PWB: March

Play

Just three Hitman 2 levels to finish off before I can start on the third.

I continue to be impressed and appalled at the quality of puns in Dragon Quest XI, but it's a lovely, relaxing experience all around. Load times on the Series X, especially paired with Quick Resume, have made it much easier to pop in and out for short bursts, which I never expected from a JRPG.

Yes, I'm still playing PriConne. I will not be taking questions at this time.

It took a bit of faffing with the website, but I eventually managed to buy Prince of Persia 2008, which is every bit as great on modern hardware as it was on 360. Its QTE-inspired movement got a bad rap at the time from a lot of quarters, but I always found that element, the no-death-penalty and the combo-based one-on-one combat really effective at providing a lightly strategic challenge while making you feel competent and powerful.

I'm starting to get to the end of my prepared notes for The Expanse RPG, so I need to figure out some hooks for what comes next. Having a gunship broadens the possibilities somewhat.

While 13th Age is on hold, one of my players is running a short Tales from the Loop adventure. We've only had one "real" session so far, but I like what I've seen so far.

Want

Videogames-wise, nothing really – between what I've got on my plate already and Game Pass, I feel like I'm pretty well sorted.

On the (virtual) tabletop, though, I find myself really curious to run a Tales of Xadia one-shot with the playtest rules that have come out. I'm starting to come around a little on the Cortex system, but it still feels overly complex, especially for a tie-in with a kids' cartoon.

Bin

I mean, politics, obviously, and everyone involved in it. They're all a shower of bastards. But with the kid back in nursery, the week is significantly less stressful, even if I'm still a little concerned at the back of my brain that it's too early.

Play
Hitman 3, as I continue to try and complete challenges. There's so much to do in this game, it's ridiculous.

I might return to Star Wars Squadrons here and there, assuming there are still people playing; I haven't even touched the single-player yet, though, so there's

D&D - the game I'm running is coming to the end of the starter set quests, at which point we're going to switch over to Curse of Strahd, which I'd been wanting to run for years. The game I play in, we finally escaped the dungeon we we're trapped in, and got some wacky RP done.

Want
I don't even know what's upcoming in games, so, uh… a PS5, I guess?

A bunch of TTRPG books, but nothing urgently.

---

On the (virtual) tabletop, though, I find myself really curious to run a Tales of Xadia one-shot with the playtest rules that have come out. I'm starting to come around a little on the Cortex system, but it still feels overly complex, especially for a tie-in with a kids' cartoon.

I initially thought so, too, but I'm starting to think it might just be very poorly-explained. Having information about how character creation works would be useful, too, I usually find that helps me her my head around a system.

Play

Hitman 3 which is just a never-ending list of fun things to do. I really enjoyed the Elusive Target this weekend though, hopefully we'll get a steady stream of these (and some on the newer levels). Now the worst of the bugs and server issues have been ironed out, we should see what IOI have got in mind for support over the next few months.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together: every bit as good as I remember it, and surprisingly slick and snappy for a PSP game. The writing's pretty evocative too and it's nice to play a quality SRPG that isn't some form of Disgaea. It's tough but fair in that unrelenting old-school way.

XCOM: Enemy Within: also really good, also has barely aged a day, but brutally difficult to the point where I sometimes need to psych myself up to play it. I'm trying not to save scum but it's horrendously disappointing when you play for an evening and end up effectively going backwards, or lose all your best enhanced units in a single rocket strike. It relies for its atmosphere on the player being perpetually on the back foot.

Want

Hard to think of anything I want to actually buy, but there's plenty of stuff on GamePass I'd like to find the time to really get stuck into. Elite Dangerous popped up this week, from a quick look the new player experience has been massively improved since I last played it and it works really well on a pad. I started Pillars of Eternity and it's really decent. I'd even like to have another crack at Dragon Quest XI. Maybe I need to play something that isn't hundreds of hours long?

