The US has gone so far right that the options are right of centre or far right. While any moderate option is screamed down as “socialism”.
They used to be Aphrohead Books. Bought a couple of books from them years ago.
And that’s the problem hanging over all of this, vote or don’t, but you can’t opt out of the result.
You could look at SciFier.
They take a little time to despatch but do also give a timetable. £2 postage flat rate but items are well packed. Yodel is their carrier.
Used them twice recently and they’ve been pretty good.
The Democrats are in a similar position to Labour in 2019, weak lead candidate, hostile press, charismatic allowed to say any old shit unchecked opponent.
And the solution is likely to be the same as the UK, let the right-wing lunatics run rampant.
So far, both US and UK politics can be boiled down to Labour / Democrats going: We’re not as bad as the other lot.
That’s true but a great political campaign it is not. The difference is Labour got in because the other lot had run things down so badly.
Turns out lots of them wanted a rapist.
SpeedyHen are a little odd at the moment.
Had the BZJRKR OHC cancelled.
They seem to be having problems with DC books, they don’t seem able to get the King WW Volume 2 in.
At the same time, there’s been other stuff they’ve sent early. There’s no pattern to it.
Well, if this summary is accurate:
Starmer is prioritising macho bollocks above all else, as there’s nothing like giving the people he wants to deliver his vision a public kicking to motivate them. That always works, right?
And then the US takes back its numero uno spot by having a huge healthcare insurance company CEO shot to death in New York.
All the eulogies say he was a good man etc. But the company he led had been in the news due to denying coverage. It’s not personal, it’s just business? Healthcare is as personal as it gets.
Heheheh – I suspect Marvel might despatch a bounty hun – ahem, freelance peace-keeping agent on him if he did.
Skeleton Crew is a perfectly fine SW riff on The Goonies in Spaaaaacce.
It also has a lighting director who knows their job and a script that knows it needs to zip the story along.
It’s nothing revolutionary, but it is smartly executed, looks good and is fun.
Oh, you wanted an adult orientated, gritty, dystopic tale? Get out of here, it ain’t that kind of story.
Sounds very DC.
Heard Netanyahu used to call his mum anti-semitic when she told him to tidy up.
Rule of law in the USA
1776-2024
Cause of death – Idiocy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-hush-money-case-sentencing
Pretty much.
And here are the billionaires kissing Trump’s arse, scrambling over each other to be the first and best at it:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/06/trump-election-win-billionaires
Vance is Peter Thiel running the US with his hand up Vance’s arse.
The world as memorably summed up by Richard Mottram continues:
“We’re all ****ed. I’m ****ed. You’re ****ed. The whole department is ****ed. It’s the biggest cock-up ever. We’re all completely ****ed.”
Just swap out department for world.
Watched this and yeah, it’s OK. It’s not the miraculous second coming of the MCU that web chatter suggests, but it’s fun enough, with some excellent high points
Biggest weakness was the TVA by far. I just don’t like that concept. Even this being a rogue part of it doesn’t make it fly for me.
Blade, Gambit and Elektra were fun. Nova was an OK villain.
High point is easily the fight with the 100 Deadpools. Some very clever shots in there, all set to Like a Prayer. A close second is the tour of Logan variants – spotted both Age of Apocalypse and Old Man Logan in there.
So long Greg Hildebrandt.
Sad news.
Recently stumbled on this site which might be useful for us:
https://www.comicreleases.com/category/solicitations/2025/2025-01/
Aside from Arjan deciding to mimic Musk’s posting style, there’s a lot of irresponsible politics swirling around this case, with those throwing around petrol being the first to decry the fire that results.
Now there’s a stupid precedent to set – TV brand exclusive channels.
Finally, good political news:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c704eedkqkvo
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, jailed for 18 months for contempt of court.
In case you missed it, this is Austria but the pattern replicates globally, as mainstream conservative parties burn themselves and everyone else to the ground to hold onto power:
Yep. Once this all ends, Netanyahu and his coalition is toast. Therefore they will keep the killing going, which enough Israelis are happy to support.
That those actions fan the flames of anti-semitism globally will only be used to justify the continuation on the basis that the world hates Israel. It’s a messed-up logic.
Sadly, that is unlikely to stop the killing.
Yeah, I don’t see how degrowth can work in a capitalist system. But the thing we actually can, and desperately need to, do right now is to at least switch to more sustainable energies and materials. To just keep going while the climate is radically changing all around us is insane to an extent that I find that position very hard to relate to.
I’m slowly working my way through Edible Economics. Its opening intro explains 1970s Britain’s food was terrible, jump forward 40 years and the food has improved immensely, but its economics has become that 1970s food scene: bland, no character, laissez-faire all the time.
