Pop Culture
This is where I talk pop culture things that catch my interest.
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Cyberpunk: The genre and the games.
Cyberpunk 2077 has been the source of much conversation. It was long-awaited and there much hype preceding its release. The launch didn’t go…swimmingly. There were some well-published bugs, particularly in older consoles. Beyond that people complained about it not being “punk” enough because you can work for the police, or the problems of the social media managers being transphobic, or the fact that they made the developer do mandatory overtime as part of pre-launch crunch, or…. let’s just say it was a rocky start. I actually played the game via Stadia and had fewer technical problems as a result. Actually playing through the game, I got to appreciate the things…
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Recent Reads
As a slight change of pace, I decided to review some books I have read recently. I do read things beyond game books. I know it comes as a surprise. I felt like I had things to say about these books and recommendations to make. I enjoyed these 4 books and thought I would share my thoughts on them with you. I am unlikely to waste time on books I didn’t enjoy, after all.
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The Machine for Modern Age
Let me tell you about my love for Persons of Interest. The show was on the air between 2011 and 2016 and dealt with a range of complex notions in the framework of the shows premise, which is described in the opening narration. You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. Violent crimes involving ordinary people, people like you. Crimes the government considered irrelevant. They wouldn’t act, so I decided I would. But I needed…
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Mass Effect Andromeda Review
So, I “beat” Mass Effect Andromeda, which is to say, after 95 hours of play (in a week and half), I faced the climactic battle against the big bad. I still have some unresolved missions, but it lets you resolve them after that. I could have had the fight much sooner, and still gone on and done the other things. It would have made sense. “You saved the cluster, but there is still work to do” is a theme after the action. That kind of sums up the game in general. Exploring and building is the job, saving the galaxy is something you had to do along the way.
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Weekly Comics Show Round up
It is that time again. Time for another round-up of comic book shows.. Let’s start with Gotham. It still feels like the show is rushing along too fast. We have full on supervillains all over the place. The Riddler is exposed, complete with his signature question mark, and promptly arrested. He may not be sporting the outfit, but his basic motif is there. Same with the Penguin, who goes back to his villainous ways. Dinner with Cobblepot is the reality show no one is asking for. If anything, he is more brutal than ever. This would be great if Batman existed yet, but at this point it all feels…
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More Comics Shows Round Up
So, Gotham….This was the episode I was waiting for since the beginning of this series. Seriously, this was why you set a show in Gotham. Not for Batman, or the Joker, or all the freaks. You set a story in Gotham because it is a crucible that makes those kind of people. You make a show like this to see people like Matches Malone, and how they make the world around them, and are made by the world in turn. Also, my world was lacking in enough Lori Petty. She is amazing in this. In the bar scene and the music playing, they played scenes of Jerome on the wall…
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New Zombie Orpheus stuff
I watched the two latest entries from Zombie Orpheus, and loved them. Human’s and Households is about people living in a fantasy world, who play a game where they imagine characters in our mundane one. It is a hoot. Gamers: The Natural One is a thinly veiled excuse to have some of the Gamers crew playing a Shadowrun type game. It was fun as well, with some gamer humor. It is done by the guys who did Gamers 1, 2, and 3. I am fond of those films and one of the things I enjoy about them is they are getting better with every installment. These are shorter bits, but…
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Man of Steel
Superman is not an easy character to get right. Many people have taken approaches at him, and few have succeeded. Snyder’s approach was actually fairly new, and I am not sure if he succeeded or not, but if he failed, he failed in an enjoyable manner. Superman is a legend, a god that has feet on the ground like a man. He is the invulnerable, and unstoppable man. That is often the problem, as he is so powerful, it is awfully hard to give him a challenge he can’t rise to. More than that, he is big boy scout, always, and today’s audience is often seen as having a problem…
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Many shades of black
Tonight’s Hannibal inspired me to write some things. Forgive me if I ramble. One of my all time favorite TV shows of all time is Millennium. It was done by some of the people behind X-Files and Space Above and Beyond, and it actually crossed over with X-Files at a couple of points. It was nominally about a guy who can see into the minds of evil, to help find killers. This is a premise that has been done often to varying degrees, but usually with a sort of typical police procedural feel. Millennium was not that model. It had a deeply melancholy theme running through it, a level personal…
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Schlock Mercenaries
About a month or two back I started reading Schlock Mercenary from the beginning. It is pretty good, actually, though the art at the start is a little painful. Thing is, I will be reading for a while. There is over 10 years of daily comics here. I have been reading it for a while now and I still have more than 10 years to go. I am not going to lie. It is bit daunting, even reading a month’s worth every couple of days.
