Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD This should actually have gone into the media thread a couple fridays ago but I forgot. Co-op'd through this with a few friends and it's still a blast. Not my first run through Sam 1 but first time co-op. Good stuff.

Rhythm Heaven Groove Yeah these are always great and this is no exception. Maybe missing a fresh twist on the formula but hey we only get these every 5-10 years so just a selection of new challenges is probably enough. Got all the medals, will chip away at the perfects from time to time.

Pragmata Hugh & Diana's dynamic is really strong and endearing, and the hacking mechanic is great. Overall very good with a strong core but lacking a big punchy *something* to make it really stand out. Worth playing and I'd like to see them do more with it in a follow-up. 8.5/10 sorta game

The Odyssey Yep it's extremely good

Resident Evil: Requiem This one's very good. Balancing gameplay styles between 7 and 4 is fun, although it left me wishing for a bit more of both, especially of Grace's larger gameplay segment. Still "I wish there were more" is never a true negative really. Enjoyed this a lot.

Little Witch Academia (2017 anime series) Whoops almost forgot to put this on the thread. Our latest group watch, and as someone who grew up on The Worst Witch books (Harry who? Outta here with that terf nonsense) it certainly hit my nostalgia. Well put together and a really loveable cast.

HWDE (progress note) Master Wind Waker map completed! And about halfwayv through Twilight map, making 50% done overall. Hopped forward a bit to grab the last four characters, Marin's so much fun to play. Just Toon Zelda, Ravio & Yuga to go, and Toon Link's Sand Rod, and that's every play style done

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie Back to the Future, with chuckles. Very fun stuff

Supergirl I wanna try to get back to the cinema a bit more. Anyway! Fun movie! I do worry a little that everything I've seen under the James Gunn sphere is starting to feel a tad samey, but the vibes are good so hey. Supergirl herself's great, and Jason Mamoa's absolute scenery chewing is terrific.

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition (progress note) Yeah I dunno wanna keep the thread alive a bit I guess. At 116 hours in: Legends Mode cleared on Easy and Normal, all Hearts & 1st Skulltulas collected. First 3 maps of Adventure Mode 100% done. Just 6 to go!! :) i am dying

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Cool to catch this at the cinema, it's been a *very* long time since I last saw it. Definitely don't get as much out of it now than I did as a kid but it's a classic.

JULY MEDIA (MOSTLY HWDE) THREAD Alright, so. This month is gonna be basically oops all Hyrule Warriors. I decided to finally defeat an old white whale of mine and complete this thing. It's a game I love. It's also 400+ hours long. I'm currently about 85 hours in on the current save. That's my July.

JUNE HIGHLIGHTS Yeah this really was a light month. Minishoot Adventures was an early delightfully fun time. Honestly, Backrooms is the kind of movie I enjoyed well enough but probably wouldn't be here in a busier month. Still, pretty good. And the Amy McDonald gig easily clears all else.

Amy Macdonald (live @ The Piece Hall) Do live gigs belong on here? Well I'm gonna say they do. Anyway great night, great support from The Coral & Nathan Evans. Amy was terrific, great setlist and we got (appropriately) roasted for being a fairly quiet crowd (hey I was bringing the energy)

Disclosure Day Overall pretty good, but man there's SO many plot elements to this that makes its already beefy 2.5 hour runtime feel like 10 times that. All perfectly followable and ultimately pays off well but there's just sooo gosh danged much of this film. Maybe too much.

Koala Lumpur: Journey To The Edge. A middling adventure game from the death spiral era of adventure games, starring a buddhist zen master(?) koala in a wizard's fez and garb who speaks in a deeply stereotypical Indian (yes, Indian) accent that would make Apu cringe. And all of it looks like this

The Boys, Season 1 Rewatch. Working back up to Season 5. I've definitely gotten a lot more tired of Thing, But It's Awful media over time (sorry I've really tried to get into Invincible but I'm just tired boss), but I do still like this. The last one allowed into my brain before the gates closed.

video gaming

Masters of the Universe Better when it's not trying too hard to be funny - but it tries too hard to be funny *a lot* and it succeeds far less often. Skeletor's a consistent highlight, though. Needed more confidence in its campy cheese, retreats back to laughing at itself too often. A 6.5/10 for me

Backrooms First time back to the cinema after a little while. This was pretty good. Visuals are superb of course. Plotwise there's an awful lot left to interpretation, which can make some of the expository scenes a little aimless and overlong, but overall enjoyed this.

Minishoot' Adventures First big highlight for the month, delightfully fun little game. Classic Zelda mixed with twinstick shmup works really well

Kirby Air Riders I love that this exists for everyone that loved Air Ride, it seems like the dream revival for them, but I think it's just not for me. Fun sometimes, incomprehensible slurry of particle effects most others. Feels built for people who perceive the world at about 1/3rd the speed I do.

PS5 games are like buses. You wait years for one to come along and then 7 turn up in the same two week window. Yeah you uhhhh. You might wanna have a chat with some publishers and see if you can get these spaced out a bit, Sony.

Delicious In Dungeon, Vol. 11 Apparently I haven't read any manga since April... how'd that happen? Well, time to catch up. Real close to the end of this one

Hades Another replay - I made a start on Hades 2 a while back and got the itch to replay Hades 1... and then wound up wholly focused on that. Whoops. Rolled credits, but want to get deeper into the postgame than I did last time I played through this

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World Honestly it's just funny typing out the full titles of these things. Nice to revisit this for a fresh playthrough alongside the DLC - I've done both separately before but they're paced better when interwoven. Still superb

MAY HIGHLIGHTS Good one for movies - Sheep Detectives and Obsession both excellent on *very* different ends of the scale, and Devil Wears Prada 2 made for a worthy follow-up to a film I also only saw for the first time this month. In gaming, Stories from Sol was a real nice little time.

Hi, I bought a copy of your game at london mcm today - thought it looked really cool! And couldn't pass up a pc game being sold on cd-rom in 2026 haha. Looking forward to playing it! (need to get my hands on a pc cd player first lmao). Love the geocities site :)

Top Gun Maverick Carries some of the same problems that basically all these modern iterations of 80s blockbusters carries, in that it's slightly *too* mawkishly reverent and nostalgic for the original, but past that it's a Top Gun movie done well, so overall pretty good