Edward's March 2024 Mix

 

 Despite winter being mysteriously truncated, people mowing lawns already, robins out and about, and jeans and flannels giving way to shorts and wife beaters, I spent a lot of time indoors this month. But it wasn’t in vain. I broadened horizons through a variety of mediums and my amusement was boundless in the music, movies and gaming I jumped into. My GoodReads reading goal is 20 books this year. I’ve already knocked out 7, a pretty good start for the year. I only finished 8 PC games last year. I still have a few lingering games to finish, but so far, I’ve completed 6. That’s not a bad start on the PC gaming side of things. Oh, a little warning here: find your favorite bookmark, this one is a long one. But I promise I won’t bore you.

 

Battlefield 4 on PC: EA really let me down during Christmas last year when my email account was cracked and my EA account was compromised. I spoke with four different Indian agents to no avail. I supplied the information they needed to verify my account, but was told it wasn’t enough. So, I wrote it off with a polite but firm email explain EA was now dead to me. I would be making any further game purchases on other venues. I ended up installing Battlefield 4 which was on my Steam account for quite a while (I had just never installed/played it. Oddly, the game pointed to my now defunct EA account. My gaming buddy, Garrett Thrasher suggested I contact EA and have them unlink the game from that hacked account. I got on live chat with yet another agent from India. Lo and behold, this guy fixed me up. He got my old account back! I thanked him profusely and stroked his survey with all five stars. It’s like EA and I divorced and then realized what we missed. We came back together and remarried. Battlefield 4 has made it worth it. This is like the venerable Battlefield 2 I spent many hundreds of hours almost twenty years ago. I feel like a babe in the woods since I’m starting out at level 0. My guns are puny and my skills are lacking. Couple that with the reflexes of an old guy, and you can see how this could be quite frustrating. But maybe I just can’t pull the rose-colored glasses off. 

 

 Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic by Paul Fussell: I'd never heard of Paul Fussell or knew how prolific of a writer he was until I stumbled upon this book in my collection of books. (I've got to clean out that closet of books one of these days!) The first half of this book conveys the adventures (and misadventures) of boyish Paul living an idyllic life in California and attending university. Upon graduation, he is commissioned as a 2nd Lt. and is sent to France at the end of the Battle of the Bulge where he is "ill-treated by members of the German Wehrmacht." After his service, he is sent home to the States and achieves his master's degree, teaching at university.      And so begins Fussell’s cynical disenchantment with all of the stilted patriotism and misplaced ideals that accompanied him to the shores of France when he saw how incompetent and inefficient the US Army was in Europe. Fussell's story resonated with me on a personal level as a US Navy veteran. In 2017 the USS John McCain collided with a civilian tanker in Singapore. Some weeks later the same ship almost had another collision. Later in that same year, yet another US Navy ship collided with a ship. When the top brass finally got down to the lowest ranking seamen on the USS John McCain to talk to them, it was revealed the men weren't getting sleep. It's amazing how some things don't change. I remember months at sea, working 8 hours on and 8 hours off. During the 8 hours off, one stood watch and endured countless emergency drills. That was peacetime Navy for me. I could only imagine what it would have been like in combat status. The book began to lose its way with me, however, when Fussell returned to civilian life. Not only did he vehemently denounce any kind of glory or real purpose in fighting a war, he became skeptical of the pop culture that grew out of the 1950s and 1960s, and conservatism in politics. The whole tone of this book generates the idea that great literature can save us from warfare. It's a noble idea, but as we all know, it just doesn't work that way. I don't agree with numerous of Paul Fussell's ideas, but I can't deny this book was written with great passion.

Reacher Season 2 on Amazon Prime: Talk about an oddity, this season is based on Lee Child’s Bad Luck and Trouble which is Child’s eleventh book in the series, which is the next book in the series for me. Ha! Talk about coincidences. This series involves illegal arms trading and lots of flashbacks to Reacher’s old special investigative unit in the Army. It was filled with the usual fistfights, gunfights, and Reacher’s personal responses to all sorts of injustices. And not to mention a nice cameo from a loved character from season one.

