Wiper

Sort of the opposite for me - I've not bought a game released since March (The Occupation and DoA6), but finally there are a couple of games on the horizon that I'm actively looking forward to (Judgment and Fire Emblem)! Still not the busiest of release schedules for me, but a big improvement on the spring.

Only two really stick in the mind, both for the Saturn: Panzer Dragoon Orta, at release. £40 was a bit steep, so I thought I'd wait for it to drop in price... Dragon Force, second hand at Gamestation. It was £10 and looked interesting, but I'd never heard of it and decided to look for reviews online first. Looked it up, it sounded good, resolved to buy it the next day, but it had already sold. No worries, I decided I'd just buy it the next time I saw it on sale! Of course, I never did see it again, and now, well...

I mean, it would certainly make the Thief and Tenchu games a lot shorter... (insert joke here about the same change having no noticeable impact on the length of the average MGS game, despite removing all gameplay elements)

Quick ruiners: Halo: swapping recharging shields for pickups, and/or removing the two-weapon limit. Original Doom series: swapping pickups for recharging health, and/or adding a two-weapon limit. Quick improvements: Mirror's Edge Catalyst: remove the levelling system, instead starting the game with all abilities; remove all combat-based challenges. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: remove the gacha mechanics, fire the character model designer.

I've always said, if there was one thing the 2D Oddworld games really needed to elevate them as puzzle platformers it was *checks notes* the addition of crafting and a turret sequence?

I dunno, there's some stiff competition, particularly if you're interested in other genres...

An advantage of living in Nottingham is a wide range of cinema options. If you want blockbusters in the city centre, packed with uncomfy seats and a fake Imax screen, there's the Cineworld - added bonus, it's inside a glass monstrosity that houses a variety of overpriced/underqualitied eateries and a minigolf thing: Added bonus: we've twice been ejected mid-film at the Cineworld due to one or another of the aforementioned restaurants catching fire. It is comfortably my last-choice venue. If blockbusters in a retail park with reclining leather seats and even higher ticket prices are your thing, then there's the Showcase. It looks exactly like every other cinema in a retail park, so I won't bore you with a picture. It's fine. If you want a very narrow selection of blockbusters at a low price with surprisingly comfy seats (including, delightfully, love seats) and four screens to choose from ranging in scale from mid-size to tiny, there's the Savoy: They recently refurbished, and while I sort of miss the old beaten up chairs, I have to admit it's a lot comfier than it used to be. And if you're after independent cinema and fun film festivals at a similarly low price there's the Broadway: The two cafebars are nice as well; the upstairs one tending to be quiet and a good place to type or code while waiting for people in town, while the busier downstairs one is notable for hosting a monthly video game quiz which I enjoy greatly, and being a nice place to wind down on a night out. The beers are overpriced, mind. Nottingham's certainly an improvement on the selection that I had back when I lived in Swansea or Newport, and I'm very fond of both the Savoy and Broadway. Partially for price, partially for ambiance, partially just the size - it's nice to go into screenings knowing that there literally isn't enough space for them to be filled with screaming hordes, and it's also nice to have lobbies and/or cafebar areas that don't make you feel like so much cattle.

Yeah, Scibor make some lovely dwarf models. A US shop, so postage/customs can be a pain, but for characterful D&D/Pathfinder-friendly models I swear by Stonehaven Miniatures: https://www.stonehavenmini.com/; no gnomes better, and they challenge even Scibor on the dwarven front (albeit they're metal models, not resin, so may not be to everyone's tastes).

That's a bit irksome, though it might be for the best really given the stack of unpainted/unbuilt models I have yet to deal with...

Very tempted by the new Age of Sigmar boxset; I love me some squigs and haven't bought any since they still came in metal, plus the more gnarly sylvaneth could be useful as monsters for D&D. Can't afford it this month, but maybe next; I mean, look at the idiotic menaces, how could anyone resist: Also, it'll be nice to see how far my painting's come since I last painted night goblins a decade ago.

Absolutely Celeste. And not just because I dislike both NSMB and DK[insert post-80s entry here]; Celeste is simply one of the best games I've played, and the forum quite liked it too.

Yeah, I got quoted in OXM (IIRC) back in the day, from a forum post commenting on the impressive grass effects in Halo; though, in fairness, it wasn't just the texture map - the little tufts of grass which popped up in close proximity (visible top-centre and top-right) and gave a sense of volume when not staring straight at the grass seemed impressive back then.

Thanks! I wasn't hugely confident of the way it looks, so that's reassuring to hear I've been quiet the past few weeks, though I've been working on the game on and off; my free time has been more limited in recent weeks (work, social engagements, language learning...), so I've only been able to fit in the odd hour here and there. I'm hoping I should be able to get some done tomorrow, as I'm travelling down to London for work and staying overnight; that should leave me with a good few hours of train travel and a night in a Travellodge with nothing better to do than work on it. One thing I'm quickly concluding is that I need a better workflow for level design; at the moment it's an extremely manual process, and I think I need to come up with some sort of tool to at least automate basic things (e.g. associating specific collision masks with specific tiles in my set; creating a randomised brush for my texture tiles). No real idea where to start with that, so I see a bit of research on the horizon.

So, having not really enjoyed a single DC film since, er, The Dark Knight, this was a bit of a turn up for the books. Fun, endearing, and everything the DC films have until now swerved, it was just an enjoyable piece of fluff with heart. I'm just hoping it opens the floodgates for more DC movies that are willing to be a bit goofy. A pleasant surprise. Booster Gold next, please!

Thanks Graham, that's a meaty selection to get into - we're actually midway through Dragon Heist at the moment (my idiot bard is having a particularly great time, having successfully schemed to get the head of her own guild executed by making it look like he was trying to have the Blackstaff assassinated), but I'll definitely take a look at the others!