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.

 

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 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.

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

Waited til after April 1st because of how shitty the internet it is on April fools day.

I finally watched The Last Jedi. It was pretty fucking good. I wasn’t able to predict how it was gonna play out but it delivered on several character moments and had a pretty good story. The special features are pretty fucking good as well, the documentary “The Director and the Jedi” are the reasons why people will still buy Blu Rays, it is excellent and adds so much value to it. I got 4k version because I will be upgrading to 4k soonish, probably within the next couple months. I don’t get the backlash against the movie, I thought it was well done and highly entertaining, it was not predictable and it didn’t have to many homages to earlier star wars movies.

I picked up FFXV near the end of March, as well as Vermintide 2, both pretty good games with fun gameplay. I’m still playing Subnautica as well, it’s visuals are great, the crafting is satisfying and has depth, and I love exploration done well which is something Subnautica is great at. 8/10 game for me, has nearly everything I like in a game.

Vermintide 2 is really fun, it’s like Left for Dead 1/2 style coop with diablo like characters from the Warhammer universe. The characters are great, they have funny personalities and entertaining banter. The classes are hit and miss but every class has at least 1 really good sub class to go. The combat and abilities are extremely satisfying to use and are extremely effective, some abilities are good for big bosses or against armored targets or against hordes for enemies. The story is ok but the characters are pretty good. The Elf huntress, the Witch Hunter and the Fire Mage are great. The gameplay is the real area the game shines, the game does coop extremely well. Well worth picking it up, if you are into coop games with friends. 8/10 game.

FFXV is an indulgence for me, it was basically a late birthday pick up. However, the gameplay is extremely good, I like the combat, the magic crafting, the leveling system, and I enjoy the open world aspect of it. The Character are kinda meh, the story is taking a while to get into and seems like standard fare but still entertaining. I’m enjoying a lot so far and this is my first real serious playthrough of any Final Fantasy game for something like 5 years.

I’ve been watching a lot of the Overwatch League these last couple weeks, it’s really entertaining and fun to watch. I’m playing more overwatch because of it. Although quickplay is too informal for that many good games, some one will always lock Hanzo and Widow probably along with a Torb or Symmetra and just end up garbage tier DPS and basically make every team fight into 3v6 and lead to a loss in a full hold or 2 extremely badly played long loss control points. I wish the Reaper and Mei buffs were in already. The New hero Brigitte is pretty overpowered now, she’s basically a Reinhardt with heals and a stun.

I also got into the World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth Alpha, which I plan to play and test a lot of, as well as giving a lot feed back on various things I think should be changed or tweaked. Since there is no real NDA, I can/will start adding WoW posts of things concerning Death Knights, Demon Hunters, Rogues, Mages, and even possibly Warriors.

As for Legion, I am currently leveling a Light Forged Draenei Warrior, it’s pretty fun. I’m leveling Arms, and will probably going to stay that way in legion as well.

I finished the third book in the Sandman Slim series, it was enjoyable and entertaining. It definitely hits on my liking of Secret Society Magic users, Heaven and Hell, and interesting but morally flexible characters. I picked up the next 2 in the series (Devil said Bang, and Kill City Blues) as well as a short story (Devil in the Dollhouse.) A pretty good series so far, I may or may not get 3 extra credits to finish the series early.

Looking forward to the next stage in the Overwatch League, watching Jessica Jones season 2 and Stranger Things season 2 (finally), finishing FFXV, getting the next sub vehicle in Subnautica, and extremely looking forward to getting my home theatre all 4k’ed up.

what I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for February 2018.

If they ask how I died… pic.twitter.com/usxwyA0iZM

— Altered Carbon (@AltCarb) February 1, 2018

Altered Carbon in a day from now. Fuck yeah.

Movies recap for me, I watched IT and Blade Runner 2049 finally, both are extremely good. IT is easily one of the best adaptations of a movie so far, and it’s mostly because they are doing 2 movies with the Loser’s Club being younger and older. Blade Runner 2049 was extremely compelling and told a story that you thought would be predictable which flips your expectation of where it’s all gonna go on its head. Well worth picking up both on blu ray.

I also have Dawn and War of the planet of the Apes movies to check out, as well as the special features, and it looks to be entertaining at least.

I listened to the audiobooks for Metro 2035, Mass Effect Andromeda: Initiation, and I am Legend. Metro 2035 by Dmitry Glukhovsky was very good with extremely good narration by Rupert Degas. Mass Effect: Initiation by N. K. Jemisin and Mac Walters was decent and had good narration by Fryda Wolff. I am Legend by Richard Matheson was extremely good, it still one of my favorite short story/novellas, and is narrated pretty well by Robertson Dean.

Metro 2035 was really a good story and a good ending to the Metro Trilogy, and it told a compelling story with numerous interesting characters. I thought I had an idea where the story was gonna go but switched it up on me in a good way that ended the trilogy and the story itself in a satisfying way.