Aliens on Blu Ray: Of course, I’ve seen it before, numerous times. But this never gets old and it seems I pick up on something I missed in previous viewings when I watch it. Definitely eschews the horror aspect for a more adventurous tone than the original Alien. This is a movie filled with smart alecky one liners that have become tropes and memes that have surfaced in many other movies (and games) since. James Cameron handled this one just as efficiently as Ridley did the first movie, despite its different avenue. The Blu Ray version is crisp and beautiful in its own gun metal and CRT green way.

Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC: It’s not often I include something here from the previous month, but I had to detail the fact that I finally beat this game. It took me 37.5 hours, and the last 1/5 of the game turned into a horrible chore simulator. I never thought I was going to defeat Poison Ivy. She definitely brought back Dark Souls vibes, and not in a good way. She took me 48 attempts to finally best her. And then I had to take on Joker! He wasn’t easy, but compared to Poison Ivy, he was a cakewalk. I only wanted to play this one as a refresher because I was planning on playing the next game in the series, Batman: Arkham Asylum. Now I’m wondering if I should delve into that territory. 

 

 Cannons Heartbeat Highway on Amazon Music: Formed in 2013 by two childhood buddies soliciting for a vocalist on Craigslist, this dreampop band has recently become an addiction for me. The vocalist, Michelle Joy, reminds me a lot of Gwen Stefani with her sound and her looks. They drop catchy tunes that exude a 1980s vibe with Joy’s vocals and guitarist, Ryan Clapham’s chorus effects. Then there’s the song “Loving You” that almost has an Abba spin to it. I’ve not wanted to autorepeat an album so much as this one in a long time. Give the titular song, “Heartbeat Highway” a listen. You just might agree with me.

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke: Much to my chagrin, I took this long to read anything by Arthur C. Clarke. Perhaps I was intimidated by the collaborative work he did (with Stanley Kubrick), 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I always found too cerebral to me (although the Blu Ray is stunningly gorgeous.) But I see having waited so long to be a slight of sorts. I missed out, well, almost missed out on what is one of the greatest SF books I've ever read. Despite Clarke's academic backing (majored in mathematics and physics), he has a literary delicacy that puts him up there with so many fine writers. His use of descriptive language and interesting characters instilled in me a sense of bitter-sweetness when the novel reached its end. (Plagiarized from my very own Goodreads review.) 

House of Cards Season 6 on Netflix: This ended a run of a show that had me captivated from the first episode of the first season. I’ll try to convey this without spoilers, so I’ll just say a death of a main character occurred with no details revealed. This season slowly unravels what happened. It’s like watching a movie in slow motion in reverse. It sounds gimmicky, but I have to tell you, it was quite clever. And in true literary fashion, it seems that all characters got what they deserved. I wouldn’t be surprised if this rather depraved tale of betrayal, blackmail and deception is simply a mirror of our own whacked political system.

Medal of Honor on PC: This is a gritty, first-person shooter, taking place in Afghanistan. It features combat through the eyes of a Navy Seal and eventually switches to US Army Special Forces soldiers. Using the Unreal 3 engine (which, despite its age, still looks gorgeous) and is the first EA Medal of Honor game to carry an M rating. I never did shake the uncanny feeling I got playing as a sniper, taking out Taliban with eerily realistic headshots. I understand Taliban were doing heinous things like hanging women from telephone poles for wearing make-up and tossing homosexual men from rooftops while shouting “Akbar Allah!” and even so I was shooting at pixels on a PC screen, I couldn’t help but think I was taking the lives of men who were once, someone’s infant son. The game was short, and I was glad. 

