Häxan (1922)
[#87 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
Blindspot 2025 #10
Tenebrae (1982)
[#86 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
"What Do You Mean You Haven't Seen...?" 2025 #10
Happy Halloween!
Friday, 31 October 2025
Fiction
By the River, Fontainebleau by Stephen Gallagher
Another Stephen Gallgher chapbook roped in on the last day of the month to tick a box on GoodReads, a la The Governess back in August (only two months ago, and yet it feels like an age).
This one seemed appropriate Halloween reading: its original magazine publication provoked a reader to complain about its "gut-wrenching horror" that left them "physically sick... for three days", while a radio adaptation provoked chastisement from Mary Whitehouse's lot (always a good sign). That said, I'm not sure what the fuss is about — the 'twist' seemed kind of obvious, but also not fully explained. I thought maybe I missed something, but re-reading the ending didn't enlighten me. As an exercise in tone, it's mostly effective, but that brief and unclear ending doesn't pay it off. Oh well.
Another Stephen Gallgher chapbook roped in on the last day of the month to tick a box on GoodReads, a la The Governess back in August (only two months ago, and yet it feels like an age).
This one seemed appropriate Halloween reading: its original magazine publication provoked a reader to complain about its "gut-wrenching horror" that left them "physically sick... for three days", while a radio adaptation provoked chastisement from Mary Whitehouse's lot (always a good sign). That said, I'm not sure what the fuss is about — the 'twist' seemed kind of obvious, but also not fully explained. I thought maybe I missed something, but re-reading the ending didn't enlighten me. As an exercise in tone, it's mostly effective, but that brief and unclear ending doesn't pay it off. Oh well.
Thursday, 30 October 2025
Wednesday, 29 October 2025
Tuesday, 28 October 2025
TV
Friends
10x07 The One with the Home Study [6th or so watch]
10x08 The One with the Late Thanksgiving [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x54 Week 11: Thursday
8x55 Week 11: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x08 A Variant of Unknown Significance
10x07 The One with the Home Study [6th or so watch]
10x08 The One with the Late Thanksgiving [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x54 Week 11: Thursday
8x55 Week 11: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x08 A Variant of Unknown Significance
Monday, 27 October 2025
TV
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x51 Week 11: Monday
8x52 Week 11: Tuesday
8x53 Week 11: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x07 Teeth Marks
8x51 Week 11: Monday
8x52 Week 11: Tuesday
8x53 Week 11: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x07 Teeth Marks
Tabletop Games
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Game 7 (of 7)
This doesn't have a New Game+ type mode like the LotR trick-taking game does, so we just replayed the final stage. It wasn't as successful as yesterday, which just goes to show how much the luck of the draw affects how it goes. Well, that's games for you!
Game 7 (of 7)
This doesn't have a New Game+ type mode like the LotR trick-taking game does, so we just replayed the final stage. It wasn't as successful as yesterday, which just goes to show how much the luck of the draw affects how it goes. Well, that's games for you!
Sunday, 26 October 2025
TV
Friends
10x05 The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits [6th or so watch]
10x06 The One with Ross's Grant [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x49 Week 10: Thursday
8x50 Week 10: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x06 The Camgirl Inquiry
10x05 The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits [6th or so watch]
10x06 The One with Ross's Grant [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x49 Week 10: Thursday
8x50 Week 10: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x06 The Camgirl Inquiry
Video Games
Cluedo
I haven't played Cluedo since I was a kid, but I always remember enjoying it, so now that there's a version included with the relaunched Amazon Luna (albeit prominently given its US title, Clue, even on Luna UK, and even though the official website manages to call it Cluedo... but anyway), we decided to give it a go. It was... awkward.
The game doesn't do enough to tell you how to play — fortunately I could remember the basics from when I was a kid, but I had to talk my partner (who'd never played) through it as I remembered, rather than the gaming doing it for us (apparently there is an option to display the rules, but it's hidden rather than being offered freely). Controlling it on a little phone screen was kinda tricky — it makes sense for the idea of a party game, where everyone can just whip out their phone and join in, but the interface is a little fiddly at that size. It also didn't scratch the proper board game itch — you're still sat in front of the TV, not getting away from it to play a game. I can see it would work for some people, but it didn't for us.
Oh well, worth a go.
I haven't played Cluedo since I was a kid, but I always remember enjoying it, so now that there's a version included with the relaunched Amazon Luna (albeit prominently given its US title, Clue, even on Luna UK, and even though the official website manages to call it Cluedo... but anyway), we decided to give it a go. It was... awkward.
The game doesn't do enough to tell you how to play — fortunately I could remember the basics from when I was a kid, but I had to talk my partner (who'd never played) through it as I remembered, rather than the gaming doing it for us (apparently there is an option to display the rules, but it's hidden rather than being offered freely). Controlling it on a little phone screen was kinda tricky — it makes sense for the idea of a party game, where everyone can just whip out their phone and join in, but the interface is a little fiddly at that size. It also didn't scratch the proper board game itch — you're still sat in front of the TV, not getting away from it to play a game. I can see it would work for some people, but it didn't for us.
Oh well, worth a go.
Tabletop Games
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Game 7 (of 7)
It took a good few hours to get there, just because of how long it takes (or takes us, anyway) to work through the mechanics and processes of this game, but we beat this on the first attempt without really struggling. Which is kinda fine by me.
Game 7 (of 7)
It took a good few hours to get there, just because of how long it takes (or takes us, anyway) to work through the mechanics and processes of this game, but we beat this on the first attempt without really struggling. Which is kinda fine by me.
Saturday, 25 October 2025
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
This week's new additions include The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 4K, which doesn't replace any of my previous editions due to not wanting to part with extras for various reasons — so four of the titles in the count below include the RHPS 25th anniversary edition DVD, 30th anniversary edition collector's edition DVD (that came in a lip-shaped box), 35th anniversary edition Blu-ray, and now the 50th anniversary edition 4K UHD Blu-ray. (There was a 40th anniversary Blu-ray, but it's just a re-release of the previous one.) It's sort of silly, I guess, although every edition has slightly different extras — it would be nice if the new release could've been an across-the-board upgrade. Oh well, it's not like most discs net anything when you sell them nowadays.
