Weekly Round-up #3 - Vegan Food, Edith Finch's Big Mood, Dead Cells Attitude

I don't know what is up with that title. This post is extra ramble-y.
I'm going to do another blog post at some point this week about the process of redesigning a website, but this is a non-programming blog post.
Food
Trying to be Vegan
It's good timing with the whole "Veganuary" stuff that I have decided to trend towards being vegan. It started just over a month ago, with mainly wanting to get rid of dairy from my diet, as I slowly get more and more lactose intolerant with age. So I figured why not, lets give moving towards a vegan diet just give it a go.
Currently 3/4s of my meals a week are vegan, with the rest being a mix of vegetarian or with meat in. This mainly stems from the fact my partner is not vegan, and doesn't really have any interest in it either. But I did also drop all this on her, so I really appreciate the fact she hasn't complained about 2-3 of the Gousto meals a week being vegan which is a big change really.
So anyway, lets get into some of the things which I have noticed over the 3-4 weeks:
Oat Milk rules
It is so good, seriously. It doesn't just taste like a milk replacement, it tastes better than milk to me. Nice and creamy, good for the environment, and just as versatile as milk.
It is however expensive as all heck. Compared to the £1.50 I was spending for 2L of normal Milk, £1.50 for 1L can feel like a lot. The brand I have been buying is Oatly, but there are some other cheaper ones which don't taste quite as good, but still good enough to say goodbye milk forever. It does also cook quicker, so be careful if you're used to putting porridge in the microwave for the usual 2 minutes as it will go absolutely everywhere.
People (corporations) are trying
With the wonderful timing of "Veganuary", seemingly everyone is doing plant based meals all over the place. This is great, as it means I haven't had to change where I am getting my food from. Last year I had considered trending towards vegetarian, and I felt that the Gousto's really limited meal selection simply wouldn't give any sort of variety for doing that. This year, they not only have plenty of vegetarian options, but an alright number of vegan meals too. This is a huge improvement and I can only imagine other delivery services are doing the same. They all rely too much being spicy for the base taste in my opinion, but they're pretty good!
Here are some meals I've done with Gousto.



Buying lunches feels limiting
I am incredibly lazy when it comes to food preparation. I cook most evenings, getting all the ingredients and recipes from Gousto, but thats mainly for the gratification of being able to eat it immediately when it is done. When it comes to lunches, I can't be bothered to do any pre-planning or prep. So I buy all my lunches out in whatever is near work. In the theme of the point above, shops are trying to provide more options, but it feels pretty slight.
Subway has 2 vegan options, both are pretty good. The vegan cheese they use however is pretty sickly, it is way too strong a 'cheese taste'.
The Tesco near me has 2 meal deal mains which are plant based and not just a salad. The hoisin wrap thing is pretty good, but they put in half the amount of filling as they would put in the duck hoisin wrap.
Greggs has a couple of vegan things. I have only had the sausage roll, but it's pretty good. The lunch time queues at Greggs are dire however.
The KFC vegan burger tastes pretty good, but it's pretty small for the price, and you can basically only have a corn cobette or beans if you need something else to eat.
The saving grace in all of this is the small burrito shop near me. They do 4-5(!) different vegan burritos, for £5-6 depending on size, and they are just lovely people who get repeat business by not just doing good food, but having a conversation with the customers.

