Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2447

Video Games

Dispatch
Episode 1 Pivot

Yep, I finally started it! And it's really good... as a TV show. It's funny, it's emotional, it's exciting; the characters are likeable, the performances are great; it's all really well made — it feels like watching a 'proper' animation, not a video game approximation of one. But as a game...

Well, being able to choose dialogue options is fun, though I don't think they have any meaningful impact. This is no Bandersnatch, where I actually felt like my choices were changing things. Here, it's just some divergent dialogue before things slot back on their preordained path. I get why that is (it seems nightmarish enough having to create all the different eventualities for a finite film, something designed to run about two hours, so imagine having to do it for an eight-episode TV series), but consequently there's an element of "why?" about it. Even if it affected dialogue later on, that would be something, but (based on replaying some parts) I think once you get past the initial variant, it just clicks back to the same path.

Even worse are the QTEs — I see now why there's an option to just have them be 'cinematic' (i.e. no interaction), because I don't think whether I managed to hit a button in time or not actually changed a single thing. Why rush to participate if the fight's going to play out the same way anyway? Eventually there's some actual gameplay in the dispatching minigame... though, again, I'm not sure if your performance actually changes anything (maybe in future episodes? Though I have heard complaints that what you do doesn't affect the story, so...) Also, to be honest, that dispatching is not my kind of game. I muddled through it, and I did ok, but if Dispatch was 100% that, I'm not sure I'd choose to play it.

I'll definitely be continuing though, because — like I said — this is a really good slightly-interactive TV show... even if, on the evidence of the first episode, it wouldn't have lost much by being just a TV show.


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

When I started up Skyrim today, I had a specific plan: head straight out of the city to investigate the missing 24 hours. On the way, stuff happened... and then more stuff... and then other distractions... Two hours of playtime later, I still hadn't left the city, but I had completed a couple of minor quests, had several instances of combat, and was midway through various other storylines. Whoopsie!

But I set those storylines aside for the time being (partly because I became aware that finishing one would lead to a whole other one that I'd have to play immediately) and set off out of the city for the next location in the aforementioned investigation... and, of course, immediately encounted more stuff. Another 2¼ hours later, I put the game down again, this time outside a dungeon I'll tackle next time — but I'm still not close to the next stop in my search! Maybe I will get there next time I play. Maybe there'll be more distractions.

In short: damn, there's a lot of content in this game! I am going to have to seriously think about consciously making time to play other stuff alongside it, otherwise it'll be nothing but Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim for... months? Years? The rest of my life?

Films

Street Law (1974)
[#91 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]

I was considering watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 this evening (as I’ve been intending to since May), but after playing four hours of Skyrim and reading a Fafhrd-focused Lankhmar story, I decided it was probably a good idea to get some variety from viking-themed fantasy.

Fiction

Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
VI. The Sunken Land

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2446

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Inevitably.

I sat down this afternoon intending to finally start Dispatch. If you don't know, it's structured like a TV series with eight episodes, so my plan is to treat it like one: play a whole episode, then either do the whole next one or aim to spread them out, paced like how I watch TV TV. But instead of finally diving into episode one, I 'accidentally' loaded Skyrim instead. Oopsie.

Today was good, though. I've spent my 30 hours so far all in the same locale: the first town and city the game leads you to, and their surrounding environs. I keep meaning to venture out (there's a lot more world to see) but get distracted by local quests (or other business like looting, crafting, potion making...) Well, today I got into a drinking contest in the tavern... and woke up a whole 24 hours later in an unfamiliar temple, which turned out to be in a city on the other side of the continent. That's one way to do it!

In terms of how the game is programmed, this is a quest that can trigger in any tavern anywhere after you reach a certain level — I could have explored every single place on the map before starting it. But I think the way it's happened for me is the best, frankly. Walking out of the temple into, not only an unfamiliar city, but one that looks completely different to anywhere else I've seen so far, was a fantastic experience. It made what has happened narratively hit home in a way I don't think it would have if this were somewhere familiar — it feels like I've been on a black-out-drunk adventure and have no idea how I got here or why, rather than just "oh, I'm in this place again". And now I have to not only work out what happened, but also make my way 'home' across half the world that I've not seen before.

Yep, I'm certainly not stopping sinking time into Skyrim now!

