Ironic Indie Lad

Add me to the list of people hating their job at the moment. My company is one of many who have basically gone "AI will save us money. Lets move ahead with this and worry about it later!". They seem to have binned a bunch of roles off on the assumption that AI will be able to do their jobs, which has failed. Its meant that other people (such as me) have had to absorb more duties into their already very, very stretched working day. Everyone in my entire department is very behind and extremely stressed. It has led directly to some people leaving and some others going off sick. This has a further domino effect as other people (me again!) need to pick up work in progress for those who have left or are absent. Every single day I have much, much more work to do than I can possibly complete. I was briefly logging in early and doing extra work just to try reduce my stress by getting more on top of things. I've since come to my senses and made it clear that this isn't my problem and I wont continue to do this. I've given management plenty of data on how much I am doing every day and how it is completely unmanageable and cannot continue. I've asked them to suggest how to move forward and the answer is basically "we don't have anyone else who can do the work". I've gotten far better at logging off at 5 sharp and not letting it bother me until 9am comes but I can still feel the stress creeping in. There are plenty of times where I wake up in the middle of the night and my thoughts are about calls I really need to make, emails I need to respond to etc. It's not good.

For anyone who just needs even more of it, Warhammer Survivors is coming out in November. Its on everything including iOS and Android.

I feel completely out of the loop as I somehow did not even know a new Gears of War game was coming out. I've always enjoyed the series. I actually bought a 360 based entirely on the strength of the original game. I was horrified to realise this was TWENTY YEARS AGO now. I have to say, as much as I have enjoyed the series of the years, I could not really give two shits about the story. I probably couldnt even summarise it beyond "its some really muscular soldiers who are at war with humanoid locusts". That is about all the backdrop I really need though, I just find them very satisfying games to play and they are usually some of the better looking games around. With this in mind, I downloaded Gears of War: E-Day on Game Pass last night and played the first hour or so. It looks great and its the familiar cover / shoot gameplay you will be aware of if you have played any of the games. As the name suggests, this is a prequel which tells the story of 'emergence day'. I can tell they are going for a weighty, emotional story thats been all the rage in AAA games for a while now (The Last of Us, God of War etc.) . I've not played enough to tell if the story / writing are any good. I will say that one of the very first area's is a police station and the design of this station and the horror feel is almost too similar to Resident Evil 2. It may as well have flashed up WE HAVE BEEN HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY RESI 2 on the screen. I half expected to see some decorations welcoming Leon Kennedy to his first day on the job.

I will say that I did sigh a bit at the healing flasks and all enemies regenerating when you save. Not everything has to be Dark Souls.

Speaking of Castlevania... A demo of the upcoming Belmonts Curse is out now on all platforms. I played through it last night in one go. Its very brief, probably only about 30-40 mins or so. It's enough for you you to get a feel of the movement, combat etc. and a boss fight. I really enjoyed it. I was always going to be getting it (2D Castlevania among my favourite series of games ever) but I am more excited now. Presentation is lovely and it just feels very good to play.

Just arrest Pep at this point.

There isn't much I can add really. An incredibly moving show that somehow managed to be uplifting under awful circumstances. Everyone involved did amazing.

I am struggling to get properly into anything post Ghost of Yotei. I finally played Donkey Kong Bananza which was very well received as I understand. I thought it was fun but nothing special. I actually got bored of it quite quickly. I dont think its anywhere near as good as Mario Odyssey (which is going to be a ten year old game before we know it btw) I got a good deal on Game Pass so reinstated that and started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Series X. It looks, sounds and feels unbelievably authentic but sadly I just found the gameplay to be very dull. I moved onto Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 which is another one on Game Pass. I know absolutely NOTHING about Warhammer other than the fact its a game using miniature models. I do know that this looks and feels like a Gears of War game and thats quite alright with me. I have no idea what the story is and the writing and voice acting seems to be taking itself far too seriously. All that said, I am enjoying this just for some mindless shooting / hack and slash fun. It looks stunning and all feels very weighty. I feel like I am plodding along just waiting on CastleVania Belmonts Curse or Zelda Ocarina of Time remake to grab me. Having said that, I am in the mood for losing myself in something substantial (ooooh matron etc) and have considered giving Crimson Desert a go. Only problem is that it looks completely overwhelming so I am worried I would bounce right off it.

The more I think about it, the more I think they should award the trophies to the runners up. It wont mean much to the players etc. but its amazing material for the fans. In the end thats all that really matters.

Quite an embarrassing statement from Pep. May as well have just said he is a bald fraud and his butt stinks and he likes to kiss his own butt.

As always, we are disproportionately exposed to a loud and vocal minority on social media. in one of my old jobs, there was a lot of old school City fans. People who would never dream of posting on Twitter all day, creating YouTube content etc. I remember one guy had a framed picture of Maine Road in his office. He still went home and away but he did used to acknowledge that it’s not ‘his’ city and felt weird playing Real Madrid etc. Not sure exactly what my point is here. I guess that there are probably thousands of older fans that would probably welcome the ownership fucking off and starting again from the bottom.

I deleted twitter along time ago as I felt like it was absolute poison to my brain. I downloaded it again as soon as the news broke on Friday (will 100% be deleting again soon as its much, much worse than ever) I've noticed it was initially denial among the fans. That seems to have moved on now to acknowledging they "cheated" but its the rules that are wrong and they had no choice other than to cheat etc. Considering its only Wednesday, interesting to see where their heads are at by the weekend.

I think the punishment needs to cover the period they have been confirmed as cheats. I also think the punishment needs to acknowledge that the foundations for the current success were built on lies. They would not be at the level they are no without the cheating. All joking aside I would strip the titles, enormous points deduction / OR direct expulsion (whatever is possible within the rules) and a transfer ban. I also think Man City need to be forced to release a statement acknowledging their guilt and an apology to all other teams. As far as redistributing trophies, I wouldn't bother. The history should just say "no title awarded" for future generations to look back on and understand premier league football for a very long period was a sham.

Micah Banned and we call it quits on the rest lads. At least City fans can hold their heads held high and be proud of the fact they stopped cheating just as soon as they were hacked.

I truly don't understand how they can say they have "diligently respected due process" when a large percentage of the charges are for failure to provide information, documentation etc. No fucking idea how its possible for the evidence to be irrefutable. If it was really that simple and really that cast iron, we wouldn't be here. I've been anonymously told that the punishment is that Micah Richards is being banned from punditry work.