danielpholt

Biggest shock of 2020 wasn't the global pandemic. No. It was that I fell head first into a sudden and shocking love of US Presidential history. So yeah. I'm treating myself to one white dude a night (kinky).

Apex Legends I found myself taking a second look at this a few months back and it's still as good as I remember at launch.....it's still got all those annoying bugs and an awful community too, which takes the shine off of it in many ways. That being said I find myself ignoring the very obvious negative aspects of this game and its community because the cycle and shooting is just so damn good. Super Mario Maker 2 Turns out Mario Maker 2 is extremely my shit. Again. Nintendo did this game dirty. It should be something they support going forward, but it would appear that they've all but finished with it and whilst the basic game itself is in a decent place, it's community is itching for new styles, gameplay tools and interesting new features, Nintendo said no. Rocket League I think this might be my favourite game of all time. I've put thousands of hours into it and even now, over 6 years later I'm still playing it almost daily.

I think we've got a combined 1000+ hours in Animal Crossing in my house, but even now, over a year into this thing I think Danielle has finally lost interest in running her little island community. It's a real shame because I know for a fact that she wants to keep going back to that well, unfortunately Nintendo just isn't providing the updates the game needs to sustain itself long term. Real shame because if they supported this thing in the same way they supported something like Smash they'd have a game that people would happily play (and spend money on) going forward for years.

TOEM It's a short little 'puzzle' game that asks you to trundle around with your little character and take photos of things. Super chill, with a nice soundtrack and all-around relaxing vibes. Didn't take me too long to 'beat' 100% and I found it really helped me wind down in the evening. I didn't mind paying £16 for it on Switch but I think it'd be an absolute steal on sale.

Gamepass just added EA Play if you're interest in erm....year old sports games, a few middling NFS games or maybe Anthe..............Ha what Am I saying. No one's interested in Anthem. But seriously. Gamepass is awesome.

The Solitaire Conspiracy Fairly low effort take on Solitaire. The plot is cheesy as fuck and about as interesting as a slap to your genitals, but it looks pretty and the solitaire-esque card game it's all built around is fun enough. Hades Fucking 2020 Game of the Year right here boys and girls. I don't usually go for this type of game but damn if it didn't offer everything a game needed to offer in order to get me hooked. Also Danielle absolutely hated watching me play it, so that's an added bonus.

I can see that. I've unlocked all the weapons, and I'm basically an all-powerful son of a bitch thanks to my mirror, but trying to get over the top of proving rather difficult. Especially given that you only earn the good stuff after you've beaten the game on normal. I want to unlock other things, but those don't come in until you've beaten the final boss. And the final boss is at the end of a run with 4 other bosses who are all insanely difficult to beat on their own. In short: I gotta git gud.

Insulting Tearaway. How dare you sir.

Hades I'm not usually one for the hyper-difficult, run based games that seem to dominate the release calendar nowadays, but Hades is a little bit different. 15 hours or so in, and I'm finding that whilst the progression is slow, its super satisfying. I wish the game was a tiny bit more willing to dish out gear after a good run (seriously, I feel like 40 minutes of absolutely bossing it should be worth more than 1 item that goes towards something else that makes your build slightly better), but aside from that very minor thing I'm still having so much fun with it. Warzone Season 6. I shoot people. I have fun whilst doing so. Yeah, I said that. Super Mario Bros 35 Started this one today. It's basically Tetris99 but built around a Mario Bros level. You compete against 34 other players. It's less about 'winning' and more about 'surviving' each Mario Bros stage as they're presented to you. You're on a timer, so you do eventually have to finish the level, but that doesn't become a factor until you get down to the final few players. Those players are also working against the clock (and other players) to get through their levels. Each time you complete a level you add time to your own run, each time you dispatch an enemy on that run it's sent over to an opponents screen. So yeah, it's Mario Bros but competitive. And best of all, it's absolutely free if you're a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber.

I actually own this game twice now; on Switch and PC. Grabbed the PC version first, and I enjoyed the first few hours so much that I figured I'd bite the bullet and buy it on a platform that's a little more easily accessible to me.

Worked my way through another reading of Animal Farm. It's still great. Then I grabbed Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here which is a decidedly more difficult thing to read when you're absolutely fucking exhausted from working, and parenting a pissed off toddler who has absolutely no chill whatsoever. That being said, I've got 10 night off work so I'm hoping to be able to give the book some time. The original chapters grabbed me, and with everything going on at the moment, I think it might be essential reading so, yeah.

