The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
Weird not to have played this since Sunday! It was because I hadn't decided what I wanted to focus on next, and I didn't want to run around doing much of nothing just for the sake of playing it. I still haven't exactly decided, but I progressed some quests and did a bit of skill levelling with specific goals — in fact, I got my first skill maxed out to 100! — so at least I feel I achieved something today. And somehow, that made over two hours of my time just disappear!
Monument Valley
Ida's Dream
One final multi-part level, originally created for charity. It's been good to play things like this and Upstairs in between bouts of Skyrim. I have dozens of other similarly-short games in my massive backlog (not to mention a bunch of games I'd already started and should go back to!), so I think I'll try to play some more of them here and there, rather than leaving them until I complete Skyrim (because goodness knows when that will be!)
Thursday, 26 March 2026
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
TV
Critical Role Cooldown
Campaign 4, Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Tale Gate
Discussing Up To C4E11
Critical Role's new talkshow, which airs an episode live after each arc concludes. Except I'm so far behind I have to catchup recorded, obv. I watched the longer version, exclusive to Beacon, which has an extra segment titled 'The Night Cap' where they answer questions from subscribers.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or the longer version on Beacon.]
Campaign 4, Episode 11
[Watch it (again) on Beacon.]
Tale Gate
Discussing Up To C4E11
Critical Role's new talkshow, which airs an episode live after each arc concludes. Except I'm so far behind I have to catchup recorded, obv. I watched the longer version, exclusive to Beacon, which has an extra segment titled 'The Night Cap' where they answer questions from subscribers.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube or the longer version on Beacon.]
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
9 The Adventure of the Three Students
10 The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
I can't quite decide which novel to read next (do I immediately continue Redwall? Return to Lankhmar? A long-belated continuation of The Once and Future King? Or something else entirely), hence why recently I'm using the meantime to take in some unread Sherlock Holmes stories. No bad thing.
9 The Adventure of the Three Students
10 The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
I can't quite decide which novel to read next (do I immediately continue Redwall? Return to Lankhmar? A long-belated continuation of The Once and Future King? Or something else entirely), hence why recently I'm using the meantime to take in some unread Sherlock Holmes stories. No bad thing.
Tuesday, 24 March 2026
TV
Critical Role
4x11 Make Merry [2nd half]
And finishing with the Soldiers, wrapping up the session that began last episode, and their first arc along with it.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
4x11 Make Merry [2nd half]
And finishing with the Soldiers, wrapping up the session that began last episode, and their first arc along with it.
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Fiction
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
8 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Another particularly well-known one, I think. Certainly, though I've never read it, I've seen it adapted (faithfully or in part) often enough that I knew the solution just from the title.
8 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
Another particularly well-known one, I think. Certainly, though I've never read it, I've seen it adapted (faithfully or in part) often enough that I knew the solution just from the title.
Video Games
Inertial Drift
Another hour-ish and I feel like I'm racing (hoho) through Story Mode. But that's fine — I don't think the game's over when the 'story' is over; it's far from the only mode on offer. Indeed, I suspect it's deliberately designed to introduce you to all the different tracks, race modes, etc, so afterwards you can just play around learning how different cars control across various combos of tracks and modes.
Another hour-ish and I feel like I'm racing (hoho) through Story Mode. But that's fine — I don't think the game's over when the 'story' is over; it's far from the only mode on offer. Indeed, I suspect it's deliberately designed to introduce you to all the different tracks, race modes, etc, so afterwards you can just play around learning how different cars control across various combos of tracks and modes.
Monday, 23 March 2026
TV
Critical Role
4x11 Make Merry [1st half]
Continuing the episode with an extended sequence with the Schemers (who won't start their first dedicated arc until episode 19).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Peaky Blinders
6x04 Sapphire
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
4x11 Make Merry [1st half]
Continuing the episode with an extended sequence with the Schemers (who won't start their first dedicated arc until episode 19).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Peaky Blinders
6x04 Sapphire
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
Video Games
Inertial Drift
Today, starting a racing game I actually own. This one looked fun but I was slightly wary of the control scheme (it uses both sticks for navigation, one for steering and one to control your drifting), but I took to it pretty naturally. I mean, sure, I kept hitting barriers and stuff, but I do that plenty in regular racing games. I only played for half-an-hour, not because it was bad but because it's not open world, so you don't get that time-burning exploration/discovery gameplay. I enjoyed it a lot though, so definitely intending to stick with it.
Today, starting a racing game I actually own. This one looked fun but I was slightly wary of the control scheme (it uses both sticks for navigation, one for steering and one to control your drifting), but I took to it pretty naturally. I mean, sure, I kept hitting barriers and stuff, but I do that plenty in regular racing games. I only played for half-an-hour, not because it was bad but because it's not open world, so you don't get that time-burning exploration/discovery gameplay. I enjoyed it a lot though, so definitely intending to stick with it.
