deanb

I'm finally playing Yakuza Like a Dragon and this game is so fucking fun. Just silly goofy goodness. I knew it was RPG based (specifically Dragon Quest) but wasn't aware it did a bit of Pokemon too. I do occasionally have to check on conversion rates now and then to grasp the impact of like what is being offered. "I'm not risking my life for 5,000 yen" has more impact when I know that's about £30. (heck it'd be understandable sentiment for £5,000). I'm fairly confident I'm still very much in the tutorial stage (especially as no kareoke so far). Nut yeah it's being fun.

I find it great they've added adverts because now it means that they can pump additional cash into their service and...nah I've spent 3 days trying to watch episode 6 because it just gives up even buffering after a while (and it ain't an issue with my internet - everything else runs fine). Once I finally watch I'll give opinion.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Got it for cheap in the recent Amazon sale. Rather enjoyed it, and liked some of the new traversal elements (even if I think some is a bit sus from a lore perspective :P). I did have a quibble with a particular boss battle and ended up (after some raging on Twitter) dropping down to padawan mode to get past it. I'm also confused on some character motivations too. Kinda looking forward to Outlaws (though I know it's different studio and so on).

I've had a couple Anker wireless. Though not too keen on my current pair - Anker P2 Life or similar sounding. Bit too light and have a long stubby bit that I think is meant to bring closer to your mouth for calls and such (hence the "Life" branding I guess) but kinda just poke you a bit. Last pair were more rotund. USB-C to headphone jack just handy to have as a back up, can be got dirt cheap. I have one that has charging pass through - great for parties where you can just plug into an older hi-fi speaker and keep phone topped up with juice.

Oh phone wise I upgraded from a Oneplus 7, which was starting to wear down, to a OnePlus 12 Came with a walnut-style case but I very early moved to the above clear case with a little dino on the back just cos the actual back is so beautiful it felt silly to put in such a cheap wood effect (did have the Moto Style back in the day with an actual wood back. Loved that phone) Otherwise it's a phone, not much to write about, though the battery life is fantastic. Easy does 2 days with no bother. Nice to be wireless as well; the USB port was starting to go on my old phone (and it was 4 years old so it'd been a trooper - that's like 1,300 inserts minimum), so being wireless should mean the port will last a bit longer. Though sucks that it's only kinda slow on non-Oneplus pads.

Good set of games. I am half tempted by GoT on PC mind. Was beautiful on PS4 - so many pics taken in photo mode! Got this in the sale for Steamdeck The PSP discussion on Discord other day had my nostalgia for the many many many many many hours I put into Disgaea back in the day. I do worry that I am no longer not a working bill payer mind so this might be a danger. And I got this for PS5. Was a quid cheaper than Steam and while I'd like to have got it for PC to play on my desktop the reviews on Steam all hammer it for running like dogshit so I'd rather not bother there. And got the first one on playstation anyway so might as well continue that lineage. Got a long weekend off this week so might just veg out gaming

Oh not so much "irked", just quibbles. Mentat was definitely one; having him attempting to undermine the harkonnens while also combatting maud'dib. Would have made it clearer that genuinely no one knew that Paul was alive. The reduced time frame so that there's no "abomination" running around is another. It doesn't seem he's planning to do Children of Dune and Alia is obviously much larger part there, but you could plant some of the seeds in a third film of the 'dominant personality' (especially given who else we get in Dune Messiah. The person you love to Hayt). I don't mind too much about Paul not getting to take ownership of Jamis' wife due to killing Jamis, they've certainly made a point of trying to make the Freman a bit more progressive (even if there are religious fanatics; their jihad is gender equal). (though she's a decently large supporting character in Messiah and they'd otherwise have to build up some other non-Chainie freman lass for him to be confidant with)

Dune Part 2 Fucking amazing. Pretty as hell. Great adaptation (though I have a few quibbles in some missing bits). Really hoping he gets to do Dune Messiah. Be a great trilogy to put alongside LotR.

i've being playing Pathfinder: Kingmaker on Steamdeck. Runs pretty well, though loading can be slow. Some mechanics are quite obtuse - it's very heavy on Pathfinder mechanics. Had to have a wiki open for the first few hours (especially as the early main quest has some weird triggers from some of the sidequests you also get so it wasn't super clear how to advance). The kingdom stuff is relatively barebones - mostly making decisions and such. Budling up your kingdom is picking stuff off a list. Though I am early days with it and I think from what I can see there's options to expand into neighbouring land.

Suddenly realising I might have to move this thread to "Multi-plat"...or I guess just "PlayStation".

Folks at work are doing a group and it was on sale so I'm diving in.

