what I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for February 2019.

Last month I listened to: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, The Lost World by Michael Crichton, War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell. Out the 3, I enjoyed War of the Wolf the most because at the time I was also watching the incredibly good season 3 of the Last Kingdom, the series that it is adapted from. Jurassic Park and the Lost World were interesting and entertaining enough though, Scott Brick narrates the story pretty well and the story, as well as the characters, were good and done well. I always like to check out the movies, or TV series, and the books that they were adapted from. I like to find what was adapted well, what one did better than the other, and how well the movie, or tv series, is done. With Jurrassic Park and the Lost World, I found the story a lot more interesting in the books, I enjoyed the more in-depth rants of Ian Malcolm, and the kinda scummy nature of John Hammond. In the Movie, the characters are done better and are more memorable. For example, Hammond is different from the books in a pretty big way because he isn’t as scummy or exploitative. In the books Dr. Sattler and Grant are not in a relationship and it created an interesting dynamic with the rest of the characters, Grant does not dislike kids, and the lawyer does try his best to be the hero. The Jurassic Park is an iconic movie and over all I enjoyed the movie more than the book. However, Jurassic Park the book was enjoyable and well worth picking up or checking out.

I like to check out the books that a movie or tv show is adapted from because it allows me to check out something I would not normally read or listen to. Personally, I don’t enjoy Young Adult fiction that much and I would probably have never checked out The Harry Potter series or The Hunger Games trilogy because I watched the movies already but I actually enjoyed the books and it was interesting to me to find out what the book or movie did better or worse, or what was more compelling.

This month I plan on listening to Myke Cole’s Armored Saint and Queen of the Thorns, Good Omens Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell, and Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney. I also picked up Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars (during an audible sale) that I may listen to the month as well.

I am also currently playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS4, which is extremely good so far and very fun to play. Red Dead Redemption was my favorite all time game, only nudged out of that spot when the Witcher 3 was released, and so far RDR2 is an extremely worthy prequel/sequel.

Anthem really lost some hype from me after watching Seagull play it on Twitch and his youtube video, but Bioware still can turn it around. However, the launch feels rushed for the PC anyways and the PC port seems very half assed. I rarely pre-order games anymore and I find it to be a worthwhile practice.

Conversely, The Division 2 remains in the hype territory and looks extremely good, I hope my internet gets fixed soon because I really wanna play The Division 2 at launch. Also a game I did not pre-order, and I will wait until release to buy.

I watched some movies last month as well: Polar, Soldado: Sicario 2, and Bird Box. Polar and Sicario 2 were enjoyable and Bird Box was interesting to watch. I though Polar was done well and that it was adapted from a graphic novel and it definitely captured that kinda feel to me, its pacing and style were all over the place but overall I enjoyed it and hope netflix continues with good movies like this because if they keep raising subscription fees to a point where I feel it’s not worth it, I am definitely gonna unsub. However, at the moment Netflix is a great value to me because of Altered Carbon, the Last Kingdom, Mystery Science Theater 3000, and others.

 

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for January 2019. And a recap of 2018.

2018 in Gaming and Audiobooks: My favorite Games and audiobooks of 2018.

