2000 AD
Prog 2425
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
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.]
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