Number of titles in collection: 3,617 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 981 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,636 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 469 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,702 [up 4]
Number of films: 4,622 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 471 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 10,175 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,271 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader.
This week's new additions include The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 4K, which doesn't replace any of my previous editions due to not wanting to part with extras for various reasons — so four of the titles in the count below include the RHPS 25th anniversary edition DVD, 30th anniversary edition collector's edition DVD (that came in a lip-shaped box), 35th anniversary edition Blu-ray, and now the 50th anniversary edition 4K UHD Blu-ray. (There was a 40th anniversary Blu-ray, but it's just a re-release of the previous one.) It's sort of silly, I guess, although every edition has slightly different extras — it would be nice if the new release could've been an across-the-board upgrade. Oh well, it's not like most discs net anything when you sell them nowadays.
Number of titles in collection: 3,617 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 981 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,636 [up 3]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 469 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,702 [up 4]
Number of films: 4,622 [up 3]
Number of additional cuts: 471 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes: 10,175 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,271 [no change]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 24 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x04 Stone-Faced
The final part of the opening overture — it's weird to think that, 18½ hours in, we're only now moving into the 'proper' campaign. I stayed up to watch it 'live', as a kind of bookend to doing that for episode one. It shouldn't make a difference, what with it being prerecorded, but it does somehow make it more exciting. Or maybe that's just because I only do it for special occasions. Or maybe it's just because this was a helluvan episode!
[Watch it (again) now on Beacon, Twitch, or YouTube if you're a member, or free on YouTube from Monday.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x47 Week 10: Tuesday
8x48 Week 10: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
4x04 Stone-Faced
The final part of the opening overture — it's weird to think that, 18½ hours in, we're only now moving into the 'proper' campaign. I stayed up to watch it 'live', as a kind of bookend to doing that for episode one. It shouldn't make a difference, what with it being prerecorded, but it does somehow make it more exciting. Or maybe that's just because I only do it for special occasions. Or maybe it's just because this was a helluvan episode!
[Watch it (again) now on Beacon, Twitch, or YouTube if you're a member, or free on YouTube from Monday.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x47 Week 10: Tuesday
8x48 Week 10: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Video Games
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Amazon recently announced some changes to their Prime Gaming and Luna offerings (essentially, combining them under the latter brand, plus a refresh of the Prime-tier of Luna to include more recent, big-name games), and it went live this week. There are a few titles on there that I wanted to play, but this jumped straight to the front of the queue. I've been an Indy fan as long as I can remember, and this game seemed to receive nothing but praise when it came out. I nearly subscribed to Xbox Game Pass just to play this — indeed, I was still planning to at some point, but I've bought so much else for my Steam Deck and 3DS recently, I thought I should focus on them for a bit first. But, heck, if this didn't cost £60+ and reviews had said it ran well on the Deck (apparently it doesn't), I probably would've bought it and dived in. So I was ecstatic when I saw it was coming to Luna Standard (as it's now called), I've quickly dived in now it's available, and...
Well, thank goodness I didn't pay £60 for it. Or whatever the cost of Game Pass was, even. I'm about two hours in and I'm... bored, really.
So, it looks pretty great, overall — there are some issues, but that might be with how Luna runs it and/or streaming in general (if I loved it, I'd be tempted to buy it and play it through GeForce Now, which I'm considering for some other graphics-heavy titles that my Deck won't run well). In the cutscenes and so forth it does a good job of recreating the feel of an Indy movie. But the gameplay...
I suppose dying multiple times during the opening tutorial-ish section was a bad omen. I'm sure that's partly a skill issue on my part, but not entirely ("oh, I need to run now? Okay, so I press... Oh, I'm dead", repeated a couple of times until I did it right). Part of the slow pace is my desire to explore and see and find everything, but I guess there's not really enough to see to justify that. It's funny, because some people say it's really an exploration/puzzle game, but as someone who likes that kind of game, nah, it doesn't scratch that itch right.
Instead, there's a lot of stealth. I find stealth boring in concept, and turns out I do in play, too. I can see the inspiration — Indy isn't a run-and-gun killing machine, so they don't want it to be a shooter — but the Indy films are action adventures, and stealth simply doesn't feel adventurous and it's certainly not action-packed. I turned the action difficulty down to low, so the enemies and stuff weren't too difficult when they did spot me, but I wasted so much time not trying to be spotted. The level design felt like a maze, too — it didn't feel like I was exploring, it felt like I was lost.
I have so many other complaints and niggles, too. One I feel I see all too often in recently-made games I try is that it won't let you save wherever you want; it only saves when it decides to. At least that's not only at the end of a lengthy level, or only at majorly significant checkpoints — sometimes the little save icon will flash up when you enter an inauspicious room (and it's not a portent of "this seemingly unimportant room is about to be a big fight", which is how some games do it). And it does try to help you on the pause menu by stating how long it's been since the last autosave — I've not seen that before, and it's a useful feature... if only for the fact that, when I wanted to quit, it told me it had been quarter-of-an-hour since the last save. The immediately-obvious downside was that, to not lose that quarter-hour of progress, I had to keep going when I didn't really want to, at least until I trigged a new save, which took a fair while. Making you play when you don't actually want to anymore is the kind of thign that turns you off a game!
The first person view does not suit it. That feels like a funny thing for me to say, because back when I was into gaming the first time round, FPS was the genre and third-person games were often looked down upon. I feel opinion has swung in the other direction, and playing this in first person feels wrong. It's a bad fit for the property (I don't want to be Indy, I want to watch him have adventures) and for the style of gameplay (both stealth and melee combat feel so much harder in this than in third-person games I've played that use similar mechanics).
Then there's the point early on where it suggests you read the in-game manual to learn how to do stuff, and it turns out that's a mass of different screens explaining dozens of different gameplay mechanics. Why is it so complicated?! How often am I going to need to do all these different things? Should I be trying to memorise them because the game is truly flexible and I could use any at any time? Or, actually, are some only used in very specific circumstances? In which case, can't you just explain them when I get there? Or maybe you could've just made the game less unnecessarily complicated, I dunno.
