The Games of 2023

Posted on January 31, 2024 by JC

The Games of 2022 were so mediocre that I found it necessary to write about two older games I played that year so I could fill out the post. One might point out that I didn’t play many new games in 2022 but I would respond simply that very few appealed to me. Just recently, I finally got to the one other game I mentioned from that post that I didn’t play: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. It was good! Great pixel art, an excellent soundtrack from Tee Lopes who also composed the amazing Sonic Mania soundtrack. It also really captured the feel of the golden age of brawlers while including some thoughtful innovations. It was probably the best overall game I played that saw release in 2022 which was still a very disappointing year overall. I could also mention Sonic Frontiers which released in 2022 but I didn’t play until last year. The linked review discusses the game at length and in short, it was far from what it could have been.

2023 however was something else entirely and is comparable to 2017  in terms of the quality and even quantity of releases. I can say this despite not having played a number of critically acclaimed releases including Baldur’s Gate 3 which seemed to be the general favourite overall — even the Game Awards got it right! The below games are all ones released in 2023 which I played then or shortly before publishing this post this month. As 2023 was also a big year for remakes and remasters, I have separated these from the genuinely new releases.

Continue reading →

Posted in Game Reviews, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Games of 2023

The Quick Expiry of Transgression

Posted on January 21, 2024 by JC

This post will be somewhat similar in theme to two earlier posts I’ve made concerning music. One was from 2021 where I briefly commented on how entirely hollow the “rebellious” image of many bands are. The two examples were Twisted Sister and Rage Against the Machine, both of whom readily licked the proverbial boot when it was put forward and yet both fostered an image of youthful rebellion and rejection of social and political order. More recently you can add Green Day to the list for believing they are fighting “the man” by rejecting the most prominent public movement in opposition to him. All three members of this band are now in their 50s but still dress like they’re in their early 20s. They really look more like middle-aged lesbians than men at this point. At least Rage Against the Machine have had the good sense to break-up this month — hopefully permanently. The other more recent post was just a rant on how terrible I think boomer music is and I have nothing to add to that.

The subject of this post concerns just how fast what is considered transgressive can change with some examples from music popular when I was a teenager and young adult. Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Politics, Ramblings, Society | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The Quick Expiry of Transgression

An Appetiser for Selenoth

Posted on January 16, 2024 by JC

Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy & Other Stories by Vox Day, Castalia House, January 10th, 2017
(originally published by Marcher Lord Press on October 1st, 2008)

It is a certainly pleasant to be able to cleanse my palette of the corked plonk that was Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and switch to a far more pleasing vintage. Vox Day’s epic fantasy series began a decade ago with the release of A Throne of Bones which was an epic 800+ page beginning to the series which imagines the Roman Empire combined with an already ascendant Catholic Church existing parallel in a fantasy world of elves, dwarves and goblins — at the very least already a refreshing alternative to the usual heavily Medieval influence. Around half of the sequel was released digitally a few years later but it wasn’t until late last year that the full A Sea of Skulls was finally published. The physical release is still forthcoming as of writing so in preparation, I have been re-reading the earlier stories and am about to re-read A Throne of Bones for the first time since I read it a decade ago.

The series of course began more modestly with the subject of this post, Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy. This was originally released as a standalone book but subsequent releases include all the short stories the author wrote in the same setting — one which is actually even older. I describe the titular work and the short stories as an appetiser as they are certainly not a prerequisite for beginning the main course but are still worth trying before or even after for those that are still peckish. I actually didn’t read any of these until after finishing A Throne of Bones and I don’t think I’d read every one until very recently — though my memory may just be failing.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Literature | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on An Appetiser for Selenoth

Hollywood’s Classic Propaganda

Posted on January 7, 2024 by JC

As I’ve no doubt written before, I occasionally get the idea in my head that I need to read a certain novel, play a certain video game or see a certain film because of it is considered a “classic”. As one example for each you might include Moby-Dick,  Super Mario Bros. and Citizen Kane. These three titles are recognisable to the average person even though they may not be familiar beyond the title and vague references they’ve absorbed. Usually, I find the status is well-earned and I use the above three examples because I would agree they are all classics in their respective mediums though I admit I wasn’t as fond of Herman Melville’s classic as many are. I do still acknowledge its quality as I do with Citizen Kane though it isn’t my kind of film.