 

 

Live Aid Disc 2 on DVD: Thanks to my guitar Sensei, Michael Stevens, I’m getting to enjoy this great 4 disk time capsule in all of its 1985 glory. Just having completed the second disk, I’ve now come to see how classy David Bowie was, sweat exuding from his temples, while his bouffant hair still held strong, and that over-the-top power suit making him look like a world ruler, stepping down from his throne to grace us with a bit of entertainment. I never realized Freddie Mercury was such a showman. I was never a Queen fan, but man oh man, Freddie had such a stage presence. The Beach Boys were there, too, stepping out of my little boy-hood like a once forgotten memory. Some things never really do grow old. Dire Straits performed with an, I’m sure, unintentional comic relief in the guise of a rhythm guitarist who made the stage his own, despite Mark Knopfler’s guitar playing which was as fascinating to hear as quantum physics is to ponder. And then there was Simple Minds, who’s rendition of “Don’t You Forget About Me” suddenly made me 22 years old again.  

Project: Snowblind on PC:  Basically a Deus Ex ripoff, this game centers on a Steve Austin, kind of guy who is nearly obliterated, but comes off the operating table “better than before, better, stronger, faster,” full of augmented body parts and ready to kick some Chinese booty in a near future war involving a Chinese takeover. This game was a supposed 8 hour to beat game. Of course, silly me, having to do everything the hard way, ramped up the difficulty and struggled to knock it out in 18 hours. The game was okay, nothing special. It actually felt more like a rehash of Red Faction than it did its own intellectual property. I’m sure the game proudly owned its clout back in 2005 when it was released, but now it can be safely shelved as a been there done that. 

 

 

Edward's February 2024 Mix

 

 

February is the only month that can go without once having a full moon. I just know it’s typically an incredibly cold month in my neck of the woods, this year, though, not really. One dump of snow and lots of warm weather. Here I am again talking about the weather. What was that Oscar Wilde quote? Something about talking about the weather? Oh yeah, “Talking about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” Well, guess what. That’s wrong. Wilde never said that. He said this: “Inconsistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” It defies me how something like that could be so misconstrued. Anyway, I got to a lot of stuff in this, the shortest month of the year. Enjoy!

Enlist on PC: EA’s wonderful Battlefield 1942 will always hold a special place in my heart. I’ve longed for something similar ever since EA shut down the last of their servers where this special game lived. It was my first exposure to 32 vs 32 man battles involving ships, planes, tanks and boots on the ground grunts, and I lost many weekend nights to it, each battle creating its own story, absolutely no narrative needed. I will never forget shooting a plane out of the sky with a tank, talk about a lucky shot. Then suddenly seeing a parachute blossom, firing my turret machine gun, trying to pluck the guy out of the sky, and missing. He steered his chute to land on my tank and then knifed me to death. I think I must have fallen out of my chair with laughter. And now, I can somewhat live those days again with Gaijin’s Enlisted. But it’s even better with updated graphics and a choice of a multitude of armies. It’s utter chaos, men, screaming, hot lead flying unabashed, and those same Battlefield stories being created. It’s a bit of a grind, but the game itself is free. Grab some friends to play with, and you’ll be entertained all night long. 

 

 

Rocket Fighter by Mano Ziegler: Mano Ziegler's account of his days as an air combat trainer and warrior in Germany's bizarre rocket powered aircraft program is so amazingly narrated, you can't help but to think of the Luftwaffe as home to the "good guys." German airmen, despite fighting for an ignoble cause, took to the skies with chivalry, and determination, and many of them a certain grace respected by combat pilots from all sides. But the real hero of this story is the ME-163 Rocket Fighter itself. As Ziegler himself said, "We had failed to achieve our aim, but the fame of this fantastic warplane was not to rest on her successes. The number of victory stripes that bedecked her fuselage were small, but she had opened a new era in flying. A mettlesome creature as gentle as a dove one moment and a fiend at others, she was unique." (Plagiarized from my own review on GoodReads.) Truly a great book.