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

This week, a bunch more pickups from recent offers (a couple of Criterions from the ongoing UK sale, for example), and a couple of new releases — including a DVD-to-BD upgrade, continuing to gradually chip away at that old format's tally. I certainly don't think it will ever get to 0 (not even close), but... well, it is what it is.

Number of titles in collection: 3,634 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 980 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,654 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 480 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,731 [up 9]
Number of films: 4,641 [up 8]
Number of additional cuts: 473 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,188 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,278 [up 7]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Mighty Nein
1x01 Mote of Possibility
Surprise! Episode 1 is streaming free on YouTube this weekend only, ahead of episodes 1–3 releasing on Prime Video (as originally announced) from Wednesday 19th. And it's really good! Phew.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2445

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Over two hours today, but almost all of it admin — collecting stuff, selling stuff, going back to collect more stuff, selling more stuff...

It's my own fault — the game isn't making me do that — but it feels wasteful to leave all that coin-generating loot behind when I could get, y'know, the coin. But it also means I'm spending way too much time on, as I say, admin. Need to break the habit, I think — advance some storylines; fight through some more dungeons. Of course, that will just generate more loot...

TV

Critical Role
4x05 Branching Paths [1st half]
Probably would've watched this by now if it wasn't for Skyrim. New episode's out tonight, which made me realise I really did need to crack on lest I fall too far behind.
[Watch it (again) for free on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2444

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Of course.

Today is my seventh day playing — i.e. a whole week — and I've clocked up over 24½ hours in-game (not to mention even more hours reading up on tactics, etc). That's... a lot. It's an average of 3½ hours a day, every day. I rarely manage "every day" with films, and most films are shorter than that, and I'm supposed to be a "film guy". And, for even more perspective, most of the other games I've played in the past couple of decades would've been completed three or four times over in that time (or I'd've played three or four of them).

Maybe I'll slow down now. Or maybe I won't. There are other things I should also be playing, though! In particular, the Dispatch finale came out yesterday, so the whole game is waiting for me now. I should probably get to that before I see any spoilers, which are more likely considering it's been incredibly popular.

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2443

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Played for exactly 2 hours today, the vast majority of which was spent finally using up the ingredients I'd been collecting constantly over the past 18 hours of play, turning them into so many potions that I could only sell a small fraction of them, and had to go store the rest. But, as I surmised yesterday, this reduced the burden of my inventory massively. I had actually intended to play through a dungeon, but it was realising that there was no way I could carry the loot out of there that finally spurred me to act. I increased a couple of levels in the process, too, so that was nice.

It does mean it feels less like I played the game and more like I did a couple of hours of admin, though. Oh well, it's done now, and I can have some actual fun tomorrow. And also maybe pick up fewer ingredients going forward...

Articles

Valve announces three new products: the Steam Frame, Steam Machine and Steam Controller
by Jacob Ridley (from PC Gamer)

Regular readers* will know how much I've been loving my Steam Deck, so the semi-surprise news** today from Valve about a whole suite of additional related products was very exciting. Just a few months ago, I might not have really cared, but I feel like I'm big back into gaming now, and so I instantly want all of these. Of course, whether they'll be friendly to my budget is another matter...

Would they negate my Deck, though? No, I don't think so. I have enjoyed playing it docked to the TV, but I've mostly played it handheld in other places around the house. I really like being able to do that — indeed, I could just go sit in front of my TV with it if I wanted to, because I bought a dock — so I think I'd keep doing that even if I get the Steam Machine. But then what's the benefit of the Machine? It's a lot more powerful, primarily, meaning I could run more demanding games; and I could also use it to stream them to my Deck, if I didn't just want to play those games on my TV. So, to me, it does seem like there's a definite use case for having both. The only money wasted is on the aforementioned dock — why would I dock my Deck and play that when I could use the Machine? Maybe I'll think of some other use for it. Maybe I could sell it.

The same goes for a controller I bought for when I use my Deck with the TV. It looks like the Steam Controller will be superior to the one I chose, so it remains a tempting buy, but I don't have friends round to play or anything, so I don't need mulitple controllers. I'll have to see about the price and reviews of the Controller and decide if it's worth the upgrade. I imagine selling the one I've already got would be even easier than selling the dock.