Sunday, 22 March 2026
TV
Critical Role
4x11 Make Merry [cold open]
All three tables this episode! First up, a short sequence with the Seekers (before their first full arc starts next episode).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Peaky Blinders
6x03 Gold
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
4x11 Make Merry [cold open]
All three tables this episode! First up, a short sequence with the Seekers (before their first full arc starts next episode).
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, or for subscribers on Beacon or Twitch.]
Peaky Blinders
6x03 Gold
[Watch the whole series (again) on iPlayer or Netflix.]
Fiction
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Book Three, Chapters 9–15 [the end]
Really enjoyed this. Which is good, because I've already got the next five thanks to buying a bundle.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
3 The Adventure of the Dancing Men
Quite a well-known and well-regarded Holmes story, but I thought that, aside from the memorable ingenuity of the eponymous cipher, it was quite a middling one.
Book Three, Chapters 9–15 [the end]
Really enjoyed this. Which is good, because I've already got the next five thanks to buying a bundle.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
3 The Adventure of the Dancing Men
Quite a well-known and well-regarded Holmes story, but I thought that, aside from the memorable ingenuity of the eponymous cipher, it was quite a middling one.
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition
I've once again got myself into a cycle of doing stuff like buying homes, decorating homes, moving belongings around, etc — spent another two hours on it today, not doing much of anything else. Time to go do some actual quests or something, methinks!
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Why play one of the 600+ games I’ve bought for my Steam Deck or 3DS when I could have a go at a random racing game on Amazon Luna? (Well, I do pay for Luna (as part of Prime) and bought the Luna controller but barely use it since I got my Deck, so maybe it’s not that ridiculous. But I did buy two new racing games on Steam recently, so why not start them instead?! Next time I fancy racing, I guess I will.)
Upstairs
Speedran the entire game again to get the two achievements I missed first time through.
I've once again got myself into a cycle of doing stuff like buying homes, decorating homes, moving belongings around, etc — spent another two hours on it today, not doing much of anything else. Time to go do some actual quests or something, methinks!
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Why play one of the 600+ games I’ve bought for my Steam Deck or 3DS when I could have a go at a random racing game on Amazon Luna? (Well, I do pay for Luna (as part of Prime) and bought the Luna controller but barely use it since I got my Deck, so maybe it’s not that ridiculous. But I did buy two new racing games on Steam recently, so why not start them instead?! Next time I fancy racing, I guess I will.)
Upstairs
Speedran the entire game again to get the two achievements I missed first time through.
Saturday, 21 March 2026
Video Games
Upstairs
Short (I completed it in 1¾ hours, and I look at everything and explore every dialogue tree; though somehow I didn't collect two achievements, so there must be options I missed) point-and-click adventure game that was just released by an independent dev. It's a lot of fun, with good puzzles (logical but you don't feel like everything's just handed to you) and a number of gags that made me laugh. Technically the story is horror, and rather dark at that, but the pixel art and humorous tone nonetheless make it feel close to the style of classic LucasArts games... though they'd surely never have done anything this bloody. Definitely worth a look on Steam or Itch.io if it seems your kind of thing.
Short (I completed it in 1¾ hours, and I look at everything and explore every dialogue tree; though somehow I didn't collect two achievements, so there must be options I missed) point-and-click adventure game that was just released by an independent dev. It's a lot of fun, with good puzzles (logical but you don't feel like everything's just handed to you) and a number of gags that made me laugh. Technically the story is horror, and rather dark at that, but the pixel art and humorous tone nonetheless make it feel close to the style of classic LucasArts games... though they'd surely never have done anything this bloody. Definitely worth a look on Steam or Itch.io if it seems your kind of thing.
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
Six new additions this week, and all nice straightforward ones that just make numbers go up.
Number of titles in collection: 3,673 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 966 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,707 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 515 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,818 [up 8]
Number of films: 4,720 [up 6]
Number of additional cuts: 487 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,132 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,293 [up 9]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Six new additions this week, and all nice straightforward ones that just make numbers go up.
Number of titles in collection: 3,673 [up 6]
Of which DVDs: 966 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,707 [up 6]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 515 [up 2]
Number of discs in collection: 8,818 [up 8]
Number of films: 4,720 [up 6]
Number of additional cuts: 487 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,132 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,293 [up 9]
See you next week, faithful reader.
Friday, 20 March 2026
Fiction
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Book Three, Chapters 1–3
Had a couple of days' interruption and all told it's taken me over a week to get back into it, having been progressing pretty consistently before (I read it on 8 of the 9 days before said interruption). Kinda ridiculous that my ability to read books is so dependent on habit and momentum, but there it is. Actually, I think I'm the same with TV and games and probably everything else. Not sure what that might say about me...
Book Three, Chapters 1–3
Had a couple of days' interruption and all told it's taken me over a week to get back into it, having been progressing pretty consistently before (I read it on 8 of the 9 days before said interruption). Kinda ridiculous that my ability to read books is so dependent on habit and momentum, but there it is. Actually, I think I'm the same with TV and games and probably everything else. Not sure what that might say about me...
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