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Looking For Quacks In The Pavement

  • The Superfriends

    Fandango’s streaming site had the new Superman film on rental for fairly cheap last night so I decided to spend a couple of hours checking out the movie folks have been raving about for months now. There’s a lot to rave about, I’ll agree. With that said, there are also some things to rant about and my brain simply refuses to leave them alone. Like a dog worrying at a chewtoy, one might say.

    Still image from 2025 Superman film showing Krypto, the super-mutt.

    Please note that I’m going to have to spoil some major parts of the movie to talk about my issues with it properly. Also note that I’m not lambasting the movie as a whole. In general, it’s a fun flight of fancy with a lot of good stuff going on and it has great heart. (Most of the time.) It’s certainly an improvement over the dour, grimdark efforts of the last set of Supes movie outings.

    But.

    Let’s get into it.

    (more…)

  • Guild Wars 2: Settling In

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    One of these days I’ll get back into playing one of the existing characters from before my 7-or-8-year break.

    Guild Wars 2 video game screenshot: Character select screen, focused on a red-colored plant-based character named Itzal Darque. Some character and account details are also shown, along with icons for the other dozen or so available characters in the account.

    Today is not that day, however.

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  • Satisfactory: Release +1 Year

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    I may wander off, I may restart time after time, I may abandon more saves than I finish… but I love this game as much now as I ever have. It’s gotten me through my diabetic years (and the pandemic years, both of which are ongoing) at least as much as any other piece of entertainment you could name, and moreso than most.

    This image uses one of the new screenshot Photo Mode filters added in version 1.1, the “Noire” filter in particular.

    Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Satisfactory’s version one point oh release. The reasons I keep coming back are varied and probably too many to count, but I’ll count some of them here anyway, in no particular order:

    (more…)

  • Cruel Summer

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    I only managed three posts in August. Whoops.

    Guild Wars 2 video game screenshot: Painterly image of several of the heroes looking at the game world after the battle against the undead dragon, Zhaitan. Only, the player character model has been replaced by a pink-feathered moa bird due to in-game shenanigans.
    Look. The Box o’ Fun transformed me into a moa bird, then we triggered the post-battle cutscene, and… well, this isn’t entirely my fault okay?

    Let’s catch up a bit.

    (more…)

  • A Measured Quantity of John Wick

    The trick to inserting your established unstoppable badass into your spinoff film without weakening the lead character of said spinoff film is careful, deliberate measurement.

    So, yes, I watched Ballerina last night. And to get into my thoughts here I’ll have to spoil certain things about it. I intend not to give away all the movie’s tricks, mind you, because if you’re into the Wick-verse movies at all then I also can easily recommend this installment, so you should get to enjoy as much of it as you can as a fresh experience.

    Still image from the film "Ballerina" of the main character Eve, played by Ana de Armas.
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  • Murderbot: All Systems Reread

    Now that I’ve had a few weeks to let my feelings about the televised adaptation settle, I did a re-read of the novella which started it all: Martha Wells’ All Systems Red. Part of my motivation to do so was to put “faces” to characters, and another part was to consider the questions of adaptation. Mostly, though, I read it because it’s a damned good book. There’s a reason this series is so beloved, after all. And a lot of what hooked us with the first installment did, in fact, make it into the TV show.

    Screenshot from the Murderbot TV show depicting a character (Ratthi) falling backward. Overlaid is a caption, itself a screenshot from The Onion, which reads, "Report: Average Male 4,000% Less Effective In Fights Than They Imagine."

    Just, for the most part, not exactly as in the original text.

    (more…)

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