The last time I covered the Australian ABC’s execrable Q&A program was almost ten years ago when Peter Hitchens was a guest. Time has not been kind to this show which has changed hosts a number of times but is essentially the same as it began. It would have been cancelled on any network that is not funded by (but not accountable to), taxpaying Australians. I was linked to a recent episode where the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was answering questions which is not surprising given it is an election year. This is an occasional variation the show has when they have one particularly special guest instead of many but the host remains to moderate.
I didn’t actually watch the show below because I simply can’t stomach it and this will be referring to the transcript as well as skipping through parts of the video. I also checked through the questions that were asked and how much time was spent on the topics they introduced. The video is available below for anyone who needs help with their bowel movements. I can’t resist pointing out that it is hosted and streamed on YouTube which costs nothing; something that should throw into question the budget the ABC receives. As should the wide variety of shows available that have equal or better production values for a fraction of what the ABC receives.
Though I was not a backer of the original Kickstarter campaign in early 2014, I was certainly enthusiastic about the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance which (KCD) was released in early 2018. I bought the game in 2020 but my aging hardware had trouble running it and I first saw it to the end in 2022. Even with the difficulties I had, I found the experience engaging and even more so when I played through it again last year with a new PC. It was in fact one of the first games I reinstalled and I had a lot of fun playing it again and this time with all the DLC that followed the original release. It was also early last year when the long awaited sequel was announced and set for release though it was ultimately delayed until February this year.
What first brought Kingdome Come: Deliverance to my attention was the outspoken support of the game’s director Daniel Vávra for #GamerGate which was raging on Twitter late the same year the game was funded on Kickstarter. Vávra rejected and mocked forced “inclusion” and “diversity” in video games and as such, the cast of Kingdom Come: Deliverance were all visibly European as would certainly be the case in Medieval Bohemia. And still mostly is today if you look at the demographics of the Czech Republic which is both the game’s setting and where the developer Warhorse Studios is based. The game was refreshing if only for intentionally excluding most of the absurd pandering found in almost all other media which has only gotten worse since.
The game was both financially successful and well-received by the playing audience. It even had positive reviews in most mainstream outlets though it was also attacked for the reasons mentioned above as well as a number of technical issues found in the initial release. Warhorse Studios was bought by Koch Media (now Plaion) in 2019 around the time all the additional content had been released for what was a very successful game. The original’s ending was set-up for a sequel though there was nothing official until Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (KCDII) was announced in April of 2024.
From the announcement until very close to release last year, it seemed that the sequel was going to be exactly what people who played the original wanted it to be. The last few years have seen a number of disasters in the same genre beginning with the bland Starfield in 2023 and followed by Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024. The game was very close to release before some leaks as well as some confusing news from Saudi Arabia raised a few questions about content found in the game. Some of these rumours sounded so absurd given the creative director’s previous position that I thought they were the work of trolls (and I wasn’t the only one). The studio PR was initially quiet and then dismissive of these leaks and used minor errors or inaccuracies to to play down these reports such as one claiming “unskippable” scenes in the game.
Unfortunately, the actual substance of these leaks turned out to be true and proved to be worse with further leaks. Around the same time Vávra himself confirmed and defended much of this through his personal account on X. The one I had initially found laughable was the inclusion of an ahistorical negro Muslim from sub-Saharan Africa named ‘Musa of Mali’ that had very implausibly found his way into Bohemia and become part of King Sigismund of Hungary’s court. Vávra had previously mocked just such inclusion in a tweet using an image from the Martin Lawrence film ‘Black Knight’; a film that incidentally has a comedic premise that is totally dependent on the absurdity of an African being present anywhere in Europe in the middle ages.
Then there was the inclusion of sodomy described as a “gay romance” which even more absurdly turned out to be between Henry, the game’s protagonist and the teenage noble Hans of Capon who befriends him in the original and plays a major part of the sequel. Henry had been established as heterosexual in the first game by both Warhorse themselves as well as the events of the game. He has a sweetheart named Bianca who is killed in the raid on Henry’ hometown Skalitz in the opening hours of the first game. He then has the option of forming a relationship with Theresa, a fellow survivor who nurses him back to health after the attack.