I feel like I should go back to this, because I'm a huge Indy fan and this is such a praised Indy experience. Also, I've only given it one go, and I'm still quite early into it — it kinda feels like I've only done some training mission-type opening stuff; and, indeed, the level I'm on is still hand-holding a little... even as it could handhold more (that damn maze-like layout). Perhaps if I can get past these early teething troubles...
But the first barrier is the fact I don't really want to go back to it now — the complete opposite to how desperate I was to play it before. That's some cruel irony. I'm going to have to force myself, and I can't decide if it's worth that effort.
On the bright side, in this new Lina world it doesn't seem to have a time limit on the Standard tier (other games do, so it's not that they're not listing them anymore), so I guess I've got some time still to force myself back into it. That might help. Or maybe I'll lean on that possibility and just never try again. We'll see.
Amazon recently announced some changes to their Prime Gaming and Luna offerings (essentially, combining them under the latter brand, plus a refresh of the Prime-tier of Luna to include more recent, big-name games), and it went live this week. There are a few titles on there that I wanted to play, but this jumped straight to the front of the queue. I've been an Indy fan as long as I can remember, and this game seemed to receive nothing but praise when it came out. I nearly subscribed to Xbox Game Pass just to play this — indeed, I was still planning to at some point, but I've bought so much else for my Steam Deck and 3DS recently, I thought I should focus on them for a bit first. But, heck, if this didn't cost £60+ and reviews had said it ran well on the Deck (apparently it doesn't), I probably would've bought it and dived in. So I was ecstatic when I saw it was coming to Luna Standard (as it's now called), I've quickly dived in now it's available, and...
Well, thank goodness I didn't pay £60 for it. Or whatever the cost of Game Pass was, even. I'm about two hours in and I'm... bored, really.
So, it looks pretty great, overall — there are some issues, but that might be with how Luna runs it and/or streaming in general (if I loved it, I'd be tempted to buy it and play it through GeForce Now, which I'm considering for some other graphics-heavy titles that my Deck won't run well). In the cutscenes and so forth it does a good job of recreating the feel of an Indy movie. But the gameplay...
I suppose dying multiple times during the opening tutorial-ish section was a bad omen. I'm sure that's partly a skill issue on my part, but not entirely ("oh, I need to run now? Okay, so I press... Oh, I'm dead", repeated a couple of times until I did it right). Part of the slow pace is my desire to explore and see and find everything, but I guess there's not really enough to see to justify that. It's funny, because some people say it's really an exploration/puzzle game, but as someone who likes that kind of game, nah, it doesn't scratch that itch right.
Instead, there's a lot of stealth. I find stealth boring in concept, and turns out I do in play, too. I can see the inspiration — Indy isn't a run-and-gun killing machine, so they don't want it to be a shooter — but the Indy films are action adventures, and stealth simply doesn't feel adventurous and it's certainly not action-packed. I turned the action difficulty down to low, so the enemies and stuff weren't too difficult when they did spot me, but I wasted so much time not trying to be spotted. The level design felt like a maze, too — it didn't feel like I was exploring, it felt like I was lost.
I have so many other complaints and niggles, too. One I feel I see all too often in recently-made games I try is that it won't let you save wherever you want; it only saves when it decides to. At least that's not only at the end of a lengthy level, or only at majorly significant checkpoints — sometimes the little save icon will flash up when you enter an inauspicious room (and it's not a portent of "this seemingly unimportant room is about to be a big fight", which is how some games do it). And it does try to help you on the pause menu by stating how long it's been since the last autosave — I've not seen that before, and it's a useful feature... if only for the fact that, when I wanted to quit, it told me it had been quarter-of-an-hour since the last save. The immediately-obvious downside was that, to not lose that quarter-hour of progress, I had to keep going when I didn't really want to, at least until I trigged a new save, which took a fair while. Making you play when you don't actually want to anymore is the kind of thign that turns you off a game!
The first person view does not suit it. That feels like a funny thing for me to say, because back when I was into gaming the first time round, FPS was the genre and third-person games were often looked down upon. I feel opinion has swung in the other direction, and playing this in first person feels wrong. It's a bad fit for the property (I don't want to be Indy, I want to watch him have adventures) and for the style of gameplay (both stealth and melee combat feel so much harder in this than in third-person games I've played that use similar mechanics).
Then there's the point early on where it suggests you read the in-game manual to learn how to do stuff, and it turns out that's a mass of different screens explaining dozens of different gameplay mechanics. Why is it so complicated?! How often am I going to need to do all these different things? Should I be trying to memorise them because the game is truly flexible and I could use any at any time? Or, actually, are some only used in very specific circumstances? In which case, can't you just explain them when I get there? Or maybe you could've just made the game less unnecessarily complicated, I dunno.
I feel like I should go back to this, because I'm a huge Indy fan and this is such a praised Indy experience. Also, I've only given it one go, and I'm still quite early into it — it kinda feels like I've only done some training mission-type opening stuff; and, indeed, the level I'm on is still hand-holding a little... even as it could handhold more (that damn maze-like layout). Perhaps if I can get past these early teething troubles...
But the first barrier is the fact I don't really want to go back to it now — the complete opposite to how desperate I was to play it before. That's some cruel irony. I'm going to have to force myself, and I can't decide if it's worth that effort.
On the bright side, in this new Lina world it doesn't seem to have a time limit on the Standard tier (other games do, so it's not that they're not listing them anymore), so I guess I've got some time still to force myself back into it. That might help. Or maybe I'll lean on that possibility and just never try again. We'll see.
Thursday, 23 October 2025
Wednesday, 22 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x03 The Snipping of Shears [2nd half's 2nd half]
Brennan really knows how to end an episode!
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
4x03 The Snipping of Shears [2nd half's 2nd half]
Brennan really knows how to end an episode!
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x03 The Snipping of Shears [2nd half's 1st half]
Five-hour episodes require a little more breaking up at this point in my week!