Bin

This is obviously going to become a theme, but after a year of trying to remain relatively positive I am really fed up of lockdown now. Every day is the same, I'm either spending 10 hours a days at at my kitchen table trying to work, or doing all the household chores I don't get the time to do during the week. Everyone's tetchy, all of the time. I'm eating poorly, sleeping badly, drinking too much, putting on weight, generally miserable but devoid of the enthusiasm to sort any of this out. There's nowhere to go and even a walk round the park is over-familiar to the point of screaming tedium. I'm glad the boy is going back to school next week (it'll be good for him, and us) but also convinced that they'll all be self-isolating again within a week or two. I want this all to end, but I also think the government are rushing things. It's really getting to me now. Apologies for the whinge.

I'm starting to think it might just be very poorly-explained

That's a definitely possibility; it's taken me several attempts at reading the Primer to get my head around it, but it feels to me like at every turn they've chosen the more complicated, difficult option. Roll 3 or more dice, but don't add them up, just pick two. Oh and pick a third for another thing, but it doesn't matter what it rolled. And 1s don't count at all.

Having information about [how] character creation works would be useful, too

There actually are a couple of little notes buried in there about how to build characters, but again it feels more complicated than it feels like it should be.

Given the emphasis on archetypes, I just don't understand why they didn't go for a PbtA-style playbook approach, or Forged in the Dark if they really wanted to stick with dice pools. (I know why: money. Somebody at Fandom presumably invested a lot of money in the license to boost their terrible system's profile.)

D&D - the game I'm running is coming to the end of the starter set quests, at which point we're going to switch over to Curse of Strahd, which I'd been wanting to run for years. The game I play in, we finally escaped the dungeon we we're trapped in, and got some wacky RP done.

please dont run death house just start at level 3

They're going to be starting at level 6, and yeah, I ran death house once before. It's not awful (with tweaks), but it's way, way too cramped - especially for 5 players.

Roll 3 or more dice, but don't add them up, just pick two. Oh and pick a third for another thing, but it doesn't matter what it rolled.

See, I understood it as, "roll all your dice, then pick 2 results to add together to make your Check with, then pick a third for stunts, or whatever"?

Play

Valheim

It's like literally every other PC exploration/survival game with the chop tree-make workbench-make thing-chop other thing gameplay loop. So fucking dull.

Yes, you can tame pigs. Yes it's 3Gb. And yes it's streamlined some of the usual survival game tropes. But holy shit am I bored to fuck of this now. As I am of the PC gaming community's inevitable hype train for whenever the next one is shat out. I've played about an hour of it and I suspect it's going the way of the Steam refund. PlAy It WiTH FrIenDs, nah I'm good.

Destiny 2

This season has been really good so far. New content on a weekly basis, maybe the best exotic quest they've ever put together and the State of the Game post this week announced that they're basically getting rid of sunsetting. Having tried Outriders, it's really remarkable how much D2 gets right about live service games.

Yakuza 4

Akiyama is a fucking creep. Hey, you want a hundred million yen, I have a hundred million yen, but the test to get you that hundred million yen is you go on a date with me and work in my hostess club also I am gonna force myself onto you to kiss and then ask 'hey, why didn't you pull back?' afterwards and then act surprised when she says 'I don't know' because I don't understand how power dynamics work like a fucking lunatic.

Punching's fun though.

Desperados 3

As soon as I worked out that you're meant to fail a lot at this, reload, retry and as soon as I put it on the NVMe drive, this game became a lot more fun. It's neat. I wish that it branched a little more, and it had some RPG elements or something to give you a greater sense of customization but I am digging it.

Want

Vaccine shot 1 on Wednesday oh boy.

Bin

hahahaha oh my

They're going to be starting at level 6, and yeah, I ran death house once before. It's not awful (with tweaks), but it's way, way too cramped - especially for 5 players.

