after about five minutes, max; but when docked to my TV, it runs perfectly for hours, in Full HD with high graphics. Even reducing those settings, it will still crash handheld. I don't know enough to work out why that would be, but it's frustrating. I mean, I'm happy enough playing on my TV, but sometimes it's nice to have a little play in bed or whatever. (*ahem*)
But I did also spend a lot of time actually playing, because there's so much to see and do! Today I decided to head into the LEGO Speed Champions area… and it's basically a whole extra game! I was expecting a couple of sights to see, a few LEGO cars to unlock, but no, there's tonnes of content, on a map that feels almost as big as the main game. I expect it isn't, but that's more because of how huge the main game's is rather than any fault of the LEGO area. (Google says it's actually ¼ of the size. Like I said, the main one is just huge.)
And there's a whole other DLC expansion I haven't visited yet. Assuming it's anything like the LEGO one, I might just leave it a while.
Sunday, 28 September 2025
Games
Forza Horizon 4
Popped in to change a setting and decided to take a drive up to Edinburgh — doesn't take long (the open world map is big, 52 square miles, but far from life-size), but then I ended up just driving about and such things (I did all of one race), and suddenly it was over an hour-and-a-half later. I'm sure that will get boring eventually... but I went back to the game later and spent another couple of hours in it, so not yet!
And then something weird happened. I reached the point where you unlock more stuff — like so many games nowadays (it seems to me, from what I've heard/experienced), it leads you carefully for a little bit, then decides you've learnt the basics and so opens up more. Except because of, um, how I acquired the game, it comes with everything that was available to unlock, all DLC content, etc. And so rather than just a little more progress, I was flooded with stuff. I don't think everything is unlocked — it looks like completing races, earning points, etc, will make still more stuff accessible — but whereas before it offered a couple of options to choose between for what to do next, and stacking up points eventually unlocked the next level and season, all of a sudden I was Level 17 (I think I was Level 2 or 3 before), and the map was covered in options, and notifications kept flashing up with stuff I'd unlocked, and I had enough points to basically jump to the next season every time something in the game might trigger that. And the game crashed several times, I think overbunded with everything it was having to process! (It eventually settled down and seemed to run fine again, thank goodness.)
That explosion of content and progess was... kind of exciting, I guess; but it also felt like I was being rushed past the 'training wheels' phase, and I kind of liked that gradual progression and uncovering stuff. For example, once you've completed the 'training' part — which introduces mechanices and options, but also progresses you through a full cycle of seasons over a couple of hours of playtime (according to reviews) — the game changes season every week. So rather than linearly moving on whenever you complete/earn progress (and you can rack up points by just driving around as much or little as you want, so you'd have some control), if the week you're in is Spring and you want to see something in Winter, you've got to wait up to four weeks for it to cycle through. It's a neat concept, but potentially frustating. And in terms of unlocked races and whatnot, I'm sure everything remains revisitable, so I haven't literally missed it; but, for example, I did one event in Autumn and was pushed straight to Winter, then did one thing in Winter and it was straight to Spring. I don't think it's meant to work like that! I think you're meant to, sort of, be guided along a bit more gradually, then eventually set loose.
Ah well, it is what it is. At least having access to so much stuff is, as I said, kinda exciting, and I can pick and choose whatever I want to do from a vast array of possibilities. And there is a lot to work through!
Popped in to change a setting and decided to take a drive up to Edinburgh — doesn't take long (the open world map is big, 52 square miles, but far from life-size), but then I ended up just driving about and such things (I did all of one race), and suddenly it was over an hour-and-a-half later. I'm sure that will get boring eventually... but I went back to the game later and spent another couple of hours in it, so not yet!
And then something weird happened. I reached the point where you unlock more stuff — like so many games nowadays (it seems to me, from what I've heard/experienced), it leads you carefully for a little bit, then decides you've learnt the basics and so opens up more. Except because of, um, how I acquired the game, it comes with everything that was available to unlock, all DLC content, etc. And so rather than just a little more progress, I was flooded with stuff. I don't think everything is unlocked — it looks like completing races, earning points, etc, will make still more stuff accessible — but whereas before it offered a couple of options to choose between for what to do next, and stacking up points eventually unlocked the next level and season, all of a sudden I was Level 17 (I think I was Level 2 or 3 before), and the map was covered in options, and notifications kept flashing up with stuff I'd unlocked, and I had enough points to basically jump to the next season every time something in the game might trigger that. And the game crashed several times, I think overbunded with everything it was having to process! (It eventually settled down and seemed to run fine again, thank goodness.)
That explosion of content and progess was... kind of exciting, I guess; but it also felt like I was being rushed past the 'training wheels' phase, and I kind of liked that gradual progression and uncovering stuff. For example, once you've completed the 'training' part — which introduces mechanices and options, but also progresses you through a full cycle of seasons over a couple of hours of playtime (according to reviews) — the game changes season every week. So rather than linearly moving on whenever you complete/earn progress (and you can rack up points by just driving around as much or little as you want, so you'd have some control), if the week you're in is Spring and you want to see something in Winter, you've got to wait up to four weeks for it to cycle through. It's a neat concept, but potentially frustating. And in terms of unlocked races and whatnot, I'm sure everything remains revisitable, so I haven't literally missed it; but, for example, I did one event in Autumn and was pushed straight to Winter, then did one thing in Winter and it was straight to Spring. I don't think it's meant to work like that! I think you're meant to, sort of, be guided along a bit more gradually, then eventually set loose.
Ah well, it is what it is. At least having access to so much stuff is, as I said, kinda exciting, and I can pick and choose whatever I want to do from a vast array of possibilities. And there is a lot to work through!
Saturday, 27 September 2025
Fiction / Non-Fiction / Games
Daggerheart: Core Rulebook
Yep, still progressing through this. I'm not necessarily intending to read the whole thing cover to cover (as I said, not the point, I don't think), but I am reading sections to learn stuff — like, today, I read about all the different classes.
Yep, still progressing through this. I'm not necessarily intending to read the whole thing cover to cover (as I said, not the point, I don't think), but I am reading sections to learn stuff — like, today, I read about all the different classes.
Games
Doom
Doom is the 11th greatest PC game of all time and 2nd greatest retro game of all time. I'm sure I played it Back In The Day, but never thoroughly. Nowadays, you can get it dirt cheap along with its sequel, plus a bunch of mods and stuff, with some updated graphics and whatnot (not a total overhaul, but it's in widescreen, for example), so I thought I should give it a go... on the lowest difficulty, natch. And on my Steam Deck, which normally isn't ideal for FPS games (controllers are so hard to aim with), but as you don't have to look up and down in Doom, it's considerably easier. Also, like I said, lowest difficulty.
I would say I breezed through it, and I did in the sense that I didn't die until the boss fight at the end (it took me a couple of goes to realise I could run anywhere — clearly "red floor = lava = death" wasn't a game design concept back in 1993), but my times were atrocious: it took me 79 minutes to play the first episode, Knee-Deep in the Dead, while the combined par times (given at the end of each level) total under 18 minutes! I presume they're a target to aim for rather than a "what you manage on your first go, while blundering around getting very lost on some maps and having to backtrack a lot", which is certainly what happened to me. Oh well, I mostly had fun shooting stuff and not dying (lowest difficulty, remember). Said episode contained nine levels, while the combined DOOM + DOOM II I referred to reports to have 187 missions all-in. That's the potential for plenty of value from the less-than-£3 it cost me.
Forza Horizon 4
On the other hand, I can't really remember what piqued my initial interest in this. A chain of events got me to download it today, though: somewhere I stumbled across the news that Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan, which made me curious where previous games were set, and (long story short) I discovered 4 was set in the UK but is no longer available to buy (it was discontinued at the end of last year due to licences expiring). The UK setting and my background interest was enough that I probably would've bought it, but as I couldn't I learnt something new about my Steam Deck: how to get games on there from, uh, questionable sources. It's amazing how much that world has come on in recent years, but I won't extrapolate too much.
