Week 58: 3D Printer
After completing The Last of Us last week, this week I started The Last of Us 2. It’s really interesting to see the progress that 7 years has given the franchise. The advances in rendering and human motion is particularly impressive, but also the exploration seems more immersive than before. In version 2 the budget for the voice actors also seem massively increased, I don’t think the characters have stopped nattering since I started. Even when it’s just one character alone fighting they are giving themselves a pep talk encouraging them through the scene, it’s cute, you’ve got this Ellie!
Playing The Last of Us has been a great distraction from the other two main hobbies of lockdown:
- Watching TV, and
- Trying not to buy things I don’t need, and probably won’t use.
There was a point on Friday for example when I found out I could get a new 3D printer delivered next day for £125. I’ve never had anything custom 3D printed, but at that price it seemed like a hobby that I should take up! Thankfully I managed to resist and don’t have a 3D printer turning up, but it was very close.
In terms of TV this week I watched:
- It’s a Sin. I was sobbing at the end, it was great, but harrowing.
- Outside the Wire (on Netflix) which was in comparison, mostly terrible. Though perhaps that’s just my dislike of the sci-fi genre which was apparent when I was disappointed at the end when we never got to see the wedding they had spent the whole film talking about.
- Official Secrets (on Prime) which is an account of the whistle-blower who exposed illegal spying designed to start the Iraq war. It was a really compelling watch and I do wonder if in the same situation I’d have the courage to leak the memo. I almost certainly wouldn’t have, but I like to think I would have.