Saturday, 18 April 2026

Collection Count

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

Five new releases this week, all of them genre fare but from boutique labels. The highlight is John Woo's The Killer in 4K from Arrow, although Tsui Hark's remake of The One Armed Swordsman, The Blade, is very exciting too.

Number of titles in collection: 3,685 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 965 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,720 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 523 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 8,842 [up 7]
Number of films: 4,737 [up 5]
Number of additional cuts: 489 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,134 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,293 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

Friday, 17 April 2026

Non-Fiction

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Chapter 4

Video Games

Balatro
It's been over 6 months since I last played this game that's supposedly soooo addictive and soooo unputdownable and soooo amazing. I always feel I should play it more because of that reputation, but I never quite got it. It came up somewhere today and I thought, "maybe it's time to try again".

First chunk of time was spent trying to remember how the hell it all works. And then... yeah, it's still fine, I guess. Feels like there's too much going on, too much to work out, and it takes too long* for it to just be fun. Still don't get it.

* people talk about the addictiveness of "just one more run", but even one go through takes over half-an-hour for me?! That's not "play multiple runs", that's "hope I have time for one" territory.


Monument Valley II

Videos

007 First Light Title Sequence
Watched some of the BAFTA Game Awards this evening, mainly to see the premiere of this — the title sequence for the forthcoming James Bond game. I wasn't sure about the song at first, but it plays really nicely with the titles, which I think they've done an excellent job on. Excited for the game... though not sure when I'll actually get to play it as I doubt it'll run on my Steam Deck.

Beyond the Light
Episode 4 Music
And to go with the above, they released the fourth instalment of their behind-the-scenes dev diary, looking at music and sound.

Thursday, 16 April 2026

Films

3-D Rarities (2015)
Part 2: Hollywood Enters the Third Dimension
[#17 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2026]

Concluding yesterday's programme. This half contains a mix of shorts and trailers for 3D features, as well as the only 3D newsreel.

Video Games

Monument Valley II

Wednesday, 15 April 2026

Films

3-D Rarities (2015)
Part 1: The Dawn of Stereoscopic Cinematography
[#17 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2026]

A programme of tests, shorts, and the like from the early days of 3D film. I only watched the first half because of my usual poor time management. Part 2 tomorrow, hopefully.

Non-Fiction

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Chapter 3

Tuesday, 14 April 2026

Non-Fiction

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Chapter 2

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition

Monument Valley II
Casually chipping away at this one short level at a time — I may have played it on three occasions, but my total playtime is still under half-an-hour.

Monday, 13 April 2026

Fiction

Verity by Colleen Hoover
Chapters 23–25 [the end]

There's also an epilogue exclusive to a collector's edition, although fans have shared it online. I always assume bonuses like that are going to be inconsequential little something-and-nothings to persuade completist fans to buy a new copy, but this one is actually substantial — longer than most (possibly all) chapters in the book proper, and with some significant events that cast everything in a different light. I have to wonder: is it Hoover's preferred ending? Or one of those 'my publisher made me do it' kinda extras that wouldn't be in a 'preferred text' edition?

Non-Fiction

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann
Prologue
Chapter 1

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
Celebrated (I guess) my return to Skyrim by visiting my seventh city, Morthal, and acquiring a nearby house. It's only a minor one, so not a whole lot to do there, but it's another milestone.

Monument Valley II

Tabletop Games

Daggerheart
All 3 games continuing.

Sunday, 12 April 2026

Fiction

Verity by Colleen Hoover
Chapters 16–22

Video Games

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition

Unbelievably, it's been two whole weeks since I played Skyrim. Any regular readers* would be forgiven for thinking I'd accidentally given up on it, knowing my MO. Well, I guess if I left it too long I might've, as that is the kind of thing that typically happens to me. But no: hitting 200 hours gave me a little bit of decision paralysis about what to do next in-game, then real life got in the way and left me without much time, and once I'm out of a habit...! Of course, the only fix was just get back in the saddle. I didn't play too much today, but I progressed enough to feel like I was getting back into the swing of it. Onwards to 300 hours!

* don't worry, I know I don't actually have any readers except future-me.