To Sir, With Love, part 2
Continuing on To Sir, With Love, now that I have watched all 17 episodes. It took me 5 days. And I have thoughts. It's just not easy to put them together.
In short: A mother tries to hide the fact that her son (and heir to a business association) is gay in Bangkok during World War II (and while Thailand is under Japanese occupation). It all goes downhill from there. Things get weird. Things get crazy. And then things get weirder and crazier.
I cringed. I laughed because it was funny. I laughed because something was absolutely ridiculous. I cried my eyes out. Boy, did I cry my fucking eyes out. Of sadness. Of happiness.
To Sir, With Love is intense. It goes in weird directions. It is terrible. At times, it is ridiculous. It is amazing. It is touching. It's a lot of fun. I could not stop watching.
I love Madam Li. I love Bua. Tian and Jiu are great together. Yang is the best half-brother ever.
I can't decide if To Sir, With Love is a dumpster fire or a fucking masterpiece.
It might actually be both.
...
Yes, it's both.
And now I'm going to rewatch the ending and cry myself to sleep.
Categories: TV
To Sir, With Love
For whatever reason, over the past two or three years, I've watched a fairly big number of TV shows from Thailand. Once in a while I find one that is actually good (A Tale of a Thousand Stars comes to mind), but usually they're... mediocre.
This week, I started watching To Sir, With Love (released officially on YouTube). And I'm completely hooked. I've watched nine episodes in three days (out of 17).
This is a soap opera. About a Chinese mafia family in Bangkok, during World War II. It has a somewhat clueless mafia patriarch. He has three wives, and two of them hate and are constantly plotting against each other. Each of the two has a son, and they're both trying to get them to succeed their father (although one of them is not interested). In the first episode, the patriarch's brother is outed as gay while his lover is being beaten in the middle of a family council. The brother slits his own throat in the next scene. Then, a bit later, the second wife tries to kill the patriarch's first son (from the first wife) by throwing a (bad CGI) snake near the kid.
What follows (after a 12 year time jump) is something that alternates between soap opera stuff and vaudeville (although I guess it could be argued that 'soap opera' and 'vaudeville' are synonyms). There's A LOT of eavesdropping. And murders. And murders to cover up a murder. And magic mushrooms (not the fun kind). More eavesdropping. Brotherly love (which, surprisingly, is not incestuous). There's a killer maid. There are rats in a coffin that eat the cadaver's face off. A dead body is swapped somehow, and nobody seems to care where the spare came from (or who it is). There's a very handsome killer-for-hire with a heart of gold. The wives use a lot of lipstick. And then there's more eavesdropping. And the music is way over the top.
There's a traitor. I mean, of course there's a traitor.
Some of the acting is not great. The second wife is so theatrical, it's comical. Her maid is the worst. The first wife is amazing though. The dresses she wears are incredible.
I started watching the show somewhat ironically, but now I can't stop. I don't know if this qualifies as "so bad, it's good". It's bonkers and I love it.
When I finished my work contract at the end of October, I didn't know how long it would take me to find another one. I was expecting six months at least, but it turns out I'm going back to work in January. I plan to keep working on my game in the evenings, but I expect the pace to be pretty slow.
Categories: TV
Game of the Year 2022
According to my spreadsheet, I played 12 games I hadn’t played before this year to completion, but I combined Monster Hunter and its expansion into one, and the other two don’t really deserve to be on this list (although Zelda: Phantom Hourglass would have without stylus controls). I still have two games in progress, but one them (Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen) is unlikely to end up on this list (so far), and I’ve played (but never beaten) the second one in the past (Persona 3).
The cat is adorable. The world is both fascinating and depressing. I love the robots. The game provides a nice mix of action sequences and adventure sequences. The cutest part is when the cat sleeps (on PS5 anyway): It rolls into a ball, a purring sounds comes from the controller’s speaker, while the controller gently vibrates. Also the game has a meow button. The only thing that’s missing from it is the ability to customize the cat.
Would I have liked it as much without the cat though? Maybe not.
Definitely my most played game this year. Looks great (but not as good as World), the new wirebug mechanics are very a nice addition (and I miss them when I play World), the new monsters are nice and varied and provide quite the challenge (particularly in Master Rank), and the multiplayer works very well. I also love the addition of the palamute.