Northern Exposure – Season Six on DVD: I’ve always been slow when it comes to watching television series. I rarely binge watch anything. It’s taken me a decade to do it, but I finally finished all of Northern Exposure. I’ve always likened it to a more grown up version of Mayberry and Sheriff Andy Taylor’s stomping grounds, with just as much of a compelling and colorful cast of characters. The last of the episodes though made me realize it was time for the show to come to its fruition. Dr. Joel Fleischman had already departed the show, and romantic interests had come full circle and we realized who was going to end up with who. Still, this was a fun series of comedy mingled with heart warming antics. I will never forget “Chris in the morning” and the illuminating passages he would read on his radio show, or the literary quotes he would spew. It was a good run, and I’m glad I got to take it all in. Good news: I just heard it’s about to stream online for the first time.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: Kind of a Leave it to Beaver story in an alternate universe, Celeste Ng is a remarkable writer. This book had me captivated from the first sentence. Ng's writing is ambitious and almost magical. As one reviewer said, "Ng is a powerful and poignant writer whose detail to attention is pitch perfect." I couldn't have said it better myself. I was tingling as I got to the last sentence. Here is a snippet of her incredible writing in this scene in which a girl who has just come home from school opens the door into the kitchen where her mother is sitting with a friend who has just lost a baby: “What happened?” she whispered, though she already knew. She had never heard an adult cry like that, with such an animal sound. Recklessly, as if there were nothing more to be lost. For years afterward, she would sometimes wake in the night, heart thumping, thinking she’d heard that agonizing cry again.” Rarely am I ever affected by a book in such a manner. It goes without saying, I'll be reading Celeste Ng's debut novel, and I am eagerly awaiting her next.

Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC: Slowly progressing in this fine action-adventure game made by Rocksteady back in 2009. I’d actually finished it once, but reading Evan Lahti talk about it again in a PC Gamer Magazine, made me want to revisit it. Lahti described the game’s setting as being the central character in the game, and he nailed it. Arkham Asylum looks like a place you’d want to go trick or treating at every night. Cutting the lights and donning the cans, it’s a lush eerie world I lose myself into. It’s precisely why Evan Lahti occasionally returns to it. The game is a bit hard to find my way around in at times, but hey I finished it once, right? I’m just about to fight Killer Croc. Wish me luck. 

 

 

The Lumineers Cleopatra on Amazon Music: Sirius XM introduced me to this band, and my first thought was, “goodness gracious, where have you boys been all my life?” Part folksy, part alternative, and all very good, it was love at first listen. Their sound reminds me of warm yellow light spilling onto honey colored wood floors in a brew pub on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Hailing from Denver, Colorado, their music is mostly a few guitars and a piano, beautifully accompanied by the soulful singing of Wesley Schultz. I recommend you check out the song, “Angela.”  

iRacing on PC: Imagine online racing where griefing, cheating, and bad sportsmanship simply doesn’t exist. David Kaemmer was the creator of Electronic Arts’ wonderful little gem, Indianapolis 500: The Simulation back in 1989. (Interestingly, he was also a former classmate of mine. We both graduated the same high school.) He went on to found Papyrus entertainment software that gave us the best NASCAR games of the 1990s and the venerable Grand Prix Legends that was notoriously difficult because of its level of realism. Then he created iRacing, an always online pay to play racing venue used by professional racers the world over. Always curious, I bought a 3 month subscription and joined the Rookie series., I’ve never experienced such adrenaline fueled racing online before, nor have I ever had so much fun online racing (and this comes with over 30 years’ experience.)  I graduated to a D Class license which gave me the opportunity to really peek under the covers. I didn’t like what I saw. I wanted to go the IndyCar oval route. In order to do so, I have to obtain a C Class license and I have to buy tracks and cars in addition to the monthly fee I pay. It’s unnecessarily expensive and you never get to keep what you buy; you’re merely renting it. I cancelled. But hey, curiosity sated, and now I know.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward's January 2024 Mix

 

 