Source

Seeing reports of a Series V, which would be the X minus the disk-drive. Not sure on price yet. As for the consoles we know about. I'd saved up to buy myself one of the new consoles at launch, however paying £30 or whatever it is per month with Gamepass Ultimate included is too good an offer to turn down. Thinking I'll likely grab the X on finance on day one....

I'm still a little disappointing by the 3D-All Star offering, but given that I'm a mindless husk of a human, I can't wait to hand over £50 for the privilege of replaying those games. Nostalgia is a drug that I'm far too weak to say no too. I was holding out some hope that we'd get a bumper 3D World/Land release (seriously 3D Land is the Mario game that people think 3D World is.....???) but obviously that's not on the cards. As for this Battle Royale thing, Okay I guess? I was hoping we'd get some sort of Mario meets Nidhogg thing with loads of players on screen at once, but once again, I think I was expecting more than Nintendo was ever going to offer.

Whatever hater.

Interested to see where you land on this, given that you hated the last big paper-based-video-game release..... Tearaway will be watching closely.

Among Trees It's in pre-alpha at the moment, and as goes with these things, who knows if it'll ever get into a state of full release. That being said, I'm really enjoying what's available so far. It's a very (very) laid back survival game with a similar sort of aesthetic to Firewatch. It's not overly challenging, which is what I'm looking for out of these games. There's no overly complicated crafting system, I don't need to get a PHD to get my head around the cooking system and there's not much in the way of combat. 3-4 hours in so far and I'm having a real neat time with it. Now the question is, do I continue to enjoy myself, or step away from the game and eagerly await a full release in a few years?

Fall Guys is something I can see myself coming back to every once in a while, just to see whats up. I wish it had more level variety, and that there was a little more skill involved, but I'm not sure that's the type of game it's aiming to be. Which is fine.

The Last of Us Part II I'd struggle to say I really 'enjoyed' my time with it, but that's more to do with the nature of the story its telling, and the world you're inhabiting than the quality of the game itself. It's a Naughty Dog game, with all that entails. Brilliantly engaging story. Beautiful visuals. Incredibly realised characters....with a fairly mediocre action game holding it all together. Props for the accessibility options though. We need more of that going forward. Even just being able to change enemy AI difficulty was massive for me.

It's a modern take on a *classic election song from the William Henry Harrison v Martin Van Buren election of 1841. *Yup. It's an absolute tune.

Johnny Harris - Used to work at Vice. He now runs his own ship, producing some very well produced videos that tend to focus on Geopolitics, Travel and some other bits here and there. It's Okay To Be Smart - Takes a subject, or a question and takes a sort of mini-dive into the workings of it. Without going overboard with too much detail. I really like this channel. Lessons from the Screenplay - Lots of film essays. Nerdwriter1 - Does some very interesting video's on film, tv, popular culture and politics. Kinda like a super interesting middle ground between the two directly above this. Real Life Lore - Takes a question. Runs with it. ----- Tobias Bergdorf - Does some pretty cool Mario Maker 2 tutorials and breakdowns of the various parts of that game. Arrowstotle - Another MM2 guy. Tends to focus on level idea's as opposed to how-to guides.

I've been watching two shows of late. The Office (US). Technically I don't think this counts as a rewatch because for some reason I decided to take a break mid-way through season 4 waaaaay back in the day, and that break never ended sooooo. Yeah, I'm working my way through it. It still holds up. It's still cringy as fuck at times, but on the whole I find it to be the perfect distraction from the state of the world. Definitely plan on finishing the entire run. Even if the final two years of the show suck ass. And now for something completely different. Succession. What an absolutely incredibly bit of television this show is. Watching a group of the richest, most out of touch assholes in the world tear themselves apart on a daily basis, whilst also being pretty damn funny, and incredibly tense all at once is just...fascinating. It's from the mind of a former Peep Show, Thick of It and Four Lions writer, and it's totally worth a watch. It's still very much an ongoing show, but if it continues its current form for the rest of its run, I'd be hard pressed not to consider it one of HBO's best shows ever. Definitely up there with West Wing, Sopranos and The Wire.