Anyway, I'm glad I did because it's actually a tonne of fun! Being an open world game, you can just drive around roads — which might sound dull because, y'know, I could go outside and do that for real; but not at these speeds, in these cars, on a condensed map that packs in various different parts of the UK. It's fun! And then there are races and story mode bits and stuff to progress. Me being me, I turned the difficulty right down, to the point where actually it was just silly so I turned it back up a bit. Fun times. It looks great on the Deck too, running in full HD to my TV and only experiencing issues on loading animations (which, as you're not playing at that point, I can totally live with).
I can see myself sinking hours into this, possibly.
Doom is the 11th greatest PC game of all time and 2nd greatest retro game of all time. I'm sure I played it Back In The Day, but never thoroughly. Nowadays, you can get it dirt cheap along with its sequel, plus a bunch of mods and stuff, with some updated graphics and whatnot (not a total overhaul, but it's in widescreen, for example), so I thought I should give it a go... on the lowest difficulty, natch. And on my Steam Deck, which normally isn't ideal for FPS games (controllers are so hard to aim with), but as you don't have to look up and down in Doom, it's considerably easier. Also, like I said, lowest difficulty.
I would say I breezed through it, and I did in the sense that I didn't die until the boss fight at the end (it took me a couple of goes to realise I could run anywhere — clearly "red floor = lava = death" wasn't a game design concept back in 1993), but my times were atrocious: it took me 79 minutes to play the first episode, Knee-Deep in the Dead, while the combined par times (given at the end of each level) total under 18 minutes! I presume they're a target to aim for rather than a "what you manage on your first go, while blundering around getting very lost on some maps and having to backtrack a lot", which is certainly what happened to me. Oh well, I mostly had fun shooting stuff and not dying (lowest difficulty, remember). Said episode contained nine levels, while the combined DOOM + DOOM II I referred to reports to have 187 missions all-in. That's the potential for plenty of value from the less-than-£3 it cost me.
Forza Horizon 4
On the other hand, I can't really remember what piqued my initial interest in this. A chain of events got me to download it today, though: somewhere I stumbled across the news that Forza Horizon 6 will be set in Japan, which made me curious where previous games were set, and (long story short) I discovered 4 was set in the UK but is no longer available to buy (it was discontinued at the end of last year due to licences expiring). The UK setting and my background interest was enough that I probably would've bought it, but as I couldn't I learnt something new about my Steam Deck: how to get games on there from, uh, questionable sources. It's amazing how much that world has come on in recent years, but I won't extrapolate too much.
Anyway, I'm glad I did because it's actually a tonne of fun! Being an open world game, you can just drive around roads — which might sound dull because, y'know, I could go outside and do that for real; but not at these speeds, in these cars, on a condensed map that packs in various different parts of the UK. It's fun! And then there are races and story mode bits and stuff to progress. Me being me, I turned the difficulty right down, to the point where actually it was just silly so I turned it back up a bit. Fun times. It looks great on the Deck too, running in full HD to my TV and only experiencing issues on loading animations (which, as you're not playing at that point, I can totally live with).
I can see myself sinking hours into this, possibly.
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week... except this week, there's nothing to report — same as last week. And, at present, next week. What's going on?!
Well, I guess it's just been a quieter time for must-buy new releases. I don't think I've overlooked anything I really wanted, although I have passed on a couple of maybes in favour of trying to cut back generally. Plus, of course — as recent weeks' posts on this blog will attest — I've been spending a lot more time (and money) on computer games instead. Maybe I should start a collection count for those, too...
Number of titles in collection: 3,608 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,622 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 8,672 [no change]
Number of films: 4,597 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader — whether there's something to report or not.
Well, I guess it's just been a quieter time for must-buy new releases. I don't think I've overlooked anything I really wanted, although I have passed on a couple of maybes in favour of trying to cut back generally. Plus, of course — as recent weeks' posts on this blog will attest — I've been spending a lot more time (and money) on computer games instead. Maybe I should start a collection count for those, too...
Number of titles in collection: 3,608 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,622 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 8,672 [no change]
Number of films: 4,597 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader — whether there's something to report or not.
Friday, 26 September 2025
Games
Pullblox
Starting another new game?! Yeah, well, I considered playing something I already had underway, but this was what I fancied. Also, I’d intended to make it my next 3DS game before Pilotwings nabbed my attention, so fair’s fair. According to Metacritic it's the 6th best game on the 3DS (listed as Pushmo, there because that was the title in the US), behind only a couple of Zeldas, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Shovel Knight, and a 3D Mario — all of which I also own, but this sounded the most pick-up-and-play friendly, as it's a cute puzzle game with platforming elements.
And it's a lot of fun! The gameplay — which is based around pulling boxes in and out to create levels to jump up — works fantastically in 3D. I'm sure it would be playable in 2D, but it really works with the added sense of depth. I spent half-an-hour on it initally and got through the 18 training puzzles and first half-dozen Level 1 puzzles, then went back later for another 40 minutes and did the remaining dozen Level 1s. I can see how it would be great to just quickly do a puzzle or two — especially as they do get trickier, and sometimes involve more precise platforming skills — but it's also fun to play for a little while and get through a few. Once the hand-holding introduction is done, it's lightly challenging without being stressful... although, as I say, sometimes the platforming is a little tricker. I hope it doesn't get too bad, because precision platforming isn't really my thing.
Starting another new game?! Yeah, well, I considered playing something I already had underway, but this was what I fancied. Also, I’d intended to make it my next 3DS game before Pilotwings nabbed my attention, so fair’s fair. According to Metacritic it's the 6th best game on the 3DS (listed as Pushmo, there because that was the title in the US), behind only a couple of Zeldas, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Shovel Knight, and a 3D Mario — all of which I also own, but this sounded the most pick-up-and-play friendly, as it's a cute puzzle game with platforming elements.
And it's a lot of fun! The gameplay — which is based around pulling boxes in and out to create levels to jump up — works fantastically in 3D. I'm sure it would be playable in 2D, but it really works with the added sense of depth. I spent half-an-hour on it initally and got through the 18 training puzzles and first half-dozen Level 1 puzzles, then went back later for another 40 minutes and did the remaining dozen Level 1s. I can see how it would be great to just quickly do a puzzle or two — especially as they do get trickier, and sometimes involve more precise platforming skills — but it's also fun to play for a little while and get through a few. Once the hand-holding introduction is done, it's lightly challenging without being stressful... although, as I say, sometimes the platforming is a little tricker. I hope it doesn't get too bad, because precision platforming isn't really my thing.
Thursday, 25 September 2025
Fiction / Non-Fiction / Games
Daggerheart: Core Rulebook
I feel like I should mention this, but I'm not entirely sure where it goes. I mean, it's the rulebook for a game — so it's a game... but I'm not actually playing the game, so it's not a game. And it's a rulebook, so that's non-fiction... but the game is all about collaborating to create a fictional narrative, so it's certainly fiction too.
But then, even logging it at all is kinda weird, because you're not really meant to sit down and read books like this cover to cover. It's got various useful sections, and really I think you're supposed to look at the relevant bits as and when you need them. But I'm the kind of person that, when they get a new 'toy', goes straight to read the manual rather than just turn it on and play, so...
I feel like I should mention this, but I'm not entirely sure where it goes. I mean, it's the rulebook for a game — so it's a game... but I'm not actually playing the game, so it's not a game. And it's a rulebook, so that's non-fiction... but the game is all about collaborating to create a fictional narrative, so it's certainly fiction too.
But then, even logging it at all is kinda weird, because you're not really meant to sit down and read books like this cover to cover. It's got various useful sections, and really I think you're supposed to look at the relevant bits as and when you need them. But I'm the kind of person that, when they get a new 'toy', goes straight to read the manual rather than just turn it on and play, so...
Games
Balatro
One thing I find kinda interesting about this is you unlock cards in your collection, not by being offered them in the shop, but by actually purchasing them — they're even listed as "not discovered" when... you can see them; you have discovered them.
