🎮️ Played : The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt

So I finally completed The Witcher 3, having bought it for the Nintendo Switch back in February. Or at least, I’ve completed the main game – I still have the two DLC packs to play. But I think I’ll take a little break and get to those later.

I know I’ve missed out on a lot of graphical fidelity by playing the Switch version. Though to be honest, I think I’m note as put off by this as some. I grew up on an Amiga 600 with long loading times, inconsistant framerates and the like. Those kinds of flaws are just part of playing a game to me.

I bought the PS4 version ages ago but stopped playing it when I was barely out of the White Orchard tutorial area. I think the learning curve just felt too steep for me at that point. There were lots of things that didn’t click – the janky, momentum based movement; the inventory user interface; the monster weaknesses and so on. I got over (or at least tolerated) these and other minor quibbles, though I still think the inventory user inerface could be improved.

However, overall it’s a great game – certainly the time-sink I needed during lockdown. Not to mention the gameplay of roving around huge vistas of countryside in all kinds of weather, often with gorgeous skies overhead was a decent tonic while stuck inside my flat.

I picked up the Steam version too (it was a tenner) and hope to buy a gaming PC at some point. The cross-save functionality between PC and Switch should mean that I can dip into the game in glorious 1080p or 4K and see what I missed out on graphically.

🎲️ : Playing Dungeons and Dragons

🎲️ : Playing Dungeons and Dragons

I started playing my first ever campaign of D&D during lockdown, using Skype and Discord to connect with some old pals. And I’ve absolutely loved it.

It has been a wonderful weekly piece of entertainment where my pals and use the power of storytelling to hold on to a little bit of control while the real world spirals on.

So much of life in lockdown has resulted in reduced freedom and opportunities to interact with people, but our weekly campaign is a fun creative exercise in agency and control.

If nothing else, it’s been a great help to maintaining my mental health as a way to connect to old friends in a way that doesn’t focus too much on the day-to-day grind of lockdown, but rather provides a portal for us to have meaningful communication despite without having to talk about the real world all that much beyond a quick catch-up at the start of each session.

I’m not the best at it – it still feels that I’m a bit limited at the creative aspect and having played too many computer RPGs that I’m concentrating too much on the “dungeon crawler” aspect of playing D&D. But, that’s what’s familiar to me and it provides the anchor to think about the more creative sides of the game.

Seu Jorge – Life on Mars?

Seu Jorge – Life on Mars?

This song is one of my favourite cover versions ever. I remember hearing it for the first time on my favourite music programme on the radio, the Blue Room, which played at 5 am on weekend mornings.

The programme was so good, I actually set an alarm to get up and listen to it, albeit while still lying in bed.

📍️: Bois de la Cambre

A lovely, if slightly damp morning stroll through Bois de la Cambre for the first time in too many weeks.

While walking, I had a listen to the last few chapters of Hilary Mantel’s ‘Bring up the Bodies’, to prepare for starting the third and final book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, ‘The Mirror & the Light’.

Vice

Watched the film ‘Vice’ this evening, which I’d been looking forward to since I first saw this *amazing* trailer.

Not quite as good as I’d been hoping, but still a decent film.