I’ve been a PC gamer since 1990. I’ve watched different iterations of consoles evolve through the ages, but they were never a temptation to me. I was always more attracted to my pc and learning how to put it through its own evolution. I started buying better PCs as I could afford them until I learned enough about them to upgrade and eventually build my own. But rather than build or upgrade, I’d rather just play the games. And oh boy, the games through the years. I keep a document detailing every game I’ve played and whether or not I’ve beaten them. My best years have seen twenty plus games conquered. My worst years (which were fairly recent) saw me beating one game. Everything comes with a price and those decades of gaming are becoming costly. At my age, I have far more years behind me than I do ahead of me, and that’s where I have to start budgeting. My Steam library is overfilled with games. I won’t live to play through them all, but I’m wondering if it’s time to try. But where do I draw the line? I tend to play games on their more difficult settings; it’s just the way I roll. How far deep do I go before I decide I’m not going to complete a game, uninstall it, and try another one? It’s an answer I’m probably always going to wrestle with.

 

Railroad Corporation on Steam: I love railroad strategy sims. I guess that’s the simple term for them, massive economic systems in which you are required to move freight using railroads (usually 19^th-20^th century timeframes) and buy and sell stocks, and compete with robber barons. Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon was the first one I ever bought way back in 1990. I’ve played many more since then and I’m disappointed that there aren’t any out there that live up to Sid Meier’s venerable series. Railroad Corporation is close, however. At first it served as the inspiration for this month’s header. I got into a scenario in which the difficulty spiked harder than fruit punch on prom night. I ended up rage quitting and uninstalling. A day later after I had cooled off, I reinstalled it, got through that dastardly scenario and it’s been smooth sailing since. I’m just about finished with the main storyline campaign and it makes me long for Sid’s old games, but Railroad Corporation 2 recently released. That’s a good consolation prize.

 

 

 Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak: I’ve mentioned it before, when I was 8 years old my mother and my aunt took me to see a movie with them. The movie, which won 5 Academy Awards in 1965 and directed by the venerable David Lean, was called Doctor Zhivago. Had my mom known better, she wouldn’t have taken me. It was too heavy of a film. The opening has little Zhivago attending his mother’s graveside service. She’s young and beautiful, even in death, lying in her casket. As the eulogy is spoken, a windowed lid is quickly and delicately hammered down onto the coffin. His mother is lowered into the earth, and we see her face fade from view as shovels of dirt rain down upon it. And poor Zhivago stands there, sadly stoic, holding a bouquet of flowers. That scene traumatized 8 year old me. And now, over five decades later I finally read the novel. I’ve read many Pulitzer Prize novels in my life. This is the first novel I’ve read that garnered the Nobel Prize. It was a long and sad Russian novel (aren’t they all?) but admittedly, it was an absolutely beautiful story. I don’t have a bucket list, but this book is bucket list worthy.

Filter The Very Best Things on Amazon Music: I first heard Filter back in Austin in probably 1997. They had an interesting sound, the few songs I heard. They were one of those bands I would hear, but then quietly forget about. One of their songs (“Nice Shot”) popped up on my car radio and I hadn’t even realized they were the band that played the song. I spun through their greatest hits on Amazon Music, and was surprised at all of their songs I’d heard but didn’t know was them. I ended up putting this one on auto repeat a few times. They formed in the middle of the grunge era, but are often considered post-grunge, which, their sound truly is: hard rock with an overdose of drum machine. Believe me, it sounds much better than it looks on paper.

Blood of Elves (The Witcher 1) by Andrzej Sapkowski: This is actually the first book in the Witcher series because it’s the first novel, whereas, the actual first book was a collection of short stories. But man, what a novel this one is! It basically encompasses the second series of the famed Netflix episodic series. Despite its translation from Polish, it translates just as well from the TV screen to the skull cinema. Sapkowski has a way for sure. If you like medieval fantasy complete with its swashbuckling antics and political intrigue but A Song of Fire and Ice is a bit much, then you should definitely check this series out. I’ve already read this one before, but it’s that good I’m rereading it. I don’t do that often.