But my real point is: some of those cards seem suboptimal, but if you want to complete your collection, presumably you've gotta buy them at some point. Dilemma. I guess you can just 'throw away' a run on collecting stuff, mind — it's not like there's some overall penalty for number of losses. I don't even know if that's recorded anywhere (I feel like it would be? But even then, based on my experience and what I've heard, you're going to lose more often than not anyway.)
One thing I find kinda interesting about this is you unlock cards in your collection, not by being offered them in the shop, but by actually purchasing them — they're even listed as "not discovered" when... you can see them; you have discovered them.
But my real point is: some of those cards seem suboptimal, but if you want to complete your collection, presumably you've gotta buy them at some point. Dilemma. I guess you can just 'throw away' a run on collecting stuff, mind — it's not like there's some overall penalty for number of losses. I don't even know if that's recorded anywhere (I feel like it would be? But even then, based on my experience and what I've heard, you're going to lose more often than not anyway.)
Wednesday, 24 September 2025
Audio Drama
Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures
4.1 Snare
It was five years last month since the Ninth Doctor joined Big Finish, and to coincide with that anniversary (deliberately or not, I'm not sure) the thing I suspect most fans have wanted since the start finally came to pass: Rose (Billie Piper) joined him.
Alternating months with the Thirteenth Doctor Adventures* (until at least June 2027), the "fourth series" of the Ninth Doctor Adventures moves on from his solo pre-Rose era, as featured throughout his first three BF series, into... his Rose era, natch, for a series of stories set between Father's Day and The Empty Child (stories set between The Doctor Dances and Boom Town would've been fun, but that's never gonna happen now).
It's a good evocation of the era, feeling right at home with both the characterisation and the kinds of stories told — sci-fi and fantastical, but grounded in everyday real human experiences. That said, much like the opening instalment of the 13th Doctor series, it's solid rather than exceptional. But that's fine, and a decent start.
* The second 13th Doctor adventure came out at the start of the month, and I've received my CD copy. Three episodes into this combined era, I'm aleady two episodes behind.
4.1 Snare
It was five years last month since the Ninth Doctor joined Big Finish, and to coincide with that anniversary (deliberately or not, I'm not sure) the thing I suspect most fans have wanted since the start finally came to pass: Rose (Billie Piper) joined him.
Alternating months with the Thirteenth Doctor Adventures* (until at least June 2027), the "fourth series" of the Ninth Doctor Adventures moves on from his solo pre-Rose era, as featured throughout his first three BF series, into... his Rose era, natch, for a series of stories set between Father's Day and The Empty Child (stories set between The Doctor Dances and Boom Town would've been fun, but that's never gonna happen now).
It's a good evocation of the era, feeling right at home with both the characterisation and the kinds of stories told — sci-fi and fantastical, but grounded in everyday real human experiences. That said, much like the opening instalment of the 13th Doctor series, it's solid rather than exceptional. But that's fine, and a decent start.
* The second 13th Doctor adventure came out at the start of the month, and I've received my CD copy. Three episodes into this combined era, I'm aleady two episodes behind.
Fiction
Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
I. The Circle Curse
Straight on to the second volume in the collected Lankhmar / Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser / Swords series. I'd sort of assumed I'd read something else next and come back to these another time, but I'm enjoying them so much I just wanted more. I guess I'll just keep going until I fancy a change — each of the seven books is relatively short (and made up of short stories & novellas, so even more digestible than short novels), but together they make up two fairly hefty tomes, and my track record with long books is... not good.
I. The Circle Curse
Straight on to the second volume in the collected Lankhmar / Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser / Swords series. I'd sort of assumed I'd read something else next and come back to these another time, but I'm enjoying them so much I just wanted more. I guess I'll just keep going until I fancy a change — each of the seven books is relatively short (and made up of short stories & novellas, so even more digestible than short novels), but together they make up two fairly hefty tomes, and my track record with long books is... not good.
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Games
Control
Another 2½ hours (ish), not because I actually wanted to play for that long, but because this is one of those games that restarts you at the last checkpoint (rather than just letting you save wherever) and I was wary of losing progress. Frustrating. (Also, still not convinced I'm going to finish this before it leaves Luna. Increasingly feels like 6 hours 'wasted'...)
Another 2½ hours (ish), not because I actually wanted to play for that long, but because this is one of those games that restarts you at the last checkpoint (rather than just letting you save wherever) and I was wary of losing progress. Frustrating. (Also, still not convinced I'm going to finish this before it leaves Luna. Increasingly feels like 6 hours 'wasted'...)
Monday, 22 September 2025
TV
Fireside Chat LIVE With Matthew Mercer & Brennan Lee Mulligan
Holy moly, Campaign 4 starts next week! It felt kinda far off when they announced it*, but now it's almost here! So it's long overdue that I get round to this introduction-y hour-long chat Matt & Brennan did a month ago today (I've been meaning to watch this for a month?! Where does time go?!)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
* To be honest, it never felt that far off to me, because I immediately knew I wouldn't be able to finish C2 before it began, so the clock was always ticking.
Holy moly, Campaign 4 starts next week! It felt kinda far off when they announced it*, but now it's almost here! So it's long overdue that I get round to this introduction-y hour-long chat Matt & Brennan did a month ago today (I've been meaning to watch this for a month?! Where does time go?!)
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
* To be honest, it never felt that far off to me, because I immediately knew I wouldn't be able to finish C2 before it began, so the clock was always ticking.
Games
3D Sonic the Hedgehog
I had two goes at starting the next level, did phenomenally poorly both times, and quit. My 3DS logged my playtime as 1 minute. I might be done with Sonic now… apart from giving Sonic 2 a go, anyway. Can’t imagine it will go any better, but you never know.
Control
Quite enjoying this, but after about 3½ hours played it still feels like I'm quite early in the game — like, it's underway, but I know there are much-discussed gameplay elements I haven't unlocked yet; plus, HowLongToBeat says it takes at least 13 hours to play through, so there's that. Normally that would be fine, but it's making me wonder if I'm wasting my time playing it on Luna, considering that it leaves the free-with-Prime section in 9 days — I either get it done by then, or my progress is lost. I could pay for Luna+ to continue it, but it would be better value to just buy it next time it's on sale: a month of Luna+ is £9 and this was recently available for about £3. (I've missed that offer now, but it'll be back.) Not sure whether to forge on or call it a day — and, say, go back to the last game where this happened.
Pilotwings Resort
Back to the 3DS, with more success: 58 minutes of this. Still annoyed by the time limit on free flight, but I’m beginning to get slightly better at controlling the jet pack and glider. Neither are as fun as the plane, but you have to use them to complete some things, and completing things is the only way to unlock more stuff, so…
I had two goes at starting the next level, did phenomenally poorly both times, and quit. My 3DS logged my playtime as 1 minute. I might be done with Sonic now… apart from giving Sonic 2 a go, anyway. Can’t imagine it will go any better, but you never know.
Control
Quite enjoying this, but after about 3½ hours played it still feels like I'm quite early in the game — like, it's underway, but I know there are much-discussed gameplay elements I haven't unlocked yet; plus, HowLongToBeat says it takes at least 13 hours to play through, so there's that. Normally that would be fine, but it's making me wonder if I'm wasting my time playing it on Luna, considering that it leaves the free-with-Prime section in 9 days — I either get it done by then, or my progress is lost. I could pay for Luna+ to continue it, but it would be better value to just buy it next time it's on sale: a month of Luna+ is £9 and this was recently available for about £3. (I've missed that offer now, but it'll be back.) Not sure whether to forge on or call it a day — and, say, go back to the last game where this happened.
Pilotwings Resort
Back to the 3DS, with more success: 58 minutes of this. Still annoyed by the time limit on free flight, but I’m beginning to get slightly better at controlling the jet pack and glider. Neither are as fun as the plane, but you have to use them to complete some things, and completing things is the only way to unlock more stuff, so…
Sunday, 21 September 2025
Films
An Aleutian Adventure
[#75 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
I've not put a year on this because it's hard to date: it's a very obscure film that I got through a Kickstarter, and the best they can say is it's from the late 1920s. There's nothing else about it online — no IMDb listing, still — and, thanks to the Kickstarter disc coming out this year, TMDB puts it as 2025, which it obviously isn't. Not sure how I'll list it on 100 Films when (if?) I get round to reviewing it, but I'll worry about that later.
