2000 AD
Prog 2444
Thursday, 13 November 2025
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.
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.
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
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...
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.
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.
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
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.)
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.)
Monday, 10 November 2025
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...
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...
Tabletop Games
Daggerheart: Dragon Heist in the City of Splendors
Still playing every day but logging once a week, as mooted. Currently toying with joining a second campaign, too. You'd think I wouldn't have time (especially with all those hours in Skyrim), but my experience so far with PBP is it only takes a few minutes here and there — plus thinking time in between, of course — so it's actually quite a lot effort way to play 'a lot' (some days hardly anything happens, so your mileage may vary on what counts as "a lot").
Still playing every day but logging once a week, as mooted. Currently toying with joining a second campaign, too. You'd think I wouldn't have time (especially with all those hours in Skyrim), but my experience so far with PBP is it only takes a few minutes here and there — plus thinking time in between, of course — so it's actually quite a lot effort way to play 'a lot' (some days hardly anything happens, so your mileage may vary on what counts as "a lot").
Sunday, 9 November 2025
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
I was desperate to keep playing, but also didn't want to sink quite so much time into this today, so managed to limit myself to just two hours. Hilarious how, just a few weeks ago, I was still considering that a "long session" on other games.
...oh, but then I loaded it up in the evening to "just do something quickly" and ended up playing for another three hours. Oops. That was partly stupidity: I messed some stuff up, tried to forge ahead, it got worse, so I had to load a save game and repeat a bunch of stuff. And then I messed up differently and had to reload again. I started saving more often at that point — I hadn't needed to before because there was enough autosaving going on, and I'd never really ballsed anything up badly enough to want to reload. Always good to learn.
Funny: I thought I would've been playing Foolish Mortals a tonne this week, possibly even finishing it today (if not sooner), and instead I've barely started it and sunk more time into Skyrim than it likely would've taken to finish FM. You never can tell which way you're gonna go, huh?
I was desperate to keep playing, but also didn't want to sink quite so much time into this today, so managed to limit myself to just two hours. Hilarious how, just a few weeks ago, I was still considering that a "long session" on other games.
...oh, but then I loaded it up in the evening to "just do something quickly" and ended up playing for another three hours. Oops. That was partly stupidity: I messed some stuff up, tried to forge ahead, it got worse, so I had to load a save game and repeat a bunch of stuff. And then I messed up differently and had to reload again. I started saving more often at that point — I hadn't needed to before because there was enough autosaving going on, and I'd never really ballsed anything up badly enough to want to reload. Always good to learn.
Funny: I thought I would've been playing Foolish Mortals a tonne this week, possibly even finishing it today (if not sooner), and instead I've barely started it and sunk more time into Skyrim than it likely would've taken to finish FM. You never can tell which way you're gonna go, huh?
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
A slightly late update this week, because (a) I spent so much of yesterday playing Skyrim, (b) it's time for the monthly running time update, but I hadn't collected the running times for most of this month's ~28 additions, and (b) no one but me cares.
Number of titles in collection: 3,629 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 981 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,648 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 478 [up 4]
Number of discs in collection: 8,722 [up 12]
Number of films: 4,633 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 473 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,188 [up 13]
Number of short films: 1,271 [no change]
Also, it's time for the latest monthly running time update...
Total running time of collection (approx.):
610 days, 15 hours, and 50 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes from last month.)
See you next week, faithful reader.
A slightly late update this week, because (a) I spent so much of yesterday playing Skyrim, (b) it's time for the monthly running time update, but I hadn't collected the running times for most of this month's ~28 additions, and (b) no one but me cares.
Number of titles in collection: 3,629 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 981 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,648 [up 5]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 478 [up 4]
Number of discs in collection: 8,722 [up 12]
Number of films: 4,633 [up 4]
Number of additional cuts: 473 [no change]
Number of TV episodes: 10,188 [up 13]
Number of short films: 1,271 [no change]
Also, it's time for the latest monthly running time update...
Total running time of collection (approx.):
610 days, 15 hours, and 50 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes from last month.)
See you next week, faithful reader.
Saturday, 8 November 2025
Fiction / Non-Fiction / Games
Daggerheart: Core Rulebook
Skipping ahead to a different section today: in my game, we're levelling up for the first time, so I decided I ought to read all about that.
Skipping ahead to a different section today: in my game, we're levelling up for the first time, so I decided I ought to read all about that.
