Start digging in the couch cushions, kids!

https://kotaku.com/hasbro-unveils-700-self-transforming-optimus-prime-rob-1846650442

Yesterday was "First Contact Day," which I guess is now going to be for Star Trek what May 4th is every year for Star Wars. They put out quick trailers for Discovery season 4, Picard season 2, Lower Decks season 2 (supposedly it's already been renewed for a third season?), and our first look at Janeway and how she ties into Star Trek: Prodigy.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the new season of Discovery, but I'm honestly more looking forward to Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds.

*insert Rez talking about how Star Trek is now all complete ##### here*

Kinny "Floating Zzzzzzz!" is my jam this Sunday afternoon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a657_avbsEU

I bought a movie called "Vampire Cleanup Department" last night for $2, because with a name and price like that, why the hell not?

Coming this fall to Paramount+ "Two Androids One Cup" - in space, no one can hear you fart!

You are literally the only person I know who likes Star Trek who likes the Kurtzman stuff.  If you liked Discovery you'll like Picard.  They're both the same #####, except Picard uses actual actors from TNG to ##### all over the lore and previous series.

They ##### all over Lore? Didn't expect Star Trek to dive into scat fetishes, but here we are.

I watched the first episode of The Expanse. It was okay, but my friend who's been trying to get me to watch the show said I have to stick through at least the fourth episode before he'll stop annoying me about it.

Also watched the first episode of Star Trek: Picard. The Star Trek #####posting group regularly refers to the show as Mass Effect: Picard, but feels like there's also a dash of Firefly in there. Sir Patrick Stewart was amazing as always, and I'm curious where the show goes.

Voyager is fine until you know all of the bull##### that went on behind the scenes and you realize Berman #####ed over the show's writers and actors every chance he got.

I haven't watched enough Enterprise to have a real opinion about it, but I really like Discovery and Lower Decks.

Nickelodeon dumped a ton of their old shows on Paramount+ (some which were already there), so I started watching You Can't Do That On Television last night. I was surprised how some of the skits were still fairly subversive, unlike watching old Beavis and Butthead and you realize it's been done by a ton of other shows today.

We legit don't agree on anything. I loved it; it felt like what Star Wars is in the mind of six year-old and it was a total blast.

Was that the 2D animated one that looked like Samurai Jack?

Yup. Both were by Genndy Tartakovsky. Shame he never got to make the Han Solo and Chewbacca series he wanted to do.

The old Clone Wars cartoon is coming to Disney+ next month and I am #####ing STOKED to show that to my kids.

Hey Edge! Awesome to see you! Hope you're doing well.

Update on my consoles - I took them over to Complete In Box (an independent video game/comic book store in the Lancaster, PA area) and they were kind enough to test out all three, and all three work without issue! So hooray for that!

Playing SELF: Where's my father, which is this visual novel that has Undertale-esque minigames. It's okay, I thought it sounded neat, but the main reason why I'm playing it is because it gave our original reviewer seizures. The game does this flickering TV static effect pretty regularly including when you're booting up the game, and there's literally no warning before the game starts. I think you can turn it off in the options, but by then you've seen the effect a few times. Otherwise it's fine? Sigh.

We've emailed the developer with a "please fix this ##### now before you're subjected to lawsuits". Curious if we hear back.

I'll be honest, if insurance moves to replace them, I doubt I'll replace the retro systems. We don't have the time to play everything and the money could be used elsewhere.

I started playing Steven Universe: Unleash the Light last night. Requested a review copy because my wife likes the show (which I never really got into, but I don't mind). It very much has a "my first RPG" feel to it and there's no grinding, at least this far. I appreciate that the worlds are broken up into 10-20 minute chunks to keep kids' attention, but it's handy as hell for me as I'm juggling work and family. I'd recommend checking it out if you're a fan of the show and like simple RPGs.

I'd tell insurance to ##### off, refurbished electronics are not ideal.  They should just replace your stuff, like they're suppose to.  Are you looking at getting enough from them to replace all the games/cds/movies?

I've got a $500 deductible, which I may hit after the video game systems are cleaned, laundry done, and list submitted of everything that got damaged. I finished going through the CDs with my brother, and there's a bunch of indie/punk compilations that are expensive as ##### now, along with a couple of indie 90s bands that never went anywhere and it looks like there's no discography listed online. So this should be fun to see what they have to say.

