Archive for the ‘Distractions’ Category

TOEM is a photo adventure game on the Nintendo Switch. Set in a beautiful black-and-white world, you go around taking photos of different things. It’s very chill. I didn’t get very far into it because it’s a puzzle game and not obvious what you need to take photos of, which still wasn’t chill enough for me. But I might come back to it at some point.

Another fun video game. You play a small yellow man who is sent to the fictional Yorkshire town of Barnsworth. You run around the town helping the locals who keep exclaiming “thank goodness you’re ‘ere” and asking for assistance with a variety of different problems. These typically involve jumping and kicking because these are the only controls.

The game is written in a northern dialect. When you start the game it asks you “A’ tha from Tarn?” You can then select “Dead Reyt” in which case the game continues in Yorkshire, or “Sorry What?” in which case I assume it switches back to English. If you want to play about with the settings you need to pause the game and go to “faffin'”.

I completed it over two evenings. There were some bits where I found myself having to loop back and kick everything to work out what was going on next. But mostly the game seamlessly guides you through where to go and there was very little frustration that I often experience with other games.

The storylines are a good comedic take on northern culture, although the town was perhaps a little more run down and dirty than I would like. The voice acting is excellent.

Dredge is a fishing simulator horror game I played on the Nintendo Switch. You take on a fishing captain whose boat is destroyed. You are loaned a new boat by the local mayor and must fish to earn money and dredge supplies so you can expand your boat and explore the world.

Also it’s somehow a horror game at the same time and at night you begin to panic and hallucinate.

This is probably a great game. But the whole panic thing made it way to stressful. It was always a desperate rush to get back to port before nightfall which made it difficult to explore the world and left me feeling the paranoia the character was experencing. I stuck with it for 4-5 days and then gave up.

In the video game Spiritfarer you take on the character of Stella, who is charged with helping spirits cross into the afterlife. You captain a ship that you sail around an open world exploring local islands, while expanding your ship, taking on passengers and seeing to their needs.

The graphics are stunning. It’s a beautiful hand-drawn style. There is also plenty to do in the game: you can talk to the spirits aboard your boat, cook, fish, craft things, and build new buildings on the boat. It’s quite a chill game: you set sail for somewhere and that sailing takes time, which gives you time to do things although can sometimes go on a little long.

The game has a storyline but it involves a certain level of interpretation that I didn’t always follow. I think if I played through it again I would enjoy the story more.

My biggest criticism of the game is that nobody seems to have played it on a Switch. The text is tiny. Unreadably tiny. Even when I went into the settings and turned the text size up, and even when wearing my glasses, some of it is impossible to read and you have to guess what the numbers are.

There were also points in the game where I did get stuck because it felt like very path was blocked. Despite my frustrations, though, I was addicted to this game and excited to play it every night. It’s my favourite Switch game so far after Animal Crossing.

After over 100 days of playing Animal Crossing, I decided it might be worth giving a second game a go. And that game was A Short Hike.

You play as a bird who has decided to hike to the top of Hawk Peak. You can wander freely around the open world and as you do so, you collect golden feathers. These are important because they allow you to fly, climb and jump for longer, allowing you to get further up the mountain.

It’s a really fun game you can complete in a few hours. The physics are lovely and the graphics are warm. But you don’t quite get the amazing views jumping off the top of the mountain because the Switch doesn’t have the power to render the entire world as a background.

Well worth spending a cozy evening with.

Elina bought my a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and I’ve decided to write a few blog posts about the games I’ve tried. Number one being Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

In the game, you relocate to a small deserted island where you build a community. The game involves gathering resources, crafting furniture, and earning bells (the local currency) to pay off your home loans to the project leader, Tom Nook. It’s a very chill cozy game.

The game happens in real time, following the day and night cycle in your location. It is daylight during the day time and dark during the night. It also follows the seasons so you get snow in January and and different bugs and fish are only available to catch at certain times of the year. In that sense, it takes at least a year to complete because you need time to cycle through everything.

This does get in the way at times. As a parent, I typically get time to play before 8am and after 10pm. But the Nook Shop is only open 8am to 10pm and Able Sisters is only open 9am to 9pm. There is a night owl option that allows the shops to stay open an hour later. Venla has had the opposite issue: some of the fish only come out after her bedtime.

Overall though, it’s a 10/10 game. It’s the only game I got with my Switch and I played it every day for four months without ever wanting to try out another game.

We all have that one nightmare scenario that sits in the back of our mind. Sometimes it comes true…

Good songs this year. I liked Denmark but I was apparently the only person in Europe that did.

There were two points of controversty rearding Isreal’s performance. First was the claim that there was fake cheering added. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have confirmed that this was true.

Second, multiple countries have now asked for audits into the voting. I think it is plausible that Israel did win the public vote. It’s very easy for the Pro-Israel camp to make a political statement by voting but almost impossible for the Pro-Palestine camp to do the same because there are 24 other options to vote for. It’s the same problem we have in the UK general elections: first past the post does not create a result that accurately represents the views of the electorate.

Well done JJ for winning the thing.

I watched loads of ultra-endurance documentaries over lockdown and beyond and compiled a big list of them. This has been sat in my drafts for years so I am just going to hit publish. If you are looking for some running and cycling documentaries, here are the ones I’ve watched.

Iron Cowboy

One of my favourite documentaries. James Lawrence tries to complete the 50-50-50: 50 Ironmans, in 50 days, in all 50 US states. If you are ever going to do an Ironman, watch this first as you cannot help but coming out of it thinking “if James Lawrence can do that, I can do one Ironman”.

Brittany Runs a Marathon

This is a comedy drama and it’s a lot of fun.

