This will go down as one of the most unusual Augusts in the history of my world. It's nothing as monumental as the end of the world, or the dissolution of the Republican and Democrat parties, ushering in a much more sensible age of Libertarianism, no, nothing like that. I'm talking about a sea change in my personal life. I've had to shatter old habits and learn a new way to live. And so far, it's not been as bad as I thought it would be. My house is empty now, and though I swear I see ghosts and hear distant voices of the ones who once graced this place I am on my own now. Oh well, I've got to keep my sanity, and what better way to keep one's sanity than to lose oneself in a plethora of games or departing the outside world and becoming swallowed in the ambience of a good set of tunes or a movie!
- Wing Commander on PC. I'm revisiting this true classic thanks to GoG.com. There is no handholding, and no difficulty settings. The only thing this game offers is a great hurling out into the deep throes of space. And in 1990 this game did it so well. This game wooed everybody when it came out and pretty much made for a paradigm shift as far as the new VGA graphics standard and what exactly a PC sound card was capable of. It was the first game that made me feel so much more than as if I were simply playing a game. Being launched into space and looking back at the Tiger's Claw, my mother ship, I truly felt alone in the great abyss. I had been married 3 years when this game came out and I had a one year old daughter. It feels very strange going back to play this game. The graphics look like mud now, and there's a huge cheese factor in the storyline, but you're not a PC gamer until you have this one under your belt.
- The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on PC. This is quite simply the best ARPG I've ever played. I labored through Torchlight's mazeful and endless depth dungeons, and despite that I finished Path of Exile, I lost interest in it long before I saw the closing credits. I'm not even close to finishing Van Helsing yet, and I'm already looking forward to rerolling another class character and starting over when I reach the end. The whole Transylvania 1800s setting adorned with full moons and Steampunk make this a refreshing getaway from the bleak dungeons found in most ARPGs. Steam offers it on sale sometimes, and I highly recommend it if you weren't lucky enough to get it for next to nothing in the recent Humble Bundle offering.
- Far Cry 3 on PC. I really need to finish this game, and I would have beaten it long ago if not for my silly OCD tendencies to gather every memory card, relic and letter the game has neatly (and not so neatly) ensconced in its bevy of hidden places. I took a break for a while, but then I managed to hear the game's original soundtrack recording in its entirety, and now I'm hooked all over again. Yes, you're going to think I'm weird, but I've actually been driving around with this soundtrack CD in my car stereo. Outside of Jeremy Soule's brilliant OST to Guild Wars 2 this is my favorite soundtrack. If you want me to make a believer out of you go to Youtube and look up the Far Cry 3 soundtrack. You'll want to listen to track 6, "Journey into Madness." This is the song that accompanies the game's protagonist, Jason Brody: A man who awakens on the beach and realizes he's got to cowboy up and go back and save his friends. This tune is the theme of that transformation, and it's perfect.
4. Countdown by Deborah Wiles. It's not often I reread a book. I had to make an exception for this young adult novel. It concerns a young girl on the even of teen angst while the world holds its breath during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This book wonderfully reveals that history can come from the most interesting sources, not necessarily the scholastics and the conquerors.
5. Blade Runner on Blu Ray. I never tire of watching this movie. As a matter of fact I have two favorite movies. This is one of them. And as my friend, Vic Berwick, will attest, we generally put this movie on when we haven't seen each other for a long time. I've owned this movie in all of its incarnations, and the DVD collector set was nice, but Blu Ray is the way to see it in its full glory. It's one movie that transcends the Philip K. Dick novel it was based on. Supposedly Ridley Scott is in talks to do a sequel (prequel?) I think well enough should be left alone. This movie stands alone, as it should.
6. Ennio Morricone: Film Music Maestro on CD. You may not realize it, but you already know who Ennio Morricone is. It goes without saying he's one of the masters of movie music creation. His theme from The Untouchables is still used by Paramount when it's previewing new releases on DVD. This is the man who became the icon for Spaghetti western music. There have been great Western themes over the years, but none that evoke the loneliness and sparseness so effectively as Morricone's works. And who can forget the haunting harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West?
7. 4 Film Favorites: Draculas on DVD. This is quite a good collection of Hammer Films all starring Christopher Lee as the infamous count. Though many liberties were taken from the original Bram Stoker novel, the Hammer movies do it with the most fun. As always, their sets are grandiose and authentic. The characters take the roles seriously, and Anthony Hinds, the producer, and John Elder, the screenplay writer of most of these movies created them with an affection you don't quite see anymore in movies. Seeing Christopher Lee turn from a seemingly amiable lord of a castle to the fiendish Count Dracula, Prince of Darkness is a sight to behold. Lee will always be Dracula in my mind.
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