Alien on Blu Ray: My grandson, who is now playing the excellent game, Alien Isolation, was intrigued enough he wanted to watch this with me. I’ve seen it numerous times now, but it seems, like when I rewatch any favorite movie, I discover something new. This viewing was no different. This time, it was the dialogue. This was a tightly written script in which every verse of diction lent such credibility to each actor. It almost makes me think the casting was so perfect I couldn’t imagine anybody else playing the roles these actors performed. And then of course, there’s everything else that makes this such an amazing horror/SF movie: the story, the sets, the Nostromo, and the xenomorph itself.

The Hard Way (Jack Reacher #10) by Lee Child: Edward Lane is a wealthy ex-special forces guy who hires his former mercenary compatriots to find his kidnapped wife. Jack Reacher, sitting at an outside bistro, sipping his coffee just happens to be in the right place at the right time to watch the ransom money pickup. Lane hires him to join his colleagues and track down his missing wife. And so, begins what I believe is Lee Child's best Reacher book I've read thus far. The last half of the book, occurring in rural England was so vividly described it became the novel's main character. And having read it I feel as I've been to England. The only thing that surpasses that aspect of the book is, indeed, the final twist of the book. I was blindsided.

Rainbow Six: Siege on PC: When this game released in 2016 I played it until my eyes bled . . . well, almost. I did play it until my eyes burned like fire, and I still couldn’t quit. I played with a paper towel crammed into the space between my eyeball and my eyeglasses, the other eye glued to the screen. I ended up writing a review on Steam that pushed near two hundred likes. Deeply seated in slow burn psychological strategies and not the 15 year old twitch reflexes of a Call of Duty player, this is a game that even my old man reflexes can keep up with, but the sad truth is, I still suck at it, unfortunately. It’s still a good time, however, especially with my friend Dalton Gallaher that got me back into it. I’m glad he has a bit more talent at taking out the bad guys than I do. It makes for a decent victory now and then.

The Curse of the Werewolf on Blu Ray: My favorite horror movie when I was a kid, and often cited by film historians as the best werewolf movie ever made, this was one of Hammer Film’s greater achievements. And it was Oliver Reed’s debut role, which I noticed this time around was something that I would have paid more attention had I been older when I first watched it. But, his acting in this movie is excellent! No wonder he went on to become such a renowned actor. He plays the titular werewolf, struggling with the suppression of the evil beast that comes out of him, and he is truly heartbroken at the burden he must bear. He portrays it so well that I got emotional at the film’s end. How often does one cry at a horror movie? This movie is part of a Hammer Blu Ray collection I picked up. It’s remastered so well and the transfer is remarkable enough I’d say skip the DVD version and go straight for this one. 

 

 

Platoon on 4K Blu Ray:  I’m losing track of how many times I’ve seen this movie, which happens to be my favorite Vietnam war movie amongst a plethora of really good ones. It shares the same authenticity as Brian De Palma’s venerable Casualties of War. This was my first time to watch it on 4K Blu Ray, and I have to admit some of it was almost a bit oversaturated. But the olive drab greenery that abounded in the film and the grass green foliage sparkled in this version. The characters in the film, and especially Charlie Sheen’s performance and his background narrative (which he recites as passages in letters to his grandmother) make this a keeper.

Gunner, Heat, PC! on PC: Microprose released M1 Tank Platoon in 1989 and it’s often hailed as the best PC tank sim of all time. And then I discovered this one thanks to my friends, Tommy Stevens and Ed Humes. The game is still early access, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, but one thing that puts this one in the winner’s circle is how often it’s updated. Despite its lack of an actual playable campaign, the developers are constantly dropping patches. The game is quite reminiscent of Microprose’s superb game, but with modern graphics. And it’s certainly no drop in the bucket. The AI is smart enough to give you a bloody nose or a kick in the crotch if you get overconfident or don’t play smartly. 

