PennyRoyal

Hello peeps. Life’s thrown me some curve-balls recently, and I’d like a bit of an escape. Can anyone recommend a decent game in the vein of Skyrim, Fallout or Deus Ex/System Shock for the steam deck, that isn’t 25 or 30 quid please? Something on offer for less than a tenner would be ideal. I’m sure there are some great older RPGs out there that I’ve missed, the Deck is the first time I’ve got back into gaming for quite a few years, and while I’m sure I could quite happily just play Brotato for the next few years, I reckon there’s something a bit more immersive out there for me to find!

Probably worth a watch, and whether you agree with him or not, being aware of the economic situation here at the moment is probably prudent

Hi all, I need a bit of help.

I’m looking to get further down the rabbit hole of interesting photographers, but I struggle to define what I’m after. My general misanthropy extends into photography, people are almost always the least interesting thing in the frame to me. Why would you waste film on faces, when you could be taking interesting images of some nice concrete or rusty iron?!

I love the work of Toshio Shibata, Bernd and Hilla Bescher, Bill Brandt, Danila Tkachenko, and GXAce on YouTube. The problem I have is that searching for “Urban” photographers brings up street stuff, “Architectural” ends up with folks who take pictures of whole buildings, “industrial” seems to lead to people who take photos for corporate websites, or urbexers (though some of those are verging on what I’m after). Constructed landscapes, textures, geometric shapes, and the juxtaposition of human artifice and nature, that’s my bag.

Is there a term or genre that would connect all this? Or am I just going to have to keep finding new artists one at a time?

Ta!

I’ve got a little stainless Coast A5, which I love, but its beam pattern is very, very much inspection torch. Dead circular, even spread.

Is there anything similar in body, but with a more every-day torch beam? I don’t really want some black knobbly military-cosplayer’s thing, I’m not too bothered about a built in charging port, I want minimal. I love the simple, smooth stainless body of the A5, it lives in my smart jacket pocket along with an elegant little pocket knife, I just wish it had a thrower-style beam.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6bsOINgyf4lBBblmJCWcwr

Again, obvious link, but obscure song. Underrated band by my lights too

https://youtu.be/tTUd5SVE7_8

https://youtu.be/xFYXP19e5KM

Try to unfuck the world all you want, Turbonegro will fuck it right back up for you

https://youtu.be/MU1aD0xbNOw

I’m mystified how this isn’t a more well-known pedal, it’s about the most perfect fuzz tone to my ear. The sub switch takes it from a high, sizzling tone that cuts through a mix like a saw, right through to the noise of an earthquake. It’s in a similar realm to the Carcosa (which I reckon is probably the best value fuzz ever made, really versatile) but a bit weirder and heavier. Joyous.

Bunged a couple of pedals from the B-team box onto a little board I’d bashed together a while ago. I’ve had to cut the right-hand end down a bit to plug the Dirty Robot in.

I’ve been using this on synths, just as a bit of fun really. The dirty robot is fantastic, and very versatile. Seems redundant, using a synth pedal on a synth, but on rhythms it does all sorts of joyous things. The Bass Overdrive is a great little budget drive, and the wet/dry mix and low/hi tone shaping makes it well suited for synths. The Aurora is a nice, simple delay that you can manhandle nicely, and the Exosphere is a reverb that can be rather wild especially with the Little Monster expression switch.