A Song Of Ice And Fire: A Feast For Crows

 

Shortly after starting this book I realized something was off. It just didn't flow as well as the previous books, and honestly wasn't as interesting. I did some research and turns out my intuition was right. Apparently as Martin was writing this book, he realized that it was becoming too large. Instead of splitting it into parts, he decided to split the story and have two books following the same timeline simultaneously. A Feast For Crows follows characters near King's Landing and Westeros. A Dance With Dragons (which I am reading now) is the other book on the timeline, which follows characters north of the Wall and in Essos. The issue with this approach is that at this point in time, most of the main characters are no longer in King's Landing. Cersei and Jaime Lannister are the two biggest characters remaining. There's no Jon Snow (he was never in King's Landing), no Tyrion, no Daenerys, etc. You get the point. Leaving most of the major characters out of the book was a ballsy decision by Martin, and I think the book suffered because of the decision. It's not a bad book per se, but definitely is not as good as the books in the series up to this point. There are several lengthy chapters following Brienne of Tarth as she searches for Sansa (her and Littlefinger are also in Westeros and thus in the book) and Samwell Tarly as he journeys from the Wall to Oldtown. Obviously these chapters are not as interesting as a chapter about Tyrion.

Having Cersei and Jaime as the book's main characters is problematic too. After Joffrey's death, the council and mainstay side characters in King's Landing are all different now. Even though Joffrey was a jerk, he was at least interesting. Tommen is basically a non-factor as a character. Most of Cersei's story in this book revolves around setting up the new council and dealing with their incompetence, which isn't exactly thrilling stuff. Jaime is sent to the Riverlands to deal with the remaining Lords who don't support Tommen. This is a similar situation in that, much like the council, we've got unfamiliar people in familiar locations, but their lack of familiarity makes it somewhat difficult to care all that much.

The tide of good fortune begins to change for Cersei, however, by the end of the book. The religious zealots the Sparrows have infiltrated King's Landing. Cersei attempts to frame Margaery Tyrell for infidelity against Tommen. However, the Sparrows catch Cersei's lie and imprison her. With Tywin dead and the rest of her family no longer supporting her, Cersei's smugness finally gets the best of her. This is the most interesting and important part of this book, and it will be interesting to see what happens to her and the Lannister family moving forward.

It's Always Sunny In...Wrexham? (Seasons 16 & 2)

 

I decided to combine the posts for It's Always Sunny season 16 and Welcome to Wrexham season 2 because I have too many posts in my queue, waiting to be published, and because Rob McElhenney is involved with both shows. It's amazing to me that It's Always Sunny is still producing new episodes and still on TV. Despite its age, the show remains amusing. I don't have anything specific to say about season 16. The format of the episodes and jokes remain the same, so if you've been following the show over the years then you will enjoy the latest season.

I'd like to spend a little more time discussing Welcome to Wrexham. Ryan (Reynolds) & Rob's purchase of Wrexham's soccer club is one of the most interesting stories in sports at the moment. Wrexham is portrayed as a down-on-its-luck town, with their soccer club struggling and stuck in the lower leagues of play. Their fans are extremely passionate, and their moral as well as the moral of the city ebbs and flows with the team's success (or failure). When Ryan & Rob purchase the team, not only did they shine a spotlight on the Wales community, they infused some much needed energy (and more importantly, capital) into the team. The show is a documentary about the team and the community, and it is really well done and interesting to watch. 

There are two things I specifically want to discuss regarding soccer in the UK. The first is the concept of promotion and relegation. The UK soccer ladder is long, with the Premiere League (level 1) being at the very top and featuring the most famous and well known teams and players. When Rob & Ryan purchased Wrexham, they were playing in the National League North/South (level 6). The best comparison I can think of in the United States is minor league baseball, and level 5 of English soccer would be akin to a league less than single A baseball. What's really neat about this situation, however, is that teams have the opportunity to move up (or down) leagues based on their success. Moving up leagues means more money, which can then be fed into the team to sign better players, upgrade stadiums, etc. It's really tough to move up leagues, however. As successful teams move up, teams that struggle move down. I find this concept really interesting, and it would be cool if leagues in the United States had a similar situation. Since Rob & Ryan bought Wrexham, the team has been promoted twice, and now play in League 2 (level 4).