Haven’t got to the other schools of economics that we never hear about, which would give governments different economic levers to use, in combination with imaginative and innovative policies.
Case in point of Labour being stupid: Starmer says he’ll cut red tape to hype up this investment summit.
What he should be saying is Labour welcomes responsible investment so the country can start to be rebuilt, without risking another Grenfell, which is what followed the last load of regulation shredding.
Both things are true:
– Starmer’s stepped on several entirely avoidable rakes.
– The media are far more indulgent to the right-wing.
The other aspect to this is Rings of Power. First series was OK, not great, but the second series was far stronger, in large part due to the pieces in place from the first series.
Kaos was heading in the same direction, but Netflix lost their nerve and hit the cancel button
Indeed it does. Netflix are idiots.
Watched The Rings of Power S2 finale.
I liked this second series a lot more than the first, but it would not have been able to do what without what the first series put in place. If Amazon are smart they’ll confirm series three fast.
Recent reads:
The Midnight: Shadows
This is an OK story with OK art, though I’m not sure the mix of styles works. The flaw in it for me is the ambiguity of its central idea doesn’t work well for it, as it tries to suggest both realities are real.
The Me You Love In The Dark
This is a great little horror tale from Young, Corona and Beaulieu. It’s also an effective rendering of a toxic and domestically violent relationship through a horror lens.
Fall of the House of X / Rise of the Powers of X
They actually pulled it off. With everything I’d heard about Fall of X, it felt too vicious, too tipped to the negative for my liking. A too sharp mirror of the world? Also probably true.
Then there’s whole presentation of From The Ashes as a rebuild. That leaves a bad taste in the mouth because after reading this? The X-books do not need a rebuild, they’re not in a hole or scorched ash.
The 10 issues of the two minis collected here, along with the very important X-Men 35 / 700, concludes the Krakoan era very well. The only flaw is the missing pieces and references to other issues, but that, I suppose, is what the omnibus will be for.
I’m also far more disposed to reading the earlier Fall of X pieces, again, likely via a possible omnibus.
Will I continue or jump off the X-books? I don’t know. Marvel’s paperbacks are crappy, but they’re pricing their hardbacks upwards. If I decide I need a jump off point, Uncanny X-Men 700 is a perfect one.
That one uses napalm.
Israeli firefighting 101:
1. Supply your hoses with petrol
2. Express surprise when the fire explodes
3. Repeat
We’re living in the timeline of Do Not Create The Torment Nexus.
Recent reads.
All-Star Batman OHC
This is a good set of stories, with a good art roster. They may be boosted by being read in combination with Snyder’s Batman run.
On their own they work well, with an ongoing plot running across the 14 issues. It’s not an essential, must-read series, but it’s good.
Canary
An effective horror piece by Snyder and Panosian, this is another miniseries to join the others Snyder’s been doing over the last few years.
This one is set in the late 19th century, in Urah, concerning a mining town that delved too deep. Then it turns out the local geology is odd too.
As usual, it’s a good trade whose production values justify its price.
G.O.D.S.
After the mess that was his post-HoX-PoX X-Men work, there was some good stuff in there but overall it was a mess, it’s nice to see Hickman return to form here.
A stort of magical secret wars, politics and grudges and feuds, all played out across multiple dimensions and space and time. And, a first for Hickman, restrained use of diagrams.
I liked this a lot. It helped that the Panini trade was excellent too.
Star Wars Outlaws
All right, 55 hours later, top ranks hit for all the syndicates, blaster fully upgraded, most abilities got, all Nix skills got, some speeder upgrades and at the endgame, how to review this thing?
From a SW perspective, it is superb. It is so good in this respect that you are likely to forgive it anything with regard to gameplay. And there is much to forgive.
The biggest problems are the game is far too muted in its visual communication and inconsistent in practice. Along with the hardest Story difficulty setting I’ve encountered.
Its stealth can be good, especially towards the endgame when you have decent tools, health, abilities and gear. But there are times when the enemies go to full alert, suddenly know exactly where you are in ways they shouldn’t. It’s also often hard to know both where enemies are and their capabilities. Combine this with no alarms / do not get caught requirements and its a recipe for frustration.
Combat has a very weird aim assist that isn’t much of one, it lacks clear indications of where enemies are , even when marked and they are way too accurate. Graphically enemies blend into the background far too much.
Quests and exploration tends to work better. Though some treasures are far too well hidden and, in relation to the size of the game world, location hints too obscure. The speeder is good but needs guided route displayed, as the destination point is not enough, the view too low to the ground and you’re going too fast to navigate easily.
