Thursday Next

Does anyone have a code for the PS5 Firmware Beta?

I really liked this game. The gameplay was solid*, I liked that it was predominantly an exploration / puzzle game, with some arena fights thrown in, rather than another open world adventure game. The story telling (both the delivery, and the content) were what elevated it to a "must-play" for me. Edit* "in my opinion", like nothing felt broken in terms of combat or movement, controls felt like they did what I wanted them to do. Combat felt more tactical/puzzle based than skill/timing based which I enjoyed. Just wanted to be clear that @Mister Jackis allowed to have their opinion as it sounded a bit like I was just saying "nah, you are wrong."

I loved Sekiro sooooo much.

Inside out is big for me because it removes cables. I just really want a release date.

You can fight a divine dragon in Sekiro, but it's a more of a... puzzle fight I guess..? I recognised the protag (and the growing stick weapon) from the TV show Monkey (maybe "Monkey Magic" in the US?) looks interesting.

I absolutely hate missable shit in RPGs. I loved FFVII Remake for it's chapter thing allowing multiple, quick, do-overs.

If you have the budget, I can recommend google's Nest WiFi (or whatever they are calling it this week) for a whole-home wireless solution. I had to swap my Vodafone hub for a standalone Modem to resolve some DHCP conflicts, but since then it has been absolutely bomb-proof.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-55646360 https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/ni-hospitals-and-schools-facing-food-shortages-in-major-crisis-minister-39967782.html https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/sainsburys-says-lot-uncertainty-over-nireland-trade-2021-04-28/ BBC, Belfast Telegraph, Reuters for a Mainland UK, NI, and EU mix of views all of which basically align on the supermarket shortages being at least in part due to Brexit (covid certainly hasn't helped mind). On return to violence: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/violence-in-northern-ireland-it-s-worse-now-than-when-it-was-in-the-troubles-1.4532953 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-56664378 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-nireland-protests-new-idUSKBN2BV1XQ Again, mix of sources with different biases that all broadly agree that Brexit is at least a major part of the reason for return to/increase in violence (though Ireland is very complicated even 100 years on from separation). There's lots around the "NI Protocol" (if you want a search term to go by) which UK govt signed up to assuring everyone it was a great deal and would "Get Brexit Done" and now are coming back to having realised that it is an Indiana Jones, Holy Grail, chose poorly, level of poison chalice.

It's so good! Flinging batarangs feels great!

Well, the border in the Irish sea that we were promised wouldn't appear, appeared. The violence in Ireland that we were promised wouldn't return has returned, supermarkets are struggling to stock shelves, and mobile roaming charges are coming back. So all in all, "Project Fear" turned out to be "Project Kassandra" and is now pivoting to "Project I know I said I wouldn't say 'I told you so.' but since you went back on everything *you* said... 'I told you so.'"

Like, I feel that this is just life advice.

Mine was a Kindle Voyage. I think it cost me £120ish when I bought it I think so I'm more than happy with the 2/3 off, and the discount.

How is it? I'm starting to want to play something other than Hades on my Switch.

I sent in my Kindle for a trade-in (only recently found out that Amazon will give me £40 +20% off a new kindle if I send in my (6yr) old one). It's taken 6 days to finally give me the discount, and my new Kindle won't arrive till tomorrow. This means I've had to pick up a bo-ok (I assume it is pronounced the same as coop?) from my limited collection. I went for Part I of the Divine Comedy (Inferno). If you've not read it, I find it really interesting as it is where we get most of our modern ideas of hell from. The major challenge with reading it (similar to Machiavelli's The Prince) is that it refers to a lot of contemporary Italian (and in particular Florentine) politics and political figures, so you really need to have a version with those references explained to get some of it.

tbf, the running up a bamboo thing is sort of new. I don't think I've seen that sort of horizontal to vertical traversal in a game before. Reminiscent of how Spider-Man runs up a building, but applied in a natural setting. It could make open world games like Tsushima feel more three-dimensional. Or, in a game set between warriors and assassins you could choose between using that verticality as an assassin, or cutting down the bamboo thickets to deny enemies that terrain for a "fair" fight.

I really hope there will be new game-play tropes as well as story ones.

I've beaten the final boss in Hades a few times now, so will consider it "beaten". It's really good. The god bantz works in a way that I feel it didn't in that other mythology game. Fenyx or something like that? The rogue-like elements are familiar and enjoyable. The meta progress is satisfying and it has an "easy" mode that increases your tankyness by a couple of % each time you die so that eventually you hit a sweet spot where you are being challenged, but are not getting completely hosed and hitting a brick wall.

Yeah, same as Ethan. "Metaverse" to me is mixing unrelated franchises from separate "universes". Like, the Lego movies are the only ones that stands out as being enjoyable.

Kissing Cousins perhaps.

I think even the popcorn blockbuster stuff needs decent writing and characters personally. When I say thoughtful I don't mean it has to be Schindler's List/Shawshank. I mean, some thought has to have gone into character development. Hulk vs Skywalker will always be a fun concept and crap movie until someone works out why they would fight. Hulk vs Thor in Ragnorok was cool not just because of the spectacle but because of the reasons they fought, finding out that Hulk has a voice, and a range that extends beyond "Smash" and "puny god", that he is fighting because he is always angry and has a raging fire inside (unlike Thor's smouldering mini-fire) all that stuff is what made the film good after the thrill of the big fight scene. If it is just the fight scene, then it all falls flat. (In my opinion).

The one thing I don't like about Returnal, is the lack of meta-progress. I love that with Hades you are collecting stuff every run, Darkness for Mirror upgrades, Gems for house upgrades, Nectar for friendships, Diamonds/Titan Blood more rarely, so every run is giving you progress of some sort. A lot of Returnal runs feel like, "ok, that was a bust, but I learned things and grew as a person". Even if you get a bunch of ether, that just adds items to the pool of potential drops. I just sorta wish that they gave you permanent integrity boosts, or something. I'd also like a Hades style "God Mode" that made you more tanky with every death so that the game sort of meets you half-way.

If you want some more Greek mythology that doesn't shy away from the (extremely obviously but somehow glossed over/erased by Hollywood - how odd) homosexual relationships, but at the same time is not salacious, I'd highly recommend Mythos, Heroes, and Troy by Stephen Fry.

Urgh, the whole "metaverse" concept needs to fucking die. @toxicitizenabsolutely nails it with "lazy nostalgia bait". It's all Content and zero substance. "Now Disney own Marvel and Lucas, Luke Skywalker can fight the Hulk" great, sure that will make for a CG spectacle, but why would Luke fight Hulk? If you just want to bang your favourite toys together and make exploding noises, great, you can sit in the corner with my 8 year old nephew and go ham. I'd much rather see some thoughtful well written, character driven games, shows and movies.

I've been reading through the Arsene Lupin series (in English, I'm not a polyglot or a masochist). Was inspired to after watching the Netflix series (which just released a second season this year). They are enjoyable heists/capers, the "Herlock Sholmes" ones are a bit laboured (but that could be me being a little partisan in supporting "Holmes/Sholmes/Shears" over Lupin).

Unions be like "CaN wE HAvE sOmE O2 plEAsE" commies.