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
4x03 The Snipping of Shears [2nd half's 1st half]
Five-hour episodes require a little more breaking up at this point in my week!
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Monday, 20 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x03 The Snipping of Shears [1st half]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
4x03 The Snipping of Shears [1st half]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Video Games
Metroid: Zero Mission
Used a guide to look up how to achieve a specific bit I was stuck on, then ended up doing that thing where you keep following the guide just because you've started. It meant I made some significant progress, and probably went in directions I wouldn't have otherwise, and certainly achieved more things I wouldn't have known to do without it telling me... but I also felt like I wasn't really playing the game, just executing button presses as commanded. Guides are great for getting you past a bit you're stuck on, but rubbish to just follow. I'll try not to keep referring back to it too often going forward.
Pullblox
Used a guide to look up how to achieve a specific bit I was stuck on, then ended up doing that thing where you keep following the guide just because you've started. It meant I made some significant progress, and probably went in directions I wouldn't have otherwise, and certainly achieved more things I wouldn't have known to do without it telling me... but I also felt like I wasn't really playing the game, just executing button presses as commanded. Guides are great for getting you past a bit you're stuck on, but rubbish to just follow. I'll try not to keep referring back to it too often going forward.
Pullblox
Sunday, 19 October 2025
Films
Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage (1989)
[#84 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
+ extras from Arrow's Blu-ray: an introduction by Masaki Tanioka, trailer, and video essay by Tom Mes titled Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema
[#84 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
+ extras from Arrow's Blu-ray: an introduction by Masaki Tanioka, trailer, and video essay by Tom Mes titled Crime Hunter and the Dawn of V-Cinema
Fiction
Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
II. The Jewels in the Forest
Originally published under the title Two Sought Adventure in 1939, this was the first-ever Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story published.
II. The Jewels in the Forest
Originally published under the title Two Sought Adventure in 1939, this was the first-ever Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story published.
Tabletop Games
Daggerheart: Dragon Heist in the City of Splendors
Still playing in this every day, and still not sure how to go about logging it — popping it on every day feels excessive, but I am playing it every day.
It occured to me that I'd never dream of not logging a half-hour TV show I actively watched, or not logging a book even if I read one short chapter, yet I'm doing this for longer chunks than that and am hesistant about always mentioning it, so why? Maybe because it's "always on". I don't sit down and do an hour of it (necessarily), but I'll check in for new stuff several times a day; and I might spend a little while writing a post, send it, then check a little later for responses (because a response is rarely instantaneous). I might even do that cycle quickly, with regular check-ins and posts over an hour or two. So, it's kind of like I'm always playing, and because I'm "always playing" it feels odd to log it as a discrete unit, somehow?
Also, it's not a TV show or film or book or computer game that I can link to and someone could learn about or maybe watch/read/play themselves — it's a 'home game' for just the seven of us involved.
I dunno, I'm sure I'm overthinking all this. Maybe I'll just continue to mention it now and then. But is that dishonest to the goal of this blog, when I am actually playing every day? And, in that respect, if I didn't play one day for some reason, how would I reflect that here? (I'm just thinking 'out loud' at this point!)
Still playing in this every day, and still not sure how to go about logging it — popping it on every day feels excessive, but I am playing it every day.
It occured to me that I'd never dream of not logging a half-hour TV show I actively watched, or not logging a book even if I read one short chapter, yet I'm doing this for longer chunks than that and am hesistant about always mentioning it, so why? Maybe because it's "always on". I don't sit down and do an hour of it (necessarily), but I'll check in for new stuff several times a day; and I might spend a little while writing a post, send it, then check a little later for responses (because a response is rarely instantaneous). I might even do that cycle quickly, with regular check-ins and posts over an hour or two. So, it's kind of like I'm always playing, and because I'm "always playing" it feels odd to log it as a discrete unit, somehow?
Also, it's not a TV show or film or book or computer game that I can link to and someone could learn about or maybe watch/read/play themselves — it's a 'home game' for just the seven of us involved.
I dunno, I'm sure I'm overthinking all this. Maybe I'll just continue to mention it now and then. But is that dishonest to the goal of this blog, when I am actually playing every day? And, in that respect, if I didn't play one day for some reason, how would I reflect that here? (I'm just thinking 'out loud' at this point!)
Video Games
Metroid: Zero Mission
I think I made it into an area I wasn't ready for, because the only way back out was to kill myself and let it reload at the last save point (of course, I could've just quit and reloaded, but y'know). Luckily, I didn't lose too much progress. I also finally managed to defeat the first boss-like creature, so maybe I'm improving. Yay!
Pullblox
Nice to do a couple of levels of this cozy puzzler as a palate cleanser from Metroid.
I think I made it into an area I wasn't ready for, because the only way back out was to kill myself and let it reload at the last save point (of course, I could've just quit and reloaded, but y'know). Luckily, I didn't lose too much progress. I also finally managed to defeat the first boss-like creature, so maybe I'm improving. Yay!
Pullblox
Nice to do a couple of levels of this cozy puzzler as a palate cleanser from Metroid.
Saturday, 18 October 2025
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
After a bizarrely quiet month, it's arrivals a-go-go this week! A total of 12 new titles turned up at my door, though a variety of those were upgrades of one kind or another; including a new season of classic Doctor Who on Blu-ray, which single-handedly wipes out five DVDs.
The full net results are, as ever, below.
Number of titles in collection: 3,614 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 981 [down 5]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,633 [up 9]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 467 [up 6]
Number of discs in collection: 8,698 [up 20]
Number of films: 4,619 [up 11]
Number of additional cuts: 468 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,175 [up 3]
Number of short films: 1,271 [up 3]
See you next week, faithful reader.
After a bizarrely quiet month, it's arrivals a-go-go this week! A total of 12 new titles turned up at my door, though a variety of those were upgrades of one kind or another; including a new season of classic Doctor Who on Blu-ray, which single-handedly wipes out five DVDs.
The full net results are, as ever, below.
