Last night myself, Lindsay & Megan went to the cinema to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and I loved it.
Look I know it gets a lot of hated but it has always had, and always will, held a special place for me.
First up, it was the very first “new” Star Wars I ever saw in the cinema, ok I saw the Special Editions when they were released, but they don’t count cause they weren’t “new”.
And sitting in the cinema in Ipswich with my friends all cosplaying characters, the moment the fanfare hits, was a special moment, and it was so exciting, we waited months, counting down the days, consuming as much as the early Internet reported about it, and frankly we weren’t disappointed.
I know it’s not the strongest of the movies, but if you see it for what it is, a kids film, a film made for kids to enjoy then it’s far better and more enjoyable.
It just feels like everything about it worked for me, the soundtrack is beyond epic, literally one of my favourite movie soundtracks of all time, the slow transformation of Anakins theme into the slow tease of the Imperial March, and of course Dual of the Fates, just hits hard!
The special effects might have the odd bit of roughness these days, just in one or two areas where stuff is composited, but they still hold up, the CGI is of a very high standard and the brilliance of the physical effects works so well.
The costumes are all amazing, Queen Amidala’s outfits are so extra, so extravagant and over the top, they just make her character feel so regal. Also a fun game is trying to guess when she is Kiera Knightly playing Sabé pretending to be her, and when it’s Natalie Portman. Also in the comics, Sabé has an interesting story after the Revenge of the Sith.
My favourite part though is how the lightsaber fights were improved upon, in the original trilogy, they were kind of static and a bit stiff, but since The Phantom Menace they have been elevated into real feats of athleticism with jumps and intense fighting.
Look I know it’s not a popular film in the series, but I will always enjoy watching it, and 25 years has not made it less special, if anything it’s made it more special, because I will always have a massive grin on my face when Darth Maul activates his dual bladed lightsabers.
Plus let’s not forget, the prequel era has given us some of Star Wars best media, The Clone Wars, Rebels and The Bad Batch are some of the best stuff ever made for the franchise.
Anyway, don’t at me, cause I am not gonna change my mind on this one!
Gamergate was an utter debacle; it was horrific, disgusting, and merely an excuse to abuse and harass women and minorities in the gaming industry.
It was never about ethics in gaming journalism. If you believe it was, you’re seriously mistaken and need to reconsider, basically take several seats.
At its core, it was a jilted ex-boyfriend’s revenge plot that spiralled out of control.
Following events like Race Fail and the Sad/Rabid Puppies controversies, it was a dreadful time for enthusiasts like me. All my passions, including gaming, sci-fi, and fantasy literature, felt under attack by far-right zealots.
It took me years to regain my enthusiasm for gaming as my love for it waned alongside my interest in literature.
Now, there are opportunists attempting to ignite a new Gamergate to make themselves relevant again or simply to stir up anger for profit. I refuse to let this happen again.
Take Mark Kern, for example, a once-prominent figure now irrelevant since being ousted from his company in 2013 due to his egregious behaviour.
And it’s disheartening to see creators I once admired, like Lady Decade, getting involved, which really stings.
Yet they persist, desperately seeking to spark a new “scandal”. Their efforts with Sweet Baby, who actually advised for widely praised changes in games, have failed.
They’ve targeted Stellar Blade, lauding it as “Game of the Year” material solely for its characters tits and arse and ‘jiggle physics’, blatantly ignoring the story and gameplay, they never mention that at all, so I have no idea if the game is actually any good.
Now, they’re criticising a tabletop RPG adaptation of Tomb Raider because it focuses on uncovering historical truths rather than grave-robbing. Clearly, they’ve never engaged with the Survivor Trilogy, which explores similar themes.
Furthermore, there’s constant griping about the portrayal of women in games, claiming they all should look like porn stars with heavy makeup.
Take Aloy, for example; they call her ugly when in fact, she’s stunning and lives in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of beauty salons. And Mary Jane in Spider-Man is portrayed beautifully in a realistic way.
So, if you see me confronting these chuds, know that I’m not backing down this time. This is my hobby, and these ignoramuses need to understand it’s not just a space for cis-het white men!
What I Am Modelling
Started the week with some Tyranids, specifically the Neurolictor
The Boarding Actions Terrain was finished up as well. This stuff is going to be used for my Zone Mortalis table mostly, the idea being it’s going to be the neglected and horrible service corridors of my hive
I still want to add the marketplace stuff, a gang stronghold and some promethium containers, perhaps another set of shipping containers, but for now, I am quite happy with this!