[#75 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
I've not put a year on this because it's hard to date: it's a very obscure film that I got through a Kickstarter, and the best they can say is it's from the late 1920s. There's nothing else about it online — no IMDb listing, still — and, thanks to the Kickstarter disc coming out this year, TMDB puts it as 2025, which it obviously isn't. Not sure how I'll list it on 100 Films when (if?) I get round to reviewing it, but I'll worry about that later.
Fiction
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
IV. Ill Met in Lankhmar [the end]
Well, I enjoyed that very much — it's lived up to its rep as a cornerstone of swords & sorcery fiction. My only question is: why has it taken so long for me to hear about it? Why's it not more widely known and recommended? It seems to be one of those series that 'those in the know' know about; like Leiber is the fantasy writers' fantasy writer — like, this is one of those series you've not heard of, but every author you love loves it. Or maybe it was just me, I dunno.
Anyway, I've started it now, and I'm thrilled there are four more books, with I-don't-know-how-many more stories between them, for me to look forward to.
IV. Ill Met in Lankhmar [the end]
Well, I enjoyed that very much — it's lived up to its rep as a cornerstone of swords & sorcery fiction. My only question is: why has it taken so long for me to hear about it? Why's it not more widely known and recommended? It seems to be one of those series that 'those in the know' know about; like Leiber is the fantasy writers' fantasy writer — like, this is one of those series you've not heard of, but every author you love loves it. Or maybe it was just me, I dunno.
Anyway, I've started it now, and I'm thrilled there are four more books, with I-don't-know-how-many more stories between them, for me to look forward to.
Games
007: Blood Stone
Steam tells me I've spent over two-and-a-half hours in Blood Stone, which is an awful lot for a game I'm "not playing". But, yes, this was even more controller setup. Having got it working with the Steam Deck's own controls the other day, I've since connected my Deck to the TV, so I wanted to see how it worked there with an external controller. Plus, the game does have a controller setting, so I thought I'd give that a go.
Well, it's shit. It still shows the keyboard commands on screen — lazy programming! — which means it's trial and error trying to work out what button does what; and some do nothing, making some actions impossible. So after battling away with that for a while, I gave in and remapped a la my Deck controls. Got it basically perfect that way, too.
After all that effort, maybe I should actually play the game... although Everything or Nothing is really a higher priority (it's been waiting for me longer, and it's meant to be quite a bit better)... and I kinda started the GoldenEye remake, too... Oh dear!
Steam tells me I've spent over two-and-a-half hours in Blood Stone, which is an awful lot for a game I'm "not playing". But, yes, this was even more controller setup. Having got it working with the Steam Deck's own controls the other day, I've since connected my Deck to the TV, so I wanted to see how it worked there with an external controller. Plus, the game does have a controller setting, so I thought I'd give that a go.
Well, it's shit. It still shows the keyboard commands on screen — lazy programming! — which means it's trial and error trying to work out what button does what; and some do nothing, making some actions impossible. So after battling away with that for a while, I gave in and remapped a la my Deck controls. Got it basically perfect that way, too.
After all that effort, maybe I should actually play the game... although Everything or Nothing is really a higher priority (it's been waiting for me longer, and it's meant to be quite a bit better)... and I kinda started the GoldenEye remake, too... Oh dear!
Saturday, 20 September 2025
Comics
2000 AD
Prog 2401
Prog 2402
Prog 2450 was released this week, meaning I have exactly 50 issues to catch up on. Considering the Christmas one covers three weeks, I guess that means I've fallen a whole year behind. Oops. Well, it was a quality line-up at this point — I'm enjoying all five strips, which is certainly not always the case — so hopefully that will compel me to catch up faster.
Prog 2401
Prog 2402
Prog 2450 was released this week, meaning I have exactly 50 issues to catch up on. Considering the Christmas one covers three weeks, I guess that means I've fallen a whole year behind. Oops. Well, it was a quality line-up at this point — I'm enjoying all five strips, which is certainly not always the case — so hopefully that will compel me to catch up faster.
Games
Balatro
I swear people talk about this as a quick “pick up and play a round” kind of game, but I played one run today and it took over half-an-hour, and I only made it about halfway before losing. Maybe it gets quicker when/if you know what you’re doing, I dunno…
Pilotwings Resort
This is my most recent acquisiton for the 3DS and, rather than add it to the bottom of the backlog, I've started it immediately. Kinda counterintuitive, but this was a launch title for the system, and is a relatively gentle experience designed to show off the system's stereoscopic capabilities. It's quite fun, though undermined by some daft decisions — why is Free Flight mode limited to 2 minutes?! It feels like it's enforced just to stop you flying around for a while and getting all the achievements (unlocking 75 locations) in one sitting. Apparently you can lengthen the flight time by completing challenges, etc, but it still maxes out at 5 minutes. Sucks.
Steam Deck
I was going to list this under the heading of the games involved, because I played a chunk of them to test things out... but I didn't really play them, because this was primarily about more fiddling with the tech. But for the last time (I think) — hurrah!
So, what happened was, today I finally got round to connecting my Steam Deck to my TV; and though that bit worked flawlessly, it annoyed me that one of my emulated GameCube games, 007: Everything or Nothing, was in 4:3 when it specifically has a widescreen mode. A bunch of Reddit-browsing later, I'd found the settings I needed to fiddle with to not only get widescreen working, but get the game running in 1080p HD. And it looks so much better for it! (But god knows how many times I've played through the first mission now as part of my testing. I've even completed it on the hardest difficulty with Platinum goals completed! Regular readers* will know how unlike me that is.)
And because I was fiddling with that, I also had a look into my other GC title, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. That was even more involved again, though I do now have it in HD and widescreen thanks to inputting a cheat code for the latter and installing a fan-made HD texture pack for the former — and now it looks so good too! And now, after many hours of faffing, these are finally nicely set up to play. Now I just need to actually play them...
I swear people talk about this as a quick “pick up and play a round” kind of game, but I played one run today and it took over half-an-hour, and I only made it about halfway before losing. Maybe it gets quicker when/if you know what you’re doing, I dunno…
Pilotwings Resort
This is my most recent acquisiton for the 3DS and, rather than add it to the bottom of the backlog, I've started it immediately. Kinda counterintuitive, but this was a launch title for the system, and is a relatively gentle experience designed to show off the system's stereoscopic capabilities. It's quite fun, though undermined by some daft decisions — why is Free Flight mode limited to 2 minutes?! It feels like it's enforced just to stop you flying around for a while and getting all the achievements (unlocking 75 locations) in one sitting. Apparently you can lengthen the flight time by completing challenges, etc, but it still maxes out at 5 minutes. Sucks.
Steam Deck
I was going to list this under the heading of the games involved, because I played a chunk of them to test things out... but I didn't really play them, because this was primarily about more fiddling with the tech. But for the last time (I think) — hurrah!
So, what happened was, today I finally got round to connecting my Steam Deck to my TV; and though that bit worked flawlessly, it annoyed me that one of my emulated GameCube games, 007: Everything or Nothing, was in 4:3 when it specifically has a widescreen mode. A bunch of Reddit-browsing later, I'd found the settings I needed to fiddle with to not only get widescreen working, but get the game running in 1080p HD. And it looks so much better for it! (But god knows how many times I've played through the first mission now as part of my testing. I've even completed it on the hardest difficulty with Platinum goals completed! Regular readers* will know how unlike me that is.)
And because I was fiddling with that, I also had a look into my other GC title, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. That was even more involved again, though I do now have it in HD and widescreen thanks to inputting a cheat code for the latter and installing a fan-made HD texture pack for the former — and now it looks so good too! And now, after many hours of faffing, these are finally nicely set up to play. Now I just need to actually play them...