Blue Eye Samurai, a billion times better. Still thinking about it a few days after and half tempted to run through the whole thing again. The title character is half-western half-Japanese in a time of intense xenophobia which drives a mission of revenge. The characters are great (and some great voice actors too; including Randal Park, George Takei etc), the animation is gorgeous and scenes just look pretty as hell. It's got no fear in throwing a few musical curveballs (including the For Whom The Bell Tolls as heard in the trailer, as well as the odd Kill Bill track). It's not one for kids; strong violence and peaches Really my big thing is Abijah Fowler is voiced by Kenneth Branagh but is clearly Brendan Gleeson. They've put the first episode on YT if you wanna watch (though err, not much point unless you have Netflix in which case you can watch it there...)

I'm about 3/4s of the way through FFXVI (based on how much of the map I have unlocked and amount of Eikons/Mother Crystals dealt with). I'm enjoying it (put it in my GOTY after all), but my god is it not really FF and just continuing the disappointing trend of their action-orientation mainline stuff like FFXV and FFVIIR. Really makes me apprehensive for how they might do a remake of FFIX. For me a big thing that just really sticks out is that you have these elemental bases for the likes of Eikons and such, and thus you can swap between being fire, ice, thunder; but none of it means anything. There's no major difference to the elements on how they impact fighting enemies. Heck there's very little difference to say some being particularly weak to melee vs magic attacks. The game has malboros, but while in other games you'd have to deal with status effects these have "Bad breath" but it's just an AoE attack since there's no status impacts becuase there's only a a few consumables you can use and two of them are potions. Heck you get elemental sword upgrades as the game progresses but it does nothing except change the look of the sword and its stats - there's no effect from it. There's quite a few moves too, but only 6 attack slots so you're kind of dissuaded from mixing it up (especially as the ability points are rather stingy in relation to how much new moves cost to unlock), and given there's no status impact or elemental affinities there's no much point. The main issue sticks when fighting a boss as most fights are group based so I tend to have loaded out with AoE/group attacks and against a boss a lot of these are pointless or no impact (like literally they just glance off a lot of bosses and they can just hit you through your attack which is...annoying) (the story is a bit muddled too; like it has three different strands between anti-slavery, environmentalism, and destiny/free will. The anti-slavery/environmentalism from the same group too, and in fact both aims run counter to each other) I do like the art, and the "airships" (I'll be disappointed if we don't get at least one of the airships airborne). Byron is class. Easily in my top pantheon of FF characters tho. "Can't you have any normal enemies?!"

t'was on sale. Figured I'd bite. ProtonDB had it running as okay on Steamdeck (and my experience so far is that's the case). It's batshit insane. Unfortuantely I do have this song stuck in my head whenever GDT talkes about the "BB"

Watched Pluto, it was okay. I'm not too invested in Astroboy stuff so I imagine a bunch would pass me by. Felt like it was leading up to something that just never came, like it was sort off trying to say something, and had the trappings of that just..without anything behind it, or lacking in conviction in attempting to say anything. Like you had the persia war/BORA fact finding mission as analogous to WMDs in Iraq. Nothing really to be said about these super robots still being puppets to kill other robots. I dunno, just...empty.

could be interesting, though tbh some of Primes output has been a bit scattershot of late unless it's got Seth Rogen attached (though I'm feeling I should really give Reacher a go - not read the books but folks bang on about them)

I'm just gonna do a random dump: (suddenly aware I've done two A24s - but they've got interesting films). Katy O'Brian is . She's been in last few seasons of Mandalorian (tends to be in imperial officer clothing though), and was (unfortunately) in Quantumania earlier this year too. She's taking off. Always felt Kung Fu Panda never quite made the impact it should have done. Like everyone that loves it loves it, but doesn't seem to be in same league as Shrek. Honestly it'll be wild if they get to do the main trilogy. Just have a big ole wormy boy.

Wonka Watched this with my mum and her partner over the weekend. The original Gene Wilder film led to high expectations, which the Johnny Depp version completely failed on (my only thing I like in the Johnny Depp version is that they were able to show the result of the other children being "treated", which wasn't quite feasible in the 70s so they're somewhat forgiven on that). It's Paul King, who did Paddington 1 and 2, so it has that very whimsy charm to it. And while Timothy isn't trying to ape Gene Wilder (and in theory there's many decades in the guys life before we see the Wonka that Charlie meets) he does pull in a few bits. Overall it's fun and pretty. It's throwing quite a few people that it's a musical, though both previous films have been. Absolutely chocka with British acting cast too. Olivia Coleman is likely the main one folks will know, but I think Ghosts has done well in US so probably a few recognisable from that. The guard is also the writer (and shows up in Paddington as well, where also a writer), and he's local to my town so that's been cool for a few folks. It's a similar type of sweet making he has in the 70s film too (whipping cows to make whipped cream, adding a boot to provide a little kick, etc). Great little film to go see over xmas. My only beef is that they make a joke of Keegan-Michael Key's police chief getting fat from the bribes (figured we'd had that conversation a few years ago) There's a few minor plot quibbles