And these Dark Angels Aggressors were finished as well!
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6C9y6qI-dA
So what’s next?
Sisters Repentia x 4
Hobgrot Slittaz x 10
Drycha Hamadreth
Sneaky Snufflers x 12
Lasrifle Section c 20
Arco-Flaggents
Dark Angels Intercessors x 10
Space Wolves Infiltrators x 10 and Battle Leader in Phobos Armour
Paychophage
Mega Boss on a Maw-Krusha
What I Am Reading To
I listened to Mort by Terry Pratchett my first of the new Discworld audiobooks, a real classic story and a hell of an update with a stellar cast!
I weirdly find it far easier to listen to the Discworld books than read them, dunno what it is, but the structure just seems to work better in audio, for myself that is!
And that was a game in which we both thought I would be tabled by turn 3, but I managed to keep it going and survived the whole game, still a major loss!
Think I am gonna win the leagues wooden spoon!!!
What Video Games I Am Playing
Not much this week, Megan is anxiously waiting on something so I have leant them my Steam Deck to help distract them, they are mostly using it to play Disney Dreamlight Valley, on my Xbox profile I might add!
I love my Stormcast Eternals army, I mean its really fun to play with and I actually love the theme of the army, especially as I play Celestial Vindicators and their colour scheme is amazing.
My favourite chamber, is Sacrosanct and well, GW have announced that 80% of my army is being squatted, which is a real bummer.
Ok the old school Liberators look like they will be fine with the new rules, but so much of my army, seemingly isn’t going to have a Thunderstrike replacement, so yeah pretty bummed out.
It just is quite dishartneing that an army I put my heart and soul into, has lasted barly 6 years before being yeeted.
Its got me feeling really down about AoS 4.0, like I am probably gonna skip the launch box, cause honestly, I am not sure if I buy it, how long those models will be useable for.
Had a game of Horus Heresy with Russel on Friday night, we played Strike and Fade, and I lost 7-3, could have gotten a draw but alas my Terminators just failed to get to the objective in the last turn!
I also bought myself Ghost of Tsushima for PS5, I have been hunting for it, at a reasonable price for a while, and it was on sale at the local Argos, so I leapt on it!
Due to family issues, one wasn’t published this month, but I plan to upload two in April, starting with T’au vs Adepta Sororitas and followed by Dark Angels vs Daemons of Chaos
Its been a tough few weeks, we have had a death in the family and some other stuff that’s caused some challenges
I have been feeling my depression quite deep and its really doing a number on my life, I am really finding it very hard to even leave the house.
I know I need to try harder, so I am going to try and have a better month in April now that the worst is behind us, I mean that is all I can do right, just keep going and try to be better.
I had a particularly bad instance of doing my normal rushing ahead last week, and it hurt some of my friends, so I need to watch myself and keep an eye on my tendency to just rush ahead and not stop to check things are sound.
I am organising a Heresy event as part of my getting back on top of things, and tickets sold out right away, gonna try and have my Zone Mortalis table finished by then so I can set it up and try and convince someone to come play on it with me whilst I EO.
I finally finished sorting out all the metadata on the Audio Book Shelf server, and oh my word, that was a lot of stuff to deal with!
I still have to sort out the authors and series, but we will get there!
I am currently uploading my BBC Doctor Who audio books, which is a sizable pile, still need to buy The Church on Ruby Road by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, which is the latest release, might spend my next Audible token on it!
What I Am Modelling
Its been a bit of a weird period of time, but I have painted up two squads of Vigilors for my Celestial Vindicators.
I also listened to Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by Gary Kloster which was pretty good, but I kinda expected the bad guy to turn out to be a Fallen, but it wasn’t and that was still cool. It actually humanised the Dark Angels quite a bit.
What Video Games I Am Playing
Finished up with Yakuza 0, and I have to admit, the story was phenomenal, really good.
I also sold my old iPhone 12 and was able to afford to buy the Solar Auxilia Battlegroup as a result, which you would have seen the unboxing for video earlier.
About a month ago, I realized that the geniuses behind Audio Book Shelf had released a native Windows version of the application. Until then, I had been running it in a Docker install. However, this method was slow and could only allocate 2GB of RAM, greatly impacting performance.
So, I decided to switch from Docker to the Windows version. Unfortunately, this transition resulted in the loss of all metadata due to differences in how Linux and Windows file structures operate.