You are legit the only person I know who not only doesn't think Discovery and it's ilk aren't bad, but good.  I honestly don't see how anyone can like that ##### pretending to be Trek.

I actually haven't seen any of Picard or Short Treks yet; but I assume you know of my opinion of Discovery and Lower Decks.

Are they:

1) Exploring strange new worlds?
2) Seeking out new life and new civilizations?
3) Boldly going where no one has gone before?

Then cool, I'm down for it. It's Star Trek. TNG was different from TOS, DS9 was different from TNG and TOS, etc. Things aren't going to always be the same, and the Star Trek universe is ripe for all sorts of storytelling, and it can't worry about staying true to the vision of a man who died 30 years ago and had plenty of issues of his own. It has to move on and can't keep with the same narrative. Thankfully there's something for everyone with Trek, whether you want to stick with the old stuff (and Strange New Worlds is supposedly going to be more episodic like TOS) or humor in Lower Decks that gives what I feel is a more honest look at 90% of the Federation.

Yuck, that comic does sound like crap. I was "whatever" about the show, and my kids love it, but it sounds like we definitely won't be getting a second season. From what I've read Cartoon Network never did anything to promote it, a direction couldn't be agreed upon for the second season, and it seemed to get lost in the DHX/WildBrain shuffle.

Oh well.

Has anyone read the 6-issue Boom Comics series? Curious if it treats it as the end of the show or a continuation.

Now on season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery and more crazy ##### has occurred while this season definitely has a more upbeat attitude. I enjoyed Captain Christopher Pike in season 2, and I'm now really looking forward to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds when that comes out.

Pipes would be my big worry with that.

Funny you should say that, because a pipe connection burst on Friday for a good 15 minutes. Got water on my Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, Rock Band drum kit and a box of my Star Wars stuff. Then Sunday night my wife discovered that the water got a lot farther in the basement. So with that, I lost a couple of DVDs, about half of my Star Wars books (which were never supposed to be in the basement in the first place, thanks #####ty movers!), and I have about 800 CDs to go through to inspect for water damage.

State Farm wants the games consoles tested and cleaned before they'll move for replacement, so I have to get in touch with my local indie video game store later this week.

Season 2 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous has dropped on Netflix, so my kids are stoked. So far the season seems decent, but my oldest kid is a couple of episodes ahead of me due to parental duties. I'm more excited about season 2 of Bluey, which is arriving in America on February 5.

I'm listening to Isaac Hayes' Shaft soundtrack while doing early Sunday morning IT work.

My house's furnace ##### the bed on Thursday and isn't getting fixed until tomorrow (Monday). We're pretty much just bundling up and staying undearneath tons of blankets. Thankfully it isn't too bad at night time.

Interesting.  I'll give it a look after I'm done moving and have time to do anything other than prepare to move.

It's a very quick playthrough, with two endings.

Here's the link for the Mr. Boop game! https://alecrobbins.itch.io/mr-boop

Oh yeah, you really do have to suspend your belief with Cobra Kai and just enjoy the karate soap opera that it is. The teens would've been immediately expelled from my high school growing up, and no one ever calls the cops in the show.

Season 3 of Cobra Kai was great and I can't wait for season 4. I'm disappointed that they're looking at spinoff shows, but I'm not surprised they're doing it either.

I got #####faced before wrapping the kids' gifts on Christmas Eve and made my wife listen to Taylor Swift's albums "folklore" and "evermore". She'd be like "This is a pretty good song," and I'd drunkenly reply "THE WHOLE ALBUM IS SO GOOD."

So #####ing psyched that Cobra Kai season 3 is now arriving January 1st.

I got my copy of ASR's "Mr. Boop Volume III"

I've been watching Star Trek: Discovery. I'm warming up to Burnham, but the show has got some crazy ##### going on. I dig it so far.

Currently playing the remake of Panzer Dragoon for a review. I never played it or the Xbox sequel when they came out, so this is all new for me. I think it's okay, but only having one button to change my direction as I'm firing shots at the enemies is really annoying. Kind of wish there was a tutorial level, but it wouldn't really fit with the apparent story.

When did they make a Cobra Kai game?  Is it an actual game or just a mobile gatcha #####?

It just came out. I reviewed it because previews looked like ass and I figured it would be a cheap cash-in. The hit detection is a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle off, but otherwise it's a solid beat 'em up with surprising depth. I legit recommend it.