Number of titles in collection: 3,614 [up 4]
Of which DVDs: 981 [down 5]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,633 [up 9]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 467 [up 6]
Number of discs in collection: 8,698 [up 20]
Number of films: 4,619 [up 11]
Number of additional cuts: 468 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,175 [up 3]
Number of short films: 1,271 [up 3]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 17 October 2025
Comics
2000 AD
Prog 2419
Following my very successful 17-day run, I've just had a 10-day dry spell — oopsie. And, as usual, it was only during the first half of those days (more or less) that I didn't have opportunity to read, and the remaining days were just being out of routine — proving my earlier point that getting into the habit is the real key, at least for me. So let's see if I can get to 18+ days this time...
Prog 2419
Following my very successful 17-day run, I've just had a 10-day dry spell — oopsie. And, as usual, it was only during the first half of those days (more or less) that I didn't have opportunity to read, and the remaining days were just being out of routine — proving my earlier point that getting into the habit is the real key, at least for me. So let's see if I can get to 18+ days this time...
Video Games
Metroid: Zero Mission
So, I found the manual — it's not hard if you look for it: it's archived on Nintendo's own site. Nowadays, when most games are delivered digitally and so designed for you to learn while playing, it's easy to forget that once upon a time they all came with manuals and so were designed for you to read that first, or at least have it to reference after you'd dived in.
Even just seeing the controls laid out in the Zero Mission manual somehow made them make more sense; though it also helped show how it's well-built for the device it was designed for, the Game Boy Advance, which only had A and B face buttons and more prominent L and R triggers than the 3DS. I do still have a GBA in storage, but as I don't own Zero Mission on a physical cart (and those aren't cheap: CeX asks £55 for just the cart, almost £150 with a box and manual, and well over £200 if you can find it mint), I guess I'll have to stick to the 3DS.
The manual also explained a bunch of stuff about Samus's abilities and things you encounter in the world that I hadn't been able to infer from playing (at least, not yet), so hopefully that will help my progress and skills too.
So, I found the manual — it's not hard if you look for it: it's archived on Nintendo's own site. Nowadays, when most games are delivered digitally and so designed for you to learn while playing, it's easy to forget that once upon a time they all came with manuals and so were designed for you to read that first, or at least have it to reference after you'd dived in.
Even just seeing the controls laid out in the Zero Mission manual somehow made them make more sense; though it also helped show how it's well-built for the device it was designed for, the Game Boy Advance, which only had A and B face buttons and more prominent L and R triggers than the 3DS. I do still have a GBA in storage, but as I don't own Zero Mission on a physical cart (and those aren't cheap: CeX asks £55 for just the cart, almost £150 with a box and manual, and well over £200 if you can find it mint), I guess I'll have to stick to the 3DS.
The manual also explained a bunch of stuff about Samus's abilities and things you encounter in the world that I hadn't been able to infer from playing (at least, not yet), so hopefully that will help my progress and skills too.
Thursday, 16 October 2025
Video Games
Metroid: Zero Mission
After about 40 minutes of time in-game, I'm beginning to get the hang of how it works... but not really of the controls. Other than running left and right, they feel almost completely unintuitive to me — I'll just as often jump when I mean to fire or fire when I mean to jump as do the thing I actually meant to do, not because I think the buttons should be the other way round, but because they're just not different enough for such fundamental actions. My kind of slightly slow, "take my time over a move" approach mostly works fine while exploring or shooting minor enemies, but I don't think it's going to work well in anything actually action-packed! And this is meant to be the easiest Metroid — I don't think I'd want to play a harder one on the 3DS (as much as I love the console generally).
I may have to think about remapping those buttons, that might help; perhaps putting shoot onto a trigger-like shoulder button. But the 3DS shoulder buttons aren't great for quick action (the screen kinda gets in the way; and it might just be my device, but it's slightly 'floppy', so moving it around a lot can cause it to jiggle and get in the way even more), so I don't know if that'll work. I'll see how it goes, I guess.
After about 40 minutes of time in-game, I'm beginning to get the hang of how it works... but not really of the controls. Other than running left and right, they feel almost completely unintuitive to me — I'll just as often jump when I mean to fire or fire when I mean to jump as do the thing I actually meant to do, not because I think the buttons should be the other way round, but because they're just not different enough for such fundamental actions. My kind of slightly slow, "take my time over a move" approach mostly works fine while exploring or shooting minor enemies, but I don't think it's going to work well in anything actually action-packed! And this is meant to be the easiest Metroid — I don't think I'd want to play a harder one on the 3DS (as much as I love the console generally).
I may have to think about remapping those buttons, that might help; perhaps putting shoot onto a trigger-like shoulder button. But the 3DS shoulder buttons aren't great for quick action (the screen kinda gets in the way; and it might just be my device, but it's slightly 'floppy', so moving it around a lot can cause it to jiggle and get in the way even more), so I don't know if that'll work. I'll see how it goes, I guess.
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
Tabletop Games
Daggerheart: Dragon Heist in the City of Splendors
This is one I'm not quite sure how to log, but I really feel I should because it's definitely a "cultural experience".
A couple of days ago I joined a Daggerheart campaign (with the title given above — that's not a sourcebook or something). But rather than your traditional TTRPG experience of playing once a week / fortnight / month / whatever for a couple of hours, it's what's known as a "play by post" campaign: it's done via text messages on Discord; almost like collaboratively writing a story but, y'know, with rules and dice rolls. And because of that, it's always 'on'; you can contribute at any time (within reason — there's etiquette about posting too much or too infrequently). So I'm "always playing", in a way. Certainly, so far I've been contributing something every day. So should I be logging it every day, then? That seems... excessive.
Well, here's an acknowledgement of it for now, at least.
This is one I'm not quite sure how to log, but I really feel I should because it's definitely a "cultural experience".
A couple of days ago I joined a Daggerheart campaign (with the title given above — that's not a sourcebook or something). But rather than your traditional TTRPG experience of playing once a week / fortnight / month / whatever for a couple of hours, it's what's known as a "play by post" campaign: it's done via text messages on Discord; almost like collaboratively writing a story but, y'know, with rules and dice rolls. And because of that, it's always 'on'; you can contribute at any time (within reason — there's etiquette about posting too much or too infrequently). So I'm "always playing", in a way. Certainly, so far I've been contributing something every day. So should I be logging it every day, then? That seems... excessive.
