Edward's December 2020 Mix

 

 

This one is a big one. Of course, having a week and a half off of work in winter leaves time to indulge in a generous heaping of fun stuff like books, movies, and games. I took advantage. I knocked out my GoodReads reading goal by over two books. Yay! My goal had been 20 books this year and I closed out the month at 22 books. Covid-19 is still amongst us, but now the plot thickens. A new strain is appearing in the States, a strain that is even more contagious. I think this virus forced a paradigm shift on all of us. The social butterfly me has become a casualty due to this plague. I’m perfectly content staying inside and not going anywhere and I think, unfortunately, I shall remain that way when all of this is behind us.

                                         

1.      Railway Empire on PC: Kalypso Media is a big entertainment software company headquartered in Germany (but with satellite companies in the USA and the UK.) They released the ever-popular Tropico series and now a railroad game entitled Railway Empire. You’ve seen me say it here before. If Sid Meier’s Railroads! and Railroad Tycoon 3 had a lovechild this game would be it. It takes the cartoony zaniness of Railroads! and couples it with the seriousness of Railroad Tycoon 3. I think the game is slightly more difficult, well, wrong word . . . more, shall we say “less intuitive” than the ease of the Firaxis games. I had to watch YouTube videos and read guides just to get the track layout and the signaling down, and I still struggle in some layouts in the scenarios. But I’m having fun with it, despite I’ve spent a dozen hours on the last scenario in the American campaign and I can’t beat it. I try to do what these guys do on YouTube and I STILL can’t beat the scenario!

 

2.      Far Cry 4 on PC: Far Cry 3 will go down as one of the most memorable games I’ve ever played on PC. I played it back in 2014 when I had a lot of strange things going on, and I remember playing the OST CD in my car. I still play that soundtrack and it will forever invoke odd memories of that year and the game itself. This year I decided to go ahead with the next game in the series (when you see this writing years from now, for some context let me just say they are now showing trailers for Far Cry 6, so yeah, I’m a little behind, but then I always am when it comes to PC games. This one is a bit repetitive. But one noticeable difference standing out like a carpenter’s thumb is Jason Brody, the main character in Far Cry 3 underwent a sea change of differences, transporting from a spoiled rich kid to a survivalist, a grown man doing what he had to do to prevent falling victim to an island of crazed pirates. Far Cry 4 sees me as an American youth traveling to the far reaches of Asia rising to a cause for an oppressed people and slowly rising in reputation and glory with each act I do against the country’s dictator. It’s oddly cool to watch the NPCs go from braindead pixelated characters to stopping what they are doing and greeting my character on a first name basis and then to start about my hi-jinks and my fame right there to my face. It’s unfolding like a great movie. I’ve still got a long way to go; I’m about halfway through the game, but I’m really glad I’m playing it.

 

3.      Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie: You always hear how the Grimm fairy tales were horrid, not horridly written mind you, but just awful in their darkness, the death of girlhood in Cinderella, warnings to children that the woods were a dangerous place in Hansel & Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood. I had no idea that James Barrie's quite famous Peter Pan was such a sinister book! The Neverland was not just an idyllic haven for little boys who didn't want to grow up. It was an island in which fierce pirates led by Captain Hook fought the "redskins" to the death. And woe be to any little boy on the island who started to grow up. Peter Pan didn't carry a dagger for nothing. I was really surprised at how "adult" this book was. I'd only tackled it because I'd never read it as a child. My initial exposure was the classic Walt Disney animated version. The original story presented in this book was a wake up. (Disclaimer: stolen from my own review on GoodReads.com)

 