Honestly, it's not just that it's cramped it's that it actively discourages player exploration and then being curious about things. "Oh, you opened a closet? Here's a C1 animated object that's going to kick your teeth in. Oh, you went into a room? Surprise, another monster! Oh, you're trying to interact with the monster in a non-combat way? Well, here's a fear status effect! Get the fuck on the rails, stay the fuck on the rails."

See, I understood it as, "roll all your dice, then pick 2 results to add together to make your Check with, then pick a third for stunts, or whatever"?

I have not read this system but it's based on Cortex, right? Like, build a hand of at least 3 dice, roll them, pick one as your 'this is the amount of something that has the potential to happen usually a d10 or d12' and then add two remaining dice together to get your 'this is the check you need to pass to not have the effect' happen to you.

This is why companies should put out actual plays of their games. It never ceases to amaze me that more places don't put out official 'hey, guys! We've made a oneshot game on youtube that'll explain our core systems, and the flow of play-'

See, I understood it as, "roll all your dice, then pick 2 results to add together to make your Check with, then pick a third for stunts, or whatever"?

You roll as many dice as you can make an argument for including, yeah. The third isn't for stunts per se, it's your Effect, which "indicates how well your efforts did, beyond a simple pass or fail". It seems to be used for different things depending on whether or not you have opposition to your roll, few of which are clearly defined.

It seems like a real mess on paper, maybe it works better in practice..? unconvincing noises

This is why companies should put out actual plays of their games.

There is one for Tales of Xadia, but it's not great. The GM doesn't seem massively familiar with the system, and keeps deferring to one of the players – Cam Banks, who wrote the Cortex Prime rules and is lead developer on the Xadia version but says at the start that it's "actually [his] first time playing".

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying used it to great effect. It takes about 10 minutes to get used to once it's actually moving. It's good.

Want
Luscan to reflect on Stewart Lee's approach to comedy and its applicability to this thread.

You roll as many dice as you can make an argument for including, yeah.

For example, using one of the pregen characters, to cast the equivalent of D&D's "Light" cantrip, one of the players in that realplay video rolls:

• d10 for their "Intellect" Attribute;
• d8 for their "Truth" Value;
• d8 for the "Hotheaded Fire Mage" Distinction, which they downgrade to d4 to get a Plot Point;
• d8 for their "Sun Magic" Speciality; and
• d8 for their "Sun Magic Spells" Asset because "Ring of Light" is one of the spells they have specifically trained in.

Now, there's obviously the question of whether this needed a roll in the first place, but to me that seems like too many dice for one spell out of combat.

Want
Luscan to reflect on Stewart Lee's approach to comedy and its applicability to this thread.

he fell through the bar, cav.

(Re)Play
Breath of the Wild. It's been four years(!) so I figured I'd revisit this. It's just a phenomenal game. I'm surprised that even now, four years later, no games have managed to replicate its beautiful, natural emptiness. Few have even tried. It's my personal favourite game ever, I think.

God of War. Completely different to BotW but no less spectacular. The PS5 patch has made a stunning game even more 'phwoar'. The only (tiny) negative is all those cleverly hidden loading screens. On PS4 those tunnels, slow walks and dark areas hid the loading beautifully. But now, with the SSD begging to be used, they're frustratingly pointless.

Want
Vaccine appointment tomorrow, baby. Get it in my arm, and get me in a beer garden.

Play

13 Sentinels - Don't be put off if you think this an obtuse puzzler with mecha disgaea bits in, it's not. Closest description i can give this is that it's a Visual Novel. A Visual Novel with 13 point of view characters, 13 different storylines that run parallel and criss cross and you can even pick which order you do things in because what even is chronological order anyway? One of the most ambitious story/narratives I've seen in a while I think? Even the combat sections are prone to dropping absolute mindfucks on you, you're never safe, game has more cliffhangers and mysteries than a season finale of Twin Peaks.