So I'm reviewing the Cobra Kai video game for my friend's podcast, and I felt like I should be watching it as well so I can comment on that. HOLY CRAP THE SHOW IS SO GOOD!

Glad the board is back, I've been checking every few days!

I got engaged on August 8th. Hard transition to saying fiancée instead of girlfriend after 5 years.

I know I said congratulations on FB, but congratulations again! When doing wedding plans, make sure to have Rez be a flower girl.

Latest review game is Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-reckoning. I played it (but didn't finish) the first time around, and I forgot how the game just dumps you into the world, much like Morrowind. I ended up doing a bunch of side quests before I even got the first bit of the main storyline. Still, I'll be playing this every night until I record on Thursday, as I can't play this around my kids.

Enjoy it while you can.

As of now, three other people now have the achievement. BUT I STILL DID IT FIRST! 

I can't talk about the game because it's currently embargoed, but according to TrueAchievements, I'm the first person to have nabbed an achievement in an upcoming game. Nothing big, but I thought that was pretty fun.

---

As of 9/9/20, I'm still the only one with the achievement.

Update on my co-worker, as of issue #22, he's going to be doing the main covers for Spider-Man: Miles Morales, plus he's got a bunch of non-yet-announced variant covers for Marvel, plus a few for Image. Being on furlough really helped get his foot in the door!

Currently reviewing Battletoads, New Super Lucky's Tale, and Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. Helluva week!

Juggling Skater XL and Yakuza Kiwami 2 for reviews. I feel conflicted about Skater XL, because it plays pretty well and I love that it's just you dicking around on your skateboard. There's no traffic, no timer. Just you, your board, and your arch-enemies, gravity and physics. It's a really chill game. On the other hand, the customization feels very superficial and there's only five areas for you to skate in - I'm assuming that DLC will come later. But of the five areas, only two of them are really fun (the others are okay, but can get boring real quick). So in the end, and this feels mean because I really enjoy it, it feels like it's a $40 tech demo.

Yakuza Kiwami 2 is a remake of Yakuza 2 for modern systems, and holy ##### this a ton of fun. I had reviewed Yakuza 0, and that was vaguely annoying because you weren't able to do certain things until later in the story as you had to be "trained". Not here! You start kicking ass right off the bad while helping little old ladies find their amulets and getting street musicians a pack of tissues! So much damn fun, and I hope they bring the rest of the series to Xbox. If you like the other Yakuza games, you'll like this one.

That's dope, did he do all of it or just pencils/inks/colours?

I believe he did it all.

They just did a sequel to that.

I SAW! I may just buy the episodes so we don't have to wait for one of the streaming services to carry it.

Dude, I'm so psyched for one of the guys I work with. Taurin Clarke, who does our IT stuff for our NYC stores, got to do the variant cover to Captain Marvel #22, out this October!

I beat all of the puzzles in Glass Masquerade 2. I'm not going to bother with the hard difficulty for the puzzles; the game's menu interface is too buggy for me to even want to deal with the game anymore.

I'm playing through Hue right now. It was released on Xbox One years ago, but I reviewed the iOS version a few months back and wanted to try it out on console. It's like a relaxing version of Limbo with a nice storyline.

I only have 20 minutes out of a lifetime invested in any of the Zero/ZX games. May not be worth the initial release price, but I'll scoop it up when it inevitably goes on sale.

It's currently 20% off; I'm waiting to see if they knock it down any more around Christmas.

We've started letting our kids watch Teen Titans GO!, and holy ##### the "Night Begins to Shine" arc was #####ing amazing. Love love love love this show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR131fc2pZY

Being a game journalist must be nice.  Just remember the moment you give a game a bad review you stop getting them.

I give bad reviews when it's a bad game. There's a couple of publishers that we haven't received our usual standard review copies from, and we're not quite sure if it's because of previous bad reviews, PR people we were friendly with going off to new jobs, or the economy.

We didn't receive RBI Baseball 20, which we've given ##### reviews to both previous years, but at the same time our usual PR contact left for a different job and the baseball season started way later. So we're not sure what's happening there. We've also not been receiving review copies from one publisher after I gave a middling review of their title based on a very popular anime series, but we've heard that there's some titles they're only giving out to major publications/streamers at this point, so...yeah. They've sent us one game since February, so we're possibly on their ##### list.