• Assassin’s Creed: Origins – An excellent game. This is a well designed and fun game to play with an interesting story, well at least so far for me. I recently got into Dark Souls 3 and it has interrupted my playthrough of Origins. I enjoy picking up Ubisoft games when they are 39$ or less, as they really are only good for 1 playthrough. Although, the games are usually well done with a very decent story, and Assassin’s Creed Origins is definitely that. The Combat has been reworked with a definite shade of Dark Souls and The Witcher 3, namely rolling and blocking. The RPG element of upgrading skills and getting new ones through a talent tree is interesting and good element of progression, although some of the abilities are more niche than others. The Characters are interesting and have some depth. The Setting and environments are what are really impressive though,  Ancient Egypt is great and the land is sprawling and striking to behold. The Area is huge with lots of towns, camps, and outposts with a huge number of npc’s. I plan on finishing it later this month once I am done the DLC for Dark Souls 3.
• Dark Souls 3 – This game really took long for me to play, I tried it initially with a PS4 controller when I picked it up and immediately hated it because of what I thought were clunky and cumbersome controls, I stopped playing it right away and just left it taking as loss of 30$. Until I watched xqc on play it on his twitch stream, through his stream Dark Souls 3 looked satisfying and the difficulty being fun to overcome with a pretty huge variety of ways/builds to play and overcome bosses. So I looked up a basic but effective build, watched a couple of how to videos, and figured out my main issue with the controls. The issue being my PS4 controller acting like a mouse with the gyroscope feature, it fucked up my camera all the time and resulted in numerous deaths for me, so I looked it in google and found that steam has a feature to load a game specific controller profile for a variety of controllers (PS4, Xbox 360/One, Nintendo Switch Pro, and the Steam Controller) and all I had to do to fix it was to pick a community profile that made the PS4 controller work as it does for Darks Souls 3 on the PS4 and it basically fixed my issues with the controls. I’ve pretty much played non stop in December, over a 110 hours (and I still have to finish the Ringed City DLC, I’m on the Midir part of it) and I’m enjoying this game quite a lot. Downing a boss is a satisfying accomplishment, combat is fun, character progression is great, and the game looks very good. This game really was enjoyable for me and I decided to pick up Bloodbourne, which is on a deal for 19$CAD on the PlayStation store until Jan 15th. I never do shit online and play offline 100% of the time because I really don’t see the point in PVP, which is usually a gimmick and a sideshow no matter how well it is done in any game that offers it.
• A Study in Emerald  by Neil Gaiman, narrated by Neil Gaiman – What’s not to like about Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft? This short story is amazing and I wish more could be done with it. Easily my favorite short story I listened to this year. Gaiman is very good narrator and one of the few authors that can do it well. I will probably pick up the graphic novel adaptation because I enjoyed this so much.
• Thin Air by Richard K. Morgan, narrated by Colin Mace – The Takeshi Kovacs trilogy is one of my favorites, as well as Blackman/Thirteen, so anything done by Morgan in the cyberpunk/scifi genre has my attention and appreciation. The story is excellent and the characters compelling with interesting backstories. The narration is also quite good. So it’s definitely on my favorites in 2018.
• Mass Effect: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente, narrated by Tom Taylorson – It’s pretty amazing that the Mass Effect Andromeda books surpass the game, and in large part thanks to the great authors and narrators they chose for the 3 books. Annihilation is easily my favorite of the 3 and it’s written extremely well and narrated excellently by Taylorson. It was done so well, that I really wanted to playthrough Andromeda again as Dude Ryder with the Cora romance.
• Pet Semetary by Stephen King, narrated by Michael C. Hall – Another great story by King, the sense of dread and the foreboding the story evokes in you is done so well that you can’t stop reading, or listening in my case, which is something King excels at and few can match. Hall’s narration is excellent and really added to the story.
• Port of Shadows by Glen Cook, narrated by Brian Troxell – A story I was looking forward to listening to all year, the Black Company series is in my top 5 favorites. I was disappointed that Marc Vietor wasn’t narrating as he definitely the voice of Croaker for me, however, Troxell’s narration was good and the story was compelling so it’s definitely one of my favorites for 2019.
• Books of the Ancestor by Mark Lawrence, narrated by Heather O’Neill – Red Sister was something I picked up on a daily deal, and after listening to it, I immediately picked up Grey Sister and was something I enjoyed listening to this year, so it’s among my favorites of the year. The next book, Holy Sister is available for pre-order and I plan to use one of my audible credits in January to pre-order and it will be released on April 9th 2019. I am looking forward to it.
• The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, narrated by Wil Wheaton – Another book I was really looking forward to in 2018. The story and narration were great, and because of that it is one my favorites of the year.

