It’s that time of year again.
Summer shutdown from work, the annual lackluster Steam Sale, yard mowing,
looking out my office window and wishing I could be outside. Still, I’ll take
this over ice and snow anytime. Speaking of the Steam Summer Sale (which
Gog.com, Humble Bundle and Fanatical seems to blow clean out of the water) I’ve
picked up a few games to add to my ever growing backlog and the funny thing is
. .when will I play these games? .
1.
Brian
McBride The Effective Disconnect on
CD: Commissioned to score the OST
for the famous documentary about the vanishing honeybee dilemma, The Vanishing of the Bees.” this album
is a tour de force of McBride’s work. You know him as 1\2 of Austin, TX’s
brilliant ambient duo, The Stars of the
Lid, which I know and love well, but frankly speaking, I think this work
outshines his work with TSOL. Filled with emotive orchestral sweeps the whole
album reminds me of Voltaire’s famous quote, “Music expresses that which cannot
be said and on which it is impossible to keep silent.” The album is heartrendingly sad but so beautiful it’s like audio crack cocaine. I simply
can not stop listening to it.
2.
Mission: Impossible on Blu Ray: I
had been searching for this Blu Ray box set forever, and my local Hellmart had
the DVD set, but never the Blu Ray set. Finally, they got it in! And all five
movies for $25, that’s a hard deal to beat. I confess, I fell asleep while
watching this movie back upon its release in 1996, but this time I was glued to
the set. Critics decried the convoluted plot, but I didn’t think it was that
difficult to follow, certainly no more than some of the old television episodes I watched as a
kid. (Speaking of, this movie makes the old series, as venerable as it is, look
like a high schl by far. I have lost whole hours
engrossed in this book. ool play.) If you research it you’ll find it’s one of those
movies that struggled to be made (e.g. scripting problems, film-on-location
difficulties, personality conflicts with directors/actors, indecisive
screenplay writers, the list goes on.)
3.
The Wolf’s Hour by Robert R. McCammon: Still plowing
along in this magnificent horror novel by one of my favorite writers. I have to
admit it’s a tad long winded in parts, but if you’re a fan of such great WWII
flicks as Where Eagles Dare or The Guns of Navarone, or you played the
heck out of the Wolfenstein series, you’d be doing yourself a disservice to
pass this one up. I don’t know how McCammon pulled it off, it’s as if the man
was a werewolf himself because he ostensibly captured what it would be like to
be a lycanthrope and put it on paper for us all to experience. I’ve read some
great werewolf stories, (The Werewolf of
Paris, Thor) and this tops them all.
4. Ronin on Blu Ray: An action film starring Robert DeNiro
and Jean Reno. I had watched this years ago on DVD and recently came across a
bargain bin edition of it on Blu Ray. Directed by John Frankenheimer who
certainly needs no introduction. This director directed action movies years
before they were ever a thing. After a the Cold War there are broken and
splintered secret agents still hyped and pumped full of a adrenaline. They need
something to do, and so a group of them came together and formed an A-Team of
sorts. This movie is filled with surprises, betrayals, and enough action
sequences to mesmerize a cave man. And not mention the appearance of Natascha
McElhone who’s as beautiful as a summer day in the winter solstice. If you like
car chases, this is one not to be missed, of particular note is the chase
through the Parisian highway tunnels, similar to the one in which Princess
Diana lost her life.
5. Sony
Playstation Vita: I suddenly had the urge
to pick up a handheld gaming device which is odd being that I’ve never once
played a game on my mobile phone. And years ago I purchased a Sony
Playstation PSP and just couldn’t get into
it. I quickly sold it on eBay. With this Vita,
however, I’m totally hooked. Everybody seems to be clamoring over the new Nintendo Switch and that’s all fine and dandy, but rather than
hanging out with Mario, I’d rather play the original Final Fantasy, Silent Hill
and Metal Gear games. Not to mention, all of the great indies available for the
Vita. Stardew
Valley, Limbo, Full Throttle, Risk of Rain, Child of Light. I like how Sony murdered
the Vita yet its rabid fanbase keeps
it going strong.
6. Rise of Venice on PC: I bought this on a Steam Sale many
moons ago. It’s one of those Patrician era wooden ships/trading simulations in
which most of the goings on occurs behind the scenes in invisible spreadsheets,
but the graphics and the art style and the music grace the game lovingly. The
thing is, I really suck at it. The tutorial is not the best at explaining
things. In truth, I’m about to uninstall it. I may give it one more go, but the
future doesn’t look too bright. It’s a game I really wish would work out.
7. Euro Truck Sim 2 on PC: I recently picked
up the Vive La France! expansion which bloated my map from 60% explored to now
only 45% explored. This just goes to show how much content was added with the
map. I’m now driving a Mercedes semi and have six or seven drivers working
under me. I’m slowly building my empire into a mega corporation trucking
company. You’ve heard me say this before, but ETS2 is my garden of zen. There’s
just nothing quite like it, cruising along a rainy highway, the lights in the
cab and Trance music playing on the radio (which is actually authentically
streamed from European stations via the Internet.) This is a game which shall
always reside on my HDD.
