Mapril Books

 I read a lot of things in April and also one thing in March. I found a lot of them disappointing.

The last of last year's books

I wasn't reading as much and I forgot to keep posting reviews here, so here's a catch-up for the books I read last year, to be followed by a catch-up for the books I read this year, and then hyopefully more regular posts after that.

Books I Read in June - or Didn't

More book reviews.

April May Read

Some more book reviews for the stuff I read in April and May.

Bookmarch

Prince Valiant Volume 3: 1941-1942

Hal Foster & Dan Nadel

More fun adventures. Ogres, giant monsters and several dragons. Introduces some great characters (Boltar, Angor Wrack) and includes a bit of Gawain, which you love to see. And as for Val himself? I'll quote Angor Wrack: I like that hot-headed young idiot. 4/5

Books I Read in February

Murder in Mendocino

Mary Kittredge

This one was a decent cosy mystery with a solid cast of characters. I enjoyed it. 4/5

Books I Read in January

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

David Graeber

Does a really good job of explaining the problem and how easily it could be solved but leaves me with little hope that it actually will be. 4/5, would recommend.

Foolish Games

Played a few things I liked this time. And some things I didn't.

All Games are the Same

I played some games. Several of them were very similar.

A Game by Any Other Game

Tried out some more games.

What's in a game?

Played a little bit of few games recently. And one particular game a lot.

Games I Played a While Ago

I played these games way back in October of last year and started writing up these reviews, then forgot to finish and publish them. I think I was maybe planning to try out some other games and add them to the list, but I never did. Anyway, here's some quick reviews of games I played a bit of.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York

I want to like this game a lot more than I do, and I think I'm actually cutting it more slack than I should. I did enjoy it, but I can't say it's good. And I think that if I had free reign with the assets I could make a better game. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy it (although I am definitely saying that you shouldn't pay almost $30 for - get it when it's on extreme discount like I did) but do be aware that it's more atmosphere than story and more interactive cutscene than game.

Life in plastic? It's OK.

Movies should be 90 minutes. Even at just under two hours, Barbie feels long. And it's not like there wasn't anything to cut: everything before the return to "Barbieland" could have been drastically condensed. And that's about half the film. There are some funny bits in that first half, but it's not till the second half that the main plot actually begins.

Utopia: Why doesn't Tony quit?

It's a question I find myself asking while watching the latest season. What possible reason could he have for sticking around, despite the fact that it must be extremely clear to him that he cannot achieve any of his goals. Unless he actually does achieve some things, but we don't see it?

Magic: the Gathering is good?

Magic: the Gathering is good! If you play it online and don't spend any money.

Fake Bacon

Tried this plant-based bacon substitute.

I'm playing Magic the Gathering again

I've been tempted, lately, so I downloaded MTG Arena. I'm not spending any money though. I wouldn't even pay for actual cards any more, so I'm definitely not buying virtual ones. Fortunately you can pretty easily get by without spending any money at all. In fact, there's very little reason to buy anything if you just want to build a deck and play. Within a few hours of pretty casual play (over a number of days) I was able to get all the cards I needed for the deck I was trying to build.

Victorian State Election 2022

If you just want my advice on who to vote for, skip to the end. If you want to know the who and why, here's where I go through all the parties in alphabetical order. Since I already covered a lot of them (or their equivalents at the national level) for the federal election in May, I'll repeat what I said about them then, but I'll indent those sections so you can skim past them if you just want the new information.

Game reviews by a guy who's only ever played Skyrim

Civilization

Civilization is an interesting departure from the mould of traditional games like Skyrim in a few ways. Probably the first thing new players will notice is that the first-person perspective has been abandoned in favour of a sort of top-down "bird's eye view", but this is just the beginning. Rather than controlling a single individual, given tasks by the various quest-givers around the world, you function as a sort of quest-giver yourself for your chosen nation, instructing its people on what projects to pursue and what battles to take on.