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.
Thursday, 16 October 2025
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.
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