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Decided to play a little bit before bed last night (after midnight, hence logging it today) — ended up staying up 'til the small hours. Then, this afternoon, I popped in just to make a small change... then decided to play a bit... and, suddenly, most of the afternoon was gone and I had to force myself to stop.
Anyway, that added up to over 6 hours of play. And I still feel like I'm only just getting started. I guess the main story takes 26 hours if you actually follow the main story, which I'm not really — but I think that's most of the the game is so beloved: there's so much else to do. Indeed, a lot of advice specfically advises dodging the main story for various reasons, so that's kinda what I'm doing.
Decided to play a little bit before bed last night (after midnight, hence logging it today) — ended up staying up 'til the small hours. Then, this afternoon, I popped in just to make a small change... then decided to play a bit... and, suddenly, most of the afternoon was gone and I had to force myself to stop.
Anyway, that added up to over 6 hours of play. And I still feel like I'm only just getting started. I guess the main story takes 26 hours if you actually follow the main story, which I'm not really — but I think that's most of the the game is so beloved: there's so much else to do. Indeed, a lot of advice specfically advises dodging the main story for various reasons, so that's kinda what I'm doing.
Friday, 7 November 2025
Audio Drama
Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures
1.2 The Return of the Doctor
That title... was this meant to be the first release and for some reason had to be bumped? And if not, why would you give that title to your second story? Sure, it doesn't matter, but it feels silly to me. Especially as I thought this was an all-round stronger story than the actual first release and therefore might've made a better choice to kick off the range.
1.2 The Return of the Doctor
That title... was this meant to be the first release and for some reason had to be bumped? And if not, why would you give that title to your second story? Sure, it doesn't matter, but it feels silly to me. Especially as I thought this was an all-round stronger story than the actual first release and therefore might've made a better choice to kick off the range.
Video Games
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
Despite everything I said the other day, and only really playing Leaving Lyndow as a precursor to starting Evershade, and also starting Foolish Mortals since then, I once again felt Skyrim calling to me (I have a feeling it might be something to do with reading more of Lankhmar — I'd be gleefully installing a Fafhrd and Grey Mouser game if there was one!) As I already had it installed from when I nearly started it before, I thought, well, why not boot it up? (I mean, other than all the other games I've already started and should be playing).
But also, I thought that maybe I'll just end up noodling around for a little bit, get this urge out of my system, and then come back to it properly another time (because I do want to play it sometime). However, after playing for an hour-and-a-half without even pushing myself (and not being forced to: unlike so many other games I've played recently, this one lets you save whenever you want — hurrah!), it feels like I've barely started, and there's so much already waiting for me (as in, specific things to do, not just the general promise of the whole game) that I kinda want to go back and play more already. Maybe I'm about to follow in the footsteps of people who've sunk 500… 600… 700… 1000+ hours into this game over the last decade-and-a-half.
Despite everything I said the other day, and only really playing Leaving Lyndow as a precursor to starting Evershade, and also starting Foolish Mortals since then, I once again felt Skyrim calling to me (I have a feeling it might be something to do with reading more of Lankhmar — I'd be gleefully installing a Fafhrd and Grey Mouser game if there was one!) As I already had it installed from when I nearly started it before, I thought, well, why not boot it up? (I mean, other than all the other games I've already started and should be playing).
But also, I thought that maybe I'll just end up noodling around for a little bit, get this urge out of my system, and then come back to it properly another time (because I do want to play it sometime). However, after playing for an hour-and-a-half without even pushing myself (and not being forced to: unlike so many other games I've played recently, this one lets you save whenever you want — hurrah!), it feels like I've barely started, and there's so much already waiting for me (as in, specific things to do, not just the general promise of the whole game) that I kinda want to go back and play more already. Maybe I'm about to follow in the footsteps of people who've sunk 500… 600… 700… 1000+ hours into this game over the last decade-and-a-half.
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Video Games
Rogue Trooper Redux
Now I've started it, I may as well continue it... though that also goes for all those other games I'm partway through. But this one's only supposed to be 6 or 7 hours long, so it seems like I may as well polish it off... though it has 13 missions and I've clocked up almost 3 hours on the first three, so maybe it's going to taking me a little longer.
Now I've started it, I may as well continue it... though that also goes for all those other games I'm partway through. But this one's only supposed to be 6 or 7 hours long, so it seems like I may as well polish it off... though it has 13 missions and I've clocked up almost 3 hours on the first three, so maybe it's going to taking me a little longer.
