Back in the day people in Sweden used klarskinn, dried fish skin from eel and burbot, when reusing coffee grounds, to clarify the liquid and make the coffee look fresh and clear. Emphasis on "look", pretty sure it tasted like fishy weak coffee but if fermented herring is a big part of your diet the fish smell probably won't bother you. Never heard of eggs being used in this way but it makes sense, similar to how you would clarify a consommé.

I presume you got to the B route then? Yeah, wasn't a big fan of the hacking mini game but I've played a lot of bullet hells so maybe it didn't bother me as much. Except for some boss fights they're basically recycling the same 4 or 5 templates so once you "solve" them you just do the same thing every time. I did every side quest I could during route A so my route B was pretty quick. Figuring out and manually setting up your chip configuration can also make you disgustingly Cyberpunk-level overpowered.

What I really like is how the game manages to explore the themes of purpose, meaning and free will almost in isolation since the setting is so far into the future and so devoid of humans that it manages to slip out of the post-apocalyptic setting into something new. The common criticism of many open world games feeling mostly "lifeless" becomes an asset supporting the theme, while still giving you a sense of awe when you explore it and meet its inhabitants. I haven't read nearly enough science fiction to call it unique, but it felt fresh in a video game. I loved the musical score and the aesthetic, and as someone who struggled my way through Drakengard and the original Nier it is SO much better from a gameplay perspective once they brought in PlatinumGames its not even funny.

I pretty much 100%-ed the game on my first playthrough and just started up a new one. A "positive" side effect of this Moment we've been living through the past two years is that my memory has gotten worse, I've forgotten enough of the minor plot points and side stories that it feels fresh again. Really looking forward to talking about it more.

Horizon Zero Dawn is at the top of my Steam wishlist, just waiting for a sale to pick it up. I love Girlfriend Review so much, their Nier Automata review has convinced at least one friend to actually play it which feels like a huge win for a Yoko Taro game.

From a Patreon post back in July I had not read until today (this excerpt was preceded by 15 more paragraphs outlining what to expect in the future):

Expect videos you can confidently send to a friend who has never played a video game before, and receive a text later informing you that they actually watched all of it.

Just . . . don't expect any of that from The Action Button Season One Finale: Action Button Reviews Cyberpunk 2077, a video that has provided me roughly sixteen lmaoaneurysms per hour of editing work. When I first started this series I wanted the videos to possess the beefy texture of old floppy glossy magazines. For this season finale I drilled down on that "magazine concept" like my name was Hori Taizo. I figured, there's no better way to pave the path for a new style than by grinding the old style into a fine spreadable powder. So oh baby: I haven't wheeled "apotheosis" out of the wordshed or scare quotes in literally fifteen years, though dude, I probably am gonna hafta do it for the announcement post of this god-forsaken video presentation. I figure that in this life, you either go out with a bang or you die with intact eardrums. In the words of Johnny Silverhand as pronounced by Keanu Reeves, "I'm here to say goodbye [to big long horribly wild videos, and hello to much different ones]!

Sorry, in hindsight, I probably chose the worst video imaginable to share with y'all...

His review of Tokimeki Memorial is my favorite and is the only game so far that I had not played. It is made under the assumption that 99% of the people watching will not learn Japanese to be able to experience it for themselves, hence part 4 and part 5 is a narration of two different playthroughs, his first and his 14th.

For this review, if you have any interest in playing Cyberpunk 2077 (it's a great game!) you should at least play through the main story once, do a few of the side quest story-lines and one of the romance options. Stories 3 and 4 pretty much spoils the whole game, side quests and all.

Yeah, the hotpatches bit was... slightly less annoying than the "games have come a long way since Pacman" bit in the Pacman review. Part of me hopes that he's serious this time about the next season's videos being significantly shorter so I can actually recommend people to watch them. With that said, I haven't finished watching part 6 "Season of trash" yet but so far it's my favorite.

Honestly I'm not sure, I think you gave it enough of a try to decide if you can stand the obnoxious mannerisms and dense script (also, he thinks The Matrix was a good movie!). I've watched every Action Button Review so far and I'm still not sure what makes me come back to them, but it's probably a combination of the analysis of game mechanics with comparisons to almost every other relevant game in existence, expanded into cultural critique, mixed with deeply personal anecdotes, and a bit of Stockholm Syndrome. Sorry for not being more specific, I haven't finished watching it yet.

Västerbrokören!

Last week most of the remaining restrictions were lifted. On Sunday I watched my home team play soccer in a sold out stadium for the first time in 583 days. It felt like magic, the whole neighborhood leaving the bars and marching with drums, flags and flares through the streets to the stadium. During the pandemic I've almost forgotten why I enjoy living here. Not anymore. For my birthday in February of 2020 my brother gave me tickets for the season premiere, which never happened. Since then he's moved away, but hopefully we can go together next year.