Once you have them unlocked – and there’s a rather hefty gatekeep of a main mission to do so – the contracts make the reputation system improve. Faction quests are a bit of a poison pill due to inflicted reduction. Finding brokers is fun, and once you start playing them off against each other, it gets good.
Space flight and combat is all right, suffers from the same flaws of combat generally – enemies can be tricky to see and hit.
Gear and abilities – these are a good combination. As the game goes on you get far more options and can fit for specific need. The only way to improve it would be to have saved sets that you can flick between.
Should you get this? If you are a SW fan, yes, as you will likely put up with its considerable flaws. If not, then hold off until 21 November, or you may be less than forgiving than Lord Vader of those flaws.
Nuclear fusion will save us…. until the tech bros use it exclusively for AI.
Recent reads:
Gone
This is a great little with a good ambition and a good showcase for Jock skills as writer and artist. A story of a future sci-fi corporate dystopia,with less a gap and far more yawning chasm between rich and poor.
The opening sets this up very effectively, with kids running through a shanty town. A town revealed to be on another planet as oblivious starships pass overhead. The resulting tale from this is engaging, with a good set of characters. There’s a great sense of scale Abi’s on too.
In terms of production values. I hope DSTLRY keeps these as they are as this is a good, OHC edition that shows off the story.
Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley
This is a very clever story that starts off as a rather standard war tale for Ennis, with a side of time travel and very sharp humour. But in its finale Ennis does some very smart sequences, which Goddard’s art brings to life incredibly well. Those elevate the story massively.
What are they? That would be telling and you don’t want me to be.
The Helltrekkers
An early Judge Dredd spin-off, this sees a load of MC1 citizens try to leg it across the Cursed Earth to a better life. Of course, the clue is in the name: Cursed. Earth.
And so it proves, with much of the fun being who gets offed next and how. It follows that Wagner takes full advantage of the setting to get creative. Nor does everyone die, just a lot.
As usual with 2000AD, the art is excellent, with a high level of density to its mix of colour and mono visuals.
Hey, he poked the bear.
Ah, but it’s not as macho and that’s the other aspect here. Starmer and Reeves feel a need to demonstrate how well ‘ard they are.
Thing is, I’m not sure who they’re trying to impress – the Torygraph, the Daily Heil and the Scum are never going to be their friends.
The best counter I’ve seen, which avoids means testing, is you could restrict access by tax bands. Those that really don’t need it don’t get it while those that do retain it.
Give a UK government, any government, a +100 majority and they will do something stupidly arrogant with it. But where it took Thatcher and Blair years to do so with the Poll Tax and Iraq, Starmer has done it in months with the withdrawal of winter fuel payments.
The idea would always be controversial, but not even bothering to do an impact assessment is a gifted own goal born of arrogance.
This is gloriously absurd and brilliant – new trade arrived today.
Usagi Yojimbo: Volume 39: Ice and Snow
Collects issues 270 to 274.
Those numbers are amazing. And I know it’ll be page after page of perfect yet deceptively difficult artistry.
Concepts of a plan…
That is all… except it’s not, have you locked up your pets?
And, after that flaming car crash? Taylor Swift endorses Harris.
They are definitely trying to force a move to digital-only gaming, as then they each have their online system shop monopoly. I’m not convinced it’s wanted. People will point to 80-90% digital sales, but that doesn’t say everyone wants it to be 100%, especially with the lack of competition in digital marketplaces.
Are they trying it on to see if they can get away with it? Yes, the industry has a lot of previous form for this.
Aside from the price problem, the other issue is no clear sell. The PS4 Pro had 4k gaming, the PS5 does that and better. What does the PS5 Pro have to justify its price? Nothing near that. Plus, to tap the features fully you’ll need a recent TV too.
I don’t think so, not with these absurd prices:
No way are you dropping £850 when the standard is just over half that.
Yep, same here, £80 for a separate drive apparently.
If this is the direction the industry goes in they might finally have found the successful self-destruct button.
More seriously, apparently only 20% of the PS4 userbase upgraded to a PS4 Pro, this might be similar or less.
2TB SSD storage also adds to the price a bit.
PS4 Pro had the clear sell of 4k gaming, this doesn’t have that.
I think there’s one more volume of Nightmare Country but who knows if it’ll come out now.
Ah, but that’s all legal so it’s all OK. Just like scrapping winter fuel payments to pensioners is.
They are jumping into holes of their own devising. All the while in hock to conviction politics because never changing course is strong leadership, right? Sigh, that entire notion has to go.
Yeah, it’s a great collection. Only oddity was its end felt a bit abrupt but it’s a clever bit of work.
Out of curiosity, decided to look at the trophy stat percentages for Star Wars Outlaws on PS5.