Nioh 2 - The first game for my money, is the best Dark Souls type game there is, it wasn't a great looker like Sekiro and it didn't have it's amazing parrying system but there was so much content in it, and the gear and battle system is insanely deep if you get down to it.

They ditched William in this (well, it's a prequel apparently so he' be in England anyway) and let you create your own character. What an immediate improvement that is! After a few hours I already feel more connected to my character than I ever did to William (Also the story for Nioh was pretty lol so that wasn't a factor). I made a female Monk who hunts Yokai and beats them to death with her bare hands, the mark I put on her forehead serving as a seal she breaks to enter the games Yokai Mode for when things realllly need to go for a spin on Buddha's wheel asap.

So far it's Nioh and that's a good thing. Combat still revolves around managing stamina (or Ki as it's known in this), and by that I mean unlike in Dark Souls you can 'reload' a portion of it by timing the 'Flux' button. Managing this and the low/mid/high battle stances is key to understanding Nioh combat. We can now both transform into demons AND summon assist attacks from defeated souls. IT just seems better than the first in every way. (well…Lady Ginchiyo hasn't appeared yet, but there's time)

The gauntlet weapons were part of the season pass and oh man, so fun! I have a dempsey roll combo and when I drain an enemy of the Ki I do machinegun punches on demons like it's jujutsu kaisen or some shit.

Tactics Ogre - Here and there, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the system mechanics, I made myself into a Knight, learned 'Two Handed Swords' but I can't use that skill as a Knight apparently. So I take it this game won't go the FFT crazy route of 'learn dual wield as Ninja, swap back to Berserker and dual wield two axes' route, given how that led to game breaking shit? This games art is actually godlike.

Trails of Cold Steel - I returned to this after writing about it in the Vita thread, I should finish Ys:MoC at least but I have to say, why do I play other games again tbh? This country could somehow sink into the sea and as long as I had this I think things would be okay. I don't think I can explain well enough why I feel so strongly about this series but when I played it I realised I still miss that universe greatly. T_T

Want - Nothing tbh, getting MH Rise soon, no rush.

Bin -

Want
Luscan to reflect on Stewart Lee's approach to comedy and its applicability to this thread.

he fell through the bar, cav.

Was that a joke, like the ones they do on Top Gear?

Want
Luscan to reflect on Stewart Lee's approach to comedy and its applicability to this thread.

he fell through the bar, cav.

Was that a joke, like the ones they do on Top Gear?

Del Boy falls through the bar… Trigger makes a face

Of course they're all snowy owls by the time I've finished with them Stu

This back and forth really is quite fascinating. I'm just curious which one of you is Charlie and which is Stella.

Consider the lily.

'E's 'avin' a go at the flowers, now!

PLAY
Binding of Isaac - Still. The Repentance
expansion is out at the end of March, but only on PC. Gotta wait for the console version. Boooo.
Curse of the Dead Gods - A weird game that feels like lots of other things all patched together. It's got Hades without the compelling story, Slay the Spire for its chamber pathway design, upgrade systems stolen from all manner of other rinse-repeat roguelikes and a very punishing mechanic that means even doing well is made harder as you move forward. The combat is okay, but the dodge and parry bits don't feel nearly as precise as the game thinks they are. It's… fine? Maybe? But I certainly don't understand all the gushing review sites are throwing at it. I already regret buying it outside of a sale, but don't regret owning it. I think.
Hitman 3 - Slowly slowly assassinate monkey.
Sea of Thieves - Creeping towards 50 in Reapers, checking off commendations as I go. Maxed out progress in Season 1, so that's nice. Not entirely convinced by the current fishing tournament but it's got me vaguely enjoying fishing now at least. It'll be Season Two that really shows if this whole pass thing is going to work… I worry they're going to recycle the same trials, and it'll highlight just how little there is to do in the game once you reach the end game.

WANT
Retromania Wrestling - Delayed on consoles, but still looking forward to it.
Hatsune Miku Logic Paint - Hatsune Miku Picross?! GIVE IT TO ME.

