bob

Everything up until he put on a silly costume looked really good - really intriguing. It looks like two different shows, but i'm likely going to watch it anyway. Also, after having almost every American character played by a Brit in all their previous shows/films, they finally set a show in London and cast an American!? Not too sold on his accent. Sounds a bit Frank Spencer.

To be honest, the same criticism could be had of PC gaming in general. Steam helped to reduce the number of bugs and other fucking around, but the hardware differences between multiple PCs means that you will always have issues. The Quest has the advantage of always having the same hardware running the same games, so it usually 'just works'. Hopefully, in the future, the standalone headsets will be powerful enough (or will connect to a standard console or external PC), making the experience easier.

Oh, you mean this one?

We're continuing on with this, even though it hasn't really picked up the pace. At least stuff has actually happened in the last couple of episodes. One thing I find quite weird, is the Mossbacher family, and their approach to money. Supposedly, the mother is the CEO of a large tech firm, and so you would assume is quite well paid/rich. However, so much of the dialogue and situation that they are in, makes it seem like the don't have much money - for a start, why are they in a suite with only one bedroom, and all three kids have to sleep in the lounge? It really makes it seem like they were written as a much poorer family, and then at the last second, they decided to make the mother a CEO.

Has anyone else watch The White Lotus? It supposed to be one of the highest rated shows of last year. My wife wanted to watch it, so we gave the first few episodes a try (I think we're halfway through). Neither of us is particularly impressed tbh. It's reeeeeeeeeeally slow. You keep thinking something is about to happen - it seems to be building up, but then....nothing. The whole show has this sort of weird tension, but nothing actually happens.

Finished the main story last night.

It'll be my screen name.

I guess it would put the insurance up, even though I'm not the main driver, I am a named one, so would have to declare them. It's moot now, as I've already booked a course, but it's annoying they don't say how much the course will be when you send the reply to the initial letter off. I suppose the cost varies depending on the council running it.

That's true. That's the one benefit, but seeing as I only drive my wife's car once in a while, I'm wondering if I could have gotten away with the points. They get cancelled after a few years don't they?

Colin crawled into the corner of the bathroom ceiling, and didn't move for a while. I thought he might just be hibernating? Then he dropped to the floor, and was eaten by another spider. I will miss him. In other news, I got caught by a speed camera doing 35(!) in a 30. I tried to appeal, saying I was auditioning for a part in Fast and Furious 10, but it was declined. Anyway, given the choice between a £100 fine, or doing a speed awareness course, I opted for the course. I find out today that the course last half a day, and it costs £83 to do?! So I have to take half a days holiday off work, and only save £17. Fuck.

I would like to accept my Nostradamus award on behalf of all the people who believed in me, my family and friends, and of course, the Lord.

You guys should meet up.

Should have used Bing.

One of New Years resolutions was to play more games, and I told myself I couldn't buy new ones until i'd completed my backlog a bit. I got part of the way through this before I got bored and started something else, so I thought i'd at least try and finish off the story. Just started on the main quest to get the chisel tip to get to Jotunheim. I decided to just skip all the obvious side quests and collectables and focus on the main story, and i'm enjoying it a lot more because of it. A lot of the collectable puzzles are a bit fiddley and break up the flow of the game. I still hate the control scheme. Next time I boot it up, I might explore and see if I can set up a custom one, or at least one that doesn't put the damn attack buttons on the shoulders. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?!

One time I told Google to fuck off, and it replied with a very hurt sounding apology that it was trying its best. I agree that they seem to have forgotten about the products. It's what happens with all tech companies apparently - the quickest way to be seen and get promoted is to create/work on a new product, so employees are always working on the next best thing, rather than improve the old thing. Its why Google seem to come up with so many new apps and services, but then shelve them 12 months later.

One really annoying thing about having Google smart devices right now, is that one of the nicknames we call our son, is Eggle. Don't ask why. But it means that half the time we say his name, Google thinks we're talking to it, and will start playing some random song, or complain that it didn't understand the question. We weren't talking to you Google! I can imagine people called Alexa must have the same issue.

Please do. I have already mistaken you for Dcubed one today.

I feel like with Mario Kart, Nintendo have worked their way into a corner slightly. They've got an artstyle which gives diminishing returns in terms of how much better it will look on increasingly more powerful consoles, so they next iteration is basically going to look very similar to 8. They've got a similar problem with SSB, in that they've already got a ridiculous number of racers and tracks in 8, so are unlikely to be able to cram any more in 9. So what more can they offer in 9? I guess they'll have to put in some sort of gimmick, like Double Dash did, since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is already the definitive version of Mario Kart, where else can they go?

How can you have Slalom at 160, and Backbone at 159?! They should clearly be the other way around. Utterly ridiculous, I can't take the rest of your list seriously.

I think I only played two games in 2021. One of them was brilliant, and the other one was Superliminal. So I think that Hades becomes my favourite game of 2021, but it was incredible, so it's deserving of the title anyway.

I've not played any games since September, but I'm intending to try and play more games this year, so hopefully I'll be more active in here than the last thread.

We used to have a fair few smart bulbs and smart plugs, but the whole system seems to be getting less smart as time goes on. Bulbs going weird, items not appearing on the network, Google assistant just acting plain weird. We've basically removed all the smart bulbs because they kept flashing and needing resetting all the time. The AI element of the smart assistant seems to be getting stupider rather than smarter, constantly getting things wrong when it used to be right. One or two of our Google minis don't want to connect anymore, so they're useless. Generally, it's becoming more of a faff to keep it running than it is being a useful addition to our lives.

Quitter!

So I finished watching Full Metal Alchemist on Netflix a full two days before they removed it, and it was pretty good. A satisfactory ending, and fairly gripping all the way through with not much fluff. Obviously Netflix have removed it now, but I wouldn't recommend the subs they have on there. I was watching the dubbed version, but had the subtitles on at the same time, and they were atrocious - completely different from the dub most of the time, and seemingly different from what was actually going on in the plot at times. I don't know whether to watch Brotherhood now or not, but I did see they have a Full Metal Alchemist movie on Netflix. Has anyone watched that? The trailer looked very true to the anime in terms of look (Alphonse looked exactly right).