This is a charming exploration game by Hello Game. I like exploration games with puzzle solving and collectibles, so this ticked most of my boxes! It also doesn’t overstay its welcome (I 100%’d it in a weekend without a guide).
Despite hearing a lot about the game, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard about the basic premise, but that was pretty much it. The gameplay is pretty simple at first: walk around this Roman city, talk to the folks, and solve the mystery. There is more than that. Eventually. But I won't go over it as to avoid spoilers. This is one game where you don't want to be spoiled. The various stories are quite interesting, and the overall plot, while fairly predicable at a certain point, was entertaining enough to keep me going and going, and there were plenty of surprises along the way.
I had a great time exploring the city, uncovering and solving its mysteries, talking to its inhabitants! The city itself is very well done.
While I don’t think the game was as good as its predecessor, this one was still a ton of fun: fast and fun combat, with a somewhat engaging story. The exploration was a bit better than in the previous games, due to the new powers. The free-for-all sections were slightly better integrated than in Ys VIII in the story and the music, while file during playtime, felt somewhat forgettable, and it didn’t have bangers that will stay in my ‘game’ playlist.
I installed that one when I got my PS5 mostly because I thought my roommate would enjoy it (he pretty much plays nothing but Mario games), and he did. I played it too, and had a ton of fun. The environments were varied and gorgeous, the combat was engaging, I like the variety of the weapons and, while the story was entirely forgettable, it was still good enough to keep me entertained.
I installed this one as a way to test the 3D performances of my new Apple TV 4K, and then I ended up playing all the way to the end (it took me 16 hours, with an 84% completion). It’s fun! I liked running around the pretty environments and finding treasures and other trinkets (most of them useless). The list of issues with this game is pretty long though: bland combat, a story that is forgettable (and goes pretty weird by the end), stiff character animations… If running around looking for stuff is not your thing, you might want to skip this one. It screams low budget and small team. What this small team built is kind of impressive though!
This one feels more like a Playstation nostalgia trip mixed with a tech demo for the new controller, but the controls are pretty tight, the game is fun, the music is good, and it looks great! I kinda wish this had been allowed to be a bigger, longer title… Hopefully Team Asobi (assuming they are still around) gets to make that next!
This is almost identical to the first Submerged game. It’s very relaxing, and since this is mostly an exploration game, it’s perfect for catching up on podcasts. It’s a nice way to spend a weekend, and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
When my last contract finished at the end of October, I was expecting that it would take me at least until April to find something else, but it turns out I was being pessimistic: I start a new one-year contract in January (with possible extensions). Because of this, my game development and artistic aspirations will be slowed down.
Categories: random-thoughts
Walking Around in Godot 4
It is now possible to walk around in a scene in Godot 4:
I ran into some issues as I was importing the sprite, mostly due to how enums work in Godot 4. This was not my first time running into issues with enums, which makes me think that maybe I use them too much.
One huge issue though: I can't trigger the dialogs with the NPCs yet. I'm not sure why. I suspect it has something to do with the collision layers. I will look into it over the weekend.
Another issue is the lighting. This is probably related to the global illumination thing I've heard about. I will definitely need to look into it (even though everything I've heard so far sounded like gibberish to me).
In short: Progress!
Categories: gamedev
November 2022 Gaming Report
I have to admit: November flew by much faster than I thought it would!
None
I managed to resist most of the Black Friday sales, although I did end up buying Witcher 3 for pennies. Some of the podcasts I'm listening to are doing a very good job of selling me on Pentiment, but so far I've resisted.
Due to some other projects, I haven't been spending as much time gaming as I thought I would, and that's a good thing. I still managed to replay two Tomb Raider games, and made some significant progress in Persona 3 Portable. I thought I would be able to finish it in November, but I got sidetracked with JLPT preparation.
I am currently juggling 3 long JRPGs: Persona 3, Utawarerumono, and Final Fantasy X. That's too much for me, if I'm being honest. Now that I got Persona 3 running on my Steam Deck, I think I can focus on it and get it done before the end of the year.
I also started Oceanhorn 2 on a whim. I haven't played that much of it, but it seems OK. We'll see if it manages to hold my interest for more than a few hours. So far, it feels like a low-budget Wind Waker clone. Which is not a bad thing.
Categories: random-thoughts