4.       Nemo’s War Board Game: Board games, for me will always be associated with a “game night” group of friends who get together one evening during a droll work week for a little fellowship and healthy competition (or cooperation.) I started lurking around on Boardgamegeek.com and discovered there’s a popularity of solo board games. Solo board games! Who would have thought? And me, being the avid Jules Verne (and especially Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) fan. I took a chance on this game since it was a solo game and had good scores. My first game lasted over four hours, and though I had to consult the rule book a few times, it was not a complex game. Honestly, the four hours felt like an hour. I didn’t win. Now that I’ve played four more games, and still haven’t won any of them I can say with confidence, this is some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a board game, shoot, ANY game experience. You play as the titular Captain Nemo in one of a manner of aims: explorer, scientist, warmonger, etc. You are on a quest to find treasure, sink warships, free oppressed peoples being exploited by captors profiteering from building products of war, or simply explore the ocean depths. The game uses card draws and dice rolls to dictate movements and events in the game. The board, counters and pieces look like elegant art from the Victorian Age.  

 

 

5.      Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E. Ambrose: I play a well known gateway board game called Memoir '44. Players use cards, dice and tiny plastic soldiers on a fold out map board to mimic famous WWII battles, using strategies and a bit of luck to outpace the real life officers and men who fought and died in these places. The first scenario reenacts the famous "Pegasus Bridge" incident in which British special forces (before special forces was a thing) to take control of two bridges leading up to the coast of Normandy, thereby preventing the Germans from being able to supply mobile reinforcements to the defenders of the coast during the famous invasion.

As I find Stephen E. Ambrose's writing transports me to the mud, blood, snow, anguish, and weariness of war like no other writer does. I was anxious to delve into this book with a bit of foreknowledge gleaned from my experiences with my board game. Ambrose did such a remarkable job of giving traits, personalities and backstories to these men. Ambrose tells both sides of the story in an almost real time recount that it reads like a movie being played out. One gets the feeling there weren't really any good guys or bad guys. The Brits were all volunteers and with the exception of a few zealous Nazis, the Germans were there under duress, many of them conscripted from other nation's armies the Germans had conquered.

The biggest surprise of all is how after the war many of these British and German men who had faced each other and shot at each other became lifelong friends in the years that followed, some of them looking at each other and joking about what terrible shots they were. The next time I play this scenario in Memoir '44 it will be with more seriousness, and I'll see it much more than a collection of tiny plastic soldiers. (Disclaimer: “borrowed” from my own GoodReads review.)

 

6.       The Little Friend  by Donna Tarrt: Years ago, my cousin Janet gifted me a paperback book entitled The Secret History a debut novel written by a then unknown author named Donna Tarrt. Once bitten, I couldn’t put the book down, and I remember thinking it was one of the best books I’d ever read. Ten years later, Tarrt dropped The Little Friend on us. You know me, always late to the party. I’m reading this now, and if not for the religious fervor sanctity manner I treat books I’d be marking passages up like crazy in this book. My youngest daughter is a fan, who long ago told me about the book. I’ve called her up just to read passages to her so we could laugh out loud. The way Donna Tarrt “sees” things, it’s incredible. Robin (my daughter) told me this book is going to spoil me for other authors. She may be onto something. I now rank Donna Tarrt right up there with Pat Conroy and Michael Chabon. I’m only on page 100 (out of almost 600) and I don’t want the book to end.

 

7.       Carly Simon “No Secrets” on CD: I’d had this on my wishlist on HD Tracks for a while now. And then one day I was perusing the loudness wars site I go to that analyzes each CD out there and discovered the CD version of this album had more of a dynamic range than the HD files on HD Tracks (for less than half the price!) So, I went with this CD version. The sound is so full and bright. This CD may have been remastered from the original, but there was no crushing or “re-engineering” done on it. If only all CDs could sound this way. This was Carly Simon in her heyday, some fans say her best album ever. Coming out in 1972, it definitely has that popular folksy vibe that was ever present back then, Neil Young, James Taylor, etc. I’ve never heard “You’re So Vain” sound so crisp and clear before.