Well, here's an acknowledgement of it for now, at least.
Video Games
Metroid: Zero Mission
What's the use of winning a Steam Deck if you can't then use it to sideload non-Steam games and play those instead of the dozens of Steam games you own, before also buying a 3DS and a bunch of 3DS games, cracking it, loading even more 3DS games, then also loading some Game Boy Advance games and playing one of those instead?
Yeah, I'm questioning all my life choices. But also, I wanted to try a / some Metroidvania(s), and this is meant to be the easiest Metroid, so that's how I've wound up here for now.
Also, I've finally realised the bleeding obvious: that "Video Games" and "Tabletop/Board Games" should have different post titles, just like I split different types of books under the Books tag. Don't know why that didn't occur to me sooner.
What's the use of winning a Steam Deck if you can't then use it to sideload non-Steam games and play those instead of the dozens of Steam games you own, before also buying a 3DS and a bunch of 3DS games, cracking it, loading even more 3DS games, then also loading some Game Boy Advance games and playing one of those instead?
Yeah, I'm questioning all my life choices. But also, I wanted to try a / some Metroidvania(s), and this is meant to be the easiest Metroid, so that's how I've wound up here for now.
Also, I've finally realised the bleeding obvious: that "Video Games" and "Tabletop/Board Games" should have different post titles, just like I split different types of books under the Books tag. Don't know why that didn't occur to me sooner.
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x02 Broken Wing [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
4x02 Broken Wing [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 2
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Monday, 13 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x02 Broken Wing [1st half]
After I watched the first episode in one sitting, I had wondered if I might continue that way; and I would have happily, but there's not always the time. Shame I can't just watch it live every week.
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
4x02 Broken Wing [1st half]
After I watched the first episode in one sitting, I had wondered if I might continue that way; and I would have happily, but there's not always the time. Shame I can't just watch it live every week.
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Sunday, 12 October 2025
Games
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Game 6 (of 7)
It took about three hours, but we beat this on the first attempt. Feels somehow odd that there's only one 'level' left...
Game 6 (of 7)
It took about three hours, but we beat this on the first attempt. Feels somehow odd that there's only one 'level' left...
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
I've almost gone a whole month without any additions to this, as I commented on last week, but in the end a box set dropped in a whole fortnight early to ensure there's something to report in this month's running time update. As a ten-film set, it did its best to single-handedly get that running time update into the ballpark of a regularly-sized increase, but — even with the support of a Kickstarter reward that dropped through my door last-minute — they still can't get it over the 24-hour/1-day mark.
Number of titles in collection: 3,610 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,624 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 8,678 [up 6]
Number of films: 4,608 [up 11]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,268 [up 1]
Total running time of collection (approx.):
608 days, 5 hours, and 10 minutes.
(Up 18 hours and 27 minutes from last month.)
I've got a bunch of long-awaited pre-orders scattered across the weeks to come, so I expect the next month will be considerably more active and back to usual. See you next week for that, faithful reader.
I've almost gone a whole month without any additions to this, as I commented on last week, but in the end a box set dropped in a whole fortnight early to ensure there's something to report in this month's running time update. As a ten-film set, it did its best to single-handedly get that running time update into the ballpark of a regularly-sized increase, but — even with the support of a Kickstarter reward that dropped through my door last-minute — they still can't get it over the 24-hour/1-day mark.
Number of titles in collection: 3,610 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 986 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,624 [up 2]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 461 [no change]
Number of discs in collection: 8,678 [up 6]
Number of films: 4,608 [up 11]
Number of additional cuts: 466 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,172 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,268 [up 1]
Total running time of collection (approx.):
608 days, 5 hours, and 10 minutes.
(Up 18 hours and 27 minutes from last month.)
I've got a bunch of long-awaited pre-orders scattered across the weeks to come, so I expect the next month will be considerably more active and back to usual. See you next week for that, faithful reader.
Saturday, 11 October 2025
TV
Friends
10x03 The One with Ross's Tan [6th or so watch]
10x04 The One with the Cake [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x46 Week 10: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
10x03 The One with Ross's Tan [6th or so watch]
10x04 The One with the Cake [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x46 Week 10: Monday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Games
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Game 5 (of 7)
Took two goes to get through this one. The first run was so disastrous it made me worried about the game's balance with only two players, but the second was much smoother without being two easy — we just got unlucky with card draws the first time.
Game 5 (of 7)
Took two goes to get through this one. The first run was so disastrous it made me worried about the game's balance with only two players, but the second was much smoother without being two easy — we just got unlucky with card draws the first time.
Friday, 10 October 2025
TV
Friends
10x01 The One After Joey and Rachel Kiss [6th or so watch]
10x02 The One Where Ross Is Fine [6th or so watch]
Friends still putting out iconic episodes in its final season is, in itself, iconic.
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x44 Week 9: Thursday
8x45 Week 9: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x02 Redcoat
1x03 Wait for the Punchline
10x01 The One After Joey and Rachel Kiss [6th or so watch]
10x02 The One Where Ross Is Fine [6th or so watch]
Friends still putting out iconic episodes in its final season is, in itself, iconic.
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x44 Week 9: Thursday
8x45 Week 9: Friday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x02 Redcoat
1x03 Wait for the Punchline
Thursday, 9 October 2025
TV
Friends
9x23 The One in Barbados Part 1 [6th or so watch]
9x24 The One in Barbados Part 2 [season finale; 6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x43 Week 9: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x01 Watson
Giving this Sherlock Holmes-inspired show a go. I'm not sure if it's been shown here in the UK or not, but I acquired it by other means anyway. It's... alright. It's basically House 2.0 with the Sherlock Holmes stuff explicit this time, but I enjoyed House so that's ok by me. I'll certainly stick with it for now.
