For the record, it would take very little to push me over into "interesting things the Icewind Dale games did I wish we would see again" or "neat little gimmick items of icewind dale 2" 😅

So, my personal comfort game is Icewind Dale II. There's a lot of interesting things it does which I wish other D&D games did, but as I'm attempting a replay (solo fighter lol) it's reminded me that I love it gives items deep lore in a way I don't think has been done to the same degree since.

So to @xplainthexmen.bsky.social - issues 1+2 of The Search for Cyclops were my first batch of X-men comics ever (along with Dream's End up to Moira's Death) and it wasn't too bad? Like I inferred it mostly I think, although it did leave me with the impression Anais and Gauntlet were big deals lol

Under some previous leaderships I would have welcomed a Labour government, and now we have this one after years of Tory pillaging it's this utterly morally bankrupt thing which is unwilling to put its head above the parapet for literally any cause regardless of what is at stake? Wtf is the point?

Has he got any idea how much a billionaire telling me to not be mean to a thing I already loathe makes me want to call it slop even more? AI slop. Sloppy sloppy AI slop.

I'm probably gonna regret this because that means I have to actually set goals for myself -shudders- But I probably *should*, so 1 like = 1 goal for 2026 😅

I went to see the Long-eared Owls at Deeping Lakes today, and then got home for Facebook to tell me I did the exact same thing five years ago today 😅 Anyway, enjoy an owl!

Personally, if I were an horrific hate filled world leader who had given like 98% of the planet good reason to loathe me on moral, economic, sovreignty and more grounds, "abducting foreign presidents if you don't like them is fine" feels like an extremely ill-advised precedent to set?

So, for the big reveal; of the "breeds" claimed, 12 were 2% each, and to run down these quickly we have: Qatari Street Dog Berger d'Auvergne Pumi Australian Sherpherd Silky Terrier Danish Swedish Farmdog Tibetan Spaniel Chinese Chongquing Dog Shanxi Xigou Fijian Street Dog Estrele Mountain Dog

Okay, so I'm reasing the wikipedia page for forgotten Marvel character Killraven, a warrior in the strange and distant future of 2018-2020. Also his powers include, "an encylopedic knowledge of human history, art and science before the Martian Invasion of 2001"

This is Izzy - she is a 2.5 year old rescue former street dog from Romania and her favourite things are food, food and also food and cuddles. Now, we had her DNA test done for fun, and she had 20 breeds come up and some are -wild-. Before I give some select highlights, anyone wanna try guessing?

This year I've met some amazing new people, made some awesome friends and had some unforgettable amazing experiences. But also, 2025 can fuck the hell off omg this has been such a vile year personally and globally...

Okay, Clair Obscur is completed, and in as spoiler free a way as possible....errr I feel like the arguments being made by certain characters at the end are really kinda forgetting the fact that this games opening premise is this is a story about preventing a genocide?

I have a vague idea for a mini campaign about a reverse isekai where some naive people summon some valorous fantasy heroes to the real world to try and solve our worlds problems and it turns out they are just really ill-equipped for the task? Maybe something that could be run in DIE?

Much further in the game now and the platforming is genuinely a throwback to the bad old days of terrible platforming in games where you could only make a jump if you did it exactly how the game wanted but not, for instance, how it visually appears it should work physically.

It's interesting as I do the Bird-dex Costa Rican species that many birds I saw in San Gerardo de Dota are endemics to the Talamancan Montane Forest Ecozone, often at heights of 2000m+. This means some have evolved to live *at a minimum*, 30% higher than the tallest mountain in Britain.

So, I'm taking a career quiz and Jesus H. Christ this question, is one of those an absolute red flag of a choice, you know, the anti-semite who the Nazis thought was great, who was a union buster who controlled every aspect of his workers lives... (It's Henry Ford)

This is still one of my favourite video game settings along with the fact that the world of Thedas from Dragon age is called such cos THE Dragon Age Setting. Also I assume Guybrush's middle names is like 3b_final_FINAL_6 or something.

Updated thoughts on Clair Obscur: it's definitely a good game, but I'm not convinced yet it's a genre elevating experience in the way the quantity of awards suggest? What it is at its core, is a JRPG but done very Frenchly?

I have no idea why but since the Rogue patch in Marvel Rivals half the quick play players have the positioning sense of drunk lemmings? No healers, trying to go solo Rambo won't work. No we don't need 5 people to fight one Daredevil while we could be capturing the point.

Utterly randomly: A lightsabre is superheated plasma contained by a magnetic field.... So if Havok and Polaris from X-men ever had a kid, with their combined plasma and magnetism powers, said kid has a non-zero chance of having the power of infinite lightsabres.

I will say, I am enjoying Clair Obscura, but it definitely didn't win all those game awards sections for it's platforming bits...

I don't know entirely what it's about yet but if had this kernal of an idea where you somehow play the ancient potters whose vases get shattered by the thousands in every fantasy game ever?

