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A few nice games, Steamworld Heist 2 being a highlight. Also a demo for Cat Quest 3 available now and some stitching puzzle game as a shadow drop that looks way more interesting that I made it sound here.

I watched the 5 episodes of X-Men 97 that have been released, tho at the time of posting it looks like there is a sixth but I guess the 5 that are out sort of form a unit by themselves anyway. It's not really what I expected this to be, in that it's a continuation to a kid's cartoon that's much more about the relationships of the mutants than I would assume the 90s one could ever really get into, cause I think that one was for little kids. It's very stylish yet also effortlessly retro. The animation is a bit strange, looks like Archer sometimes, but it's fine cause every big combat sequence has some sort of unique way of expressing what the different traits of the mutants are. Which, you know, it's actually kinda important cause I don't know who the fuck half of them are, like time travel man. That's the thing with it also, it doesn't drop you into the deep end but it does sort of expect you to keep up cause it's running forward from the position it was in nearly 30 years ago. The storytelling is very crowded though, but in a kinda lopsided way. Some bits feel as slow as they should, and with appropriate buildup to specific big moments. Other stuff feels like they just rammed it in there and pushed the fast forward button. You just have to roll your eyes at some of it cause it feels like a cliffnotes adaptation of some older mythologies these characters have so it won't really leave its mark. It feels a bit like it's under some sort of budget pressure, there's one ongoing thing with Storm which feels slotted in so inelegantly to everything else but also some pretty big things with Jean Grey which feel like they could have their own entire season. But there's also a lot of IMO cool creative things it does within those tight confines. It is what it is. There's one episode where they veer into some horror stuff, another where it's some 90s video game inspired shenanigans. They make it work somehow Magneto is great but I've always liked this character in every iteration I've seen him him, especially that Nazi hunting shit he was doing in First Class. Great scene. Episode 2 and 5 of this also have great scenes with him demonstrating his power, but also giving him some story developments which take him in surprising directions. He doesn't just fuck things up, he also fucks. Even if you're not caught up the cultural osmosis will stop it from being impenetrable, you don't need to know what that cloud guy thing is in the post above. I do wish though they were able to take their time a bit with the pacing here, and that they replaced Wolverine's voice actor cause he sounds fucking ridiculous. Ray Chase plays Cyclops, aka Noctis. I've seen some people call him robotic but I think he's fine.

Todays session ended at the floating continent. I'm getting as many loose ends completed as possible before that point. I forgot how some new characters are really fun (Kupo!) while some are not (gamblers and little kids)... I have a day off tomorrow. So I'm quietly confident I'll be wrapping up the game in the very near future.