BIN
People not being negligent cunts would be nice. Sadly, they are and I'm now paying the price (quite literally). Fuck 'em.

Someone wasn't watching This Morning With Richard Not Judy in the late 90s

Play

Pikmin 3 - Charming busy work.

Whitehack - It's nice to play in an RPG for a change. Even if my pacifist swordsman PC did get stolen by a demonic painting offering great power which I knew was a bad idea to accept. As an aside, 3rd ed Whitehack is a good update.

D&D - one of my players lost a character last week, so he has built a grung (frogman) luchadore to replace him. He is intending to totally abuse the falling damage and Barbarian Rage rules and I can't wait to see it in action.

Edge of the Empire - The Jewel of Yavin adventure is surprisingly open. After five (short) sessions of build up and prep the heist begins this week. Should be fun.

2000AD - I've been reading a lot of Judge Dredd. It's not all great, it's not all good, but the best bits are fantastic.

Rubix Cubes - I got a bunch of different puzzles for my birthday and I have taught myself how to finish them. The dodecahedron is fun. Can anyone here beat 2 mins 32 seconds to complete a rubix cube?

Want

To actually devote some time to one of the many videogames I keep thinking of playing. Nintendo games are zero workout but they aren't exactly satisfying. I need to play something I can get my teeth into. Hades or Persona 4 probably.

Bin

This month I would like to bin the ridiculous double standards the media are applying to Nicola Sturgeon compared to the shit they are willing to ignore from the Tories. They have never before given a shit what Alex Salmond had to say about anything but suddenly it's the most important and urgent matter and the only reasonable action is to gut the whole of Holyrood and incrementally put Scotland back in its place.

Play: Hitman 3: It's weird, I know there's loads more to do but I'm having a hard time going back to it. I've got a tonne of levels to replay for additional mastery/lols but since the story ended I've only gone back once to do some recon on the elusive targets. I think it's fatigue – started H2 at the tail end of last year and didn't play much else. Happy to take a break for a bit.
Red Dead 2: I'm genuinely blown away by this game and excited by it. There's a lot I could live without but then there's so much in it that makes up for all of the niggles – the control scheme is chief among these but there's no need for another person on the internet to moan about that. I will say it's weird going back to Rockstar's way of doing things after so much time spent in the freeform world of murder that Hitman presents. There was a period early on where I'd be looking for a bounty thinking 'right, I'll sneak up and then lasso this guy and then… Oh. Yellow Circle. Oh…. Cut Scene? Scripted chase… Okay, I… Guess we could do it that way'

Want: More gaming time. The last couple of PS+ offerings have been very good for me, good enough to think I'll be back for another year much more rapidly than usual. FFVII and Remnant this month, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall last month. Remnant & Greedfall are games I'd love to sink large chunks of time into but get the impression I'll probably only ever manage to scratch their surfaces.

Bin: I've stopped drinking and it's pretty good. Annoyingly good. Good in a 'why didn't this occur to me before' way. Wasn't a dry January thing, it was more fatigue and weight gain over Christmas coupled with my partner getting ill at the end of December/start of January (not COVID, just ill) and being wrung out from work and kids.

I've talked to pals who did dry January and hated every day of it but I was ready for this. Doubly annoying the final push came from a YouTuber called Babbish. He recreates extravagant food from movies but then at some point he recognised that eating loads & drinking loads was bad for him. And then he made a video about that.

Anyway, nearly at day 60 and I've been finding I've got more time in general, better concentration, more energy & life is easier all round. I'm fully aware delicious beers and bottles of wine with friends aren't going anywhere and neither are the selection of malts we have in our booze cupboard but this is definitely helping at the moment.

