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!
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
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
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