So it is with the two films pictured above which I watched late last year. I had borrowed The Sound of Music from the library once before but balked at the almost three hour run-time and returned it unwatched. Casablanca, I’d just never really paid much attention to but it did have a much more agreeable length. The New Zealand director Taika Waititi’s out-of-context comment on nobody remembering the director of Casablanca (Michael Curtiz) put me in mind to watch it and the surprise of a former colleague that I had not seen The Sound of Music prompted the other. It was also towards the end of the year where my work had mostly wrapped up and I had time to gamble.

In any case, what has compelled me to write about them is not the films themselves so much as the similarities they share as World War II propaganda.

Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Society | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Hollywood’s Classic Propaganda

Caravan of the Damned Review

Posted on December 27, 2023 by JC


Caravan of the Damned by Chuck Dixon, Castalia House, October 4th, 2023

Caravan of the Damned is the second story by “The Legend” Chuck Dixon published by Castalia House. Earlier this year I reviewed his first The Siege of the Black Citadel which I enjoyed and thought compared favourably with Robert E. Howard’s original stories. This latest release also gets my recommendation but read on if you want to know why.

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Literature | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Caravan of the Damned Review

Of Celebrities and Train-Wrecks

Posted on December 18, 2023 by JC

One of the interesting and frequently entertaining aspects of the Internet has been the rise of the e-celebrity. Or in other words, an otherwise “normal” person who becomes a minor or major public figure. Until very recently, the celebrity was confined to sports and entertainment which is tightly controlled by major corporations and government organisations. Someone had to have some degree of talent to be a celebrity but they more than anything needed the backing of powerful groups to make this happen. There are plenty of good looking people who can smile and act and very few of them ultimately become celebrities. The only exception to this was the “15 minutes of fame” when an otherwise normal person briefly rose to prominence for something personally heroic, amusing or just a novelty of some sort. Even this was tightly controlled by the mainstream media who would move on as soon as the public began to lose interest.

Continue reading →

Posted in Ramblings, Society | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Of Celebrities and Train-Wrecks

Pikmin 4 Review

Posted on December 11, 2023 by JC

Pikmin 4 was officially announced late last year and released on July 21st which was almost a decade to the day after the release of Pikmin 3 in 2013. In between these two releases there was the mediocre spinoff for 3DS, Hey! Pikmin released in 2017, Pikmin 3: Deluxe a port for Switch in 2020 and the mobile exclusive Pikmin Bloom released in 2021. These releases aside, this was the largest gap in mainline releases since that between 2004’s Pikmin 2 and Pikmin 3 which came close to a decade. And within this period, the first two games were given enhanced releases on the Wii with the “New Play Control!” branding incorporating the Wii controls so well that they were retained as an option in Pikmin 3. 

As sparse as this release history may be, it is not at all surprising considering that the series has never been a big seller for Nintendo though it has always been modestly successful. All the mainline games were well-received critically and are fondly remembered by most people who played them — myself definitely included. I was actually one of the very first out the gate my my review of Pikmin 3 back in 2013, as it was released in Japan a few weeks earlier and saw the site I originally wrote for get a brief but noticeable jump in traffic. The game did little if anything to improve sales for the already struggling Wii U but then no subsequent game releases really did. Given the comparatively low sales with other Nintendo franchises, Pikmin 4 was never a sure thing but on release had the most successful launch in the series history as well as being critically well-received. My review is late but I think it contrasts enough with what has already been said to be worth writing. This review will assume some knowledge of the series which is basically a hybrid of real-time tactics and action/adventure genres.

