Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

An excellent example of how the Warhammer 40K universe should be.

This amazing RPG is set in the Warhammer 40K universe where you play as a scion to a titular Rogue Trader house - "noble" individuals granted a relic from the Emperor that charters them as freelance explorer, merchant and conquistador all in one. It's also set just far enough from the Imperium to give you problems which ever route you go: be it the traditional dogmatic "all heretics and xenos must burn", the nutjob heretical "I will gladly obey your cruel whims demons of the warp", and the foolishly hopeful iconoclast who "strives to treat all people and races with equality and respect".

While you can create your own custom party, you are provided a bunch of companions all eager to betray you or be betrayed by you at every turn story wise but are also very handy when it comes to the XCOM type turn based combat that you will frequently find yourself in, despite of or because of your best and worst intentions. Some of these combats are super tricky too, and that goes doubly so for the space combats where you pick what stations your companions are manning and are often outnumbered with your one ship to however many the enemy fleet has ready for you. 

I especially loved that comparing my play through to that with Jim's was a totally different experience which means your decisions actually have impact on the story, as any good game should. Player agency, tick! The game is also pretty lengthy with a lot of side stuff that is interesting, rewarding and fun (especially for masochists in some combats).  Awesome game, highly recommended!

Gary (The Bear TV)

A weak standalone episode when compared to its parent show.

This special flashback episode of the Bear takes place between Season 4 and Season 5, focusing on Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Michael (Jon Bernthal) as they do an easy delivery run to Gary, Indiana. A lot of this is just these two guys talking shit while en route and killing time only hitting the heavier acting stuff towards the end. And it does end pretty abruptly too. I kinda wish there was more going on here, but as it stands this falls in the not recommended bucket - just skip it and watch the main series as it doesn't add anything. 

A good measure for a flashback series or film is to ask, "if I watched this first, would I then watch the main series"? The answer in this case is a resounding no.

Kumusta

A Korean production with a Filipino focus? 

This reality cooking show follows three Filipina actresses and one chef on their journey to prepare and setup a popup Filipino restaurant in Korea, where they are helped out by some Korean celebrities as they run a week long service which just shows how demanding the restaurant business can be. As it is a Korean production you can expect things like flash backs, funny subtitles, and replayed bits over and over from different angles. While some bits can be cringey for the most part we found it entertaining, especially with the kitchen / food prep side of things. I guess it helps that we like shows like Masterchef because it really is mostly cooking food and people eating food. Definitely not for everyone, but it might be worth giving an episode or two a try to see if you like it.

Project Hail Mary

Amazing characters in a great story.

 

Everything about this film is cool.

 

This sci-fi flick has Ryan Gosling star as a middle school teacher sent into space to find what is basically a "cure" to our dying sun. Despite the grim subject matter the script is surprisingly light, humourous and mostly upbeat, moves along at a good pace, and has flash backs that don't get in the way of the story telling because the character himself has amnesia and is trying to remember how he ended up here. Nice effects, good acting and cinematography, character development and characters who should be role models to boot? I give this one five out of five (which is interesting from me as it has no violence, sex or cussing whatsoever). Highly recommended!

The Last Cowboy (TV Series)

A Taylor Sheridan reality series about reining!

This documentary-competition which currently spans six seasons showcases the lives of various horse reiners as they prepare and compete in the Taylor Sheridan created "Run For a Million" tournament. What is horse reining? It's being able to ride your horse out into an empty arena and then doing a set pattern with it involving spins both ways, circles of various speeds, and the sliding stop signature move where the faster you go the harder it is to be accurate where to stop but the more points you might get. Much like figure skating, judges then give a score and whoever has the highest wins! If you watched Yellowstone you would have seen some of this as some of the reiners make an appearance there!

It's nice to see the tournament evolve in later seasons as it gets more popular to also include cow-horse (now you do that pattern on your horse while forcing an often non-compliant cow to also do it with you), cutting (there's a herd of cattle in the arena, separate one out and keep it from returning to the herd for as long as you can), and bareback (get on a wild horse and hang on for 8 seconds).

We do like the people the show focuses on too, as its great to see them evolve as people not just competitors. It's not a plot related thing, that's just life. The producers also use a good technique of rotating focus of riders per season, because all these people keep showing up again which means in later seasons even if a rider isn't heavily featured, you know exactly who it is when they get called into the arena. Awesome show and one I hope to see more of! Recommended!

Marshals and Dutton Ranch

First seasons of TV that continue Yellowstone...

Marshals

This police procedural follows Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) as he gets roped into a team of law men and women who each get to fire their guns each episode! Ok, maybe not but there's a lot of tactical action and the inclusion of other Yellowstone regulars on top of new likeable characters does add a lot to the show which helps make up for the "less deep" plot when comparing it to the original series. It's fine with me though, if they keep slinging bullets I'll keep watching. :)

Dutton Ranch

This series follows Beth Dutton's (Kelly Reilly) family who move away from Yellowstone to Rio Paloma to try start a new life but hardship seems to find them around every corner. This drama has better acting and better plot than the above and continues the glimpse into ranch life, but it comes with less gun fighting and some really unlikable characters. If you liked Yellowstone this show is more in the same spirit of it and yes, I'll also be watching season two for this! 

Age of Mythology: Retold

As many would know, strategy games aren't really my forte but this one has somehow made it into our Friday night game sessions and has probably become my most played strategy one for awhile. Obviously the co-op component helps a lot, though you can only co-op two players if going through the campaign story. That's ok though as there are many other modes that you can play through which is good, given my graphics card bombs out on some of the maps too.

A standard game round has you selecting your civilization (Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Atlantean, etc) followed by a major deity in that civilization - so for a Norse player you'd be choosing between Loki, Odin or Thor for example, each giving you slightly different "god" powers and "tech" trees in the form of minor gods who you get to pick as you advance from age to age.

Usually you get a town center, some peasants and some form of scout of your civilization type and from there have to collect food, wood, gold and favor to expand up through the ages. Favor is your battery for magical powers or making magical creatures and you how you gain it depends on your civilization. Atlanteans gain it by having their oracles stand as far apart from each other as possible. Greeks gain it by having as many people worshiping at the temple. Norse get it by killing enemies, and so forth.

AI wise, the fun bit is getting the mix n match of their personality types. A few examples are the defender who only defends, an attacker will constantly harass you, a humanoid will ignore all magic-related things and just fight you with men and machines, and an overwhelmer will just mass a big ball of troops and then throw it at you if you wait too long. You can also up the "difficulty" by letting the AI cheat basically if you really want a challenge (your peasant hits a tree once and gains 1 wood, their peasant hits a tree once and gains 1-3x wood).

It's simple enough to learn and fun enough to keep playing. Coming from me, a non strategy game player whose PC can't even run 1/4th of it properly, that's saying something so it must be doing something right! :)