Certainly Strange

The game of magical mayhem!

We were playing board games (Dune, Wiz-War, Cosmic Encounter, etc etc) a LOT for a while there. It petered out during the pandemic and we never really got back into it. Recently, though, I played a game of Wiz-War and I remembered how much I love that game.

We really have to start doing the regular board games again. And I have to paint the wizard minis. Embarrassing I hadn’t done that yet.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence put on another Hunky Jesus competition in Dolores Park for 2025.

This year’s winning Jesus was “Cowboy Carter Jesus,” who rode in astride a giant disco bison.

I went looking for recent video game releases and this led me to Black Shard, which has been a great experience so far. It’s stunning, moving, and compelling – with an interesting mystery at the heart of it all.

I got it just because it looked arty and interesting and I wanted to find a 2025 release, and I’m glad I did. The setting feels sorrowful and lonely, terrifying and alien but also beautiful. The aesthetic somewhat reminds me of Elden Ring in that way – it is so totally strange and unintelligible, yet also compelling.

People to converse with are few and far between, and those you do find tend to be caught up in their own relations to the strange labyrinth you find yourself in.

All of these screenshots, by the way, are gameplay screenshots. They are not cut scenes. To give you an idea of the surreal and gorgeous scenery you can take in as you explore.