Aw. Maybe next year, United Kingdom. When there isn't a war on with a
sympathetic underdog.

Play:
--=--

New TV (TV) - 4k and HDR on a 40-inch screen from an off-brand that didn't
get much traction in the marketplace last year because it only does 60 Hz
when other equivalent products have at least 120 Hz going on. So I got it
for a third off, and now I can play games with all the bright colours and
high resolution that they were meant to have. But honestly it doesn't seem
to make a lot of difference in terms of gaming experience, although it
does open up more configuration options.

Nier (PS3) and Nier Replicant (PS4) - Marvelous. I don't think I had fully
internalised how different the eastern and western version of the first
Nier game were, and how that affects the way the protagonist is treated by
the rest of the ruined, post-apocalyptic world he lives in. Given that it
has a few more creature comforts and slightly better loading times, I'm
spending more time with the PS4 version now. It's a pleasantly linear
story that wears the trappings of a faux open world well, and it gets away
with that by telling that story in an uncompromising and self-aware way.
It's not every game that can get you to put in the work to reach a sad
ending to a mission and feel like it was still worthwhile to get there.

Demon's Souls (PS5) and Geometry Wars Evolved (XSX) - Just testing out the
HDR, which is nicer than I thought it'd be. I thought that it would be
blinding and distracting, and instead it's thankfully realistic in a way
that I didn't understand until now. Without HDR the games overcompensate
by screwing with the ambient lighting so that all the game goes too bright
or too dark right away, so now I'm not sure I'd be willing to swap back.

Want:
--=--

More time (RL) - Many real life things encroached on gaming time this
weekend, not least of which was an unwelcome quantity of gardening to get
the blueberries ready for harvest in a few days. This is not going to be
an ideal spring for a number of reasons.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $2,671

-KKC, who really likes the music in Nier.
--
-- "People with happy families don't become spies. A bad | kendrick
childhood is the perfect background for covert ops. You | @
don't trust anyone. You're used to getting smacked around, | io-nyc
and you never get homesick." - Michael Westen, /Burn Notice/ | .com

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

> Play:

PictoQuest (PS4) - more of this.

> Want:

To try Stern's Rush pinball table at some point, though given the
number of digits in the price I doubt I'll be buying one.

> Bin:

One track in PictoQuest spoiling the run of good or at least
half-decent music it had going for it up until that point.

-Rus.