 

 

 

Edward's December 2023 Monthly Mix

 

 

 I bragged about being a “super dodger,” one of the fortunate few who have never been stricken with a coronavirus. Oddly, on a Friday this month while at work I started feeling badly. When fever hit, I bailed from work and went to my local walk-in clinic. I tested positive for Covid 19, What?? I thought I was exempt. In my week long quarantine I experienced a strange phenomenon. My first three days I could not sleep. I wasn’t tired and I wasn’t sleepy. I simply had no need for speed. It was like acquiring some strange superpower. Anyway, I’ve had worse bouts of flu. Another big negative this month. My email address (at the ISP level) got cracked. There’s nothing quite like logging into your email (and sites which require you to use your email address for access) and find yourself suddenly locked out. I spent all day Christmas and the day after changing access credentials and communicating to these sites, convincing them I was who I was saying it was. There haa to be some heinous people in this world to hack someone’s account on Christmas Day. This is going to be a Christmas to remember. Still, I made it another year; there really is a lot to be grateful for.

Nemo’s War by Victory Point games: It had been a while since I’ve played this beloved game. Setting out on the table with its glorious ancient looking maritime map/chart with its myriad tokens and cards, this game makes you look smart to passersby. And when they see you playing it alone, it makes you look like a geek. It IS a solo game after all. In all honesty, I’ve probably said it before, but this is the best board game I’ve ever played in over five decades of gaming. I have yet to win it. Out of thirty gaming sessions I’ve only earned a mediocre score once. Yes, the game is that difficult.   

Dark Mountain  by Richard Laymon:  There amongst the Dean Koontzes and the Stephen Kings and the John Sauls (and my personal favorite, Robert McCammons) there’s another writer named Richard Laymon who was every bit as prolific, and unbeknownst to me. I stumbled across one of his books in my pile of unreads and started it. I was quickly consumed. “If you’ve missed Laymon, you’ve missed a treat.” – Stephen King. There you have it, right from the man, himself. Mr. Laymon is a good writer for sure. I enjoyed every bit of this horror story about a group of campers terrorized by a madman and his equally as deranged mother.  

Hell Let Loose on PC: I’ve written about this one in the recent past. This is as gritty, muddy and bloody as PC warfare gets. I love being a tiny cog in a massive multiplayer effort. I love the difficult guns, the overwhelming audio plinks and snaps of passing and near hit bullets, and the high stakes of even one of those bullets hitting me. Hell Let Loose captures the essence of that in spades. Your kills aren’t even reported until after the match (which can last an easy hour or longer.) The game is still in early access, but it’s updated constantly. The developers love their baby, and it shows. This one is a keeper.  

 Lancer: My friend, Ross Downhour, from work recently got me involved in this online game, reminiscent of a tabletop D&D adventure. Except this one has spaceships, and giant mechs, and pretty anime looking female starship captains. I’ve only experienced one gaming session so far, but it was blast, and the love and attention Ross has put into creating this little world for the players is amazing. Ross thinks I talk like Tom Cruise, and I suppose we do have a similar tone of voice, but he inspired me to create a character named Pete Mitchell, callsign: “Maverick.” I’m anxious to see where Ross’s mad dungeonmaster skills take us.