Recap of what I read in December:

• Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell, narrated by Charles Keating: Bernard Cornwell does an excellent job with this historical stories and also does an excellent job of portraying battles. The narration is good as well. I picked this up on a daily deal because I like Cornwell’s Last Kingdom/Saxon Stories so much and I enjoyed this story a lot. Well worth the pick up.
• Prey by Michael Crichton, narrated by George Wilson: This was another daily deal Pick up for me, I enjoyed the story and the narration was ok.
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, narrated by Scott Brick: This was a well done story and narrated pretty well. I enjoy reading/listening to books that get adapted as films and comparing them, Jurassic Park was such a good film and it’s interesting that the book it is much more of a thriller and rant about science. Technically I was done listening to this month, but only because I had 1 and 1/2 hours left in the story on Jan 1st.
• Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, narrated by Frazer Douglas: I really had no expectations for this because I picked it up on a daily deal and only because I was interested in the Troy part of the story but I was pleasantly surprised with how well done the story, not to mention the surprise of the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles. I enjoyed this one and it made me want to check out a series called Troy by David Gemmell.
• Total Recall by Philip K. Dick, narrated by Phil Gigante:  An extremely good short story, narrated very well. I picked this up on a deal and it was well worth the pick up.

This month I plan on pre-ordering Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence with one of my audible credits and probably gonna pick up The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell. I also plan on listening to The Lost World by Michael Crichton, The Armor Saint and Queen of Crows by Myke Cole, and either Good Omens by Terry Pratchett/Niel Gaiman or War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell.

I will probably be playing some multiplayer games as my ISP has sent out a notice that they will be upgrading my speed and the reliability of my internet connection, which was the primary reason why I stopped playing multiplayer games. I was getting constant lag and disconnects. So, IF, my net is better I plan on playing more Overwatch, Call of Duty Black out, and Battlefield V.

I also plan on finishing Assassin’s Creed Origins and it’s DLC. I picked up Bloodbourne complete edition (for around 19$CAD) and Horizon Zero Dawn complete edition (20$CAD) on deals from the Playstation store, I probably play these later in the year because I got Red Dead Redemption 2 as a Christmas gift and that will probably be what I’ll play over the next month or so.

I’m looking forward to checking out Birdbox on netflix, Anthem from Bioware, The Other Worlds by Obsidian, Metro Exodus in March, Darksiders 3 by Gunfire Games, The Division 2 by Massive.

Happy New Years.

 

The Outer Worlds Trailer.

New Vegas was such a good game, Obsidian really has my expectations high for this game. Looking forward to playing it in 2019.

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for December 2018.

I listened to 4 books in November, which puts me at 43 audiobooks this year that I’ve listened to, which means I will probably end up around 46-48 audiobooks for the year if I listen to 3-5 books this month. I could get up to 50 but I’m not sure if I will or not. I have the following books to finish: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell, War of the Wolf by Bernard Cornwell, Total Recall by Philip K. Dick, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Prey by Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Which is 8 audiobooks, so I could conceivably listen to all 8 and finish the year off with 51. The 4 books I listened to in November were:

• Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole: The second book in the Shadow Ops series, It was a lot better than the first book because it was more than just Oscar Britton, with Bookbinder being a huge part of the story it added a lot to the story while still having the uncertainty of being a front-line soldier in a frontier outpost. I enjoyed the story a lot and the writing was noticeably better than the first book, the characters were more fleshed out and seemed more natural, and the narration by Korey Jackson was also better. It still had a reliance on the impossible super deep cover mole/spy shit I hated in the first book, but since I was expecting it, it wasn’t as jarring. Although, I still fucking hated it that aspect of it because for me it ruined an otherwise great story and downgraded it to just a good one. Overall, I enjoyed this one and it was a solid sequel that addressed a lot of the issues of the first book.
• Breach Zone by Myke Cole: The 3rd and final book in the Shadow Ops trilogy. This is definitely the best book in the series because it address all the issues/problems that I had with the other books in the series and it had a satisfying conclusion to this trilogy of books. I enjoyed the backstory of Harlequin and Scylla. The narration by Korey Jackson was also quite good. I am looking forward to the Re-Awakening Trilogy prequel books that I will probably pick up next year.
• Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin: I have mixed feelings on Fire & Blood. Overall, I enjoyed the history book style telling of Westerosi history with an emphasis on the Targaryens. However, the book and a majority of the story seemed to be retelling on the Princess and the Queen novella, as well as the Rogue Prince both of which I’ve listened to in Dangerous Women and Rogues. Son’s of the Dragon is another novella that is retold in a historical context/textbook way, that was featured in a short story anthology called Book of Swords. Despite that 2 of the 6 stories featured in this book are retellings of previous stories, I enjoyed it. The narration by Simon Vance is excellent, I hope that he will be the narrator for The Winds of Winter and Dream of Spring, if GRRM ever gets around to finishing them. The mixed feelings I have for this book is mostly due to that he wrote these detailed stories and so much of it is either retelling’s or cut material from A World of Ice and Fire, and that he Still has no clear timetable for the release of The Winds of Winter. The Show has overtaken the books and for many people it will be how they remember the series, he will be entering a similar situation that Andrzej Sapkowski has with fans of the Witcher trilogy of games and his Witcher series of books.
• Mass Effect: Annihilation by Catherine M. Valente: This was an expected surprise for me, I did expect it to be as good as it was. It is an excellent story with great characters, good and funny dialogue, and it delivered so much info about the different races. I always thought that the non-council races were the most interesting of the Mass Effect universe: the Drell, Batarians, Volus, Hanar, Quarians, and the Elcor. And Annihilation really packs in a lot of backstory and interesting tidbits of those cultures. The narration by Tom Taylorson was excellent, he provided unique voices for each character and really nailed the speech patterns for the Volus, Hanar, and Elcor as well as the “perfect memory” of the Drell. Annihilation is one of the few books that I rated 5/5 for story, performance, and overall for all the audible titles I’ve listened to in my 5 years being a member. Such a good book, I wished they didn’t cut the DLC for Andromeda because if they could get it half as good as this book was, people would not thing Mass Effect Andromeda was such a disappointment, despite most people’s unrealistic expectations for it. This book was great, an awesome story with extremely interesting and compelling characters, and excellent narration.

I picked up Assassin’s Creed: Origins on sale (on a side note/rant here, I find games and time spent playing games much more enjoyable when I pick up AAA games on sale a few months or 1 year later, most of the issues are usually sorted out and the DLC is also all released by then. It’s also nice to pick something up for 20-50 rather than 70$ CAD on release. I paid about 50$ for the gold edition of the game, which got me the season pass and some extra stuff on top of the deluxe version of the game. I have about 60 hours in the game already but have not completed the Main Quest or the DLC yet, I’ve been doing the Gods event’s and completing side quests and main story side quests. The Witcher 3 influence is plain to see, and Origins really improved a lot of aspects of it as well, on top of improvements into the gameplay of the series. The Leveling and Ability system of the game well done, the ancient tablets giving you a free ability point is a nice touch and a clear inspiration from the Witcher 3’s Places of Power. Well worth the pick up, especially on sale. I’ll definitely pick up Odyssey next year if a similar deal is available. Odyssey has already had a sale for 50% off the base game, so the next time I see a sale like that and if there is a sale on Season Pass, I will most likely pick it up right away.

I also picked up R-Type Dimensions, one of my favorite old school games.

I’m still playing Deadcells a lot as well as Destiny 2, which was free on the blizzard launcher a month ago and Forsaken DLC was on a deal. Destiny 2, while fun to play and classes/subclasses are nicely done, seems to have a massive investment cost to play. If I did pick it up on launch as well as getting the DLC then paying for the annual pass, the cost would be over 200$ CAD, which is absurdly high cost to play because the Devs want to avoid a monthly subscription. I’ll probably keep playing if my internet isn’t acting up with constant lag outs and DC’s.

On Netflix, there are a couple shows I am currently watching:

• The Last Kingdom Season 3: Definitely living up to the hype I had for it, well worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 the Gauntlet: Funny and Entertaining so far, what more can you ask for?