 

8.       Metallica: Nothing Else Matters – The Graphic Novel by Jim McCarthy/Brian Williamson: This was a lovely little gift from my daughter. The latest graphic novel I had read was The Watchmen which I remember being good, but rather long winded. This graphic novel was short and to the point. The illustrator did a wonderful job bringing Lars, Cliff, James, Kirk, Jason and Robert to life in his black and white ink. I learned numerous things in this book. James Hetfield really had a bad childhood, losing his mother to cancer when he was 13, he says, simply because his family participated in a religious belief that God would heal his mother, there wasn’t a need for doctors or hospitals. I never was on board for the way the band treated Jason Newstead. They had a cruel (but playful) way of always “initiating” him into the band. And because he wanted to do some things outside of the band, it caused a heated exchange between he and Hetfield which led to Newstead’s departure from the band. I always thought Lars Ulrich was the bad guy in the whole Napster fiasco, suing people who used Napster. It wasn’t the case at all. Metallica sued Napster, not its users.  

 

9.      20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on DVD: Inspired by the aforementioned board game, I watched this great movie. I hadn’t seen it since its double disc Collectors Edition in 2003. It does a decently faithful adaptation from Verne’s novel. There are some rather “Disney-esque” liberties taken, of course, but this is tied with another movie with being my favorite movie of all time. The real star of the film is the Nautilus, itself. If you go to Disneyland in California and go into the famous Haunted Mansion ride, you’ll get the honor of seeing the organ Captain Nemo played. It’s in the grand ballroom in which the ghosts are waltzing near the ceiling. I always thought they could have searched the world over and not found a better actor to portray Nemo than James Mason. He WAS Captain Nemo. Supposedly there is now a Blu-Ray version of this movie out, but it’s lacking the generous amount of extras in the DVD Collectors Edition.

 

 

10.  Horrified Board Game: Since I’m on this solo game player kick, I picked up another game entitled Horrified. In the game you protect a village (looking very much like a back lot series of sets from old horror films) against all of the classic Universal monsters from the old movies (Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.) Me and my oldest daughter played a few games and fell in love with it. It has one of the easiest rule books I’ve encountered in any game. The components of the game could have used one more notch in the quality department. The cards aren’t heavy stock (I sleeved them immediately) but man, that art style! It’s a cooperative game like Pandemic. It moves quick and easily in a frantic attempt to do a series of tasks to dispatch each monster (depending upon how many you decide to take on in a single game.) All the while you are protecting the towns’ villagers, who after escorting them to safety you are awarded a perk card that gives you advantages against the monsters. I was lucky to pick this up at a local Walmart store. This is a good thing, because this is a great gateway game to the world outside of casual games (e.g. Life, Monopoly, Sorry.) If you get a chance to get it, you’ll enjoy it. You can thank me later.  

 

 

Edward's November 2020 Mix

 

 

 I took a week-long vacation this month, and boy was I busy. Fanatical, HumbleBundle and Steam all had sales going on. It was an embarrassment of riches. And oddly I stumbled upon probably the game I’ve had the most fun with this year. More on that later. With Covid-19 surging over us, there wasn’t much to do but stay inside. I’m starting to know more and more people who’ve become victims. (Both of my daughters recovered.) But on a brighter note I’m not hearing of fatalities now. And it’s said an inoculation is on the horizon. My wife underwent cancer surgery. It’s often a terrible world, I daresay, but fortunately, I have my books, my music and my games to help me escape.

                                         

1.        Lost in Space on Netflix: I started this a few months ago, and I’m still engrossed in the first season. With a play on the original score by “Johnny” Williams and the names of the characters being the same, this is a sea change from the original Irwin Allen 1960s production. Doctor Smith is a female this time around, and she’s downright heinous. John Robinson is a man formerly estranged from his family, trying to make a comeback. The B-9 Robot plays a much more sinister role this time around. Like I’ve said before, it’s a graphic powerhouse. I understand Netflix is now offered in 4K resolution now. This might be a reason to upgrade.