3100: Run And Become

This documentary follows runners on around the 3100, a 5,000 kilometre race that takes place in New York named the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race. They use a 883-metre loop that runners loop for 18 hours a day for nearly two months.

Safety to Nome

The Iditarod Trail Invitational is a 1,000-mile race that follows the Iditarod dog sledge course on either foot or fat bike.

The Race That Eats Its Young

Possibly the best Barkley Marathons documentary out there, following the 2012 race where Brett Maune set the course record and the only year ever to have three finishers.

Where Dreams Go To Die

Follows Gary Robbins in his attempt to complete the Barkley Marathons.

Last Woman Standing

Yorkshire’s own Nicky Spinks attempts to be the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons.

Kim Swims

Kimberley Chambers attempts to become the third person ever, and the first woman, to swim from Farallon Islands to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Running The Wainrights

This is a feel-good running story as Paul Tierney attempts to set a new FKT for running the 214 summits of the Lake District as described by Alfred Wainwright. It’s a little over 510 km of fell running in less than seven days.

Icarus

Bryan Fogel attempts to make a documentary about doping in cycling and finds himself in the middle of Grigory Rodchenkov, head of the Russian anti-doping lab and mastermind behind the Russian state-sponsored doping of Olympic athletes, exposing the Russian scheme.

Stop At Nothing

This documentary looks at Lance Armstrong and how the widespread doping in the US Postal Service cycling team came out.

The Least Expected Day

It follows the Movistar team through their 2019 cycling season, where Richard Carapaz took a surprise win at the Giro d’Italia. It is in Spanish with English subtitles.

Once Is Enough

Jeffrey James Binney presents his experience going from non-runner to 100-mile ultra runner in a film that is half documentary and half live comedy show talking about what happened.

From Fat to Finish Line

A group of overweight individuals who found running come together to complete a Ragnar relay race.

Running for Good

Follows Fiona Oakes as she attempts to complete the Marathon des Sables to raise money for her animal sanctuary.

Inspired to Ride

Follows the Trans America bike race, an unsupported race across America (not to be confused with RAM).

London Edinburgh London

Follows the London-Edinburgh-London audax, and features A-Soc’s Chris Tedd!

Dragon’s Back Race

Follows the second-ever running of the Dragon’s Back race. Originally run in 1992.

Running for Freedom

Follows Gerald Tabios, a Filipino runner, as he attempts to complete his 5th Badwater 135 ultra.

Skid Row Marathon

Follows a running club started by a judge.

Being Unstoppable

Follows several first-time Ironman athletes.

Finding Traction

Nikki Kimball attempts to complete the Long Trail.

Tugende

Documents the 1,000 km unsupported race around Rwanda. Lots of beautiful scenery but difficult to follow at times as everything is explained by brief title cards.

The Longest Journey

RAM, also Race Across America and 3089 Miles Across America. I don’t even know what I wrote here. Are these separate documentary names?

Ultimate Triathlon

Follows Luke Tyburski as he attempts to complete a 2,000-kilometre triathlon from Morocco to Monaco. it has an irritating voiceover that you find on Channel 5 documentaries.

The Bill Chill

This documentary follows Gary Robbins’s attempt to be the first to link up multiple trials around his home in Chilliwack.

Wild Man to Ironman

This documentary follows Mat Pritchard doing a ultra-distance triathlon around the entire border of Wales.

What a games! I have such good memories of watching London 2012 and Rio 2016 was a superb performance from Team GB. In comparison, Tokyo 2020 was a little deflating because everything was on in the middle of the night and you would just wake up to see what happened. So, when Paris rolled around and back in our kind of timezone, I cleared my schedule to watch.

In fairness to the organisers, they were brave in trying to do something different with the opening ceremony. But it wasn’t my favourite part. The athletes parade is long enough when they are walking, let alone when you put them on a barge. And stuff needed faster cuts. That horse was running down The Seine for like five minutes. Just get Danny Boyle to direct it next time.

The water quality in The Seine was also an issue. But people in glasses houses and all that. The UK struggles with water pollution and there were similar problems in Rio.

Everything else was brilliant. The venues were beautiful. It was right in the heart of historic Paris. The Eiffel Tower was ever-present and made for some amazing finish lines. And world records were broken in a slow pool. I tried to take in as much as possible. At one point with the gymnastics on the TV, golf on my laptop and road cycling on my phone. I was pretty Olympic-fatigued by day 14.

Overall, we can be really proud of Team GB. Seventh in the medal table is a low finish for us. Japan is arguably on a post-hosting bounce, and similarly France were the hosts. But we would want to beat Netherlands and Australia. Some things just didn’t go our way with Josh Kerr, Matt Hudson-Smith, Beth Shriever, Beth Potter, Kimberley Woods and others narrowly missing out on gold. And it would have been great to see Kate French try to defend her title. But there were plenty of success stories, too: Alex Yee and Tom Pidpock both made amazing comebacks. Bryony Page smashed it, Keely Hodgkinson was a dominant as everyone expected and Nathan Hales set a massive new Olympic record in trap. Also, Toby Roberts is Spiderman.

So, despite being seventh, if you rank it in terms of total medals, we’re third behind the US and China. We have one first place, back in 1908 but by Atlanta in 1996 we were down to 36th place with just one gold and 15 total medals. Compare that to 14 golds and 65 medals in Paris. The BBC has a good breakdown. Many of our Olympic athletes are trying to fit training in around working full-time. When we fund British athletes, we unlock their potential and we win medals.

It’s a shame that Discovery+ own the rights. The BBC’s coverage of London 2012 was much better, whereas Discovery+ has consistently bad service and technical problems.

Two weeks until the Paralympics. We’re consistently the second strongest nation in the Paralympics, after China, so let’s hope we can keep that streak going.