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
After all that stuff nipped in last week, there wasn't a sausage this week. Spending too much time (and money) on games instead recently. I'm sure there's some ordering I need to get caught up on, though.
Number of titles in collection: 3,608 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,622 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 8,672 [no change]
Number of films: 4,597 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader.
After all that stuff nipped in last week, there wasn't a sausage this week. Spending too much time (and money) on games instead recently. I'm sure there's some ordering I need to get caught up on, though.
Number of titles in collection: 3,608 [no change]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,622 [no change]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 8,672 [no change]
Number of films: 4,597 [no change]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 19 September 2025
Games
Control
Yep, here I go starting something else! But this one has intrigued me for a while, and is currently free* on Luna — though only for another 11 days, so there's every chance it'll follow in the footsteps of Dungeons of Hinterberg and I'll have to abandon it uncompleted (unless I spend a lot of time on it over the next week-and-a-half, that is), and then buy it and start over if I want to finish. Or give in and subscribe to Luna+... though Control goes for so little nowadays, it would be cheaper to just purchase it and play via my Steam Deck.
Anyway, I played for 2¼ hours this evening, part of which was because I couldn't work out a way forward on the map at one point, which turned out to be I just needed to go to a closed door on a side of a large room I'd missed. Having these big "open world"-style maps is all well and good, but sometimes I feel like good old fashioned level design was more straightforward. I mean, sure, there's loads of places I can wander back to, but I don't need to — they exist as a permanent distraction/confusion from where I need to head next on my most-recently-assigned mission.
That's also one of the reasons I wound up playing for so long: there's no levels like "when I was a kid"; games these days all seem to be rolling updated objectives, one never-ending experience. Which is more immersive and whatnot, but does make it slightly less clear when/if you should/can stop; especially in a game like this, where I found it unclear when it was saving, and if I'd actually resume at that save or back at a checkpoint.
On the bright side, it has an immortality setting (amongst several other personalisable difficulty bits and pieces), so I can just play and follow the story and kill bad guys without having to worry that I'll have to die and start over or get stuck on a tricky boss or something. As ever, I'm sure some "real gamers" find such things distasteful (heck, the game itself asks you to consider playing and see how you find it before you start adjusting the difficulty. I ignored it and just made stuff easier), but I don't care, this is how I like to play. (It's going to be annoying when I eventually dive back into something older and I can't just 'not die', isn't it?)
* "Free" with an Amazon Prime subscription, obv.
Yep, here I go starting something else! But this one has intrigued me for a while, and is currently free* on Luna — though only for another 11 days, so there's every chance it'll follow in the footsteps of Dungeons of Hinterberg and I'll have to abandon it uncompleted (unless I spend a lot of time on it over the next week-and-a-half, that is), and then buy it and start over if I want to finish. Or give in and subscribe to Luna+... though Control goes for so little nowadays, it would be cheaper to just purchase it and play via my Steam Deck.
Anyway, I played for 2¼ hours this evening, part of which was because I couldn't work out a way forward on the map at one point, which turned out to be I just needed to go to a closed door on a side of a large room I'd missed. Having these big "open world"-style maps is all well and good, but sometimes I feel like good old fashioned level design was more straightforward. I mean, sure, there's loads of places I can wander back to, but I don't need to — they exist as a permanent distraction/confusion from where I need to head next on my most-recently-assigned mission.
That's also one of the reasons I wound up playing for so long: there's no levels like "when I was a kid"; games these days all seem to be rolling updated objectives, one never-ending experience. Which is more immersive and whatnot, but does make it slightly less clear when/if you should/can stop; especially in a game like this, where I found it unclear when it was saving, and if I'd actually resume at that save or back at a checkpoint.
On the bright side, it has an immortality setting (amongst several other personalisable difficulty bits and pieces), so I can just play and follow the story and kill bad guys without having to worry that I'll have to die and start over or get stuck on a tricky boss or something. As ever, I'm sure some "real gamers" find such things distasteful (heck, the game itself asks you to consider playing and see how you find it before you start adjusting the difficulty. I ignored it and just made stuff easier), but I don't care, this is how I like to play. (It's going to be annoying when I eventually dive back into something older and I can't just 'not die', isn't it?)
* "Free" with an Amazon Prime subscription, obv.
Thursday, 18 September 2025
TV
Age of Umbra
1x08 The Tomb of the Heretic Saint [season finale; final hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
1x08 The Tomb of the Heretic Saint [season finale; final hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
Wednesday, 17 September 2025
TV
Age of Umbra
1x08 The Tomb of the Heretic Saint [season finale; 2nd hour]
1x08 The Tomb of the Heretic Saint [season finale; 2nd hour]
I'm not deliberately stretching this out, I'm just not finding the time between things like work and spending an hour-and-a-half playing card games.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
Games
Balatro
The top quote on Balatro’s Steam page declares this game is “the reason Valve should rename their handheld 'the Balatro machine’”, so when I got my Deck, naturally it was high on my interest list. Plus the fact I’d heard how good and/or addictive it was from other sources, such as PC Gamer’s top 100 lists, where it's placed 8th for the last two years (and it didn't exist before that). I didn’t think it would be the second game I (properly) played on my Deck, mainly because I hadn’t bought it yet and had plenty of other games to be going on with, but then I saw a good deal on it a couple of days ago and, well, here I am.
And after two playthroughs… I’m not sure I totally get it. By which I mean, there’s a lot going on and I didn’t quite get how it all worked. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m just getting started or because my brain just isn’t wired for it all. Nonetheless, I played for 81 minutes solid and mostly enjoyed it (even if I often felt like I was guessing what to do rather than having a genuine strategy) — and, like I said, that was only two runs, so I feel like something must have gone right if I wasn’t crashing out in five minutes. We’ll see if I find it addictive enough to keep consuming my time.
The top quote on Balatro’s Steam page declares this game is “the reason Valve should rename their handheld 'the Balatro machine’”, so when I got my Deck, naturally it was high on my interest list. Plus the fact I’d heard how good and/or addictive it was from other sources, such as PC Gamer’s top 100 lists, where it's placed 8th for the last two years (and it didn't exist before that). I didn’t think it would be the second game I (properly) played on my Deck, mainly because I hadn’t bought it yet and had plenty of other games to be going on with, but then I saw a good deal on it a couple of days ago and, well, here I am.
And after two playthroughs… I’m not sure I totally get it. By which I mean, there’s a lot going on and I didn’t quite get how it all worked. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m just getting started or because my brain just isn’t wired for it all. Nonetheless, I played for 81 minutes solid and mostly enjoyed it (even if I often felt like I was guessing what to do rather than having a genuine strategy) — and, like I said, that was only two runs, so I feel like something must have gone right if I wasn’t crashing out in five minutes. We’ll see if I find it addictive enough to keep consuming my time.
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
TV
Age of Umbra
1x08 The Tomb of the Heretic Saint [season finale; 1st hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
1x08 The Tomb of the Heretic Saint [season finale; 1st hour]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
Games
Aperture Desk Job
This free game is basically a half-hour "how to use your Steam Deck" demo. I'm sure it'll run just fine on other systems and work with other controllers, but it's literally laid out to teach you about the functionality of your Deck. It's almost crazy that it's not preinstalled and/or promoted at you when you get one, to be honest.
Anyway, because of its positioning as a "how to" guide, I was certain it was going to be the first thing I played on my Deck. Well, it was the first thing I played intentionally... if we just ignore all those various other games I played bits of to test if they worked. And all that time I spent fiddling and installing other stuff. And that "what I'll do Day One" ended up being "what I did Day 17". And that "Day 17" is actually "Day 21" because that "Day One" came almost a week after it arrived (as noted in the footnote at the time).
All of which said... for me, this still marks the end of "setting up my Steam Deck" and the beginning of "playing stuff on my Steam Deck", so it's The Start in that sense.
