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.

Videos

Critical Role
2x80 The Folding Halls [1st half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube, Twitch, or Beacon.]

Talks Machina
#127 'Through the Trees'
[Watch it (again) on Internet Archive.]

Plus...

State of the Role: Campaign 3 Finale and What’s Next for 2025!
The latest update on Critical Role's status revealed (to no surprise to anyone who's been following things) that Campaign 3 ends next week. But then there's going to be a miniseries and such shenanigans, so the campaign wrap-up won't air until mid March — and who knows when Campaign 4 will start after that? (I presume they're saving that announcement for later, because various other things are tied up in it (which system will they play?!) and, well, this is quite enough news to be going on with.) So, maybe I'll have time to finish Campaign 2 before C4 after all... maybe...?

TV

Newsnight
15/11/24 edition
I don't regularly watch Newsnight, but I happened to see this had an item on the so-called 'Xodus' — i.e. people finally abandoning the site everyone knows as Twitter, mainly for Bluesky — and was interested to see how it would be covered.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Videos

Critical Role
2x17 Harvest Close [2nd half]
[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

Today, Critical Role announced their own membership/streaming service, Beacon. I'm tempted to sign up, though most of the perks aren't relevant to me at this point — for example, exclusive series Critical Role Cooldown doesn't kick in until at least 207 episodes (c.830 hours of viewing) after where I'm currently at. ("At least" because that's not counting one-shots and miniseries and the like that I'll likely watch between Campaigns 2 and 3.) On the other hand, it would mean ad-free viewing from Campaign 2 Episode 20 onwards (Campaign 1 and Campaign 2 Episodes 1–19 remain exclusive to Geek & Sundry's YouTube, I guess for legal reasons).

Articles

ITV Oscars coverage secures viewers – and criticism
by Catherine Shoard (from the Guardian)

Whether or not you agree with the criticsm (I didn't dislike all of the panel, but there's a definite argument for having more informed proper film critics/journalists), the viewing stats are interesting: this year's Oscars saw a 1700% increase in average UK viewership, from 35,000 last year on Sky to 630,000 this year on ITV.

Podcasts

Light the Fuse - The Official Mission: Impossible Podcast
2x19 "Mission: Impossible 8" News Special

Videos

Tolarian Community College
"Blast From The Past" Full Deck Reveal - A new Doctor Who Commander Precon for Magic Gathering!

Following the livestream I logged on Tuesday, reveals of the Magic: The Gathering Doctor Who cards have been continuing all week, culminating in this video reveal of the classic-era-themed deck.

I've been reading and watching a few bits of Magic-related content over the past couple of months, and Tolarian Community College — hosted by the Professor (who somewhat styles himself after the Doctor because, yep, he's also a Whovian) — is one of the best channels I've come across. So this video isn't just a list of cards, but a fun and informative series of reveals and analyses.

[Watch it (again) on YouTube.]

TV

Friday Night Live
Really enjoyed that. Wouldn't mind C4 bringing it back properly.
[Watch it (again) on All 4.]

Newscast
(21/10/2022 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Ros Atkins on the Week
1x01 Resignation of Liz Truss
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II
London
Windsor
History, innit?
[Watch both parts (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

The 1% Club
1x07 Episode 7
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

BBC News
6+ hours of a hearse (and entourage) driving through Scotland? That seemed to be what most of the coverage was today. Suffice to say, I didn't watch anything like all of it. Feeling suitably weaned off ahead of returning to work tomorrow.

TV

BBC News
Day by day, I watch a bit less... Today's main event: The Proclamation of HM the King.

TV

BBC News
Had the news on all day... while doing other stuff, obviously — that much non-stop often-repetitious coverage wouldn't be good for you; but there's enough going on at a time like this to merit it. Perhaps the most important moment was the King's address, and then this evening there was:

A Tribute to Her Majesty the Queen
The big special of prerecorded interviews that we all knew existed, as it does for many a major figure, regularly updated to cover later events and more recent significant figures (in this case, including Boris Johnson). It did a rather good job of surveying the entirety of the Queen's life, including not (totally) whitewashing the controversies. And if you want a fuller version, well, there's always The Crown...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

BBC News
Whatever your opinion of the monarchy as an institution or the Queen as an individual, this was undeniably a momentous day in British history — so of course I watched hours of it on the BBC.

Games

Tales of Monkey Island
Chapter 4 The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
25 minutes and that's this chapter wrapped up, with a helluvan ending. Just one final part to go...

Oh, and in case you missed the news, here's the just-released full trailer for Return to Monkey Island. It looks awesome — I can't wait!

Articles

Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor
(from DoctorWho.tv)

In case you missed the news.

Articles

How A Filmmaker Got The No. 1 Movie In America During A Pandemic
by Lisa Finn (from Patch)

In short: they made a short horror film on Zoom, rented a cinema to screen it, bought all the tickets, and with virtually nothing else showing that was enough to get them to #1. Ingenious. The short is now available to rent online, so maybe I will...

Articles

Gavin and Stacey Christmas special is most-watched TV comedy for 17 years
(from BBC News)

That headline buries the real story: that the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special was the only scripted programme among the top ten most-watched programmes of the entire decade. Mad. (The other nine included eight sporting events and one X Factor final.)

TV

Peston
5x27 (24/7/2019 edition)
Apparently it was an "historic day" (that's what the newscasters kept saying, anyway), so I ended up watching a bunch of news coverage and topping it off with ITV's political discussion show.
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

Year of the Rabbit
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch the entire series (again) on All 4.]

Articles

Netflix Pulls The Plug On Luke Cage, No Season 3 For Marvel’s Harlem Hero
by Dominic Patten & Nellie Andrea (from Deadline)

Well, this is an unusual story. It's not like Iron Fist, which was cancelled presumably because of low ratings -- they've been working on Cage season 3 for months, apparently with the whole season plotted, half of it in detail, but creative disagreements between Marvel and Netflix have led to the latter just pulling the plug. Makes you wonder if a revival on Disney's forthcoming streaming service is on the cards, and also what the fate of the other Marvel/Netflix shows will be after their already-filming seasons are released.

Articles

Blade Runner 2049 Was First Cut Into A Four-Hour, Two-Part Epic (But We’ll Never See This Version)
by Zack Sharf (from IndieWire)

The headline has most of it covered, but obviously there's more detail in the story.