 

2.      BATTLETECH on PC: I had started to play this when it debuted. And I got lost along the way and stopped playing. I’ve decided to continue it, and for once I didn’t start the game over. It’s a good thing I didn’t. I was able to pick up where I left off. If you’re not familiar with the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe, it’s about clans of very wealthy families who fight each other using giant walking robots. Warriors affix themselves inside in a cockpit and control the giant mechanical men. I had messed around with the old Activision and Microprose Mechwarrior games over the years, but I think this one has me hooked. It looks like I have a very long campaign ahead of me, but I’ll finish it.

 

3.       Angels & Airwaves I-Empire on CD: I always thought Blink 182 was a bit pretentious, though I’ve always admired Tom Delonge’s mad guitar skills (albeit mostly comprised of power chords.) When he departed and formed Angels & Airwaves, I think is when he exercised the maturity I was looking for. Thank you to my friend, Susan Wooding, for introducing me to them. Delonge is quoted as saying their first album We Don’t Need to Whisper would be the best music in generations. The album did produce some hits, but that statement still remains to be seen. The band is considered a super group, being it’s comprised of members of former successful bands. I recommend listening to “Secret Crowds” and “Breathe” to get the real feels.

 

4.       Return to Castle Wolfenstein REALRtCW on PC: When a group of super modders released this free on Steam, I had to check it out. It’s a redux of the original Return to Castle Wolfenstein released by id Software way back in 2001. It was one of the first games I was really hyped for. And it was a tour de force of what game graphics, AI and multiplayer was capable of back then. The REALRtCW mod enhances the graphics for modern systems, and they did an incredible job. Being that I beat the original game twice, I had to present the ultimate challenge and play on hardcore mode. Needless to say, I had to cheat a few times. I’d always end up facing a boss with just not enough ammo to finish the job. I hate cheating, but sometimes a gamer’s gotta do what a gamer’s gotta do! It’s worth a playthrough, and it certainly does the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia justice. You won’t be disappointed. Just don’t play it on hardcore mode. All it does is handicap you, and it’s really not necessary.

 

5.       The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck: My mother recommended I read this. It was a rather saccharine story of a boy who wants nothing more than a bicycle for Christmas but ends up getting what he refers to as “an ugly Christmas sweater.” Then tragedy of nightmarish proportions befalls his family. It all boils down to being appreciative of people’s good intentions. Glenn Beck was a famous host of his own prime time show on CNN and a nationally syndicated radio show. He’s an okay writer, but this book just didn’t really do it for me. It was like a Lifetime Movie gone bad.

 

6.       Anno 18OO on PC: Picked this up on a Fanatical Sale I’d been wanting it for a while. It’s a city builder circa 1800. The whole game looks like a Robert Kinkade painting come to life.  Unfortunately, the game is extremely difficult sans manual or in-depth tutorial. I think it’s a shame when AAA titles release by developers who expect you to watch YouTube videos or read Reddit forums to learn how to play the game. This is the total opposite of the old days when you had a nice collector edition box with a manual, strategy guide an OST CD and other assorted goodies. Not to mention, the Digital Deluxe version I picked up was originally $99. That’s too much for a game with no viable instructions on how to play the game.

 

7.       Hearts of Iron IV on PC: This is another convoluted game with a crappy tutorial. It’s a Paradox Interactive game (which is a software company noted for their complexity.) I knew this when I started playing it. I’ve been told to simply scrap the tutorial and just dive in, sink or swim. Honestly, I think people who get good at this game are very smart people. The game has a great art style to it, reminiscent of a grand style boardgame. I’m not ready to give up just yet, but man this game is hard!

 

8.      In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway: Hemingway was proof that less could be so much more. I’m referring to his scant use of words. The man was not a fan of adjectives or adverbs. He constructed simple sentences of nouns and verbs. That was it. But sheesh, the word pictures he could paint with such an anemic writing style. If you’ve never read any of the great novels by Hemingway I’d suggest starting with this collection of short stories. You won’t find any other written work in which every single word moves a story so effectively. At 150 pages, you’ll be amazed at how fast you’ll move through this one, especially since most stories are a mere 2-3 pages long.