9x23 The One in Barbados Part 1 [6th or so watch]
9x24 The One in Barbados Part 2 [season finale; 6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x43 Week 9: Wednesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Watson
1x01 Watson
Giving this Sherlock Holmes-inspired show a go. I'm not sure if it's been shown here in the UK or not, but I acquired it by other means anyway. It's... alright. It's basically House 2.0 with the Sherlock Holmes stuff explicit this time, but I enjoyed House so that's ok by me. I'll certainly stick with it for now.
Wednesday, 8 October 2025
TV
Friends
9x22 The One with the Donor [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x41 Week 9: Monday
8x42 Week 9: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
9x22 The One with the Donor [6th or so watch]
Richard Osman's House of Games
8x41 Week 9: Monday
8x42 Week 9: Tuesday
[Watch various episodes (again) on iPlayer.]
Tuesday, 7 October 2025
Games
Gray Matter
So, remember* when I found a new way to play non-Mac games on my Mac, and reinstalled this because it runs better that new way? Well, I wondered if whatever differences made it run better overall were also causing the progress bug I had yesterday.** So I re-reinstalled it the original way and, hurrah, it worked: I played for all of 30 seconds just to get past the bug (it took a few hours of effort to get it installed before that, hence not playing more). Next time I can continue in the works-better version, and thus I have the best of both worlds (handily, they both accessed the same save game files, so I didn't even have to faff with moving those around). One thing I won't be doing is uninstalling either copy, just in case I need the less-good one for something like this again.
* Of course you don't. Or maybe you do, because "you" is me, the only person who reads this. Anyway...
** See the final few sentences at the end of the last paragraph in that overlong post.
So, remember* when I found a new way to play non-Mac games on my Mac, and reinstalled this because it runs better that new way? Well, I wondered if whatever differences made it run better overall were also causing the progress bug I had yesterday.** So I re-reinstalled it the original way and, hurrah, it worked: I played for all of 30 seconds just to get past the bug (it took a few hours of effort to get it installed before that, hence not playing more). Next time I can continue in the works-better version, and thus I have the best of both worlds (handily, they both accessed the same save game files, so I didn't even have to faff with moving those around). One thing I won't be doing is uninstalling either copy, just in case I need the less-good one for something like this again.
* Of course you don't. Or maybe you do, because "you" is me, the only person who reads this. Anyway...
** See the final few sentences at the end of the last paragraph in that overlong post.
Monday, 6 October 2025
Games
Gray Matter
My recent purchasing spree has left me with dozens (arguably hundreds) of narrative-focused games that I’m eager to dive into… but I’m still in the middle of this one, and it feels wrong to be playing more than one at once. We may do that with other narrative media — TV shows being the obvious example; some people read multiple books at once — but I don’t really do it with either of those anymore, so why would I with games?
Okay, different gaming genres make a difference because of different mechanics. There are games that are heavily interested in narrative but how they convey that is different enough that which you choose depends what play experience you’re in the mood for. I mean, Control (which I’ve now abandoned thanks to Luna) is definitely narrative-heavy, but it’s also a shooter with fast-paced combat, plus some RPG-like levelling elements. It's an entirely different experience to a point-and-click adventure game. Talking of RPGs, they’re different again, so I’ll be happy to start one… as soon as I can decide which I want to dedicate so much time to out of the 40 RPGs I own with a predicted 25- to 150-hour playtime.*
But (to get back to the original point) I also have 66 point-and-click adventures in my backlog; not to mention up to 48 other games in the same narrative-focused puzzle-solving space where the control system isn’t “pointing and clicking”. So, much like finishing one novel before starting another, I ought to complete Gray Matter before I begin any of those. It’s not that I don’t like Gray Matter, it’s just not shiny and new! So here I am, trying to get back into it properly for the first time in three months (the five minutes I played in August barely count, though I did explore a couple of rooms then). Played for almost an hour, but then I hit a point which repeatedly crashed the game. Can't immediately find a way past that error, but I'm going to have to work it out so I can finish it! That's a problem for another day, though.
* They don’t all have an upper limit over 100 hours, but several do. Two suggest they take at least 100 hours.
My recent purchasing spree has left me with dozens (arguably hundreds) of narrative-focused games that I’m eager to dive into… but I’m still in the middle of this one, and it feels wrong to be playing more than one at once. We may do that with other narrative media — TV shows being the obvious example; some people read multiple books at once — but I don’t really do it with either of those anymore, so why would I with games?
Okay, different gaming genres make a difference because of different mechanics. There are games that are heavily interested in narrative but how they convey that is different enough that which you choose depends what play experience you’re in the mood for. I mean, Control (which I’ve now abandoned thanks to Luna) is definitely narrative-heavy, but it’s also a shooter with fast-paced combat, plus some RPG-like levelling elements. It's an entirely different experience to a point-and-click adventure game. Talking of RPGs, they’re different again, so I’ll be happy to start one… as soon as I can decide which I want to dedicate so much time to out of the 40 RPGs I own with a predicted 25- to 150-hour playtime.*
But (to get back to the original point) I also have 66 point-and-click adventures in my backlog; not to mention up to 48 other games in the same narrative-focused puzzle-solving space where the control system isn’t “pointing and clicking”. So, much like finishing one novel before starting another, I ought to complete Gray Matter before I begin any of those. It’s not that I don’t like Gray Matter, it’s just not shiny and new! So here I am, trying to get back into it properly for the first time in three months (the five minutes I played in August barely count, though I did explore a couple of rooms then). Played for almost an hour, but then I hit a point which repeatedly crashed the game. Can't immediately find a way past that error, but I'm going to have to work it out so I can finish it! That's a problem for another day, though.
* They don’t all have an upper limit over 100 hours, but several do. Two suggest they take at least 100 hours.
Sunday, 5 October 2025
this week on 100Films.co.uk
Welcome to my weekly update about activity on 100Films.co.uk... which, this year, has really been a monthly update. Oh well.
Nonetheless, here's the latest monthly goings on — namely, the regular review of the last month...
...and its accompanying list of things I failed to watch...
More next Sunday? Probably not, but you never know.