First story mission completion is nearly 86%. But the completion for the quests on the first planet Toshara? Just over 27%! And it only goes down from there.
Based on the mostly very frustrating hours I have had with it, yeah, that does track. I can see a lot of people bailing on this game.
That happens quite a bit towards the end of a few Nintendo games.
Due to other things that it really nails, I’m sticking with Star Wars Outlaws. If it was from any other company, the stealth would make more sense, but as it is? They know how to do this, or most of their studios do. Still, got some new stuff to try out that might aid it for the better.
I think I might be done with this abomination of a game.
The “stealth”? Crap. “Shooting”? Crap. “Aim assist”? Might as well not exist, it’s non-existent. Enemy direction of fire? Crap, even with high contrast it’s too difficult to see what I need to.
Outposts get to infinite spawn enemies.
World immersion? Killed by game bullcrap, a ton of it.
The Gorlak base mission? “Stealth” gameplay that was outdated over a decade ago. Oh, binoculars and marking targets? Great. Except I can’t see what I need to and so can’t play it easily. Took out 2 alarm panels, nope there’s another one I didn’t get.
Even at the start I was nearly blocked because, having activated high contrast mode, which includes interactive objects, the vent I needed was not highlighted!
“Fall protection”? Another total lie.
Decided to explore a bit. Tried the treasure dealer for Nix, nope. Turns out you have to do another quest to unlock but it doesn’t explain that.
On another you get a prompt that someone knows a password, so I have to go talk to someone. No, you instead have to stand in the right location and eavesdrop, not that you have any idea you can do that because the system hasn’t been introduced. Even if it had the directions are off.
Then tried doing the Sabotage mission, which was even worse. Climb up, here’s some guards that I’m supposed to take out with no cover! Oh and the enemies are a definite hive mind.
Speeder combat? Utter rubbish, there’s no way to easily see the enemies outside of its crappy, timed Red Dead bullseye bollocks. So it’s drive around, wait for meter to fill up, activate, look for poorly indicated enemy, mark and shoot before it runs out. That’s all it has.
And, this is with it set to Story, which is stupidly difficult.
Is the game mis-sold? Yes, it is, it absolutely is.
Star Wars Outlaws
Copy has arrived and I’m two hours in.
The general design of the world and its characters is excellent. Everything looks and sounds as you would expect for a SW game.
Where it is far rougher – and I expect this to improve as UbiSoft games tend to be weakest at the start – is the gameplay. There are some surprising accessibility gaps in places, despite that being very good.
Things like weird colour choices for game text, which I eventually fixed, and very fast disappearing of hint / explanation text, which I have found no solution to. This can be frustrating as the info vanishes quicker than I can process it.
For the stealth sections I’m still not seeing how Nyx’s camera distraction works. If you carefully take out all the guards in an area, then take out a camera, two more will warp in. You disabled the local alarm? Doesn’t apply to the camera. It feels underhanded and cheap.
When you are in a firefight, the direction indicators are poor for enemy location. Here I suspect there might be a high contrast setting I haven’t found, as I think I’ll need it to be able to see enemies. Too often they are dark figures on a dark background.
The minigames? The lock-picking one is useless and abysmal. The Wordal one was surprisingly all right, but I’m playing with every assist I can find, including the blaster auto-cool.
The biggest problem I have is it can be frustatingly vague in its directions and signposting. Unusual for a UbiSoft game true, but I think this is them over-compensating for past games.
I think it’ll get better, especially if I find those further accessibility options, but it’s a rough opening. Oh yeah, that fixed falthier race at the start? Total con.
For those in the UK, Hit look to be back, for how long for is anybody’s guess.
Have asked if the preorders I had with the old shop have been transferred.
Edit: Nope, no transfers, which makes things neater.
The First Doctor Adventures: Volume 1: The Destination Wars
The first of two stories in this set sees the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan visiting a far future Earth-like society, racked by conflict, with an enigmatic inventor turning up as a saviour figure.
Said saviour figure turns out to be the Master, who stranded himself on the world due to a crashed ship. So to get the technology he needs, he starts a war to speed up technological development, while selling weapons to both sides, along with use of tine dilution.
It’s a smart, well-executed story, with a good audio cast. It also shows good use of Who’s continuity, without requiring much knowledge of it. The way the Doctor resolves the story works well too.
Apparently Rowling has ceased tweeting for the last week or so. Interesting timing that.
But yeah, it’s the same pattern as seen with Brexit – give them what they say they want and they concoct some new greivance to go on about.
In other news, it appears that not only did Tim Walz own a Dreamcast, he may have played Crazy Taxi.