 

9.      Tom Clancy’s The Division on PC: Another game I picked up on sale. This truly, has to be the most fun I’ve had a in a PC game this year. How ironic the year’s end is almost upon us. The game centers on Black Friday in 2015, New York City in which a pandemic has been released (oddly prophetic.) It plays like a MMORPG, in that weapons, armor, and backpacks can change buff states, firepower, protection, and skills. The game maps New York City perfectly. You could take walking tours in this game and learn the actual layout of the real city. My buddy Vic Berwick’s first impression was, “this game looks like a movie.” Amen to that. It is a gorgeous game despite its 2016 release. This is an MMO that’s going to hold my attention for a long time to come.

Edward's October 2020 Monthly Mix

 

 

 

 It’s been an odd month (when it comes to my Mixes, they all are!) I went from my office position to being out on a loading dock utilizing a forklift. Ah, I don’t mind, it’s a bit of a change of scenery. I have the skill, so why not put it to use? It is long hours, which detracts from my good things in life, books, movies and music! Still, I made time. Somehow, I always manage that. This was the month of Halloween, and what could be more memorable than the unseasonably warm one, but the first full moon on Halloween since 1944. Those pictures depicted in the childhood storybooks I read were wrong!                                         

1.         Vertigo on DVD: Cited by scores of critics and film historians as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most important films, this fully restored 70 mm version in DTS is probably the most eloquent Hitchcock movie I’ve seen. Martin Scorsese says in 1958 When big studios had such influence on their films, he was surprised to see a movie made that was so personal, even by such a big-name director. The movie is about obsession, both figuratively and literally. Alfred Hitchcock was so obsessed with the film, the script, and the costuming (so wonderfully achieved by Edith Head) he wanted perfection. The only thing he entrusted to someone else was the music score by Bernard Hermann, which, in my opinion was the star of the movie. Hermann’s hypnotic and tantalizing score is probably my favorite in any Hitchcock/Hermann film. (Though Pyscho runs a close second place.) John “Scottie” Ferguson, the main character, a police detective forcibly retired due to his acrophobia who becomes obsessed with a young woman he’s being paid to follow, encounters gross indecision at the film’s climax when he’s again put into a situation where his fear of heights prevents him from following his moral compass. As we see Ferguson, so wonderfully played by James Stewart, run up a flight of stairs, but then looking behind himself and freezing in panic, beads of sweat coating his face, Bernard Hermann captured this scene, so efficiently in his music. This edition is a one-million-dollar total restoration in 70 mm with DTS which makes this the version to see. My sister, Lisa Nogelmeier, is the biggest Hitchcock fan I know (and a walking Wiki on the subject of Alfred Hitchcock movies.) I’m grateful her affinity for Alfred Hitchcock has become contagious.

 

2.       The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing on PC: This is simply put, a Diablo clone. But it’s one of the better action RPGs I’ve played. It’s not your usual trappings of giant rats, orks and trolls. It’s more a Transylvanian twist with vampires and werewolves. The night backdrops are illuminated by silvery full moons and an ominous score by Gergely Buttinger. The game is definitely a clickfest done surprisingly well, though there are some glaring omissions. On my first playthrough some years back I wrote a review on Steam lauding its highpoints, but bringing to light the developers suggested watching YouTube videos to learn how to play the game rather than using a manual that should have been included with the game. I beat the game this time around with a melee character on Hardcore Heroic difficulty. I left Fulmagati’s lightning rods on the rooftops, (if you played the game, you’ll get this reference. It makes the game that much more difficult and I don’t know of anybody else who played it this way.) And I got the achievement for sparing the Igors, “But they’re so cute!” It’s a 1.1% achievement, meaning only 1.1% of the people who have played the game earned it. I’ve never been so ready to finish a game before. It really became a chore simulator. The real star of this show was the great OST and the wonderfully wisecracking, Lady Katarina, your supernatural sidekick who heals you and kicks butt alongside you.