On Crave+HBO/Movies:

• Letterkenny: This was extremely funny and well worth checking out. Can’t wait for the new season coming up during christmas.
• Band of Brothers: I start a rewatch for this during november and will probably finish it this month.
• Red Sparrow: I wanted to pick this up on Blu Ray but glad I didn’t, this movie is aiight and well worth watching if you are streaming it on a service.
• Pacific Rim Uprising: I really liked how this started out and enjoyed it up until the ending which fell kinda flat. It was worth checking it for me though because I enjoyed Pacific Rim.
• The Expanse: Gonna rewatch the first season and get back into this series.

This month there is a movie I’ve been looking forward to watching that will be on Netflix on December 21st, Bird box. Check it out here:

 

 

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for November 2018.

I listened to 6 audio-books in October, which is a lot for me because I average around 3 per month. I listened to Thin Air by Richard Morgan, The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole, and Hollywood Dead by Richard Kadrey. I re-listened to The Black Company and Shadows Linger by Glen Cook.

Thin Air was extremely good, the writing, characters, and story were all done well. The narration by Colin Mace was excellent, it made a good book even better. I hope Morgan does more sci-fi because he does it extremely well. It definitely checked a bunch of boxes for me, it had a dark and dangerous world, good characters, intrigue and conspiracy. Totally worth the pre-order.

The Consuming Fire was also extremely good. Wil Wheaton narration was top-notch and combined with Scalzi’s good story-telling is a very good combo. I can’t wait for the third book in the series. So far, 2 books in the series and both were worth it.

Hollywood Dead continues the Sandman Slim tale, and does it well. I enjoyed the story and MacLoed Andrews narration is excellent as always for the series. I’m interested in where the series will go from here, I thought it passed it’s end point already with resolution of Mason and Wormwood but the series still moving right along and not stumbling or rambling along.

Shadow Ops: Control Point was an OK story with a kind of frustrating main character, although I it was probably an extremely good representation of a soldier’s life. I enjoyed the story and it ended well, it was good enough that I picked up the next 2 books in the series, Fortress Frontier and Breach Zone. I may also pick up the re-awakening prequel trilogy later this month.

There were 2 interesting Audible Daily Deals this month and I picked up Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell. Both are more Historical Fiction/Fantasy and was something I was interested in. As I was typing this, Prey by Michael Crichton was the daily deal and I picked it up.

This month I will be listening to: Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier, Shadow Ops: Breach Zone, Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation, Fire & Blood, Agincourt, and Prey.

I started up Fallout 4 again, mostly because I did not finish any of the DLC’s. However, I do play a lot of Dead Cells still, it’s a really fun game to pick up and play.

There a couple of games I wanna finish as well: Subnautica, Alien Isolation, Final Fantasy XV, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Dishonored. I’d like to get this finished before moving onto Dishonored 2 and Prey. I am also looking to pick up Assassin’s Creed: Origins on sale, which I hope to pick up on sale some time between now and new years.

I am looking forward to eventually pick up Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Cthulhu, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Darksiders 3.

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for October 2018.

Port of Shadows by Glen Cook, narrated by Brian Troxell, was very good and managed to add some mystery to the Dominator, The Lady, and the Senjacks backstory. A good story and decent narration, and it made me start a re-listen to the series. Glad I pre-ordered it. September and October were/are pretty good months for releases: Port of Shadows by Glen Cook released 09-11-18, Hollywood Dead by Richard Kadrey released 08-28-18 (late enough to be in September), The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi release date 10-16-18, and Thin Air by Richard K. Morgan release date 10-23-18.

The Rook by Daniel O’malley, narrated by Katy Carmichael, was another one I listened to in September. Despite it being a young adult novel, I found it enjoyable story with interesting characters, lore, and world building. I was planning to pick up Stiletto but I chose to pick up Control Ops: Shadow Ops by Myke Cole instead. I’ll probably pick up Stiletto eventually but for the moment Shadows Ops series by Myke Cole is what I want to listen to. If Shadow Ops is decent, I will check out Myke Cole’s The Sacred Throne series.