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Fiction / Non-Fiction / Games
Daggerheart: Core Rulebook
It's kind of interesting to be reading through this when I've already been actively playing the game for a few weeks, because I sort of know it all (or, at least, the important bits), but am also sort of still learning stuff. At least I'm definitely gaining knowledge about parts of the game I don't personally use right now (e.g. other classes, ancestries, and communities).
It's kind of interesting to be reading through this when I've already been actively playing the game for a few weeks, because I sort of know it all (or, at least, the important bits), but am also sort of still learning stuff. At least I'm definitely gaining knowledge about parts of the game I don't personally use right now (e.g. other classes, ancestries, and communities).
Video Games
Foolish Mortals
The point-and-click game I mentioned yesterday. I really did intend to finish Gray Matter first, but then I got so hyped up for this in the past 24 hours (and I had already been massively looking forward to it, as I said) that I couldn't help but dive straight in. And if you want to do the same (which you should), you can buy it on Steam or GOG.
Rogue Trooper Redux
Even after everything I wrote yesterday about games I should be playing, I still went and started this and sunk 90 minutes into it. I bought it on a whim a few weeks ago because I've been enjoying the strips in 2000 AD, and the same thing today prompted me to actually fire it up. Reviews of it were mixed, but they seemed to focus on a lack of difficulty and, well, that's fine by me. I'm not expecting great things, and enjoying it enough so far. The only real issue is it's not been optimised for controllers, so every onscreen prompt is like "press ? for action". Which button do they mean? Press 'em all 'til you find out!
The point-and-click game I mentioned yesterday. I really did intend to finish Gray Matter first, but then I got so hyped up for this in the past 24 hours (and I had already been massively looking forward to it, as I said) that I couldn't help but dive straight in. And if you want to do the same (which you should), you can buy it on Steam or GOG.
Rogue Trooper Redux
Even after everything I wrote yesterday about games I should be playing, I still went and started this and sunk 90 minutes into it. I bought it on a whim a few weeks ago because I've been enjoying the strips in 2000 AD, and the same thing today prompted me to actually fire it up. Reviews of it were mixed, but they seemed to focus on a lack of difficulty and, well, that's fine by me. I'm not expecting great things, and enjoying it enough so far. The only real issue is it's not been optimised for controllers, so every onscreen prompt is like "press ? for action". Which button do they mean? Press 'em all 'til you find out!
Tuesday, 4 November 2025
Video Games
Leaving Lyndow
I'm already actively trying to play through Metroid: Zero Mission, with doses of Pullblox on the side; I started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle anyway because now it's on the free-with-Prime tier of Amazon's Luna and I'd been so excited to play it*; also thanks to Luna's recent refresh, there's now a bunch of other games available to me that I've really wanted to play and/or have heard are great, like Dave the Diver, Hogwarts Legacy, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Dishonored 2; I should definitely go back to Forza Horizon 4, Pilotwings Resort, Doom, and Balatro; I recently bought Dispatch at full price** on release day because I'd been looking forward to it and initial reactions suggest it's as good as hoped, so I definitely want to find time for that; a point-and-click adventure I've been very excited for ever since I backed it on Kickstarter three years ago*** is finally out tomorrow, and I wanted to finish Gray Matter before then so I could dive straight in (obviously not going to happen now); and I actually drafted this post to highlight the ridiculousness of the fact I decided to have a crack at Skyrim for the first time ever — a game with an average minimum completion time of almost 30 hours, but for which the median playtime is over 100...
But, instead, I bought Leaving Lyndow for 67p this evening and immediately played that. Huh?
Okay, a bit more context. I was recently looking into open world games, because for whatever reason I've had a hankering to play one (hence Skyrim), and learnt about a game called Eastshade that sounded like it might be perfect: you play an artist, there's no combat, you just explore and complete side quests and stuff like that; and it's supposed to be beautiful. Sounds right up my street! So I wishlisted it; then, yesterday, it went on sale on Steam, so I instantly bought it. I was also aware it had a prequel, Leaving Lyndow. Various games seem to have "prequels" or "prologues" nowadays, and from what I can tell they're just a glorified demo — the opening chunk of the game, available for free. I'm sure there's some algorithm-related reason why it's better to list them that way. Anyway, I ignored Lyndow on the assumption it was the same, but then something today (I've already forgotten what) led me to discover it was actually a separate-but-connected game. Well, that settled it: I had to play that first, really. Well, maybe I didn't have to, but when it's only 67p in the same sale and reportedly takes about 45 minutes, it seemed rude not to.