Looking for some nerdy drawing fun over the next few weeks? My Xmas & New Year zines are available to download for £1 (or more) and you’re welcome to print as many copies as you want! They’re A4 but I’m told can be printed on Letter paper & trimmed #SciArt ko-fi.com/hanaayoob/shop

So, decided to see what all the Clair Obscur hype was about and playing around with the graphical settings to get the best balance on my 6 year old PC, and errr this is an interesting result of raising shadows to medium??

This might just be my demisexuality showing, but I really don't get the genre of "horny games"? Steam just advertised this to me and like, okay, "conventionally attractive bikini ladies with guns" feels like that was the entirity of your design doc here?

Vague idea for a D&D character: a warlock who had been hired by an ancient boomery dark lord Lich specifically to try and rebrand into being "down with the kids".

Just because I've been rambling about it a lot lately and I've just uploaded my 700th Bird species, perhaps time for a quick reintroduction to the Bird-dex! A blog that dares to ask the question; what if an obviously neurodivergent person decided to make a real life poke-dex? bird-dex.blogspot.com

So, I'm doing my Costa Rican Bird-dex updates and hit a few species in a row that are endemic to the Talamancan Montane Forests - essentially the mountains that run through the Centre of Costa Rica and Northern Panama. For UK context, this entire ecosphere is only slightly bigger than Yorkshire.

Sooo.... as I'm still on said X-men bullshit, I expanded and rendered up (added an extra 8 too lol in addition to the poll winners...) Soooo.... who would be your 9 person DLC I guess? 😅

Looking for some last minute gifts? I have some commission space to do some art for you! Message or reply to this post to get in touch!

Sooo.... as I'm still on said X-men bullshit, I expanded and rendered up (added an extra 8 too lol in addition to the poll winners...) Soooo.... who would be your 9 person DLC I guess? 😅

At the beginning of 2025 we released Break the Binary; an all non-binary actual play 4 episode miniseries! Just to throw it out there, but if that appeals, maybe now is a good time to get caught up! No reason at all -innocent face- youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Adding the first species to the Bird-dex that fall under the Tanagers, having previously not birded in the neotropic and now I find out that 4% of all Birds are tanagers and they seem to be one of these groups that just goes hog-wild diversifying into new ecological niches?

Looking for some last minute gifts? I have some commission space to do some art for you! Message or reply to this post to get in touch!

I may never have finished this thread, but given it was only 1 month ago, they've just announced they're adding two from my list (and a third that woulda been there if I'd got that far), and am therefore vindicated 😎

There is something very endearing about the fact that Costa Rica, a country with an absurd diversity of bird species in every colour you can think of, when presented with all these options, chose the Clay-coloured Thrush. The reasoning? It's familiar to everyone and has a nice song.

Okay, just finished it, and a fairly late entry but I think Dispatch is my game of the year? A few small choices that did put me off a little, but overall just a good story with memorable characters well told, and I can't wait to see what the devs do next.

Like, I think I have a fractionally different take: they are *afraid of art* and want to control it without actually understanding what they are afraid of. The techbro mindset is rooted in the idea that anything they don't personally control is a threat to their ego. Stories more than most.

Just finished adding all the Woodpeckers from Costa Rica to the Bird-dex, and it occured to me that I think there's an argument to be made that Woodpeckers are one of the easiest taxons to see a fresh diversity of almost anywhere you travel!

Out of interest, as a potential revenue stream, considering doing some freelance bird guiding day trips on a semi local basis? With options including all British owls, cranes, goshawk, some really great waders, osprey in Summer etc fairly easy to do within a 2hr drive of me, is there a market?

Out of interest, as a potential revenue stream, considering doing some freelance bird guiding day trips on a semi local basis? With options including all British owls, cranes, goshawk, some really great waders, osprey in Summer etc fairly easy to do within a 2hr drive of me, is there a market?

666 - the Number of the Roseate Spoonbill: while I've got over a hundred more Bird-Dex entries to write for the rest of the trip, my entirely arbitrary choices in which to upload first has resulted in this being the 666th Bird I've done an article for on there. (Unless you count escapees anyway)

I just wanna talk about this randon news article a sec. No shade on the observer cos a close encounter with a sparrowhawk is a magical thing, BUT, are we that detatched from nature as a society that a sighting of a very common species is news worthy?

I'm home! Thank you to all the lovely people I got to meet and hang out with at Dragonmeet!

Come say hi! We have free stuff and it's shiny and we like to talk about nerdy things!

On the train to ExCel for Dragonmeet 2025! See you all soon!

Random thought: In worlds where Vampires obey "invitation only" rules, can you invite them in on a room by room basis ie "you can come into the porch" If so, is thr popularity of open plan living a vampire conspiracy?

And last of our Costa Rican vertebrate collections; Reptiles! R1: Green Iguana

Who wants to also to also see an Amphibian Roundup? A1: Giant Toad