It doesn't need to be a big thing
I think the biggest thing when you think about becoming vegan is that everything is going to need to change. I've opted to make it a transition period rather than just switching in one go because I felt like I would be setting myself up for failure if it was a whole 100% change, and it provides a bit of a safety net while I try and find a couple of new places to eat.
There are great reasons in terms of animal rights, or environment, to make people consider going vegan. While we live in system where corporations are unfairly pricing vegan options as more expensive, I can't in good faith suggest vegan for everyone. If you can't afford it, then don't, because the system is against you anyway.
But if you can start considering it, start checking out your options locally, and if you can afford/are comfortable with a large change in diet then give it a go. I don't feel any different (maybe a little less tired), and I haven't been feeling hungrier more frequently because of the plant based diet. It isn't one size fits all. If you want to do 2 meals a week vegan, then go for it. Any change can be good change.
Also all the things in your bathroom probably aren't vegan. Out of everything this has been the hardest thing to find replacements for, and I haven't for most things.
Games
This weekend I had some time to get through some of the games on Game Pass on Xbox.
What Remains of Edith Finch
I have been meaning to play this game for ages, so I was pleasently surprised at the fact it was only like 3 hours long, and told its story in such a way that at the end I was satisified with what it was doing.
I'll start off by saying that I think this is a game of style over substance. Besides two stories the game tells, the gameplay and technical aspects of this game fall short, and some story aspects fall the way-side for style. At points it looks pretty bad, with models lacking detail or not quite fitting with the rest of the scene. But at others it looks great. I think the diarama nature of the house works really well, and has plenty of detail as you explore literally every nook and cranny. But I would say that unevenness permeates every part of the game, and is something you will need to look past to really love the game as a whole.
I want to talk about the part of the game which everyone always talks about, and a bit which I thought was really amazing in its story-telling which I don't see as many people talk about. This is quite a personal game, so that is why some aspects of the game wouldn't have hit me as they may have hit you or other people, as it's something I would relate to less.
The Cannery

This is the thing everyone talks about when they talk about this game, and I understand why. In this sequence, you play as Lewis, Ediths elder brother who passed away 7 years prior. You know every sequence of the game has ended with someones death, so by this point of the game (the second to last sequence) you know what to expect.
The gameplay is broken into two halves; the right analog stick controls your hand which moves fish from the left side of the screen, to the right to chop of its head, then up to the top to the conveyor belt. The left analog stick controls the left side of your screen, which starts off as a small, basic 2d maze. Over time this 2d maze becomes a sprawling world of Kings and Queens which overtakes your screen, as it also overtakes Lewis' mind as he lives through the monotany of everyday life. It is moving, visually impressive, and relatable. Unlike some of the other sequences as well, this is the only death (I think) which was by choice, which is what makes it hit a lot harder. The game feels very Brother Grimm up until this, and it kind of throws you into the modern rat race.
It is by the far the longest and most involved sequence of the game, and where I think a lot of the dev time went compared to some of the other story sequences. 3 of the 5 screenshots on the Steam store page for this game are from this sequence, when there are like 8 other sequences which exist in the game. It's definitely a sequence worth being proud of, but there is a lot this game has to offer alongside this.
I think because of this, it makes this utterly brilliant sequence feel undeserved. I wanted to know more about other characters too, but they only get sequences which last 1-2 minutes. The game built up for this to ultimately be the emotional core of the game, but leaves other characters emotional needs unmet. I wanted nothing more than to find out about Edie's emotional closure when she made it to the house in the water, but it plays that closure off as an emotional point for Edith instead.
Photograph with Sam

Besides the cannery, this was the other most relatable sequence for me. In it, Dawn (Ediths mother) is going out camping and taking photoes with her father, Sam. Besides the whole forcing Dawn to shoot a deer and ending of this sequence, I feel like this sequence was the most relatable, and generally really well done.
The gameplay is only you taking photos as both Sam and Dawn from a static position and looking around (you switch which person you are controlling, so am I the person in this sequence, or am I the camera). The story reason for using the same camera and why it looks kind of bad I think is great, it's just an old camera they took along with them. It has a homely-ness which I don't think I have ever felt in another game. The depth of field implementation could use some work, at least on Xbox, but not guiding you too much in what to take photos or holding your hand ultimately made the experience a lot better. Your father asks you what is taking so long, as you struggle to find the picture you need to continue the conversation/sequence.
It's short and sweet, and to me the best of the what the game has to offer. This is a really great and unique game. If you already have Game Pass then give it a go, you can finish it in an afternoon and you'll come away wanting some more games like this in the future.
Dead Cells

I don't have much to say about Dead Cells just yet as I am only a few hours in, only that I wish I had got to it sooner. Rogue Legacy was one of my favourite indie games of the last decade, and this feels like the next evolution to that.
My first run lasted for over an hour, because the game itself is not overly difficult at the start which I really appreciate. You can bounce off games like Rogue Legacy so easily because the learning curve feels overly steep. The steepness curve here is from knowing what items/setups are the best which helps with the onboarding a ton.
I'll come back with deeper thoughts on this game, but the attitude this game takes with treating new players with respect has me wanting to come back for more.