Hello to....me mostly, also those that stumble upon this blog via some random kismet quirk (read: matching google search). Good news everyone! I am not dead. Even better news, my jaded cynicism has been quelled enough for me to want to put finger to keyboard and write about some things I like to do...specifically my activities in the month of my 31st year on this planet.
Watching
I will always stick by the Wachowskis. I adore The Matrix far too much to not give them the benefit of doubt. Biased as I am, I actually think there post-Matrix output has been just as exciting as their cyberpunk masterpiece. Speed Racer remains the best live action representation of Japanese animation, Cloud Atlas is uneven but sprawling epic and Jupiter Ascending was old school space opera in a time when people just aren't making or watching that stuff anymore. So, when they decided to put out a Netflix original I was very much on board.
Sense8 is like most things Andy and Lana have produced since Neo first took flight- ludicrous and inspired in equal measure. It's ethnically and sexually diverse...yet often cloyingly preachy, smart and hip...yet dumb and dated. Punctuated with vibrant action and sporadically tedious, with wafer thin characters alongside engaging takes on typical archetypes. A wonderful mess.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's Spring is a genre blended surprise that starts off a soul searching road movie, segues into romance before adding body horror and tentacle transformations into the mix. At once generic and bravely divergent, it's a knowing film that uses genre conventions to support an experimental take on "guy finds love overseas" fable.
Then there's Mad Max: Fury Road, the viewing of which, much like when Anton Ego tastes the titular dish in Ratatouille, transported me to happy childhood frolics in front of the VHS player. A masterpiece, in every sense of the word.
Playing
Speaking of fond recollections, I have been tracing the progress of Project Cars since it was just a pretty tech demo, made by enthusiasts to showcase on PC hardware. Then it graduated to a full blown project (cars) and went multi platform. Anticipation levels reached a zenith as I realised I could finally have a racing game on my PS4 that wasn't shovelware...shovelware being the designation I give to every racing game that isn't Gran Turismo.
So, it's FINALLY out and it...is...sublime. Gorgeous visuals, visceral sound, a hugely enjoyable freeform career mode that almost feels organic, and endlessly tweakable options (the customisable HUD and advanced graphics settings are hugely satisfying). Bombing around the Laguna Seca in an Aston Martin V8 Vanquish takes me right back to those halcyon days of playing videogames with other humans that didn't have children and still liked playing videogames.
Then comes The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the 3rd installment of a series that I discovered accidentally and have sunk more time into than any other ongoing series of games. Picked up on a Steam Sale because I liked the art style and the look of the central character, the first game took almost 100 hours of my time, many fond memories and a renewed love of fantasy RPGs. My love of the series pushed me through another few dozen hours with the excellent sequel, despite the fact my rig at the time could barely run it without emitting a constant shrill whining that sounded like the words "kill me".
Now arrives Wild Hunt, a truly sprawling epic that I can best describe as GTAV with a Game Of Thrones skin. It's world is wide open and begging for you to explore, The characters I have grown to love over the past decade blossom in an engaging main quest line and worthwhile distractions are around every corner. Wild Hunt is a high watermark for RPGs of the current generation and, while it doesn't do anything exciting or new, deserves praise and reverence for years to come.
Reading
I never used to like Grant Morrison, I attribute my distaste for his surreal narratives to an early reading of DC One Million, a book I read very early in my comic book development. It's a convoluted mess at first glance, as is most of Morrisons output, but delve deeper and you discover a goldmine of history in his bold storytelling. Morrison is an encyclopedia of all things superhero and reading his work, with intermediate to advanced undertsanding of the lore that inspired it, rewards in spades.
I finally got around to reading volume 2 of All Star Superman this month, a beautiful work that takes the basic framework of the Man Of Steel's impending death to tell a series of fables about his last days on Earth. Along with Frank Quitely's majestic art, All Star Superman feels like a definitive take on Krypton's last son.
Another Morrison gem I discovered recently is WE3, a grim cautionary tale about animal experimentation that I painstakingly inched through hoping upon hope that it's central characters - a dog, a cat and a rabbit, all cybernetically augmented and programmed to kill on command - would survive. It's a tough read and a frightening portent of one possible future. Also - SPOILER ALERT - for those who can't hack reading based on the content's possible resolution, the dog and cat survive, the bunny bites it...or gets bitten...by a gigantic vybernetically augmented pitbull....who is then killed before it causes any harm to civilians. So there's that.