 

3.       Prince and the Revolution  Music from Purple Rain on CD: Though I’ve never seen the movie, this OST mirrors my life in the early ‘80s. I’ve experienced many a weekend dance club swaying and moving to these tunes. I didn’t appreciate Prince’s creativity then. I just thought he was an over-glamorized rock star, but now decades later, listening to each track on this CD I’ve discovered an almost ingenuity behind each Prince’s band referred to as The Revolution was aptly appropriate. This was one of the albums that helped bring about the “Parents’ Advisory” black labels you see on album covers. It was all about “Darling Nikki,” which was thought to be a bit explicit for radio play. This album was recently picked at number 8 of Rolling Stones’ “Top 500 Albums of All Time.”

 

4.        Railway Empire on PC: I’ve talked about it before, but this game is a love child of Sid Meier’s Railroads! and Railroad Tycoon 3. I’m still awaiting the true successor to Railroad Tycoon 3 but in the interim this game will have to suffice. And it does for the most part anyway. It’s a Kalypso Studio game which means it doesn’t have the AAA fluff a major studio would produce, but it’s been crafted with a lot of developer love. It gets regular updates and DLCs to boot. It’s quite the complicated game, enough that I’ve had to watch YouTube tutorials just to learn how to implement proper signaling on my track layouts. If you like RTS and you like railroad simulations you’re going to love this.

 

5.        Rod Serling’s Night Gallery Season Two on DVD: Having watched the first season of this a year or so back, I recently ventured into the second year of the series. The show (if it ever did) seemed to hit its full stride at this time. It’s unfortunate that Rod Serling and the producer of the show, Jack Laird, didn’t mesh well. Serling assumed he would have much greater control of the series, thinking it would carry the torch pass on from The Twilight Zone, but Laird didn’t want to relinquish the control he had over the show. Serling became at most, the series’ host and the narrator who introduced each show. Some episodes included short quick take comedic sketches that Serling was vehemently opposed to. These episodes certainly bring back memories of my childhood, back when I lived for what was on television.  

 

6.       Living Colour Vivid on CD: Coming out in 1988, I had never heard anything quite like this up to that time. Now I can’t stop listening to it on auto repeat. It was a black band that played hard rock music. Mick Jagger had a hand in producing the album (and can be heard on the backing vocals of “Glamour Boys.”) Corey Glover helms as the frontman as a great vocalist, probably the hook that seals this band as being so great, but the real show stealer is Vernon Reid, the guitarist who plays so flamboyantly well. The band fuses jazz and funk and melds it into some of the gnarliest rock music you’ll ever hear. Nice bit of trivia, Corey Glover played “Francis” in Oliver Stones’ Platoon (1986.) I had no idea!

 

7.       Wake of the Red Witch by Garland Roark: I’ve always been a sucker for stories occurring on the high seas (I even wrote one!) This one is almost (but not quite) as compelling as Jack London’s stellar The Sea Wolf or Joseph Conrad’s often copied Heart of Darkness. The tale concerns a half-crazed captain of a schooner who is cruel to his men, but ever loyal to his lust for gold and women. My first exposure was to the movie starring John Wayne. Unusual for John Wayne, because it wasn’t a western nor a war movie, and it's one of the few movies in which Wayne’s character dies in the end. This was a good yarn, but a bit long winded. It sent me to the dictionary a few times, always a plus. It’s truly a man’s adventure tale straight out of the old Saga or True or Argosy magazines that dotted the newsstand magazine racks from the 1940s to the 1970s.

 

8.        Xvive U2 Guitar Wireless System: I had wanted to go this route for a while now. I finally pulled the trigger, and man, what a difference! These things are like magic. I’m not tethered by a cable anymore, no more twists, broken innards, or chair wheels rolling over them. I have to thank my guitar mentor, Michael Stevens, for turning me onto these. Angus Young popularized these back in the 1970s. And now I can see why. Plug them into a USB charger for 2 hours and you get 5 hours of unimpeded untethered joy. Yay!