the background noise

Quick state of the blog update here in this season of the limited edition eggnog latte. The aforementioned major life events that are not life threatening were a complete success but have left me with less time than usual for the blogging thing. I've still managed to fit in some more of the gaming thing however so plans are afoot as we approach the year's end, big plans I say, nefarious plans. Plans. Which is of course another way of saying that the first part of my thoughts on all the games I've played this year will be coming shortly, yes Completionism 2023 is well on its way. Somehow it has ended up being another bumper year in that regard. Maybe about as bumper as it gets actually. So bumper there may be a notable shift in my gaming habits come 2024.

Once more we return to my favourite time of year. The air cools to a brisk chill, the leaves go red and brown in that deeply pleasing way and the evenings grow steadily darker. This year it's slightly different for me as major non-threatening life events unfolded earlier this month but amidst a flurry of recent activity I have found time to sneak in that most precious of all October past-times, the Halloween-adjacent horror movie marathon.  This year I've managed to watch more than a film or two so thought I'd give my thoughts in brief on each one. These are mostly films that have been on my to-watch list for an age with an exception or two and there may be more than one movie called Halloween as it happens, maybe even more than two. To the hot takes...

It's book review time again, real life is on the verge of getting busy in the very near future but I've still found some time to turn the pages on some random reads. This time it's something a bit different and more than a little disconcerting. It's a dose of real life as we get all late-noughties and cover the 2007-08 financial crash in The Big Short by Michael Lewis. It's the book that became the film you may have also seen, or rather in my case its the film what was the book as I watched the big screen version ages ago. As always all words here are expanded and revised from the review I posted recently on Amazon and Goodreads, all ill-judged opinions are, as ever, my own. The short version: a butterfly flaps its wings in Wall Street and the world falls over. The long?

Happy August one and all! It's been a mostly sunny carefree month here. Sunshine, blue skies and a stillness to the air, true peak August vibes all said. So what better way to lean into the tail end of summer as the evenings gently grow darker and the temperature feels a touch cooler, than with another sample of my favourite game music. This time around it comes from a game I may have mentioned around these here parts previously: Hotline Miami, otherwise referred to by myself as  'T rippy Retro Ultra-Violent Hallucinogenic Slash Bang: The Game'. 

I've just completed a game that, in normal circumstances at least, wouldn't generally be my cup of tea. A game remastered and released in 2021 but which originally arrived in 2010 in a somewhat 'adjusted' manner shall we say?. A game I meant to get around to back then but never did and now that I have finally gotten around to both playing and completing it, I'm not entirely sure if I liked it or not. That game is Nier Replicant or to give it it's full re-released title:  Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... because clearly the game alone wasn't baffling enough....

Once upon a time in the dark ages, in the long ago, in the age before the iPhone and reliable high speed broadband there was the humble video game. You would play it, it would last for a finite length of time and then it would end. You'd move on and play another game, maybe read a book, watch a film, join a ukulele band. You'd cast that game into the realm of memories past, enriched by the experience in some way but no longer actively partaking of it. Now that time never ended as such, those games are still very much around but in the here and now they have been eclipsed somewhat by something else altogether.

Haven't done a book review for the blog in a while, not since the dark days of 2022 and that William Gibson trilogy I endured. Instead here's some assorted thoughts on a book I just finished, 1987's On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. Expanded and revised from the review I posted recently on Amazon and Goodreads, all ill-judged opinions are my own. The short version: It's a rollicking yarn full of pirates, ghouls, dark magic and bloodshed, I really enjoyed it, thanks for coming! Oh you want the longer one do you?