Of course, the Steam Frame is an entirely different proposition that doesn't trample on either the Deck or Machine. I'd actually already been toying with getting a VR headset — indeed, if the Xbox limited edition Meta Quest 3S hadn't sold out so quickly, I might well have bought one. I was mulling it for a while, and damn near decided I'd cave and get it, but then they were gone. Well, that's turned out to be a boon: one of the selling points was it came bundled with several months of Game Pass, which used to be good but has recently gone to shit, and other things I liked included the colour scheme and exclusive Xbox controller, both of which the Frame either equals (colour) or negates (Steam Controller). (I wasn't just interested in the aesthetics: one of the things that gave me pause was reading how much better the Quest 3 (no S) was). Now, maybe a Quest or something will still be a better device — I'll have to see what the price and reviews are like — but I'm pretty ensconced in the Steam ecosystem at this point (but, happily, with knowledge of effective ways to add games from other sources, so I'm not too tied-in), so the Frame might generally be a better choice of device for me.

The big disadvantage to possibly jumping on all of these "day one" is one of expectations. I got the Deck after it had been out for years; the Meta Quest has been around a fair while — that means there's a user base who've worked out the best ways to use them; some kinks have been ironed out, or workarounds found. I've benefitted from all of that with the Deck, and it was informing my VR purchase. Do I just trust to Valve, and that the existing community will continue to find tips and tricks that I can piggyback onto over time, or do I wait and see? Something to think about.


* Don't worry, I know there aren't any.
** There were whisperings and rumours, especially over the last 24 hours, but nothing concrete before the actual announcement.

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2442

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Obviously.

That said, I did intend to be brief with it today (well, don't I always) — I want to crack on with Foolish Mortals (though achievements are coming to GOG "soon", so maybe I should wait and start over once they're there?), and I also have an episode of Critical Role to watch (which takes a significant chunk of time, always). What scuppered my plans was... loot.

I set out to complete a specific dungeon to complete a quest. On the way, I wasted time hunting for treasure, which was tricky to find even with a map. Then, on the way to the dungeon, I got distracted by multiple other landmarks — the disadvantages of fast travel are it's immersion-breaking and you miss random encounters, but an advantage is fewer distractions of the latter kind. I made it in the end, completed the dungeon quite quickly... but then had way more loot than I could carry. And I like loot because I can sell it for gold, and having gold feels useful.

That was when I broke another rule. When I started playing, I swore never to use fast travel — as I just said, you miss stuff and it breaks immersion. I'm not a full-on "pretend this is a living world" kinda guy, but teleporting around the place was a step too far. Time does advance when you fast travel, as if you had run there, but that doesn't really do anything (except possibly change whether shops are open, etc). Anyway: I realised I could stash loot in chests by the dungeon until I was light enough to fast travel, teleport to the nearest shops, sell what I had on me, teleport back, repeat. Turned out I had so much stuff I had to do this three or four times, which also meant waiting overnight at one point so the shop was open again.

Yes, in "game time", I spent about 36 hours running back and forth between an empty bandit campsite and the nearest town. And this is why I used fast travel, because I'd be damned if I was actually going to spend my time jogging all the way! And it took long enough in real-world time even with fast travel: I played for 3¾ hours today. Sure, some of that was actually playing the game, but the most tedious part by far was all the... well, not cheating, but it does kind of feel like cheating. I think fans call it "exploiting" — using the game's systems in ways they weren't intended to gain an advantage.

Of course, I don't have to do any of that — I could abandon loot and just get on with, y'know, playing the game. Maybe I will. Maybe I don't need so much gold. (Also, I've got a tonne of stuff that weighs a tiny amount on me. Individually, insignificant, but I do wonder if the sheer volume of it is prohibiting the good stuff. Even when I'd dumped most of my armour and weapons, my carry capacity was somehow about two-thirds full. Hmm.)

Comics

2000 AD
Prog 2441

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Today, booted it up with a couple of specific goals in mind, and told myself I'd quit after I'd done them. And I did! Of course, I did all the goals I was thinking about, and I did some other menial things along the way, and so I still played for just over 2 hours. And then I thought of something else I should do, which ended up being another hour. Oops. And that's not even mentioning how much of my day I spent thinking about it and reading up on stuff online...