I'm Max, an autistic software engineer, Twitch streamer (affiliate since 14th July 2019), and hobby collector from the North of England (and big fan of the Oxford comma).
I go by he / they, occasionally feeling pretty strongly non-binary, and identify as bi. That part's a little muddy; I'm definitely biromantic, but likely somewhere in the ace spectrum. If you don't support the entire LGBTQ+ community (including the T), then I can guarantee I want nothing to do with you. :)
I'm very enthusiastic about self-hosting most of the online services I use these days on low-power Linux devices, and an enthusiast for the day when I can finally move over to Linux as a daily-driver (as always, software support holds me back). I also work on a bunch of open-source projects.
Hobbies include, but are not limited to: playing video games; making the occasional video game (using frameworks, not engines); writing niche software; listening to a very wide variety of music; learning about stuff (an awful lot, but linguistics and computer science are particularly trivial nerd-snipes); learning languages (primarily Classical Latin and some Ancient Greek); and occasionally learning an instrument (violin / guitar). Feel free to talk to me about any of these!
I'm pretty easy to contact through the myriad ways indicated at the top of this page; if in doubt, feel free to shoot me a DM on the Fediverse or email if need be. :)
A Larian RPG to truly follow-up DOS2, BG3 is an incredibly good rendition of the D&D 5e Ruleset into a stunning video game. The writing is characteristically witty (... and in no small part horny...) and interesting, the visuals are Larian's best yet with fully-animated in-engine cutscenes, and - despite the bugs in later Acts, which are present - playing solo and co-op is a real blast. Truly one of the games of all time, and that's without even acknowledging the wonderful soundtrack (with a particular villainous standout...). Impeccable.
5 / 5
My first mainline Souls game, DS3 is absolutely incredible. Engaging, enjoyable combat; a rich, deep world; and that feeling of accomplishment is stunning. 100% worth playing.
5 / 5
Incredible storylines. Stellar gunplay. Impeccable soundtracks. The only good forever-game I've found yet.
5 / 5
Oh, Elden Ring... Absolutely stellar. Similar combat to DS3, but the game is substantially more accessible. Plus, the open world felt like how I wanted Skyrim to feel all those years ago...
5 / 5
Heartwrenching story, incredible graphics. Honestly, this achieves what it set out to do, and I adore this game. A lot.
5 / 5
God of War (2018) is an incredible open-world RPG, with a couple of rough edges from leaning too heavily into the RPG tropes (many pieces of gear can get overwhelming...). God of War Ragnarök expands upon the 2018 entry with yet more stellar storywork, plus refined gameplay. Overall, I do recommend playing both of these! It's an amazing journey.
5 / 5
Much like Automata, Replicant is a masterpiece in all the same categories. A beautiful, heartbreaking story, paired with beautiful music, all over some pretty good gameplay. I prefer Automata's combat, but this is fun too!
5 / 5
I absolutely adore this game. Play it, then play it again two more times (you'll understand why), then cry when Weight of the World starts up. It's a masterpiece in narrative, music, and the gameplay's honestly great too!
5 / 5
Beautiful. I recommend playing P3FES first for the animated cutscenes and Answer epilogue, which is an absolutely incredible experience (even if it's not visually very pretty, given its age), then following it up with a playthrough of P3P for the FeMC route, which is also a neat different perspective on the story (which remains the most tragic story in the 'reboot' Persona series). The music, for the record, is addictive regardless of which version you play!
5 / 5
If you liked Persona 3, then this is another Persona game! But this time, we have slightly better graphics, an entirely new - but still incredible - soundtrack, and a cast that feel like a bunch of friends for a lot more of the game. I really love the characters in P4G, and the game is overall stellar. So, par for the course for a Persona game!
5 / 5
Again, another Persona game. Massively improved visuals this time, with another new soundtrack (again, addictive as all hell), and another really good cast of characters - featuring one that feels Autistic-coded to me, which is really nice, even if it was (apparently) unintentional.
5 / 5
These are really some notes for myself for if I ever need to set Firefox up again, but in the interests of sharing, they're public. Why not?
Read moreMy music taste varies a lot, though a staple genre is anything falling under rock / metal, including heavy metal et al. There's also a decent helping of more interesting genres, such as folk, synthesised (ie, Vocaloid / UTAU), and the occasional rap (but that is the genre I tend to be most picky with!). I'm a huge fan of basically all of the Persona music from Persona 3 onwards, and likewise for both the NieR Automata and Replicant soundtracks.
For a flavour of my taste, a sample of artists I tend to like are: Bring Me The Horizon; Miracle of Sound; The Stupendium; Cami-Cat; annapantsu; Rabbit Junk; The Tech Thieves; Poor Man's Poison; New Medicine; Slipknot; Saltatio Mortis; and I could go on... My ListenBrainz profile will have a much more comprehensive list.
The code behind the bot I made for the purpose of playing and crediting music on the channel is available publicly on GitHub. The bot has the following functions, owing to there seeming to not be any viable alternatives achieving the same:
If you're an artist or rights holder responsible for any of the music listed here and you do not wish for your music to be played on stream anymore, please get in touch; all music is played following permission from the artist or a blanket license covering said usage, so whilst any perceived infringement would be unintentional, I would be happy to account for your wishes regardless.