It actually took me an hour, because I'm me and so explored quite thoroughly. It's definitely a gentle and relaxing game, as advertised, but also with a bit of an emotional storyline about a young person leaving home for the first time. It's not long enough to really get into that and thus it doesn't hit home as much as a fully-developed narrative could, but it's serviceable.
It also looks fairly beautiful. It's made for wandering around and appreciating what you see, so it needs to look pleasant, really. There were a few bugs (a character fully clipped through a tree at one point), and it's got that thing where it looks amazing in screenshots / when you're stood still, but when you start moving around all the ways those things are achieved immediately become obvious — but then, in my (limited) experience, this is still a thing with most games. And, in fairness, it's also almost nine years old and was made by indie developers; so while it does lack graphical polish in minor areas that I suspect would lead graphics-obsessed AAA-game players to think it looked rubbish, to me — who's been out of this kind of gaming for a very long time and hasn't exactly dived in to the current high-end of graphical amazingness (yet) — it still looked pretty special. Eastshade proper was released two years later, so I hold out hope it had even greater polish, but even if it's at the same level, it has the potential to live up to its reputation for beauty.
* I nearly subscribed to Xbox Game Pass just to play this, so getting to have a go at it on a service I'm already subscribed to is awesome. (I say "have a go" because, knowing Luna, it'll get locked away behind Premium long before I get a chance to finish it (see: Dungeons of Hinterberg and Control).
** Well, I did get the 10% first-week discount; but that was the "full price" at the time, so…
*** It does not feel like it's been three whole years. Wow. That's ages to have been waiting. I mean, it's not uncommon for Kickstarters to end up taking a stupidly long time to fulfil — when I back them, I always take a "it will be here when it's here" attitude, because expecting them on time and sitting waiting for that is a recipe for madness — but I never would've guessed it had been so long.
I'm already actively trying to play through Metroid: Zero Mission, with doses of Pullblox on the side; I started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle anyway because now it's on the free-with-Prime tier of Amazon's Luna and I'd been so excited to play it*; also thanks to Luna's recent refresh, there's now a bunch of other games available to me that I've really wanted to play and/or have heard are great, like Dave the Diver, Hogwarts Legacy, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Dishonored 2; I should definitely go back to Forza Horizon 4, Pilotwings Resort, Doom, and Balatro; I recently bought Dispatch at full price** on release day because I'd been looking forward to it and initial reactions suggest it's as good as hoped, so I definitely want to find time for that; a point-and-click adventure I've been very excited for ever since I backed it on Kickstarter three years ago*** is finally out tomorrow, and I wanted to finish Gray Matter before then so I could dive straight in (obviously not going to happen now); and I actually drafted this post to highlight the ridiculousness of the fact I decided to have a crack at Skyrim for the first time ever — a game with an average minimum completion time of almost 30 hours, but for which the median playtime is over 100...
But, instead, I bought Leaving Lyndow for 67p this evening and immediately played that. Huh?
Okay, a bit more context. I was recently looking into open world games, because for whatever reason I've had a hankering to play one (hence Skyrim), and learnt about a game called Eastshade that sounded like it might be perfect: you play an artist, there's no combat, you just explore and complete side quests and stuff like that; and it's supposed to be beautiful. Sounds right up my street! So I wishlisted it; then, yesterday, it went on sale on Steam, so I instantly bought it. I was also aware it had a prequel, Leaving Lyndow. Various games seem to have "prequels" or "prologues" nowadays, and from what I can tell they're just a glorified demo — the opening chunk of the game, available for free. I'm sure there's some algorithm-related reason why it's better to list them that way. Anyway, I ignored Lyndow on the assumption it was the same, but then something today (I've already forgotten what) led me to discover it was actually a separate-but-connected game. Well, that settled it: I had to play that first, really. Well, maybe I didn't have to, but when it's only 67p in the same sale and reportedly takes about 45 minutes, it seemed rude not to.
It actually took me an hour, because I'm me and so explored quite thoroughly. It's definitely a gentle and relaxing game, as advertised, but also with a bit of an emotional storyline about a young person leaving home for the first time. It's not long enough to really get into that and thus it doesn't hit home as much as a fully-developed narrative could, but it's serviceable.