Samorost 1
Talking of short games... Longer is better in most gamers’ eyes, it seems. In fairness, when you’ve paid £50–£100 for a AAA title, of course you want your money’s worth. This partly depends on genre, but I’ve seen people complain about a game being short when it takes at least 8 hours to complete. Imagine complaining a movie was only 8 hours long…
Those people might have some kind of fit if they ever encountered Samorost, which has a HowLongToBeat time of 15 minutes. Yes, minutes. It is free, though (whether you get it on Steam, GOG, Epic, or the publisher's website), so how can you complain? I guess nowadays it serves as a kind of demo for the hour-long Samorost 2 (which is free on the Epic Games Store from Thursday, hence how I discovered this) and five-hour Samorost 3 (maybe that'll be free the week after?) It's a quirky little point-and-click puzzler, with no proper dialogue and none of the modern helpers like highlighting clickable items. Indeed, working out what's clickable, and when it needs to be clicked (and, in some cases, how many times), is the whole challenge. I enjoyed it, and am quite looking forward to picking up at least the next one.
This free game is basically a half-hour "how to use your Steam Deck" demo. I'm sure it'll run just fine on other systems and work with other controllers, but it's literally laid out to teach you about the functionality of your Deck. It's almost crazy that it's not preinstalled and/or promoted at you when you get one, to be honest.
Anyway, because of its positioning as a "how to" guide, I was certain it was going to be the first thing I played on my Deck. Well, it was the first thing I played intentionally... if we just ignore all those various other games I played bits of to test if they worked. And all that time I spent fiddling and installing other stuff. And that "what I'll do Day One" ended up being "what I did Day 17". And that "Day 17" is actually "Day 21" because that "Day One" came almost a week after it arrived (as noted in the footnote at the time).
All of which said... for me, this still marks the end of "setting up my Steam Deck" and the beginning of "playing stuff on my Steam Deck", so it's The Start in that sense.
Samorost 1
Talking of short games... Longer is better in most gamers’ eyes, it seems. In fairness, when you’ve paid £50–£100 for a AAA title, of course you want your money’s worth. This partly depends on genre, but I’ve seen people complain about a game being short when it takes at least 8 hours to complete. Imagine complaining a movie was only 8 hours long…
Those people might have some kind of fit if they ever encountered Samorost, which has a HowLongToBeat time of 15 minutes. Yes, minutes. It is free, though (whether you get it on Steam, GOG, Epic, or the publisher's website), so how can you complain? I guess nowadays it serves as a kind of demo for the hour-long Samorost 2 (which is free on the Epic Games Store from Thursday, hence how I discovered this) and five-hour Samorost 3 (maybe that'll be free the week after?) It's a quirky little point-and-click puzzler, with no proper dialogue and none of the modern helpers like highlighting clickable items. Indeed, working out what's clickable, and when it needs to be clicked (and, in some cases, how many times), is the whole challenge. I enjoyed it, and am quite looking forward to picking up at least the next one.
Monday, 15 September 2025
TV
Age of Umbra
1x07 Escape from the Reach [remainder]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Age of Umbra Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
1x07 Escape from the Reach [remainder]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Age of Umbra Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Sunday, 14 September 2025
TV
Age of Umbra
1x07 Escape from the Reach [1st hour]
Any thoughts I had of finishing Critical Role Campaign 2 before Campaign 4 starts have long since vanished (there's less than three weeks to go, and I still have something like 30 episodes of C2 left), but there's really no reason I shouldn't be able to get through the remainder Age of Umbra before then (this is the penultimate episode, after all).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
1x07 Escape from the Reach [1st hour]
Any thoughts I had of finishing Critical Role Campaign 2 before Campaign 4 starts have long since vanished (there's less than three weeks to go, and I still have something like 30 episodes of C2 left), but there's really no reason I shouldn't be able to get through the remainder Age of Umbra before then (this is the penultimate episode, after all).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or Beacon.]
Games
3D Sonic the Hedgehog
Played this for 26 minutes, my 3DS said — long enough to appreciate the 3D effect and remember why I don’t really enjoy platformers. I had a couple of goes at getting past the three acts of Stage 1 and failed; read some hints, ‘abused’ the save function (advantage of modern games is not having to start right back at the start when you die!), and finally beat the stage. Hurrah! Will I bother to keep doing that until the end of the game? Eh. Sonic 2 is supposed to be better, so I’m more likely to give that a shot instead.
And once I’ve appreciated all the 3D conversions of some of these old games that I didn’t really like when I was a kid and don’t seem to have grown into, maybe I’ll finally move on to stuff I actually want to play (not just appreciate the stereoscopic visuals).
Played this for 26 minutes, my 3DS said — long enough to appreciate the 3D effect and remember why I don’t really enjoy platformers. I had a couple of goes at getting past the three acts of Stage 1 and failed; read some hints, ‘abused’ the save function (advantage of modern games is not having to start right back at the start when you die!), and finally beat the stage. Hurrah! Will I bother to keep doing that until the end of the game? Eh. Sonic 2 is supposed to be better, so I’m more likely to give that a shot instead.
And once I’ve appreciated all the 3D conversions of some of these old games that I didn’t really like when I was a kid and don’t seem to have grown into, maybe I’ll finally move on to stuff I actually want to play (not just appreciate the stereoscopic visuals).
Magazines
PC Gamer Top 100 2025
Because I still haven't been buying enough games lately...!
Similar to the retro games list I went through the other day, I came away from this one noting 13 titles I already own, but here there was only one I'd played before (well, only one I'd completed — the original Doom is on both lists, and while I've played it a bit, I've never been through it thoroughly). I did find 28 to keep in mind for future purchasing, and a further 16 that piqued my interest enough to look into more and decide whether to add to that 'wants' list or not — which means only 42% of the list made me think "nah".
One thing that definitely intrigued me was how changeable this list can be. I get that they publish it every year so don't want it to be basically the same with a few tweaks (otherwise who would care?), but, having only recently looked at their 2024 list, some changes were so big they were immediately obvious.
For example, the top ten is 60% the same, and some of that is due to the kinds of small shifts you'd expect: Doom drops out by falling from #10 to #11; Red Dead Redemption II rises from #15 to #10, which is a relatively minor reevaluation (and it's been in the top ten previously, so hardly revelatory). Except it's not just those kinds of small moves, nor new titles entering: last year's #5, Persona 5 Royal, plummets to #49; while a game that was released 20 years ago, Dwarf Fortress, suddenly jumps from #16 to #3. I'm not sure such a reappraisal was prompted by anything, either (although it has also previously been in the top ten, so this is closer to RDR2 in scale).
I guess it's just changing voters and/or adjusted final-total calculations. And there is certainly consistency in places (the top two are identical, for instance). It's just kinda wild that things can fall so far, or (higher up the list) drop out entirely, while old games where nothing's changed fly up, or even enter the list. Keeps it lively though, I guess.
(I also have physical copies of the 2021 and 2022 lists, and after I thought of this I tracked down the 2023 version too, which tempted me to work out a ranking-of-rankings for the last five years. Is it worth the time and effort, though? I don't know... but once I had the idea, it became almost inevitable, so now I'm doing it.)
Because I still haven't been buying enough games lately...!
Similar to the retro games list I went through the other day, I came away from this one noting 13 titles I already own, but here there was only one I'd played before (well, only one I'd completed — the original Doom is on both lists, and while I've played it a bit, I've never been through it thoroughly). I did find 28 to keep in mind for future purchasing, and a further 16 that piqued my interest enough to look into more and decide whether to add to that 'wants' list or not — which means only 42% of the list made me think "nah".
One thing that definitely intrigued me was how changeable this list can be. I get that they publish it every year so don't want it to be basically the same with a few tweaks (otherwise who would care?), but, having only recently looked at their 2024 list, some changes were so big they were immediately obvious.
For example, the top ten is 60% the same, and some of that is due to the kinds of small shifts you'd expect: Doom drops out by falling from #10 to #11; Red Dead Redemption II rises from #15 to #10, which is a relatively minor reevaluation (and it's been in the top ten previously, so hardly revelatory). Except it's not just those kinds of small moves, nor new titles entering: last year's #5, Persona 5 Royal, plummets to #49; while a game that was released 20 years ago, Dwarf Fortress, suddenly jumps from #16 to #3. I'm not sure such a reappraisal was prompted by anything, either (although it has also previously been in the top ten, so this is closer to RDR2 in scale).