I've been trying to get back into running via Couch to 5k which is fine – I've never liked running much, at school you swam or you ran and I swam – the app has improved my resilience to get through runs without stopping to look at a tree or something but I'm still finding 'enjoyment' elusive. Hopefully that comes with improved fitness but if anyone has any tips I'd welcome them.

Play: Hitman 3: It's weird, I know there's loads more to do but I'm having a hard time going back to it. I've got a tonne of levels to replay for additional mastery/lols but since the story ended I've only gone back once to do some recon on the elusive targets. I think it's fatigue – started H2 at the tail end of last year and didn't play much else. Happy to take a break for a bit.

I think I'm getting close to burning out on it, too. As great as it is, some of it's starting to feel a bit like busywork, especially when I'm chasing stuff that I already did back in 2016. I might make good on my threats to return to Squadrons, or even start on something else for a bit - Control, maybe, or Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

I've been trying to get back into running via Couch to 5k which is fine – I've never liked running much, at school you swam or you ran and I swam – the app has improved my resilience to get through runs without stopping to look at a tree or something but I'm still finding 'enjoyment' elusive. Hopefully that comes with improved fitness but if anyone has any tips I'd welcome them.

I did Couch to 5K and never enjoyed it per se. It was more the feeling of accomplishment that kept me going. When I hit milestones like ten minutes without stopping, or 2.5k, it felt great. Then sore. Then sleepy.

I've been trying to get back into running via Couch to 5k which is fine – I've never liked running much, at school you swam or you ran and I swam – the app has improved my resilience to get through runs without stopping to look at a tree or something but I'm still finding 'enjoyment' elusive. Hopefully that comes with improved fitness but if anyone has any tips I'd welcome them.

I’ve also never really liked running, and only started (also with the C25K) in October, purely because I didn’t think I’d have the inclination to keep biking all through winter, whereas I could probably/hopefully make myself run.

The enjoyment, where I’ve found it, comes from the satisfaction of improvement - at the start of last year I was 117 kilos (in my defence, I am over 6’5), had a longest recorded bike ride of under 20km, and couldn’t run a full lap of the park across the road from me (which is probably nearly a mile). Now I’m about 94 kilos, frequently ride more than 20km in my lunch hour (longest ride is now over 60km), and the other week I did five laps of that park and then sprinted home in the snow.

(Yes, I am a bit pleased with myself. Yes, it is quite nice.)

So, yeah, try and stick to it, keep track of your achievements (big and small), and maybe set yourself something to work towards (my fastest adjusted 5k time is under 25 minutes, but my “real” time isn’t…yet) so that you get to feel like a boss when you achieve it.

Oh, and listening to music/podcasts helps too, of course. I actually bought myself some new open-ear/bone conduction headphones to run in, and they’ve probably saved me from being run over about three times already.

I think I'm getting close to burning out on it, too. As great as it is, some of it's starting to feel a bit like busywork, especially when I'm chasing stuff that I already did back in 2016. I might make good on my threats to return to Squadrons, or even start on something else for a bit - Control, maybe, or Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

There's loads and loads to do in this game (well, three games) so you'd drive yourself mad trying to do it all in one go. I'm also stepping back from it a bit, but I'll no doubt be back for whatever elusive target comes next - and we should get the March roadmap any day now. The advantage of Hitman is you can drop back in months later and pick up where you left off without having to remember the plot or anything particularly complex.

Re running, I actually enjoyed it when I started couch 2 5k a few years ago only to find that walking became incredibly painful. I've always had problems with jumpy legs and my knees aching, right back to being a kid, and my Dad used to put it down to growing pains. Anyway, it got too much when I was running, I thought I just have been doing something wrong but was swallowing ibuprofen as often as I could and it was making no difference. Went to the GP, eventually got referred and had an MRI and discovered I have a bone spur eating away at the cartilage in my knee that but was told that I'm "too young" to operate on as it's something usually seen in much older people, Charly was livid, made me go back to the GP so she could hear it herself and I was told if I'm to do any excercise it's to be low impact and using my legs as little as possible.

