Souls Like Strings

What if the noir detective was a lawyer?

Why

• Quality writing & mystery so far
• Nice soundtrack & plenty of visual flair
• Characters & world seem interesting
• Twist surprised me but still felt earned

Why Not

• Seems a little hand-holdy, but it is just a demo

Impressions

This is quite an interesting way to promote your game; a free demo covering the basic mechanics and giving a taste of the story/characters which can then be continued with longer 'DLC' episodes. It definitely worked on me; I'll be picking up the available episodes next time...

One day, tiny flames will dance across the darkness

Why

• A perfect end to the series & its world
• Friede, Gael, the Dancer, Pontiff... so many great bosses
• Fan service galore for those who've been there from the start
• World design is more DS2 than 1, but still plenty of secrets/shortcuts

Why Not

• Nope, just play it

Impressions

It feels so long ago that the pandemic gave me the push I needed to finally play Elden Ring, starting a journey which ends today with the first flame finally fading. I'll play all the other...

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.

A pauper can prince, but can a prince pauper?

Like the Tom Sawyer books I struggled reading the archaic English to begin with, but I'm glad I stuck with it. These days the overall plot would be considered a pretty standard 'Freaky Friday' type deal; two very different people learn to appreciate their own circumstances by switching places, but even after 150-odd years of similar stories Twain's still stands out.

Both the pauper-turned-prince and prince-turned-pauper acquit themselves admirably over the course of the book despite obvious difficulties in...

Yep, that's a Daniel Mullins game

Why

• Typically deft 'game about games' from this dev
• The more different games you play the more you'll enjoy this
• 'Break/build the game' sections are a highlight gameplay-wise

Why Not

• Genre-hopping affects pacing if you dislike some genres
• Don't try the 'Space Marine' sections on a trackpad

Impressions

You might think being known for 4th-wall breaking meta-games might blunt the impact of said games, but that doesn't stop Daniel Mullins churning out bangers. Inscryption set a high bar; and while The Hex doesn't quite reach it a...

• Don't assume prod resources are in the prod AWS account and staging resources are in the staging one
  • Turns out both staging & prod S3 buckets for the React app are in the prod account, along with the prod Cloudfront
  • But staging Cloudfront is in the staging account, explaining why CI could never find the Cloudfront distro let alone invalidate it
• It's possible to have ~4 hours of meetings in a day and still feel productive
• state is meant to be a random, opaque value in OAuth
  • It's definitely not meant to be a nested...