Mass Effect: Initiation gave a pretty good back story on Cora, and did a lot to smooth over and explain her hero-worship of the Asari, and also told a decent story that managed to explain my A.I. is so feared in the mass effect universe rather than the all the hamfisted and handwaving attempts/explanations in the original trilogy. It’s pretty shitty we will never get a good explanation of the Benefactor and Jien Garson situation in Andromeda as DLC, however it may be addressed in The Lost Ark novel later this year. I liked both Andromeda novels, and after listening to Initiation, I pre-ordered the Lost Ark, which has a release date of Oct 1, 2018.

I’ve started Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, the narration sounds like it was recorded by an old tape deck and an old cheap microphone but so far I’m interested in it. The narration itself isn’t bad, it’s the recording quality that seems pretty old, like some one telling you a story over a the phone.

After Snow Crash, I have another Neal Stephenson story to check out, Anathem. It’s over 30hours long according to my audible app, and I prefer longer stories like that. I’m looking forward to checking it out.

I’ve read a lot of fantasy last year and it’s refreshing to switch it up to a bunch of good sci-fi stories. In my backlog, that I expect to get at least one more listened to this month, is Alien: Out of the Shadows, The X-Files: Cold Cases, and Sandman Slim.

I finished Metro: The Last Light and thought it was pretty good, I managed to get the redemption ending which was pretty satisfying to get. I had to switch up how I play games usually, which was stealthily killing everyone and every thing that dares to cross or impede my path to trying to get through area’s mostly undetected using mostly non lethal means.

So Blizzard announces Battle for Azeroth pre-orders are available, announce a tentative release date, and unlock a few of the Allied Races for leveling, all on the same day.

That basically sums it up for me.

Now I’m leveling a Void Elf Rogue, despite already having a rogue, and a Light forged Draenei Warrior. That was on the only thing that would have brought me to playing WoW again. I’m leveling for the Heritage armor. I probably won’t play those characters, I will most likely race change my current Rogue to Void Elf though.

It basically means my plans to finish Rise of the Tomb Raider, Uncharted 3 (about 75% through now), Far Cry Primal, Splinter Cell Black list, Dishonored, and numerous other games I had my sights on finishing are on hold until I level those allied races to 110 for that sweet sweet Heritage Armor. It also means I will hold off on picking up Wolfenstein 2, Prey, Dishonored 2 and its DLC, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Uncharted 4, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Bloodborne.

 

Take what is offered and that must sometimes be enough.

— Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon.

The Netflix adaptation of Altered Carbon is out tomorrow, or if you are like me you are probably gonna watch a couple of episodes at midnight, and I cannot wait to fucking watch it. Before I jump into anything, let me elaborate on somethings I go through before watching, reading, listening, or playing anything with the slightest amount of hype or even the tiniest bit of excitement and interest: Manage Expectation, adaptations means it won’t always be page for page to screen, Adaptations means something will be expanded or cut or merged, Leave your Bullshit out of it, and Things don’t have to be DA BES EVAR and anything else is failure or means it sucks. I just wanna see how it’s adapted if it has the feeling of the book and the spirit of the characters. Altered Carbon, and the Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy, is easily in my top 5 favorite books.

I’m hoping it will be received good and it will mean more scifi shows and movies because people didn’t seem to like the excellent Blade Runner 2049.

Things I’m Looking forward too: Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s been delayed but has a definite release date which is October 26 2018. Monster Hunter World, waiting for dat PC release. Black Panther, it looks awesome but I’m gonna wait for it on blu ray because I prefer watching movies at home now.

Altered Carbon – Official Trailer.

February 2nd can’t come soon enough. Can’t wait to see this.

Check out this blog post from Richard K Morgan about the show.

What I am playing/listening to/watching/reading/looking forward to for January 2018, Also a recap of 2017 for me.

So, another year gone by. Rather than do a year in a review or the top 10 whatevers of the year, I want to just do a short write-up on what I liked in the year and some of the things I didn’t like.

I’ll start with audiobooks as that has over taken gaming for me in 2017 and is trending to do the same in 2018.

• My best and favorite series I listened to in 2017: The Black Company Series by Glen Cook. The entire series was very good, with top-notch narration, excellent characters, and a great over arching epic story. Honorable Mentions: The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin, The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer, The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Metro Trilogy by Dmitry Glukhovsky. Technically, I haven’t completed the Metro Trilogy yet, I have just started the final book in the trilogy but I am enjoying it very much so far.
• My favorite audiobook of the year is easily Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Excellent narration, great story telling, and compelling characters. The BBC adaptation is also extremely good, listen to it here (it should be up for another couple weeks at the time of this post.) Honorable Mentions: It by Stephen King, Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Strange Weather by Joe Hill, and the The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher.
• My favorite audiobook released in 2017 is another Neil Gaiman novel, Norse Mythology. Honorable Mentions: The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin, The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, and Strange Weather by Joe Hill.
• My favorite audio drama of the year is easily Anansi Boys from the BBC. Honorable Mention: World of Warcraft – A Thousand Years War.