I also listened to The Hunt for Red October, which was pretty good and narrated well by Scott Brick. It was well worth the pick up during the Daily Deal. I find it odd how faithful and unfaithful the movie is, which is still one of my favorite movies despite the choices in adaptation.

At the moment, I am re-listening to The Black Company because of how much I enjoyed Port of Shadows, and after The Black Company I’m gonna listen to Hollywood Dead then Control Point: Shadow Ops.

I picked up a 500gig SSD so I started to add some games I wanna play or replay. I got Alien Isolation Collection for a pretty good deal, which looked extremely good with some survival and stealth gameplay I found interesting after watching a stream on Twitch. I also picked up Batman Arkham Knight on a good deal. I re-installed Farcry Primal, Doom (2016), Prey, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witness, Black Mesa, Half Life 2, The Witness, Ziggurat, Shadow of Mordor, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance, Spinter Cell Blacklist, Farcry Blood Dragon, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Legacy of Kain: Defiance, and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

I lost all my saves for most of my games because I had to format and clean install Windows 10, so it means I need to replay FFXV up to where I stopped when started playing Battle for Azeroth. Speaking of which, I ended my sub for WoW mostly because my shitty internet and not able play because of lag and disconnects.

 

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for September 2018.

I’ve noticed this what I am type post are more of a recap of what I did the previous month and then a bit about what I’m gonna do the current month.

In August I listened to the audiobooks for Mark Lawrence’s Red Sister and Grey Sister, which are pretty good and are narrated very well by Heather O’Neill. I enjoyed these books a lot, it had a lot of elements I like, which is in this series is a vengeance/revenge element. good characters, and a well-developed story. Both books were good and I’m looking forward to the last book in the trilogy, Holy Sister, whenever it comes out. If you are looking for something/anything to read or listen to, this series is definitely worth checking out.

Audible had a daily deal I was interested in, seems to happen every 4-6 months, last month The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy was a daily deal that I immediately purchased as soon as I got the notification. The Hunt for Red October is still one of my favorite movies to watch and I can’t wait to listen to the audiobook.

I put off listening to the audiobook for The Rook by Daniel O’Malley to wait to listen to Grey Sister, but I plan to listen to it this month and if I enjoy it, pick up the second book Stiletto.

I pre-ordered book 10 in the Sandman Slim series, Hollywood Dead by Richard Kadrey narrated by MacLeod Andrews. I liked the series a lot and enjoy the story so far of the series. I’m gonna check this out after the Rook. Instead of picking up Stiletto in August, I used my credit to get this one instead. Looking forward to this one after listening to the Rook.

I have another pre-order coming in this month, Port of Shadows by Glen Cook, a book in the Black Company series. I can’t wait for this one, the Black Company books are one my favorite series and I’m tempted to re-listen to the audiobooks now that I have a firm grasp of all the characters.

I’ve played about 1 month of World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth now, and it’s got all things I enjoy doing, so for an expansion it is off to a great start. At the moment, the people who are mythic dungeon geared are just in a holding pattern until the first raid, Uldir, opens up and mythic plus dungeons open up. I’m gonna be playing/maining a Demon Hunter this expansion, which is a pretty big thing since I’ve mained a Death Knight since Wrath of Lich King and it’s not because DK’s are weak or underpowered or unfun to play but because I just wanted something different. My first alt is gonna be a Light Forged Draenei Paladin, I chose a pally because the are pretty good for most roles (Tank, Healer, DPS), it might not be the case for raids or anything but I enjoy doing mythic plus dungeons anyways and that is how I’m gonna gear out alts anyways.

Injustice 2 was well worth picking up, the single player is fun with multiverse and the story mode is easily the best in any fighting game ever. It was like the surprisingly good DC Justice League animated movies. The voice acting is very good and the visuals are great. Well worth the pick up and a steal on sale for less than 30$ CAD. If you enjoy fighting games or want a good single player game with a decent story and lots of replay-ability, this game is well worth checking out.