Company of Heroes 2 on Steam: Seems this game is always sneaking in a month’s mix one way or the other. I can’t help it. The game is maddeningly addictive. My friend, Vic Berwick, and I are stuck on the same mission. Playing as the marauding German Wehrmacht, we have to storm through Russian bases near Stalingrad and control them. Fortunately, we have a monstrous King Tiger tank to aid us. Unfortunately, the game is rigged. It sends horde after horde of defenders after you. I started on the highest difficulty, and then lowered it to medium. I STILL couldn’t beat the mission, and so to my chagrin I dumbed it down to the easiest level where I could finally beat it. Vic is steadfast about completing it on medium difficulty. I wish him the best. I couldn’t do it.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea on DVD: This movie made James Mason my favorite actor because he WAS Captain Nemo. The movie and Mason’s role role has made me fantasize about being one of the crewmen aboard the extraordinary Nemo. And despite the campiness in the movie, Disney achieved victory with this one. It is my second favorite movie of all time. I watch it every few years, and of course this viewing was inspired by my playing of Nemo’s War, but this time I watched it with my youngest grandson. I daresay, I believe I turned him into a fan. The DVD version is by far better than the old VHS, but I’d really like to pick this movie up on Blu Ray. I wish it wasn’t so dastardly expensive. (And I’ve read that it doesn’t have nearly the special features the Special Edition DVD has. Oh joy.

For the King on PC: Looking like a cutesy game comprised of Fisher Price figures stolen from a Fuzzy Pumper Barbershop, this game is much more than meets the eye. It comes off as a simple RPG, but boy was I wrong. As I played it, I felt almost hoodwinked with how easy it was so lose hours to it but ultimately realize the game defeated me. Don’t get me wrong, I like difficult games (yes, I beat Dark Souls) but the deaths in this game felt contrived and unfair. It’s sad, because I really wanted to finish this game.

Resident Evil 2 on PC:  I always felt I was missing out not playing this series. My friends over the years always talked about it being such a great series. I didn’t play on console, however, so in truth, I did miss out. And then I stumbled across a collection of the series on Humble Bundle and picked it up on the cheap. I started with Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil HD, both of which were remastered versions. I didn’t get far. I bailed on them both, unable to finish them because the controls were simply to wonky. So, I peeked at some YouTube videos to catch up on the storyline (which is more convoluted than film clippings of Twin Peaks left on the cutting room floor. And then I began Resident Evil 2 (which is the real origin of the game) and made some progress. This was my first exposure to the art museum converted to the Racoon City Police Department. With its creepy corridors and eerie rooms, this is one of the scariest in-game worlds I’ve seen in all my years of gaming. This is game design done correctly. Halfway through, however, I streamed it for a couple of buddies and seeing me with all my ammo spent and surrounded by the city’s infected denizens, they convinced me to start over. I struggled, wondering if I were even going to be able to finish the game. Once I escaped the Raccoon City Police Department, and made my way past the alligator in the sewers, I realized I was going to be able to finish it after all. I’m about 15 hours into it, and I’m told considering the point I’m at in the game I have about two hours left.

Legend on Blu Ray: This film left an impression on me. It’s not the highly stylized visuals or the age old good versus evil story Ridley Scott embraced after reading fairy tales, including Brothers Grimm stuff and being inspired by old Walt Disney animated films. It was the music score for the film and the odd behind the scenes shenanigans concerning it. Jerry Goldsmith, who all Americans know and love as one of our greatest film composers, was commissioned to do the score. Ridley Scott was pressured to find someone who could make a soundtrack which would appeal to a younger audience. The German ambient group, Tangerine Dream, was employed to re-do the soundtrack. I personally liked the Tangerine Dream version better. “The Unicorns” will always be one of my favorite hauntingly beautiful pieces of music in any film I’ve ever watched. Bryan Ferry sand, “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” over the end credits, accompanied by David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) on guitar. The funny thing is, Ferry’s song was originally cut from Roxy Music’s epic Avalon. (Talk about a last minute rescue!) Getting back to the film itself, Ridley Scott originally approached Walt Disney Studios about producing the film. Disney declined, claiming the film was too dark. Johhny Depp, Jim Carrey and Robert Downey Jr., were considered for the roles of Jack. Ultimately Tom Cruise was picked. In Cruise fashion, he does all of his diving and swimming stunts in water that harbored alligators. Bombing at the box office, the movie has long since become considered a cult classic. In 2021 a 2 disc limited edition set was released through Disney Studios, who now owns the rights. Go figure.