My to be listened to list is much less than it was at the start of 2017, which was something like close to 10 books, I have only Metro 2035 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey, Mass Effect: Initiation by N. K. Jemisin and Mac Walters, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, I am Legend by Richard Matheson and Alien: Out of the Shadows. All of which I expect to start and finish this month.

I kept my 2 audiobooks per month, some times more but never less, for a couple of years now. I’ve listened to 43 audiobooks this year (30ish or so that are new or new to me, and about 13 “re-listens” of older favorites.) I will keep this going for as long as I can.

In 2018, the audiobooks I’m looking forward to are: Brief Cases by Jim Butcher, and hopefully Peace Talks by Jim Butcher or the second book in the series for the Cinder Spires by Jim Butcher, Mass Effect Andromeda: The Lost Ark by Catherynne M. Valente, World of Warcraft: Before the Storm by Christie Golden

Gaming wise, World of Warcraft still dominates my playtime. However, I did play a lot of Mass Effect Andromeda (120 hours), which leads me to my first thing I didn’t like about 2017. EA killing the Mass Effect Series, and then shutting down Visceral Games. Andromeda was not a bad game, it was actually a good game with some flaws. It sucks that Andromeda could have been a good starting point for a new trilogy or series for Mass Effect but it had to check all the boxes that EA likes to push out in their games, which is tacked on multiplayer, lootboxes, and DLC for fucking multiplayer. I’m certain that if the game was focused on a decent single-player experience it would have been a bit more polished at release. The Mass Effect Andromeda novels are decent as well, it’s too bad that they killed it early with no single-player DLC for some glaring unresolved story plot points like the benefactor and Jien Garson thing as well as Quarian Arc.

I still have quite a few games to get through in my backlog, which I will get around to as the time spent playing WoW dies down because it is near the end of the expansion. I have Rise of the Tomb Raider, Dishonored, Far cry 3 (which I am like 90% done and I should just finish it), Far cry Blood Dragon, Far cry Primal, the Crysis Trilogy, Splinter Cell: Black list, Firewatch, Furi, Icey, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Doom 2016, Wolfenstien: The New Order. I bought a couple of more games during the christmas/new years sales: Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Dead Cells, Nex Machina. I also plan to pick up Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, and Uncharted: Lost Legacy for the ps4 in 2018. For the PC, I plan to pick up Dishonored 2 and its DLC, Prey, Wolfenstien: The New Colossus, Battlechasers. Also in 2018, the game I am most looking forward to, as well as picking up, Red Dead Redemption 2. Other games in that may be released in 2018 that I am looking forward to picking up are: Metro: Exodus, Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, and Darksiders III.

I am also about halfway through Metro 2033 and looking forward to finishing it and immediately moving onto Metro: The Last Light.

A lot of good TV shows debuted in 2017. My favorites being: American Gods, Westworld, and The Last Kingdom season 2. If I had to pick only one favorite, it would be American Gods because it is an extremely good adaptation so far of the books with some very good things added in or changed to be more compelling.

Things I’m looking forward to watching in 2018: Altered Carbon on Netflix, Jessica Jones season 2 on Netflix, Westworld Season 2. I am not to sure there will be a second season of American Gods because the driving force behind the excellent adaptation to the small screen left the show, although Neil Gaiman is staying on despite the departure of Bryan Fuller.

There are a couple of things on netflix I will probably check out this year: Peaky Blinders, Hap and Leonard, and Stranger Things season 2.

Some excellent movies came out in 2017 and some that came on in 2016 that I was late watching because I prefer to watch movies at home on blu ray now.

• My favorite movie of 2017 is easily Logan, it was such a good movie and a great finale for Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart. Honorable Mentions: Wind River, John Wick 2, Arrival, Atomic Blonde, Rogue One, Kong: Skull Island, Split, Dunkirk. I will be late to the part for IT and Blade Runner 2049 because I will not get to see either until they come out on blu ray later this month. Up until I watched Logan, Arrival was my favorite movie and to me it is a very close second.
• My favorite original movie in 2017 is Wind River, it is extremely good with a very compelling story with a lot of emotion. If you haven’t seen it, fucking check it out. Honorable Mention: Dunkirk, Bright.
• Movies I’m looking forward to in 2018: IT,  Blade Runner 2049, Sicario 2: Soldado, Deadpool 2, The Shape of Water, Black Panther, Annihilation, The Big Sick, Get Out.

This month I will be watching Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, War for the Planet of the Apes, IT, Blade Runner 2049, and Hell or High Water.

I hope you had a good 2017, and that you have an even better 2018.

Happy new years.

Altered Carbon – Netflix – Date Announcement

February 2nd 2018. Can’t wait.

 

“Take what is offered and that must sometimes be enough.”

― Richard K. Morgan, Altered Carbon