I guess it's just changing voters and/or adjusted final-total calculations. And there is certainly consistency in places (the top two are identical, for instance). It's just kinda wild that things can fall so far, or (higher up the list) drop out entirely, while old games where nothing's changed fly up, or even enter the list. Keeps it lively though, I guess.
(I also have physical copies of the 2021 and 2022 lists, and after I thought of this I tracked down the 2023 version too, which tempted me to work out a ranking-of-rankings for the last five years. Is it worth the time and effort, though? I don't know... but once I had the idea, it became almost inevitable, so now I'm doing it.)
Saturday, 13 September 2025
Games
007: Blood Stone
After some more — alright, a lot more — fiddling and tweaking the controls, I got this playing pretty well; to the point where I actually completed the first section (the driving controls really needed a lot of work, and I'd failed on a section like that multiple times before). The best hint I got from somewhere online: because the game has onscreen prompts about what button to press (at least during the training-like first level; maybe throughout, I don't know), ignore what would be sensible keyboard controls and set things up for the controller — i.e. map the controller's A button to keyboard-A, X to keyboard-X, and so on. It would be a rubbish control scheme on a PC (the keys are all over the place, and using A for the A button messes up WASD movement, for one), but it means you don't get "the game says press E, so that's X... or is it Y?" all the time.
Anyway, now that's all sorted, I need to decide what game(s) I'm actually playing — I mean, I've been through tutorials/first levels for three Bond games now! Speaking of which...
007: Everything or Nothing
I got an adapter that allows you to use original GameCube controllers with the WiiU, Switch, and PC — which also works with Steam Deck. Tested it on this a couple of times, plus a quick go on Zelda: Wind Waker, and got it working nicely (the D-pad doesn't work on menus for some reason, but does in game; but I did get the rumble working, so that's good). Also, hopefully this adapter will work with the Switch 2 when/if I get one (still leaning towards when, but when? I don't know).
3D Out Run
I've bought or downloaded a total of 33 games for my 3DS already, but this is first one I've actually played (beyond a minute or two to test carts work). This is a 3D port of a classic Sega arcade game (not to be confused with its original sequel, OutRun 3-D — the Wikipedia entry makes that mistake, in fact). There were a load of these conversions of Sega games made for the 3DS, and many of them are pretty well regarded — not always for the quality of the original game, but certainly for the effort and success of the emulation and 3D conversion. Out Run (aka OutRun) is one of the most recommended for its visuals.
Well, I agree that it's got a very effective use of 3D. It's almost hard to imagine playing it in 2D, so striking is the effect of the road and scenery rushing towards you. It doesn't feel like a particularly deep or long-lasting game, though — I mean, there's literally one circuit. Okay, that has different routes, adding up to 16 variations, but still. The only other customisation options are the difficulty (one to five stars) and a set of four unlockable modifiers for your vehicle, which you can mix and match. So, sure, there are ways to mix it up; and if this had been made in the era of achievements, I'm sure there'd be one for every possible combination of track, difficulty, and mods — that's 400 variants by my estimation. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not going to play this 400 times. But it was free, so that's fine.
After some more — alright, a lot more — fiddling and tweaking the controls, I got this playing pretty well; to the point where I actually completed the first section (the driving controls really needed a lot of work, and I'd failed on a section like that multiple times before). The best hint I got from somewhere online: because the game has onscreen prompts about what button to press (at least during the training-like first level; maybe throughout, I don't know), ignore what would be sensible keyboard controls and set things up for the controller — i.e. map the controller's A button to keyboard-A, X to keyboard-X, and so on. It would be a rubbish control scheme on a PC (the keys are all over the place, and using A for the A button messes up WASD movement, for one), but it means you don't get "the game says press E, so that's X... or is it Y?" all the time.
Anyway, now that's all sorted, I need to decide what game(s) I'm actually playing — I mean, I've been through tutorials/first levels for three Bond games now! Speaking of which...
007: Everything or Nothing
I got an adapter that allows you to use original GameCube controllers with the WiiU, Switch, and PC — which also works with Steam Deck. Tested it on this a couple of times, plus a quick go on Zelda: Wind Waker, and got it working nicely (the D-pad doesn't work on menus for some reason, but does in game; but I did get the rumble working, so that's good). Also, hopefully this adapter will work with the Switch 2 when/if I get one (still leaning towards when, but when? I don't know).
3D Out Run
I've bought or downloaded a total of 33 games for my 3DS already, but this is first one I've actually played (beyond a minute or two to test carts work). This is a 3D port of a classic Sega arcade game (not to be confused with its original sequel, OutRun 3-D — the Wikipedia entry makes that mistake, in fact). There were a load of these conversions of Sega games made for the 3DS, and many of them are pretty well regarded — not always for the quality of the original game, but certainly for the effort and success of the emulation and 3D conversion. Out Run (aka OutRun) is one of the most recommended for its visuals.
Well, I agree that it's got a very effective use of 3D. It's almost hard to imagine playing it in 2D, so striking is the effect of the road and scenery rushing towards you. It doesn't feel like a particularly deep or long-lasting game, though — I mean, there's literally one circuit. Okay, that has different routes, adding up to 16 variations, but still. The only other customisation options are the difficulty (one to five stars) and a set of four unlockable modifiers for your vehicle, which you can mix and match. So, sure, there are ways to mix it up; and if this had been made in the era of achievements, I'm sure there'd be one for every possible combination of track, difficulty, and mods — that's 400 variants by my estimation. I didn't dislike it, but I'm not going to play this 400 times. But it was free, so that's fine.
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Seven new additions this week, including two BD-to-4K upgrades amid a bunch of brand-new acquisitions. On top of that, there's the running time update I had to put off from last week.
Number of titles in collection: 3,608 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,622 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [up 4]
Number of discs in collection: 8,672 [up 12]
Number of films: 4,597 [up 12]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [no change]
Total running time of collection (approx.):
607 days, 10 hours, and 43 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 7 hours, and 23 minutes from last month.)
See you next week, faithful reader.
Seven new additions this week, including two BD-to-4K upgrades amid a bunch of brand-new acquisitions. On top of that, there's the running time update I had to put off from last week.
Number of titles in collection: 3,608 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,622 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [up 4]
Number of discs in collection: 8,672 [up 12]
Number of films: 4,597 [up 12]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [no change]
Total running time of collection (approx.):
607 days, 10 hours, and 43 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 7 hours, and 23 minutes from last month.)
See you next week, faithful reader.
Wednesday, 10 September 2025
Magazines
The Greatest Retro Games of All Time
Because I haven't been buying enough games lately as it is...!
Well, I came away from this list of 100 noting 15 titles I already own (or, er, have acquired), on top of 10 I've already played sufficiently that I don't necessarily want/need to play them again — so that's a quarter of the list off the bat. Mind you, another 25 were of enough interest for me to note down...
Because I haven't been buying enough games lately as it is...!
Well, I came away from this list of 100 noting 15 titles I already own (or, er, have acquired), on top of 10 I've already played sufficiently that I don't necessarily want/need to play them again — so that's a quarter of the list off the bat. Mind you, another 25 were of enough interest for me to note down...
Tuesday, 9 September 2025
Monday, 8 September 2025
Theatre
Macbeth
at the Minack Theatre
The draw here was as much the Minack Theatre itself as the production — the latter was very good, but it was a fortunate coincidence that was what was on when we wanted to visit the Minack, rather than us wanting to see the play and then choosing a venue. To that end, we arrived early to also be able to tour the theatre, which includes an interesting exhibition on the site's creation and history. An incredible place, and a perfect setting for something as dramatic as Macbeth.
