JDubYes

It it an anniversary or something as I've had loads of XMen clips on the socials..

They're starting to integrate them into the MCU now, with some of the old Fox cast appearing in Avengers Doomsday later in the year, and then a lot of the new MCU casting - for a 2028 X-Men movie - being unveiled last week

The Fox X-Men stuff includes about 3-4 decent movies - that are still often campy or cringey - sandwiched in-between a bunch of others that range from vaguely serviceable through to absolute drivel. I'm always amazed by quite how many there are actually are too, especially if you count the pseudo-spinoffs. The fact that they tried to shoehorn in the Dark Phoenix saga twice and fucked it both times is almost impressive, and I suspect Marvel will try that again eventually, but I hope they take their time getting to it, as it is an iconic storyline, it just needs to be done better.

I am still fond of a lot of it though? Nostalgia is obviously a factor, and Logan still stands apart in terms of quality, but I do still like X2, First Class, Days of Future Past, and the Deadpool moves (for my sins), and while a couple of the rest are genuinely terrible some of the others aren't completely without merit. They've certainly had some excellent set-pieces in there in amongst it all - like Al says, there's Nightcrawler in the White House, and then also those two Quicksilver sequences in the prequels that are probably the biggest standouts besides.

There's that post-credits sequence in Deadpool & Wolverine where they effectively bid a fond farewell to the whole messy Fox years, and I genuinely enjoyed the look back, as well as the song choice - 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' - as they are something flawed and messy, but I did quite like them.

I've never really been enormously invested in superhero comics, just used to have a few cartoons I would watch as a kid, and then X-Men, Spidey and DC tpbs I used to read (or copy from) as a teen, but the X-Men movies probably got this whole thing superhero going, for better or worse, and then the MCU had me right up until the end of Endgame, partially just because of the 'younger me would've never believed this' element. I am finding myself vaguely interested in how they handle Doomsday/Secret Wars now though, partially because I can see it going a bit awry, but mainly because I think I'm at least a little interested to see how the MCU handles the X-Men in those and going forward, as they seem to be the characters I retain the most fondness for.

The Count of Monte Cristo is the same, though there's a theory that the second half drags a little more at certain points because Dumas decided to make sure he would get paid for it for a bit longer, which I've always been amused by.

The original Soul Calibur is still unbeaten in its genre, IMHO. Six games into the series and they've never recaptured the magic of the first one.

I will not stand for this Soul Blade/Edge erasure.

The only things I can think of that haven’t already been mentioned are Marvel vs Capcom 2, Trickstyle (and I have no idea how that will have aged) and Cannon Spike, which I never actually played, but sounds cool. I did play a lot of Quake 3 Arena too.

As has already been said, so many of these games have since come out elsewhere that it’s hard to know what to recommend - my DC top 5 would probably be Ikaruga, Power Stone(s), Marvel vs Capcom 2, Jet Set Radio and Soul Calibur, and I think they’re all available elsewhere. Even the Dreamcast Resi is getting remade now.

PLAY

As well as all the arcade-y stuff I dabble in, and my continuing Picross problem…

Persona 5 Strikers - I'm still intermittently plugging away. It's a pretty good P5 sequel, and it;s implemented a lot of the Persona quirks into a Musou game very nicely, but that doesn't change the fact that I struggle a little to engage with Musou games. I need to get a good session in at some point and hope it gets its hooks back in.

Shogun Showdown - turn-based roguelite strategy, which I had "accidentally" double-dipped on, and am now slightly obsessed with. Lovely little game. My only issues are that the two versions of the game I'm playing have slightly different controls, and that I keep calling it 'Samurai Shodown', which is a very different game.

Turbo Overkill - a cyberpunk boomer shooter where you also have a chainsaw for a leg. Very good fun, even if the party piece can also render the game a little too easy at times.

Star Fox - barely dabbled, but it's lovely. Still plays great, and looks so nice.

WANT

GTAVI, at least sort of.

At some point, Stranger Than Heaven, Marvel Tokon Souls, Muremasa: Revenant Blades, The Adventures of Elliot, Final Fantasy Resonance, Persona 4: Revival and Persona 6. And the time to play them. And all the stuff I already have.

BIN

Besides the obvious, I also did not like being a little bit fat. I was running three times a week up until a year or so ago, and had gotten to the point where I was pretty lean and fast, especially for a man of my advanced years, but then injury and whatnot led to my being unable to run 5k at all anymore. I am now back on the Couch to 5k, and have a new kettlebell to throw around, which I actually quite enjoy, so progress is being made back in the right direction.