As for Hans Capon, he is shown to be an incorrigible lecher almost from the moment he is introduced and even has an entire DLC quest revolving around Henry helping him to seduce the butcher’s daughter in Rattay — a major town in the original game.
This was defended mainly because it is a player “choice” but a choice that completely ignores what was established in the original game. Vávra also mentioned that there were sodomites in the original but neglected to mention that one was the antagonist Sir Istvan Toth who is only implied to be. The other was a monk met in one of the most interesting quests in the game who is celibate and more importantly ashamed of these feelings. Henry even has the option to express disgust at the monk’s revelation though he can also offer a more modern “you are what you are” response. More controversially, the original’s stated birth date for Hans Capon in the Codex meant he was around fifteen if not slightly younger or older and the second which begins mere days after the original ends in the year 1403. This was pointed out as part of Fandom Pulse’s extensive reporting and Warhorse has since updated KCDII’s in-game profile of Hans with a statement that Hans is totally twenty years old and always was even though he wasn’t until they realised the implications of what they had done. Despite this “clarification”, he is still referred to as “underage” and so not an adult in the original game in both the Codex and the game’s script. Henry was also thought to be a teenager though this is less definite.
These two absurdities as well as the game director’s defence of them, immediately dampened my enthusiasm for the game along with many others. What was originally my most anticipated game for the year became one to ignore in a single news cycle. But the full extent of Warhorse’s betrayal of what first brought them to prominence was shown to be even worse on the game’s release.
I don’t know whether Vávra (who also has Jewish ancestry), was pressured into including these among many other anachronisms by the studios owners (Plaion is owned by Embracer Group), or if he never believed them in the first place. I expect it will be a while before the truth is revealed but whatever the reason, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II betrays the vision of the original game and the goodwill and financial support that made it such a success.
This is a long introduction to my review but I believe this context is all necessary for what follows. To establish that I have played and enjoyed the original game and that I aware of it mainly through Vávra’s support for #GamerGate and his earlier rejection of forced diversity and modern politics into gaming. What has happened with Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a shameless bait-and-switch worse than any other DEI game because the content above was not evident in any of the reveals or promotion of the game. It was revealed through leakers and denied before being acknowledged and Vávra among others, pretended it was just an overreaction when they were cornered.
Like many of the media shills defending these significant departures from the spirit of the original: I did not buy the game. Unlike them, my income isn’t dependent on staying in the good graces of large publishing companies. This is more a hobby for me but one it seems I do more honestly than paid professionals. I requested a review code from PLAION Australian & New Zealand who graciously (and rather surprisingly), granted me one. I don’t know if I shall ever receive another after this but a review of the game from someone who has played Kingdom Come: Deliverance II from start to finish follows below.
Shōgun by James Clavell, Hodder & Stoughton, June 20th, 2013
(originally published in 1975)
The last review I did of a fictional work about the Japanese by someone who is not Japanese was my review of Rising Sun by Michael Crichton. It is a work that while very good, had become dated since its release. The then booming Japanese economy suffered significant decline around the time the book was published and hasn’t recovered since. So the background theme of Japan’s growing economic dominance lost the relevance it certainly had at the time. James Clavell’s Shōgun does not suffer this problem as it is historical fiction set within one of the most famous and important periods in Japanese history.
I had heard about this novel before but never sought to read it. It was the 2024 miniseries that put it back on my reading radar though I have not seen it as of writing. I was not even aware until shortly before I finished reading this that this is the second adaption of the novel with the first being in 1980, five years after its publication. The novel’s enduring popularity can be demonstrated simply by how long I had to wait for a library hold and the pace at which I had to read to get through it within a month. Though a lengthy work, it is certainly a page turner which meant this pace was never arduous and it was simply a matter of finding more time in the day to read it. Continue reading →
There has been a lot happening in the United States since Donald Trump’s inauguration particularly surrounding the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which is headed by Elon Musk. Unlike mass media, I don’t have a short memory and so remember the negative post I wrote about him on the last day of 2024 less than two months ago. Though what is happening is very interesting and sounds very hopeful, I am not writing to enthuse about this new department while pretending I never said anything negative about the man heading it. I still don’t trust him and I haven’t changed my mind. The most recent news I’ve seen of him is that he’s impregnated an astroturfed “conservative” “influencer” [separated inverted commas necessary] that made one sensible observation I remember almost six years ago.