Watching
I will always stick by the Wachowskis. I adore The Matrix far too much to not give them the benefit of doubt. Biased as I am, I actually think there post-Matrix output has been just as exciting as their cyberpunk masterpiece. Speed Racer remains the best live action representation of Japanese animation, Cloud Atlas is uneven but sprawling epic and Jupiter Ascending was old school space opera in a time when people just aren't making or watching that stuff anymore. So, when they decided to put out a Netflix original I was very much on board.
Sense8 is like most things Andy and Lana have produced since Neo first took flight- ludicrous and inspired in equal measure. It's ethnically and sexually diverse...yet often cloyingly preachy, smart and hip...yet dumb and dated. Punctuated with vibrant action and sporadically tedious, with wafer thin characters alongside engaging takes on typical archetypes. A wonderful mess.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's Spring is a genre blended surprise that starts off a soul searching road movie, segues into romance before adding body horror and tentacle transformations into the mix. At once generic and bravely divergent, it's a knowing film that uses genre conventions to support an experimental take on "guy finds love overseas" fable.
Then there's Mad Max: Fury Road, the viewing of which, much like when Anton Ego tastes the titular dish in Ratatouille, transported me to happy childhood frolics in front of the VHS player. A masterpiece, in every sense of the word.
Playing
Speaking of fond recollections, I have been tracing the progress of Project Cars since it was just a pretty tech demo, made by enthusiasts to showcase on PC hardware. Then it graduated to a full blown project (cars) and went multi platform. Anticipation levels reached a zenith as I realised I could finally have a racing game on my PS4 that wasn't shovelware...shovelware being the designation I give to every racing game that isn't Gran Turismo.
So, it's FINALLY out and it...is...sublime. Gorgeous visuals, visceral sound, a hugely enjoyable freeform career mode that almost feels organic, and endlessly tweakable options (the customisable HUD and advanced graphics settings are hugely satisfying). Bombing around the Laguna Seca in an Aston Martin V8 Vanquish takes me right back to those halcyon days of playing videogames with other humans that didn't have children and still liked playing videogames.
Then comes The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the 3rd installment of a series that I discovered accidentally and have sunk more time into than any other ongoing series of games. Picked up on a Steam Sale because I liked the art style and the look of the central character, the first game took almost 100 hours of my time, many fond memories and a renewed love of fantasy RPGs. My love of the series pushed me through another few dozen hours with the excellent sequel, despite the fact my rig at the time could barely run it without emitting a constant shrill whining that sounded like the words "kill me".Now arrives Wild Hunt, a truly sprawling epic that I can best describe as GTAV with a Game Of Thrones skin. It's world is wide open and begging for you to explore, The characters I have grown to love over the past decade blossom in an engaging main quest line and worthwhile distractions are around every corner. Wild Hunt is a high watermark for RPGs of the current generation and, while it doesn't do anything exciting or new, deserves praise and reverence for years to come.
Reading
I never used to like Grant Morrison, I attribute my distaste for his surreal narratives to an early reading of DC One Million, a book I read very early in my comic book development. It's a convoluted mess at first glance, as is most of Morrisons output, but delve deeper and you discover a goldmine of history in his bold storytelling. Morrison is an encyclopedia of all things superhero and reading his work, with intermediate to advanced undertsanding of the lore that inspired it, rewards in spades.I finally got around to reading volume 2 of All Star Superman this month, a beautiful work that takes the basic framework of the Man Of Steel's impending death to tell a series of fables about his last days on Earth. Along with Frank Quitely's majestic art, All Star Superman feels like a definitive take on Krypton's last son.
Another Morrison gem I discovered recently is WE3, a grim cautionary tale about animal experimentation that I painstakingly inched through hoping upon hope that it's central characters - a dog, a cat and a rabbit, all cybernetically augmented and programmed to kill on command - would survive. It's a tough read and a frightening portent of one possible future. Also - SPOILER ALERT - for those who can't hack reading based on the content's possible resolution, the dog and cat survive, the bunny bites it...or gets bitten...by a gigantic vybernetically augmented pitbull....who is then killed before it causes any harm to civilians. So there's that.
Comments
Post a Comment