It also looks fairly beautiful. It's made for wandering around and appreciating what you see, so it needs to look pleasant, really. There were a few bugs (a character fully clipped through a tree at one point), and it's got that thing where it looks amazing in screenshots / when you're stood still, but when you start moving around all the ways those things are achieved immediately become obvious — but then, in my (limited) experience, this is still a thing with most games. And, in fairness, it's also almost nine years old and was made by indie developers; so while it does lack graphical polish in minor areas that I suspect would lead graphics-obsessed AAA-game players to think it looked rubbish, to me — who's been out of this kind of gaming for a very long time and hasn't exactly dived in to the current high-end of graphical amazingness (yet) — it still looked pretty special. Eastshade proper was released two years later, so I hold out hope it had even greater polish, but even if it's at the same level, it has the potential to live up to its reputation for beauty.
* I nearly subscribed to Xbox Game Pass just to play this, so getting to have a go at it on a service I'm already subscribed to is awesome. (I say "have a go" because, knowing Luna, it'll get locked away behind Premium long before I get a chance to finish it (see: Dungeons of Hinterberg and Control).
** Well, I did get the 10% first-week discount; but that was the "full price" at the time, so…
*** It does not feel like it's been three whole years. Wow. That's ages to have been waiting. I mean, it's not uncommon for Kickstarters to end up taking a stupidly long time to fulfil — when I back them, I always take a "it will be here when it's here" attitude, because expecting them on time and sitting waiting for that is a recipe for madness — but I never would've guessed it had been so long.
Monday, 3 November 2025
Tabletop Games
Daggerheart: Dragon Heist in the City of Splendors
Funny, really, to log this as "tabletop" when I'm actually playing online, and thus exclusively on my computer or phone. But it's not a Video Game, so...
Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, this is very much ongoing — we're now entering our fourth week. I've still not settled my mind on if or how I should be regularly logging it, but possibly "every Monday" (while it continues, natch) is one answer.
Funny, really, to log this as "tabletop" when I'm actually playing online, and thus exclusively on my computer or phone. But it's not a Video Game, so...
Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, this is very much ongoing — we're now entering our fourth week. I've still not settled my mind on if or how I should be regularly logging it, but possibly "every Monday" (while it continues, natch) is one answer.
Sunday, 2 November 2025
Films
Midsommar (2019)
[#89 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
Blindspot 2025 #11
Decided to watch the two-and-a-half hour theatrical cut instead of the three-hour Director's Cut for this first viewing, on the principle that was the original version (and not in a "it's never what the director wanted and he fixed it years later" way, presumably, as the other cut followed pretty sharpish on home ent), and if I like it enough I can always revisit with the longer version (because, as we know, I revisit films often...)
[#89 in The 100 Films in a Year Challenge 2025]
Blindspot 2025 #11
Decided to watch the two-and-a-half hour theatrical cut instead of the three-hour Director's Cut for this first viewing, on the principle that was the original version (and not in a "it's never what the director wanted and he fixed it years later" way, presumably, as the other cut followed pretty sharpish on home ent), and if I like it enough I can always revisit with the longer version (because, as we know, I revisit films often...)
Fiction / Non-Fiction / Games
Daggerheart: Core Rulebook
Even though I'm actively playing in a game (yes, it's ongoing, despite my lack of logging), there's still plenty of the rulebook I haven't read. Today I particularly focused on the Campaign Frames, because I've been curious about those.
Even though I'm actively playing in a game (yes, it's ongoing, despite my lack of logging), there's still plenty of the rulebook I haven't read. Today I particularly focused on the Campaign Frames, because I've been curious about those.
Video Games
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Forced myself to go back to this, with a revised approach: I decided, as I didn't enjoy the stealth, to be a bit less stealthy. Turned out that was fine because I'd already slaughtered most of the enemies on the level when I got fed up last time! I still found the map frustrating and unclear on where to go (I'd rather the game was either truly true open-world or provided a clear path — it feels like it wants to imply it's the former while actually having a fairly linear route (with a couple of options along that primary path), at least for this early level), but I got through it so that pain ended.
The next part of the game opened up a lot more, becoming more exploration and investigation focused. Long story short, I enjoyed it a lot more, and ended up playing for over two hours — it wouldn't have been so long but, once again, I got shafted by being unclear about when the game had last saved for me.
At one point I accidentally got in a fight. Even though the place was swarming with enemies, I took a few of them down quickly (one advantage of playing on the easiest difficulty), ran away, hid for a bit, and then was able to carry on walking around as before. Thoroughly unrealistic, and I can see why it's led some to claim the enemy AI is awful... but also fine for me, because otherwise they would've absolutely slaughtered me and I would've had to work out how to get to an earlier save point and begin over. It's a game, therefore it's inherently unrealistic in plenty of other ways, so I can let stuff like that slide for the sake of being able to play on.