I picked up some good blu rays last month, A Quiet Place, Avenger’s Infinity War, and Deadpool 2.

• A Quiet Place was extremely good movie with an excellent story and great acting, the blu ray has some good featurettes.
• Infinity War was good and the blu ray has decent featurettes with audio commentary on the movie which is always a good thing.
• Deadpool 2 was also very good, delivered on all the things I liked about the first Deadpool and has audio commentary as well as a decent amount of featurettes.

I’m gonna pre-order Red Dead Redemption 2 for the PS4 because I want to play it this year and I really don’t think Rockstar likes to release stuff on PC.

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for August 2018.

These usually start off with a recap of what audiobooks I finished last month, so here goes:

• Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski narrated by Peter Kenny – The short stories of the Witcher series always seem to be the better ones in the witcher series and Season of Storms definitely continues that trend. I’d rank it behind the other 2, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, though. Narration is good, the story was pretty winding and contained many contrivances but was overall pretty good and was fun to listen to.
• The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir – This is a short story compilation with the King in Yellow playing a central element in most of the stories, except for the last 3 stories. The Narration was very good and the main King in Yellow stories were excellent. I am looking forward to a re-listen of this one. I also want to re-watch the first season of True Detective because of how much I enjoyed this audiobook. The last 3 stories this one are mostly historical romances, and although good, did not seem to match up with dread and strange horror of the King in Yellow stories.
• Pet Semetary by Stephen King narrated by Michael C. Hall – Another good Steven King story with excellent narration, this time by Michael C. Hall. I listened to this one right after The King in Yellow and it was a great 1 2 punch, the sense of dread and horror of what is going to happen are great. I keep taking King for granted here and nearly every audiobook I pick up that he writes reminds me how good he is.

I have also done a re-listen to Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold, and will also be starting The Heroes later this month.

I pre-ordered Richard K. Morgan’s Thin Air (release date 10-25-18) and picked up The Rook by Daniel O’Malley. In just over a month my pre-orders for Port of Shadows by Glenn Cook and Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente will be available for download. Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin is also pre-ordered and available for download on 11-20-18.

This month I am planning to listen to Red Sister by Mark Lawrence (which I have already started and about an hour into), The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

With my next 2 audible Credits I plan to pick up Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence and Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley.

On August 13th, the Battle for Azeroth Expansion hits and I’m looking forward to playing to it. I thought Legion has been the best expansion since Wrath of the Lich King and legions biggest flaw was Artifact weapons being Alt and Spec unfriendly, which the azerite thing address completely. I’m gonna be leveling my Demon Hunter first, since I’ve been main-ing a Death Knight since Wrath of the Lich King and definitely want to switch it up.

I picked up Injustice 2 Legendary Edition on sale today for 27$-ish CAD, I missed a sale the last time and regretted not picking it up then, so I definitely wanted to pick it the next time it went that low. I’ve been wanting a fighting game I could play, mostly for single player stuff, that I could play while listening to music or an audiobook.

Looking forward to picking up Quiet Place, Deadpool 2, and Avenger’s Infinity War on blu ray this month.

 

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for July 2018.

I just finished up the Sandman Slim series by Richard Kadrey, narrated by MacLeod Andrews, so just gonna recap my thoughts of the series so far:

• It has every thing I like about the Darksiders, Constantine, and Diablo, which is a story that deals with heaven and hell with interesting characters.
• The stories are in a range from okay to pretty good, for the most part.
• The Characters are well done and interesting.
• The dialogue and voice for every character are solid and entertaining, funny in places when they should be and can turn to very serious character moments quickly. Very hard to pull that off and do it well.
• The over arching story in the series has well paced peaks and valleys, the development of characters during that period are also done well and become more compelling over time.
• I didn’t like the hand-wavy magic used in the series, I’m not a magical realism type or a magical system one either, but goddamn “hellion hoodoo” is extremely low effort way to cast magic with an insane variety of effects. I just got used to it over the course of the series but it’s still a pretty vague way to use magic.
• I thought the introduction of PTSD for Stark was actually well done and did a lot for the character.
• I liked that Stark could be part of a scooby gang or be independent from it. Not something easily done and convey in a series.
• I didn’t like the way some of the stories ended, not that I didn’t like outcomes because I thought the ending outcomes were done a satisfying way, I mean the actual way how the story ending was written. Most of the stories were well done and paced with interesting developments or character moments, however, the endings seemed rushed compared to how the rest of the story was paced. Despite my feelings that the endings seemed kinda rushed in comparison the pace of the story, the out comes of the endings were pretty good and done in a satisfying way.
• The Narration for the series is excellent. Each character has a distinctive voice that is done well.