I know enough to get by. My main stuff is building shelves and painting; which aren't the most difficult. Had to do a bit of wiring when I moved in to change out lamps and swap out a couple switches (also tried to put in a smart switch but turn out victorian era houses don't have the right layout of mains wiring for those). The college I work at actually has been running a DIY night class and I was in the first cohort so technically I'm actually qualified in basic DIY skills. Boilers however are a fun mix of gas, water, and electricity so was a bit hair raising (though given it makes severals steps of "turn off and use a tester to check it's off" I knew it was dead while I was working on it). Not my image but a good indication of the steps it takes through (there's a neat sticker set in that they'll get you to sticker up the various wires too so it makes stages like this quite simple) This is, apart from a pen and (in my case) a mirror, is pretty much all the tools you needed. Mirror was just because my boiler is a corner and I couldn't always see. I'd normally use my phone but that was running the app. Pen was to write on the stickers.

A tado starter kit. I've been having issues with my "dumb" thermostat and particularly an issue with my brother staying on thursday evenings if the boiler heating can't kick in (and it's not particularly intuitive to turn it on). Thankfully it's not an issue with the boiler itself - I still get hot tap water and when the thermostat does properly send its signal it fires up and heats the house. Wasn't too difficult to install - the internet bridge is just USB power and ethernet port, the thermostat unit itself is just "pull tab out batteries and connect via the app". The unit that connects to the boiler is a tad more of a pain but the app was pretty good - you put the model of your boiler in and it gave you customised instructions to your boiler on how to connect the receiver up. Really the only major issue was angling screwdrivers and that I had a hangover. Got to wall mount it but it's a Sunday and I'm not an a-hole so that'll be a job for later. (I am aware that NA/EU heating styles are potentially very different)

T'was on sale. I figure I'll give it a spin because I like FF games, though I am wary on gameplay as in recent years the franchise has massively veered from its usual turn based battle system so you only get it in spin-offs like World of FF.

Yeah 5 might be best - I'll be honest off the top of my head I can't think of too many titles from 2023 that I've actually played. In fact my count for games this year will go up to two this afternoon. (Unless we count "weird" stuff like new Fortnite seasons, expansions like Phantom Liberty/CP2077 2.0, etc). Or just a vague "best games I've played this year" so like Disco Elysium would get thrown in.

Turns out there's already a teaser. And gosh I imagine this would look weird without context for some bits. Kinda hoping that it doesn't white wash roles, though it shows the struggle session/cultural revolution so not totally leaving it's Chinese roots. (in the book there's like 2 Americans, only one is really a character and the other a general. Rest are Chinese.

I find them quite easy to get through, I listen to a fair few podcasts and they're a great companion when walking or doing house work. Audio books, for me, have been much the same way (and from a chore point quite good in that I'll activelly find a reason to do stuff so I can listen to a few chapters) There's a few minor quirks; there's been a part in "Three Body Problem" where the chapter is a redacted report ████ ██ and it doesn't really translate well in spoken word. Also in Dune trilogy there's (I think) a few voice actors but there's a few points where who they voice (or if they're doing the exposition) that throws you for a moment. Minor mid point edit: check your local library's website. Mine has access to Libby and Borrow ox, both have apps with ebooks, magazines and audio books. It's a freeway to check if you'd find audio books suitable. It's how I read Norse Mythology. However one issue is my local library seems to be mainly biographies and I don't much care for those. They currently have 5 sci-fi audio books, one is a David Walliams (well known for his sci-fi ) and another is, stupidly, the second book in the Three Body Problem trilogy... Also I think Spotify just put some as part of their premium subscription, if you have that. End mid point edit. Three Body Problem wise I'm quite enjoying it - it is a bit weird to start with (it starts during the Cultural Revolution) and my general unfamiliarity with chinese names did make it a bit hard at the start to remember who was who, but it's parseable now. There's some bits I'm quite interested to see how they'll work it for the Netflix show.

Picked up and enjoyed. I prefer Norse Mythology for it's "like being read bed time stories" kind of feel, and at times Fry gets a smidge academic with citations and such. Used to be into Greek myth as a kid so brought back some memories. (and tbf they're pretty pervasive in society too) Also completed the Dune trilogy too. I bet Jason Mamoa would be happy if Villeneuve was to make a full trilogy (Thought it'd be 6 films I guess based on length of just Dune). Now on "Three Body Problem".