I am writing because of some of the implications that have come out from this department so far. This is all while acknowledging that I don’t know exactly what is happening behind the scenes or how much of this is theatre. All I know is that even if this is all pure theatre, it is still showing the US taxpayer (and by extension most of the Western world), just how corrupt and irresponsible the US government is with tax revenue. Specifically with how this has been used to fund a variety of media organisations both legacy and modern. Continue reading →
Whether to Christianity, a political “ism”, some weird cult or regrettably even veganism, there is nothing more likely to infuriate those around you than the sudden zealous condemnation of behaviour you used to engage in or at least not disapprove of. This is always a danger for the convert because they are understandably enthusiastic about what they’ve converted to and so they’ll really want people to know it. While I could care less about most of the examples above, I think this is particularly important for newly converted Christians. One reason for this is that the majority of converts (certainly including me), were not living a righteous life prior, still have to struggle to do so after and probably left a trail of emotional, social or worse damage before they finally saw the Light.
The recent online drama involving Melonie Mac can be considered a timely reminder if nothing else.
A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day, Castalia House, February 9th, 2024
While I now regret the gastronomic metaphor I originally used in the title for my review of Summa Elvetica and continued in my review of A Throne of Bones, I am afraid I shall now have to continue this until the series is finished. I do have to apologise to anyone who finds these titles irritating but I value consistency over popularity.
I began re-reading these two books in anticipation of the long-awaited sequel A Sea of Skulls which was finally and fully released in February of last year and is now available on the Arkhaven Store, Amazon and elsewhere. I say “fully” because a shorter version of this was released digitally in late 2016 but I, like many, waited longer for the final edition. I waited further still for the physical release and finally read it over the Christmas holidays late last year.
The short version of this review is that I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to A Grave of Gods which will presumably be the final book in the series. In what follows, I am going to be deliberately vague about plot points as I was in the previous two reviews. Once the series is complete, I may write a more extended post that gives a more thorough analysis but that will be much further into the future. Continue reading →
This is a book that I’ve been meaning to get to for a while though I’m not necessarily the target audience. I have never played Dungeons & Dragons though I have played tabletop or pen-and-paper role-playing games a few times. The two times I can recall were both one-off and separated by years so I don’t have the experience or understanding of these games that is generally assumed by the author. Thankfully, these games also had tremendous influence on computer role-playing games (CRPGs) and RPGS in general as I’ve written about before. Many of the systems used in video games are based on these pioneering board games. This lack of experience with the actual tabletop game naturally limits the words that follow so I want to be upfront about this.
What could understandably be considered an odd title is named after the actual ‘Appendix N’ of Gary Gygax’s Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons that was published in 1979. This appendix lists a number of titles and authors that influenced the tabletop game. Jeffro Johnson set out to read these works and write commentary on them which were originally published on his blog. These posts were later collected and published as the work under review here in 2017.
One more thing before continuing is that in 2021 there was another book published cheekily with the same title and a much inferior cover. From what I can see, this is simply a collection of a number of these influential works covered by Johnson in his. Continue reading →
In 2014, a new Swedish studio called MachineGames released a new entry in the Wolfenstein series titled Wolfenstein: The New Order and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, after a decent standalone expansion, they followed up with two very poor sequels and it seemed (at least to me), that the studio would never repeat the success of their first game Ten years later, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has proved this assumption wrong and despite the criticisms that will follow, is arguably the best Indiana Jones video game ever made. Some may scoff that this isn’t hard but the point-and-click adventure game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis and the flawed but enjoyable Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb were my previous two candidates. The former captured the spirit of adventure while the latter nailed the visceral brawling the protagonist often engaged in. There was also Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures on the Super Nintendo but this was a platformer at heart — though certainly a good game.