As the play reached the point of the murders, night had fallen and a blood-red moon rose over the horizon behind the open-air stage. It couldn't have been better planned if it had been stage managed. You don't get effects like that in any old venue!
at the Minack Theatre
The draw here was as much the Minack Theatre itself as the production — the latter was very good, but it was a fortunate coincidence that was what was on when we wanted to visit the Minack, rather than us wanting to see the play and then choosing a venue. To that end, we arrived early to also be able to tour the theatre, which includes an interesting exhibition on the site's creation and history. An incredible place, and a perfect setting for something as dramatic as Macbeth.
As the play reached the point of the murders, night had fallen and a blood-red moon rose over the horizon behind the open-air stage. It couldn't have been better planned if it had been stage managed. You don't get effects like that in any old venue!
Sunday, 7 September 2025
Fiction
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
I. Induction
II. The Snow Women
III. The Unholy Grail
The first book in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser (aka Lankhmar) series, a classic of fantasy literature that was recommended to me a while ago (so long that I forget where or why or by who) but have only just started. The whole series is available in a two-volume edition as part of the Fantasy Masterworks series, but rather than dive straight into that I got hold of an ebook copy of this first book to try them out.
I say “first book” — the stories herein are the earliest chronologically, but they were written as prequels after Leiber had been penning tales about these characters for several decades. Does that make it the best place to start? I’m not sure. But I got this volume for a reason, so I guess someone thought it was! Or I did my research poorly… but, to be honest, that doesn’t sound like me.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it so far, so I’ll probably go ahead and get those paperbacks next. I will finish this ebook first though, because it’s the fourth and final story in this collection that’s supposed to be its highlight: it won both the Nebula and Hugo Award for Best Novella.
I. Induction
II. The Snow Women
III. The Unholy Grail
The first book in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser (aka Lankhmar) series, a classic of fantasy literature that was recommended to me a while ago (so long that I forget where or why or by who) but have only just started. The whole series is available in a two-volume edition as part of the Fantasy Masterworks series, but rather than dive straight into that I got hold of an ebook copy of this first book to try them out.
I say “first book” — the stories herein are the earliest chronologically, but they were written as prequels after Leiber had been penning tales about these characters for several decades. Does that make it the best place to start? I’m not sure. But I got this volume for a reason, so I guess someone thought it was! Or I did my research poorly… but, to be honest, that doesn’t sound like me.
Anyway, I’ve enjoyed it so far, so I’ll probably go ahead and get those paperbacks next. I will finish this ebook first though, because it’s the fourth and final story in this collection that’s supposed to be its highlight: it won both the Nebula and Hugo Award for Best Novella.
this week on 100Films.co.uk
Oh look, another new month — that's pretty much the only time I post anything on 100Films.co.uk nowadays. Shame, really, but I just don't find the time.
Anyway, it's still ticking over with these monthly columns turning up on schedule each month, so here they are again. First, the overall review of August...
And second, my "failures"...
More next Sunday? Not likely, but stranger things have happened.
Anyway, it's still ticking over with these monthly columns turning up on schedule each month, so here they are again. First, the overall review of August...
And second, my "failures"...
More next Sunday? Not likely, but stranger things have happened.
Saturday, 6 September 2025
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
After several relatively quiet weeks, it feels like all guns blazing this time, with multiple multi-film box sets and a couple of shiny new 4K releases — all just in time for the monthly running time update!
...except I'm actually away from home this week, as of yesterday evening, so can't get at my running time list to work that out. It appearing next week instead won't hurt anyone.
Number of titles in collection: 3,603 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,617 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 457 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,660 [up 17]
Number of films: 4,585 [up 20]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [up 11]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [up 1]
See you next week, faithful reader.
After several relatively quiet weeks, it feels like all guns blazing this time, with multiple multi-film box sets and a couple of shiny new 4K releases — all just in time for the monthly running time update!
...except I'm actually away from home this week, as of yesterday evening, so can't get at my running time list to work that out. It appearing next week instead won't hurt anyone.
Number of titles in collection: 3,603 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,617 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 457 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,660 [up 17]
Number of films: 4,585 [up 20]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [up 11]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,267 [up 1]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 5 September 2025
Games
007: Blood Stone
In the process of discovering that neither the PS3 nor Xbox 360 versions of Blood Stone play well with emulators, I also learnt they'd released it for PC — somehow I'd completely forgotten about that. Anyway, I managed to get hold of a copy, and that runs on my Steam Deck. Not natively, of course, and it seems to not have controller support, so I also learnt something about my Steam Deck via the process of remapping controls. It's still not perfect, further tweaking may nail it, but the main thing is I got the game running and some semblance of controls sorted. Hurrah!
And after all that effort, it crossed my mind that the game's old enough it would probably run fine on my Mac, where I could use the native keyboard + mouse controls it's designed for, so maybe I should play it there instead. Oh well.
In the process of discovering that neither the PS3 nor Xbox 360 versions of Blood Stone play well with emulators, I also learnt they'd released it for PC — somehow I'd completely forgotten about that. Anyway, I managed to get hold of a copy, and that runs on my Steam Deck. Not natively, of course, and it seems to not have controller support, so I also learnt something about my Steam Deck via the process of remapping controls. It's still not perfect, further tweaking may nail it, but the main thing is I got the game running and some semblance of controls sorted. Hurrah!
And after all that effort, it crossed my mind that the game's old enough it would probably run fine on my Mac, where I could use the native keyboard + mouse controls it's designed for, so maybe I should play it there instead. Oh well.
Monday, 1 September 2025
Games
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded
In what I intend to be the final bit of fiddling before I actually start playing some games on my new devices, today I tried to set up a pair of James Bond titles on my Steam Deck: the PS3 versions of GoldenEye 007 Reloaded (as the Xbox 360 one doesn't run so well) and Blood Stone (aka 007 Blood Stone, aka James Bond 007: Blood Stone, but nowhere does anyone call it Blood Stone 007, despite that being the order of the words on the cover. But I digress...)
Long story short, the latter was a bit of a disaster. I eventually learnt it doesn't run well at all, so abandoned it. It was released on PC too, although is no longer officially available, but if I can find it that would be a better bet — although my brief bit of reading suggests it doesn't run instantly either, but might be doable with some fiddling.
The fact I've logged this entry as GoldenEye should tell you I had more success there. Absolutely no crashes or freezes, everything ran smoothly and looked good. Hurrah! I ended up playing the whole first level, which probably took me a lot longer than it's meant to, even on the lowest difficulty setting; but I also didn't die, which suggests the game is pretty forgiving on said setting. Fine by me — as I've said before, I don't actually play games like this to be challenged, but to experience other aspects.
Now, whether I keep at this or immediately switch to something else (Everything or Nothing was the Bond game that I really wanted to play, and there's so many other titles I'd like to get stuck into, not to mention the games I already have on the go), time will tell.
In what I intend to be the final bit of fiddling before I actually start playing some games on my new devices, today I tried to set up a pair of James Bond titles on my Steam Deck: the PS3 versions of GoldenEye 007 Reloaded (as the Xbox 360 one doesn't run so well) and Blood Stone (aka 007 Blood Stone, aka James Bond 007: Blood Stone, but nowhere does anyone call it Blood Stone 007, despite that being the order of the words on the cover. But I digress...)
Long story short, the latter was a bit of a disaster. I eventually learnt it doesn't run well at all, so abandoned it. It was released on PC too, although is no longer officially available, but if I can find it that would be a better bet — although my brief bit of reading suggests it doesn't run instantly either, but might be doable with some fiddling.
The fact I've logged this entry as GoldenEye should tell you I had more success there. Absolutely no crashes or freezes, everything ran smoothly and looked good. Hurrah! I ended up playing the whole first level, which probably took me a lot longer than it's meant to, even on the lowest difficulty setting; but I also didn't die, which suggests the game is pretty forgiving on said setting. Fine by me — as I've said before, I don't actually play games like this to be challenged, but to experience other aspects.
Now, whether I keep at this or immediately switch to something else (Everything or Nothing was the Bond game that I really wanted to play, and there's so many other titles I'd like to get stuck into, not to mention the games I already have on the go), time will tell.
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