Nonetheless, here's the latest monthly goings on — namely, the regular review of the last month...
...and its accompanying list of things I failed to watch...
More next Sunday? Probably not, but you never know.
Saturday, 4 October 2025
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
5 The Adventure of the Priory School
Jumping back to the third volume of Holmes short stories for this interesting instance: it's on my "to read" list as not being very good, because that's based on the Pocket Essentials guide and the author only rated it 2 out of 5; but when Conan Doyle listed his favourite-ever Holmes tales he placed it 10th, and the poll-of-polls I keep referring to saw readers rank it =13th. That means the wider fanbase consider it to be in the top quarter of all stories quality-wise vs Pocket Essentials dumping it in the bottom 20% — quite a disparity.
Personally, I'm inclined to agree with the lower score, though I don't think for the same reasons. They assert the story is "dull and goes on too long", whereas I found the bulk of it to be quite engaging, with a reasonable mystery and some decent investigating. It's the solution and ending that sits uneasily. Without giving it away, some characters' actions stretch plausibility, in my view, and the case has been more-or-less resolved before Holmes presents his solution. It's true that his presence brings someone to justice who would probably have otherwise escaped it, but all the other aspects of the resolution would have unfolded the same way without his input. It's not necessarily a 2-star story, then, but I also don't feel it's a great one.
5 The Adventure of the Priory School
Jumping back to the third volume of Holmes short stories for this interesting instance: it's on my "to read" list as not being very good, because that's based on the Pocket Essentials guide and the author only rated it 2 out of 5; but when Conan Doyle listed his favourite-ever Holmes tales he placed it 10th, and the poll-of-polls I keep referring to saw readers rank it =13th. That means the wider fanbase consider it to be in the top quarter of all stories quality-wise vs Pocket Essentials dumping it in the bottom 20% — quite a disparity.
Personally, I'm inclined to agree with the lower score, though I don't think for the same reasons. They assert the story is "dull and goes on too long", whereas I found the bulk of it to be quite engaging, with a reasonable mystery and some decent investigating. It's the solution and ending that sits uneasily. Without giving it away, some characters' actions stretch plausibility, in my view, and the case has been more-or-less resolved before Holmes presents his solution. It's true that his presence brings someone to justice who would probably have otherwise escaped it, but all the other aspects of the resolution would have unfolded the same way without his input. It's not necessarily a 2-star story, then, but I also don't feel it's a great one.
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Except, for the third week in a row, I have nothing to report here. What is happening?! Did I forget to add some stuff?! (I'm genuinely wondering that at this point, because it doesn't feel like that long since I had a new delivery. But time flies nowadays, so I guess it has been.)
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]
I have been preordering stuff, though — I just spent hundreds of pounds on a handful of titles from Australia, which won't turn up until December (or January, if Christmas post is a bugger). And there are a couple of titles due to arrive later this month, so maybe there'll be something to report next week. If not, the monthly running time update will hold steady. I'm not sure that's ever happened.
See you next week to find out, faithful reader.
Except, for the third week in a row, I have nothing to report here. What is happening?! Did I forget to add some stuff?! (I'm genuinely wondering that at this point, because it doesn't feel like that long since I had a new delivery. But time flies nowadays, so I guess it has been.)
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]
I have been preordering stuff, though — I just spent hundreds of pounds on a handful of titles from Australia, which won't turn up until December (or January, if Christmas post is a bugger). And there are a couple of titles due to arrive later this month, so maybe there'll be something to report next week. If not, the monthly running time update will hold steady. I'm not sure that's ever happened.
See you next week to find out, faithful reader.
Friday, 3 October 2025
TV
Critical Role
4x01 The Fall of Thjazi Fang
Campaign 4, here we gooooo!
A big moment for me as a Critter, because this is the first CR campaign I'll be watching 'live'. I stayed up for this premiere episode, even, which I certainly won't be able to do every week (it starts at 3am my time). Another complicating factor is I still have 30 episodes of Campaign 2 left, and I absolutely intend to finish it*, so we'll see how all this goes with scheduling and whatnot.
But anyway: what an amazing start. Shakeups to the format that don't break it but keep it exciting. A tonne of characters all well introduced and established, plot threads and mysteries set in motion, and some good laughs and memorable moments already. Can't wait to see where this all goes over the years to come.
* Even though it's been almost two months since I watched any (gasp!) I wanted to focus on getting Age of Umbra finished first, and then it seemed fruitless to try to pick C2 back up with C4 so close.
[Watch it (again) on Beacon, Twitch, or YouTube now if you're a member, or free on YouTube from Monday.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
4x01 The Fall of Thjazi Fang
Campaign 4, here we gooooo!
A big moment for me as a Critter, because this is the first CR campaign I'll be watching 'live'. I stayed up for this premiere episode, even, which I certainly won't be able to do every week (it starts at 3am my time). Another complicating factor is I still have 30 episodes of Campaign 2 left, and I absolutely intend to finish it*, so we'll see how all this goes with scheduling and whatnot.
But anyway: what an amazing start. Shakeups to the format that don't break it but keep it exciting. A tonne of characters all well introduced and established, plot threads and mysteries set in motion, and some good laughs and memorable moments already. Can't wait to see where this all goes over the years to come.
* Even though it's been almost two months since I watched any (gasp!) I wanted to focus on getting Age of Umbra finished first, and then it seemed fruitless to try to pick C2 back up with C4 so close.
[Watch it (again) on Beacon, Twitch, or YouTube now if you're a member, or free on YouTube from Monday.]
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Thursday, 2 October 2025
Wednesday, 1 October 2025
Comics
2000 AD
Prog 2413
Just one more strip (although, again, a double-length one), but it keeps it ticking over: Day 12! And that's really the important thing, because it's when I stop reading, due to a busy day or week or whatever, that I fall out of the habit and have a nine-month break.
Prog 2413
Just one more strip (although, again, a double-length one), but it keeps it ticking over: Day 12! And that's really the important thing, because it's when I stop reading, due to a busy day or week or whatever, that I fall out of the habit and have a nine-month break.
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