This blog update’s a little later than intended, but here we go!

2WITCH

I’m an easy mark for Nintendo and have been since childhood. I got very excited about the announcement of the Switch 2 and of course I preordered it. I’ve let my dad and brother know about Mario Kart World and I’m sure they’ll both fight over who gets to be the skeleton of a fish the next time we play.

SUPER MARIO QUEST

I’ve hit a bit of a wall. I started Mario 64 on the N64 app on the Switch and changed over to the Super Mario 3D All Stars version as it feels a little better. The Switch N64 controller works beautifully, but the 3D itself has often been my downfall. As of writing I’m just at 38 stars out of the 70 needed to complete it. Given how far through the year we are, I’ll be finishing this one and moving on, hopefully coming back when I’m done with the others as it’s been good fun, even when it’s been frustrating.

SHARING THE EXPERIENCE OF CYBERPUNK 2077

While Emma and I were away in Glasgow, I saw that Cyberpunk 2077 was on sale. Emma was almost done with Dragon Age: Veilguard which seemed to mostly be a game of watching her shout at the screen about bad character actions and ideas. I downloaded Cyberpunk 2077 and when she had finished Veilguard, we both started Cyberpunk. It’s been interesting alternating who’s playing the game as we both have different styles to our “V”. The open world is lovely, especially as someone who’s been reading a ton of 2000 AD. Seeing Emma’s brain-burning netrunning and sniping has been interesting and helped with my ‘sneak up close, then knife & shotgun’ approach. She’s been going through fixer contracts and getting money to buy each car for the platinum trophy, while I’ve ploughed into the DLC and started stealing cars for El Capitane.

While we’re going to be completing the game a bit slower than usual, it’s been a fun time doing it this way. I’m curious to see if this informs how we do involved single player games in the future. 

As a quick addition, I’ll probably talk about this later but I’ve started The Blue Prince, which Emma and I are treating in the same way. We’re not copying off each others’ notes, not really, but sharing some information with each other about it all.

I’ve mentioned previously about giving up on my attempt to read all of Cyberpunk Red, mainly as it feels painfully trad and like there are a lot more subsystems, skills and so on. Despite that, I’ve backed the physical version of Hard Wired Island as I loved reading that and Cyberpunk 2077’s making me want to try that game now.

THE NEW 52

I subscribe to a number of comic apps and read a ton of comics. After neglecting the DC one and inspired by the Polygon oral history, I started reading all of The New 52. I know, I know. Don’t worry, I’m also reading good comics!

I’m using a timeline of it, so I had to get through a lot of 0 issues. Grant Morrison’s Action Comics is still great, as was Demon Knights. I was in good hands with Animal Man, but knew that would be the case. There are so many series which are aggressively mid, filing down the USPs to make people like Green Arrow into a fairly generic guy. As much as I enjoyed the original Justice League International and I’m sure I’ve read good Dan Jurgens comics, the New 52 version felt like the most flavourless version of superhero comics I’ve experienced in a long time. Similarly, Men of War wasn’t even good war comics.

ARKHAM HORROR

I play Arkham Horror every fortnight with a group of people at the Dice Saloon. We’ve just hit the end of the Dream-Eaters cycle and as we’re preparing a new season, I’ve volunteered to run a test session of Cosmic Dark, an upcoming horror RPG. I’ve also been working on an abridged version of The Scarlet Keys’ campaign guide, as it doesn’t quite fit our play sessions in its current style. If it goes well, I’ll upload it to BGG.

A LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET

I’m terrible at reading prose, especially as someone who wants to write it. I’ve finally had a break from my King marathon to finish off reading Anthony & Askhy Burch’s small book on Metal Gear Solid and to finally take my beloved’s advice and read some Becky Chambers. I’m about a third of the way through A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet and it’s been a good read. It’s a very weird science fiction universe, but also a familiar and very human-seeming one, even if the species involved aren’t. At first I was a little concerned that there wasn’t going to be much drama, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I’ve been going along with the flow and seeing what it brings.

SPRINGS & KINDLING

I’ve hopefully not bitten off more than I can chew by volunteering a number of written works for the Sprigs & Kindling zine projects and the Public Access Double Feature contest. I’ve got until the end of May for the contest, the start of June for a Public Access aide which I’m most of the way through. I’ve also got a Trophy incursion which I need to write up for their Halloween issue. 

To make things worse, I’ve had ideas for a Between scenario set in Devil’s Dyke and a location guide for the as-yet-unpublished Arkham Herald. I don’t know what it is with the CfB games, but they’ve been firing up my inspiration.

That’s it for this month, next time I’m sure I’ll have some words about CabinCon and hopefully will actually be prepared for UK Games Expo!