Play
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - I'm quite enjoying this, although I can only play it in 20-30 minute chunks every couple of days. Some of the fights are actually really difficult, so I'll be stuck on the same fight for days on end. I dropped the difficulty down to easy, and it became more like the game I wanted it to be - more casual combat and focussed on the characters, story, and humour, which is the real strength of the game. It looks amazing, by the way.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. I play this on my phone through an emulator as a way of taking a mental break from painting. It's decades old, fairly simplistic, doesn't explain itself properly (it's never clear what each ability is going to do, and there's no in-game explanation, and what the "laws" mean is frequently a mystery) but it's compulsive as hell and absolutely brilliant.
Space Invaders Extreme - I didn't know this existed until it popped up in a video I was watching (an old Tim Rogers one, possibly - more on him later) but it's basically Tetris Effect for Space Invaders, and it's absolutely amazing. I got it in CEX by trading in some stuff I had gathering dust in my wardrobe, and it's a great, meditative experience. It's at once a brilliant music game and a brilliant pure shooting game.
Splatoon 3 - I'm not getting to play this a huge amount myself but my son loves it. He's very good at it, arguably even better than I am at Fortnite. I retired from Fortnite as I decided it was best to go out on top. Anyway, Splatoon 3. A big thank you to, well you know who you are.
more of a Watch but, Action Button youtube videos. I put these on while painting. They're Tim Rogers' longform video reviews/essays upon various games. They're amazing, frankly. Insightful, profound, and funny in equal measure. They're not going to be for everyone, but I watched a 6-hour video about a Japanese game I had never played or even heard of a couple of weeks ago and it was one of the best things I've ever seen. A "review" of Boku No Natsuyasumi that became a meditation on memory, nostalgia, and the passing of childhood. The length and depth of these videos is at once part of the humour, and yet utterly serious and worthy in it's own right. Rogers' persona and manner leads you to wonder if it's all a joke and you're not meant to be moved by it, but at the same time, the stuff about childhood homes and returning to your old schools as an adult is so true and so sad. If you've not watched one before and are intrigued, ease yourself in with the Doom or PAC-MAN video, and then try the Tokimeki Memorial one.
Want
The people in my life to be happy, and the health and mental health services in this country to be properly funded so that the decent people employed within were actually able to do their jobs. We could have built hospitals with the money that was funnelled to Tory backers via PPI contracts. Instead we are left with some services that have been cut back to the point of virtual non-existence. There are no child mental health services anymore, this at a time when some children have been severely traumatised by Covid. The actual services have been decimated, to the point that all we have left is the various signposting services, which all give each others' numbers out to the people who ask for help with no actual end point where the person gets the help. The same is happening with adult services. I know of a whole set of services in my area that are just gone as a result of the ego of one incompetent man trying to fluff their own CV, and one unscrupulous "charity" who hoover up tenders with no plan of how to deliver the service, or seemingly any intention of even trying. I can't go into details but it's depressing and infuriating in equal measure.
Bin
A whole bunch of my games collection. Well not so much binned as flogged off. I found my old Dreamcast and PS2 stuff in a box in the wardrobe and with bills looming I took a bunch of it to CEX and sold it. I have to say CEX are very good. They're completely transparent - you put the titles into their website and they tell you how much you will get for it, and how much they will sell it for. So you know what you could possibly get on ebay if you can be bothered with the hassle and can make an informed decision whether to do that or take it into CEX. I chose to go with the CEX option. I got decent money for my copies of Skies of Arcadia and Gregory Horror Show, both of which realistically I would never have played again. I just wish I could find the little bag that had some of my GBA games in that are now worth triple-figures.