So no running for me.

Clocked in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim at 54 hours, fuck me I wasn't expecting that much, but I'm okay with it even if it started to creak a little at the end. (Gating a certain route the way they did and too much Yakisoba Pan lust on top of that, but nothing major)

Anyway, yeah, that was fucking awesome. I will admit some plot points toward the end came at me at such a busy time in game that I'm going to need to go back to process what I just saw. Hell I need to do that anyway I want to at least sort the events out into chronological order. I'm impressed they managed to juggle 13 main characters as well as they did and keep me hooked to the very end of those long hours too. The combat sections are both really fun and also not that deep so if you play on Intense Difficulty like me you just sorta' get longer battles and that kind of worn me down when I had to do 5 in a row. (The very last one is incredible though)

Being freed from spoiler quarantine feels fucking great man, I didn't even listen to the OST on youtube because I didn't want to give the Youtube algorithm that knowledge, it sucked but I'm really looking forward to going round reading everyone and anyone's thoughts on the shit I just lived through!

I have some things I want to come back to and say in spoilers eventually but it's 5am and I don't want to do it just yet. But (I don't care if you assume you will never play this don't click!):

Spoiler - click to showwhile the cloning/android stuff got out of hand at times, damn that Chihiro/Iori and Kurabe/Izumi stuff was a WILD ride. There's just so many fucking plot twists that threw me for a loop, like Kyuta Shiba, Chihiro killing…Chihiro, Chichiro being Iori, the fact that you're not actually time travelling. It's such a ridiculous batshit cocktail of PLOT.

Spoiler - click to showHijiyama and Okino best couple, a shame in the after credits Hijiyama is still shy about it but at least they came right out with it in with the space colony call between the two, very cute.

So no running for me.

I'm one of the weirdos that actually really enjoys/enjoyed running but sadly these days I suffer from dodgy knees - not quite as serious as what you've described, Wev, but enough to ensure that any sustained periods of running these days leave me hobbling around.

I find it's significantly better if I run on a treadmill but fuck me that really is boring. Turns out "going somewhere" and "seeing something" is as much of the part of the appeal as the actual running itself, as soon as I start feeling like a hamster on a wheel it's ten times harder to get the motivation going. I can offset it a bit by listening to music or watching something while I run but still, it always feels like work rather than anything I'm actually enjoying. Still do it, but I'd not describe myself as a runner these days, more "middle aged bloke who occasionally drags himself out for a run".

re: running

/looks down at crippled legs

Oh. Right.

BIN
Nier Automata - Installed it yesterday to get some quick Xbox Rewards points, but I've played and persevered through it a fair way in the past. Man, that's some overhyped bullshit right there. Got points, uninstalled, never again.

Play - I’m enjoying revisiting Tactics Ogre, not sure I want to go on to FFT straight away.

I’m missing The Witcher 3 - finished the main game but not done the DLC - I think I’m about ready to go back to it.

Want: Bravely Default 2 - watched a review of the full game , and put a few hours into the demo last month - but there is something putting me off about paying full price.
Think I’m also going to turn on my PS4 for the first time in months and get into FFVII - think this may be the first PS+ game I’ve been excited about for months.

Bin - the great indoors. .

Thanks for all of that good to see the spectrum of tolerance for running. My cousin does triathlons and is being very supportive with ideas for things to do after C25K which is good – I'm hoping to get to the enjoyment phase because (sorry Mart) it's a fairly easy activity to do and I do tend to feel great afterwards.

I will never talk of it again but cheers!

Nier Automata - Installed it yesterday to get some quick Xbox Rewards points, but I've played and persevered through it a fair way in the past. Man, that's some overhyped bullshit right there. Got points, uninstalled, never again.

It gets good after you've completed it seven times.

That's the exact discussion I had with some work friends this morning, leading into 'Oh, this Final Fantasy game gets good after 24 hours!'. No thanks.