Continue reading →

Posted in Game Reviews, Video Games | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Pikmin 4 Review

The Name of the Gamma

Posted on December 2, 2023 by JC

I have been curious about this book for quite a while. Not because of the praise it has received but quite the opposite. Vox Day has stated he was unable to finish it and has singled out Kvothe as the biggest gamma in fiction in one of his Darkstreams. Other writers have commented on the very slow progress of the series as well as the behaviour of the writer. So my curiosity is more akin to the kind that compels you to stare at a car crash. That is not to say the book is a disaster as it has been very successful with both it and its sequel selling many millions of copies. And though it is over fifteen years old, I still had to put one of the multiple copies at my library on reserve and wait almost a month before I could borrow it. Most authors would be happy to sell a few thousand and see one copy available in their local library. Especially in the genre of Epic Fantasy where even fewer authors find success.

I read the book while commuting over the last few weeks and it was a struggle at times though I wouldn’t say it is irredeemably awful. I came away thinking Rothfuss can write and there are some good ideas within the pages. The main problems are that Kvothe is an almost textbook Marty Stu, the novel is over six hundred pages and the plot goes nowhere. I don’t like this novel at all but I think Vox has given a good explanation of its appeal in the link above and I will add some more to this in what follows.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, DAW Books, March 27th, 2007

Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Ramblings | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Name of the Gamma

The Pirates of the Caribbean Series Review

Posted on November 30, 2023 by JC

Over the last two years much of my entertainment has been focused on pirates. By pirates, I of course mean the famous fictionalised swashbuckling version of them and not the horrible reality of piracy. I re-watched the Pirates of the Caribbean films through twice, I bought a number of books including On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers; which the fourth film is based on. As well as this I picked up Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I also read Robinson Crusoe for the first time — which arguably popularised adventure stories set in the Caribbean much as Treasure Island did for the golden age of piracy specifically, one hundred and fifty years later. In addition to all this I read a history of the Caribbean, the life of Sir Francis Drake and a number of related works. Even video games weren’t excluded as I had a lot of fun playing through the remake of Sid Meier’s Pirates! last year too. I can’t recall what exactly started this but it preoccupied my increasingly scarce free time for a goodly portion of the last two years and has also bled into seeking out swashbucklers in general.

What makes this the more interesting is the film series is more one I’ve wanted to like than one I’ve genuinely loved. And while I’ve come to appreciate these films a lot more (especially with all the dreck that dominates the cinemas today), I still have some significant criticisms of them. Nonetheless, they are starting to be seen more and more as modern classics and I don’t think this in unreasonable. As the first is now twenty years old this year, it is a good time to look at the series as a whole.

Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Pirates of the Caribbean Series Review

Do the Game Awards even know their categories?

Posted on November 19, 2023 by JC

This will be three video game related posts in a row but there hasn’t been much else to write about lately and this blog did start out with games as a focus. I hope to resume varied content again soon.

The nominees for this year’s Game Awards were announced last week. This has already been a really great year for releases so it is a bit more interesting than previous years have been. Before moving into the main topic, I want to give the very idea of the Game Award a spray similar to one I’ve already given to the Academy Awards. As I’ve repeated before, I think the very idea of having even a semi-official [Anything] of the Year is stupid and the Game Awards are no exception. This post shouldn’t be seen as me giving legitimacy to the idea of awards shows but they do exist and I am merely commenting on something that exists.

In every form they have appeared, these awards have been little more than three hours of pure cringe. The only genuinely entertaining things have been the unscripted occurrences and the amusing supercuts that appear later. Despite the hilarious ineptness of Angry Joe in his confrontation with Geoff Keighley back in 2010, there are legitimate criticisms to be made about these award shows. I will demonstrate this with a single category this year which is for Best Sim/Strategy Game.

Angry Joe famously embarrassed himself in an interview with Geoff Keighley at the Spike VGAs in 2010.

Continue reading →

Posted in Video Games | Tagged , | Comments Off on Do the Game Awards even know their categories?