Monday, January 27, 2014

Play, Read, Watch

What I'm Playing: The Banner Saga: Factions by Stoic. Due to a lack of that one green currency (what's it call, mooney? Marney?), I'm unable to foot the steep $25 bill for the full game and thus therefore content myself with the free multiplayer version. I think it's become clear to me, over the past twelve hours of gameplay, that strategy games really aren't my thing. I think my brain keeps attempting to formulate some kinda narrative, where there maybe shouldn't be one. The Viking aesthetics and the hand-drawn artwork, though, are such that I'm constantly drawn back in. And then my ass is constantly whooped by far superior players. Never mind that, however – what they lack in valor and battlefield acumen, my Vikings more than compensate for with fulfilling character arcs, epithets and three-dimensional personalities.

What I'm Reading: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel. A strange selection, coming from an avowed lover of genre fiction, but, thanks to my recent hiring at Inka Collective, it's become my task to read and review the book as well as view and review the upcoming film. This one's an especially dry one, though. I'm plugging through as best I can, but I cannot shake the feeling that perhaps the 17 pages on the history of the hometown one of the book's 19 protagonists came from is maybe, perhaps, a little overkill. I'll be glad to put this one behind me. (Relatedly, check out my review for August: Osage County!)

What I'm Watching: Luther by Neil Cross. You know, I think I may have a thing for gritty, scripted-based cop dramas. It's a thin line to foxtrot upon; doing a case of the week procedural without becoming CSI, but something about Luther works for me. Elba's performance is spot-on, of course, the writing comes and goes, but the general conceit of the beleaguered police detective drowning in casework that only continues to pile up, that weary, dogged determination to keep solving cases without becoming self-righteous, really appeals to me. The second series has started to go pear-shaped, as it's introduced the, I think, fourth serial killer? Third? And, beyond Alice Morgan, I really don't think the show needs another.

Tune in tomorrow for more Worldblogger!

2 comments:

  1. Thinking of you reading WWII nonfiction, if you want something less dry and more crazy, try http://www.amazon.com/The-Irregulars-British-Wartime-Washington/dp/0743294599 , which covers the exploits of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl as a member of a spy outfit called the Baker Street Irregulars with which he spied on the Americans, working primarily as a prostitute.

    Did I mention it's impeccably sourced nonfiction?

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  2. Sounds infinitely more exciting than this drivel.

    There's not even ONE British author-turned-international spy-come-prostitute and I'm past halfway through!

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