Metal Monday

Youtube Obsession

Happy Pride month yall! In honor of queers out there being queer in front of everyone, I have to shout out Hopeless Romantic Society.

Their recent videos have been great and their shorts are a source of endless enjoyment.

However, the content highlights my frustration the persistence and the seemingly integral myth of monogamy. I don’t understand how people can be completely open about their sexuality and promiscuity but also think the only successful relationship is monogamous.

Sex is not love, sex is not intimacy, queer your relationships and everyone will be happier.

Watching

My parents, who recently moved to a town in Indiana that has more than 2000 people, just got high-speed internet and with it, streaming services. So during my visit I was able to help them find their favorite shows through various services¹ . And since my mom is obsessed with PBS’s Mystery Masterpiece^TM  Grantchester we had to watch the first season, which she had neve seen.

I’ll admit that at first glance, I was dubious. It has Hallmark levels of production quality, it’s schmaltzy premise is saccharine and it is obviously aimed at cornering the Cozy Mystery market.

But you know what? Unlike Hallmark movies, these episodes are really well written and a well-structured script is very satisfying for my brain. Also, it’s hella British; So much so that I have to put on subtitles at times and it tackles themes that I think other schmaltz shows in America wouldn’t touch.

Grantchester is not going to blow your mind but if you’ve already watched through Murder She Wrote for the 3rd time maybe give it a try. The first 6 seasons are free on Amazon Prime.

Reading

It’s been stated before that my toxic trait is reading TTRPG rule books but never playing them and that continues with reading the TTRPG lore for BattleTech.

Turns out just like 40K there’s a metric fuck-load of lore to read and most of it is super dark. And the art from the (free!) primer is sick af in the 80’s sci-fi book cover kind of way.

I could put 50 more pictures up, they’re all gold.

Playing

LOTS of video games news after multiple showcases last week so I just want to hit some highlights.

First off Dragonage: The Veilguard trailer looks suspiciously like it was made in the Fortnite engine and has a very “They fly now?” vibe going on. Look, I’m not going judge a no-gameplay trailer² too hard considering BioWare has a history of releasing tone-deaf trailers for Dragonage, lest we forget Origins.

But also, you have to respect it for going so hard.

Metal Gear Solid Delta gameplay trailer has me pretty hype.

The original Snake Eater was held back by it’s camera restrictions so remaking it (into the Fox Engine?) is a perfectly fine way to remake a game in 2024. I’ll admit it’s a bit jarring that Hideo Kojima is not mentioned at all.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is looking sick as hell.

The original Space Marine from 2011 is almost a perfect game. The combat was fun and meaty, the story represented the 40k universe very well and had a surprisingly fleshed out multiplayer with tons of customization. It had one tiny gameplay flaw that could have been fixed by adding just a few more I-frames to the glory kill animations. If you played the game then you know exactly what I’m talking about, if not, the game is still absolutely worth playing³ .

And finally, Mars Tactics looks like a game that is made specifically for me.

Low poly X-COM meets an armed labor revolution? Rad. Hooded Horse is quickly becoming a powerhouse publisher for strategy games.

Other Notables

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1  Actually the first thing I did was turn off “motion smoothing” on their TV. How do TVs keeping being made with that setting?

2  To be fair there is a gameplay trailer and it looks…fine.

3  And as I recall, a fairly good introduction to Warhammer 40k lore.