So despite some extremely subjective issues or feelings, the series is pretty good and the narration is excellent. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, Hollywood Dead,  whenever it’s released on audible.

I pre-ordered a couple of audiobooks a few months ago that were released in June, Brief Cases by Jim Butcher narrated mostly James Marsters, Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski narrated by Peter Kenney, and Before the Storm by Christie Golden narrated by Josh Keaton.

Brief Cases was pretty good. I enjoyed the Big Foot stories, The Molly Winter Lady story, Butters First Day Story, and Dresden family Zoo day story. My favorite story was Even Hand, which was narrated rather well by Jim Butcher himself, about Marcone and his confrontation with a Fomor Lord. The narration was on par for the Dresden Files, meaning FUCKING EXCELLENT. I am extremely looking forward to Peace Talks or Cinder Spires 2.

Before the Storms was okay, the narration was good but the story was hit or miss, with more misses than hits. It was my first buy into the warcraft stories but I while I enjoyed it and liked it enough, I doubt I will buy into others in the future. Which pretty much kills my interest in Inferno Squad.

I just started Season of Storms today, but I think it will good. The short story compilations for The Witcher Series were excellent and I am expecting good things from Season of Storms.

I also bought Red Sister on an Audible Daily Deal, which I’m looking forward to check out.

I also picked up a couple of short stories, Neil Gaiman’s A Study in Emerald narrated by Neil Gaiman, In the Tall Grass by Stephen King and Joe Hill narrated by Stephen Lang. A Study in Emerald was great, and Gaiman’s narration is always extremely good. In the Tall Grass was good and Stephen Lang’s narrations is always good.

With my 2 audible credits I picked up The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers narrated by Stefan Rudnicki and Gabrielle de Cuir, and Pet Sematary by Stephen King narrated by Michael C. Hall. Looking forward to listening to both after I’m done with Season of Storms and Red Sister.

I am also gonna re-listen to a couple Joe Abercrombie books, Best Served Cold and the The Heroes, most likely after my backlog of current audiobooks. The reason for this is because Abercrombie just posted on his site that he finished the first drafts of his next trilogy in the First Law Series and I wanted to listen to my 2 favorite books in the First Law Series.

I picked up a couple of Blurays as well, I got Black Panther and Annihilation. Black Panther is as good as everyone says it is, great visuals, good acting, good story and very good pacing. It was well worth the pick up. Annihilation was extremely good, it had great acting, the story was a good adaptation of the novel and was also very good. It was also well worth the pick up. I’m looking forward to watching the Black Panther with the directory’s commentary and all the special features. I also wanna check out the pretty good number of special features for Annihilation.

During the Steam Sale, I picked up a package duo deal on Prey and Dishonored 2 for 36.43$ CAD, I also picked up Black Mesa for 8.79$ CAD, and Pool Nation FX for 7.59$ CAD.

I finally got around to finishing up the Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim, I played the Special Edition version. I really don’t know why I waited so long to play it, it was enjoyable and fun to get back in to Elder Scrolls games.

I also re-installed Fallout 4 so I can play through the Automatron DLC, Far Harbour DLC, and Nuka World DLC.

Final Fantasy XV I spend most of my time doing the hunts but I’m slowly working my way though the story chapter by chapter.

Metro Exodus – E3 2018 Gameplay Demo

This has everything I want in one game. Stealth, survival, crafting, decent combat, and a good story.