I still have niggles and complaints (even the less-linear level design doesn't feel as clear as it could, and I think the first-person view is partly to blame; normally I love going round finding every collectable and completing every side objective, but the awkwardness of doing so is putting me off even trying), but I'm enjoying it more now and intend to stick with it, at least for the time being (now, if I stop enjoying it again...)
Forced myself to go back to this, with a revised approach: I decided, as I didn't enjoy the stealth, to be a bit less stealthy. Turned out that was fine because I'd already slaughtered most of the enemies on the level when I got fed up last time! I still found the map frustrating and unclear on where to go (I'd rather the game was either truly true open-world or provided a clear path — it feels like it wants to imply it's the former while actually having a fairly linear route (with a couple of options along that primary path), at least for this early level), but I got through it so that pain ended.
The next part of the game opened up a lot more, becoming more exploration and investigation focused. Long story short, I enjoyed it a lot more, and ended up playing for over two hours — it wouldn't have been so long but, once again, I got shafted by being unclear about when the game had last saved for me.
At one point I accidentally got in a fight. Even though the place was swarming with enemies, I took a few of them down quickly (one advantage of playing on the easiest difficulty), ran away, hid for a bit, and then was able to carry on walking around as before. Thoroughly unrealistic, and I can see why it's led some to claim the enemy AI is awful... but also fine for me, because otherwise they would've absolutely slaughtered me and I would've had to work out how to get to an earlier save point and begin over. It's a game, therefore it's inherently unrealistic in plenty of other ways, so I can let stuff like that slide for the sake of being able to play on.
I still have niggles and complaints (even the less-linear level design doesn't feel as clear as it could, and I think the first-person view is partly to blame; normally I love going round finding every collectable and completing every side objective, but the awkwardness of doing so is putting me off even trying), but I'm enjoying it more now and intend to stick with it, at least for the time being (now, if I stop enjoying it again...)
this week on 100Films.co.uk
Time again for my weekly monthly update about activity on 100Films.co.uk, with the regular review of last month...
...and its usual companion, the list of (some of) my failures...
Will there, as I always promise, be more next Sunday? Stranger things have happened.
...and its usual companion, the list of (some of) my failures...
Will there, as I always promise, be more next Sunday? Stranger things have happened.
Saturday, 1 November 2025
Collection Count
Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.
The quietness of last month continues to be an anomaly as new acquisitions flooded in this week — nearly all of them ordered this week, in fact. Turns out I hadn't been keeping on top of new big-studio release dates, because I almost missed Superman and Jurassic World Rebirth hitting disc.
Then Indicator launched their 10th anniversary sale. Despite warnings about dispatch times being slower during the event, the two orders I placed were both sent out quickly... though not quickly enough to both arrive in time for this week's update. Four are included below, with four more due on Monday.
Number of titles in collection: 3,624 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 981 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,643 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 474 [up 5]
Number of discs in collection: 8,710 [up 8]
Number of films: 4,629 [up 7]
Number of additional cuts: 473 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,175 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,271 [no change]
With more preorders expected throughout November, I doubt the next couple of running time updates will be as tiddly as the last one's 18 hours. See you next week for the first of those, faithful reader.
The quietness of last month continues to be an anomaly as new acquisitions flooded in this week — nearly all of them ordered this week, in fact. Turns out I hadn't been keeping on top of new big-studio release dates, because I almost missed Superman and Jurassic World Rebirth hitting disc.
Then Indicator launched their 10th anniversary sale. Despite warnings about dispatch times being slower during the event, the two orders I placed were both sent out quickly... though not quickly enough to both arrive in time for this week's update. Four are included below, with four more due on Monday.
Number of titles in collection: 3,624 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 981 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 2,643 [up 7]
— of which Ultra HD Blu-rays: 474 [up 5]
Number of discs in collection: 8,710 [up 8]
Number of films: 4,629 [up 7]
Number of additional cuts: 473 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes: 10,175 [no change]
Number of short films: 1,271 [no change]
With more preorders expected throughout November, I doubt the next couple of running time updates will be as tiddly as the last one's 18 hours. See you next week for the first of those, faithful reader.
Friday, 31 October 2025
Films
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!
[#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!
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.
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