Consequently, I find myself having to re-add all the metadata. While this isn’t an issue for much of the content, as Audio Book Shelf can scrape data from Audible, it’s a manual task for Big Finish, which constitutes the majority of my collection. Thus, it’s quite time-consuming.
Currently, I’ve managed to complete the metadata for all titles up to those beginning with ‘O’. Although it’s taking time, the effort will certainly be worth it.
Furthermore, I’ve adjusted settings so that metadata is now stored with the files rather than in a central database. This change aims to prevent similar issues in the future, particularly if I decide to switch my server back to Linux from Windows.
What I Am Modelling
I started off by painting a Loonboss on a Giant Cave Squig for my Gloomspite Gitz
We did add Blood Angels to the painting pile, for these the Librarian and Aggressors have previously been painted, so those models will join the Dark Angels.
So we now have 2 of the 6 Combat Patrols I wanted to get done this year done.
Bring My Gloomspite Gitz to 2000 Point – 56% Complete
I added a Loonboss on a Giant Cave Squig this month, and next up I am going to be painting two more units of Stabbas next along with a couple units of Fanatics
This weekend, we headed south to visit family. First, we attended Megan’s nanny’s 95th birthday party in Thame. Then, we went to Suffolk to see my parents and treated my oldest nephew, Dylan, to dinner for his 18th birthday. Finally, we squeezed in a quick trip to Warhammer World!
Friday, we left about 10:30 and had to stop just once to charge the car, which was done at Watford Gap, but only because bizarrely all the chargers at Leicester Forest East were offline. We then had tea at the Harvester, and stayed at the Ramada at Oxford Services.
Saturday was a bit chaotic, we got to the party fine, but, though a miscommunication, the car keys got locked in the car, and the only viable option to get back in was to smash the rear passenger window!
We did that (which was a lot of fun) and then had to zoom over to Aylesbury to get a Perspex window fitted to make the car weatherproof, so me and Lindsay got to sit in Morrisons and have a cup of tea and a piece of cake!
So we got on the road to Sudbury a bit later than planned, not arriving until 7:30pm, we got to see my parents and Dylan for a couple of hours before we had to head off to our hotel at Haverhill, via a stop at McDonalds for tea.
The next day we took a trip to Cambridge, and we had a little bit of a wander, looking at some of the university buildings, our Durham graduate, Megan, was not impressed.
But we found Warhammer at the new location, I say new, the last time I was in the Games Workshop in Durham was 1999, when it was at a totally different location!
Then we drove up to Nottingham, arriving at the Riverside Travelodge, where we ordered in some food from German Donner Kebab via Deliveroo, and settled in.
I then listened to Davros by Lance Parkin, which was very cool, nice to see Davros without the Daleks, gave a chance for his villainy to shine. And I then listened to Master by Joseph Lidster which was a nice story with a bit of a twist!
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
As said earlier, myself and Megan played a game of Combat Patrol at Warhammer World, I played Necrons, Megan played Sisters.
We played the Archeotech Recovery mission and Megan beat me 70-20.
Her dice rolls were on fire and her Penitent Engine, just ripped through my Skorpeh Destroyers and my Doomstalker!
The chest is feeling better, I am coughing less and I am able to climb stairs without needing my inhaler halfway up.
But the fatigue is another thing, I think I have spent more of the last couple of weeks in bed asleep, than awake, and its pretty annoying.
It having a marked effect on my memory as I am forgetting so much, and I have become a real burden on Megan and especially Lindsay as she has family stuff going on right now.
Hopefully I can push though it, and I will try as much as I can, that’s all I can do right.
What I Am Modelling
I started the week with a Nexus Syphon for my Age of Sigmar terrain box
A couple of games of the 40k league, but the third one I was due to play today, I utterly forgot about cause of the aforementioned issues, utterly unfair on my opponent and I feel like such a dickhead for it.
a bit more of Yakuza 0, its a weird game, but I am loving the story.
I also returned to the Halo Infinite campaign, the last time I had fired it up until last Thursday was the day Mary passed away, so I guess that explains why I didn’t pick it up again, especially as we moved house shortly afterwards.
What I Am Creating
I published the next battle report of Combat Patrol, this episode features the Drukhari taking on the Vangaurd Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter!
What I Am Backing
Nowt new, but I realised I forgot to pay for shipping on the Firefly: The Game – 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition project, so we got that done, and I cannot imagine we will get it until later on in the year and not in the main wave!