I’ve only previously reviewed one Indiana Jones video game which was the rather terrible Wii exclusive Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings from 2009. In the linked review, part of my conclusion wondered why LucasArts had not put serious money into a proper game — especially as it followed so soon after a new film. Well, it took fifteen years but they finally did. Continue reading →
It was always going to be hard to top 2023 but 2024 didn’t even come close in my opinion. Naturally, I don’t play everything that comes out but there also wasn’t a lot I was really interested in. Probably the biggest AAA release that I wanted to play but didn’t this year was Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 which was a long-awaited (and unexpected) sequel to a game I quite enjoyed. I am sure I will get to it sometime and by all accounts, it was very good. Apart from this, the only two games that I wanted to play but haven’t are Animal Well and Penny’s Big Breakaway. The former was the first title published by Bigmode which was founded by YouTuber “videogamedunkey” and his wife. The latter was a new game from the creators of Sonic Mania. As with Space Marine 2, I am sure I will get to both of these eventually.
Most of the games I’ve played are once again Nintendo published and interestingly, Nintendo didn’t win even one of the “super official” Game Awards for 2024 for all that matters. The big winner there was the PlayStation 5 exclusive Astro Bot which honestly does look fun and something I would play if it were to become available on PC or another platform. It is hardly something that would prompt me to spend hundreds of dollars on a new console though.
The main problem with conservatives is they don’t conserve anything. That’s all you really need to know as that alone makes all their political posturing utterly worthless. Another problem, and what will be the subject of this post, is that they’re also extremely gullible. Years ago, Vox Day wrote a short but then topical post titled “The Charlie Brown Republicans”. The background of this was the issue of health care reform in the United States and the initially genuinely grass roots “Tea Party” movement. The Republicans were then, as now, pretending to be hard on spending cuts before inevitably caving in exchange for vague promises that are broken and/or a few negligible temporary cuts to tax or spending. As the linked article shows, this game goes back before my birth and unsurprisingly still goes on today.
Conservatives to their credit, have generally stopped falling for promised spending cuts, as the linked article in the post by prominent cuckservative Kevin D. Williamson demonstrates but they still continue to fall for another deception. This comes when any prominent non-conservative says anything even vaguely against the “current thing”. Following this, they will be lauded and immediately trusted by conservatives. A good example is J.K. Rowling who “bravely” believes that men who have (or at least had) a penis, should not be allowed in the ladies room or to participate in female sports. Outside of this single example of moral sanity she is openly left-wing, describes herself as a feminist and otherwise supports transvestitism. Accepting biological reality is then one of the minimum standards for being a conservative — what ever else you may believe. She of course doesn’t want or care about this support and so is no friend to anyone even vaguely right-wing.
Most recently (and currently as of writing), we have the new conservative of circumstance: Elon Musk. He has very quickly pulled away the proverbial football by vociferously defending the corrupt H-1B visa program that is mainly used to bring in cheap tech workers instead of employing the millions of Americans already available for employment. It isn’t worth getting into the debate about this as the promoters of this program are shameless liars. Musk is one of these liars and certainly one who financially benefits from these programs. He was one of the most prominent figures to come out in support of Trump in the recent US election which is how he became the most recent honorary conservative. Prior to this his “conservative” or “right-wing” credentials had been demonstrated because he bought Twitter (now known as X), and restored many (though not all), of the accounts suspended mostly during the shenanigans of 2020.
As with Rowling, both Musk’s life and public statements should have put to rest any notion that he was one of “our guys” and it was a shame to see so many on even the dissident right believe he would be anything but another resident of the swamp. Continue reading →
Shōgun by James Clavell, Hodder & Stoughton, June 20th, 2013
A Sea of Skulls by Vox Day, Castalia House, February 9th, 2024