That reminds me, I kind want to go back and finish Final Fantasy XIII…

I like Automata and I would never say it only gets good after a certain point, it starts out good and gets better as it goes. I still hate how the internet has practically deified it though.

it starts out good and gets better as it goes.

The 'utterly devoid of anything good' desert section would like to disagree with you.

Just wait for the remastered 'prequel'. I'm not convinced I'm going to like Brother Nier anywhere near as much as Papa Nier that we had in the 360/PS3 version though, though it'll be new to me so I'm still looking forward to it somehow.

Play - Moved to Shenmue 2 now so aim to have that finished by the end of this month, partly due to the Easter Hols. I also want to finally open and use my Evercade, finish Banner Saga 2 and foolishly got FM21 and now utterly addicted to it. Messing around as Hemel Hemstead Town currently on it.

Want - nothing, don't think there are any releases out

Bin - Dealing with the exam board that runs my course - They aren't telling us till the 11th how our students will be assessed or what we actually need to finishing either teaching them, or what work they may need to submit…not sure if that is the sort of thing you can bin in here but including it.

I don't want to be "that running twat" but unless you physically are in a terrible place running with proper form makes it about as low impact as anything. For sure, there are genuine injuries that can preclude you from doing it, but most people who I've seen claim they can't run just need a good 30 minute session with a trainer who works on their gait/foot strike and works out the correct footwear for them to use. I lose count of the amount of people I run past who make me wince as I see them literally hammering the cartilage out of their bodies.

Additional BIN:

Sheer stupidity - I bought a media remote for my Xbox Series X, which arrived yesterday, and I was tinkering about with it at lunchtime. It works immediately, no configuration needed. Great! Except because they're side-by-side on my TV stand, it turned on and controlled both Xboxes at once. I noticed, but thought nothing of it and messed about to make sure it was fine.

Trouble is, the second Xbox wasn't plugged into a screen (I use the same monitor for work during the day), so I couldn't see what was happening there. Cue me fiddling on one Xbox and not realising what the corresponding actions were on the other…

Long story short: I managed to accidentally cash in 13,600 of my Xbox Rewards points on two months of Xbox Live Gold. Not Game Pass, you understand… vanilla XBLG. That translates to 40 days of GPU. Sadly, MS won't redeem points that are spent even if it's an accident, so I've just screwed myself over. I was less than 2k points away from a 3mth GPU redemption, now I'm 15k away. Balls.

Ouch. Well, it could have been much worse. At least you didn't buy a load of DLC for something you don't own, for instance.

Also you've managed to get yourself 40 days of GPU for 13,600 points - given that the going rate is one month for 12,000 points, I think you've done fairly well. You don't save much by going for 3 months GPU vs 1 month, so actually you've been pretty lucky I'd say.

Still not as good as the EA Play deal though… I've stacked there and now don't need GPU until May 2023.

Can you explain the EA Play deal? I presume it's just buying cheap codes and it now converts?

I have noticed some odd tendancies with Xbox one where the little one turns the controller on downstairs, and it's a controller that used to be paired on the xbox one in my office, and so it fire up both consoles.

It doesn't control both but for whatever reason it's still making it power on.

Can you explain the EA Play deal? I presume it's just buying cheap codes and it now converts?

Taken from my post in the Bargain thread:

Heads up, Game Pass Ultimate folks - a year of EA Pass goes for roughly £20 on CDKeys, which converts to four months of GPU. That puts a year of GPU at £60-odd, less than it is if you buy a year of GPU direct (it stacks). Not a massive discount, but a discount nonetheless. Fill yer boots.

(For reference: I paid €22 for a year of EAP, converts to four months of GPU. Three months of GPU is €39. So, that's nice then…)

I've now spent €240 on this, which has given both me and my partner GPU until mid-2023. The equivalent to buy blocks of 3mth GPU subs comes to €620-ish. I'll take that saving.