The second item I wanted to discuss regarding English soccer is more of an observation than a fact, and that is the passion of the fans. We have passionate fans in the United States, but the level of passion displayed by the fans of Wrexham is truly amazing, and borderline crazy. In the US, everyone roots for the top tier professional teams. In my experience, the minor league teams always have their devoted fan base, but they are typically small and relatively quiet. Can you imagine a community in the US supporting a minor league sports team that is playing in the equivalent league of single A ball or lower the way Wrexham supports their football team? The only analogy I can think of in the US where communities rally around a team is small town high school sports. I suspect the ability to be promoted to a higher league plays a part in the support the team receives. Regardless, their passion for their team is great to see.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) (Remastered)

 

I've wanted to watch this movie since it came out, but it wasn't available on any of the streaming platforms that I subscribe to, and oddly wasn't even available to rent. It finally started showing on TV, and my DVR picked it up. It follows Egon Spengler's (Harold Ramis) grandkids as they move into a small Oklahoma town that is (surprise!) haunted by a demon. In the process of fighting the demon, they discover who their grandfather was and his relationship to the Ghostbusters.

This movie is pretty decent on its own, meaning if you've never seen the original Ghostbusters movies it is still worth watching. However, it if full of references to the original movie, and thus is quite a bit of fun to watch for fans of the original movies. These references peak at the end of the movie, when the original Ghostbusters appear to help Egon's grandkids fight the demon, including a hologram version of Harold Ramis, who unfortunately passed away in 2014.

The other star of the show was the famous Ecto-1 car. The recent Lego version of the Ecto-1 I built was based on the car in this movie, which includes some interesting upgrades compared to the car from the original movies. I was delighted when, in a scene chasing a ghost down the streets of the small town, the kids drop a remote controlled ghost trap from the trunk of the car. This trap and the ability to drop it out of the trunk are featured in the Lego version of the car as well, which is super cool.

As if this weren't enough Ghostbusters nostalgia, I also had a chance to play Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered, albeit briefly. Originally debuting in the PS3 era (and was early enough in the PS3 life cycle that it also debuted on the PS2), it was later rereleased in a remastered version for the PS4. While the game features gameplay that is a bit clunky and cumbersome, it has a ton of Ghostbusters nostalgia, which I found amusing. Unfortunately, shortly after I started playing it was removed from the Playstation Plus library, so I didn't get too far into the game.

God of War: Ragnarok

 

Ragnarok starts right where 2018's God of War ends. Midgard is now experiencing Fimbulwinter, the weather event that occurs right before Ragnarok is to begin. As Kratos and Atreus (Loki) figure out how they can stop Ragnarok, Atreus is on a quest to figure out his past and who he is to become. Subsequently, several stages feature Atreus as the playable character. Atreus begins working with Odin, who is responsible for Ragnarok. This angers Kratos and causes harm to his relationship with Atreus. They eventually resolve their differences, and team up with all their buddies from the 2018 game, including Mimir and Brok, to defeat Odin and prevent Ragnarok. Mimir and Brok are a couple of my favorite video game characters, and of course Thor makes several appearances in the game as well, which is neat.

The gameplay is essentially the same in Ragnarok as it was in 2018's game - a lot of hack and slash, with occasional puzzles mixed in. The one big difference is that when playing as Atreus, he has the ability to shift into various animals to fight during battle, which is cool. Generally I'm fine with the hack and slash fighting, though sometimes it is nice to be forced to think about the best way to attack an opponent. The game occasionally makes you think about this by flashing a blue light when an opponent attacks instead of a red light, meaning you should shield block first before attacking. This game does not do this as well as other games, however, such as Ghost of Tsushima. 

I want to spend a bit of time talking about the puzzles, which I find mildly annoying. I distinctly remember having this awesome battle with a larger than life wolf, which was immediately followed by a puzzle involving pulling chains and freezing a door in place, and thinking that all of the awesomeness of the fight was immediately thrown out of the window by the slow paced and boring puzzle. A few of them I couldn't figure out and had to look up their solution on YouTube, which was also kind of annoying (maybe I need to just be more clever?). They're not as annoying as the puzzles on Immortals Fenyx Rising, but I think in a game that tells such a grand story they can really slow the pace and storytelling. 

The story is where this game really shines in my opinion. Everything about Norse mythology is grandiose and larger than life, and Ragnarok does a great job of telling its story and displaying the awesome characters. It is one of the better game series that I have played in terms of story telling and character development and is the part of the game I enjoy the most. 

On a side note, the game developers for JEDI Survivor could learn a lot from the God of War games in terms of stage creation. A lot of the stage layouts between the games are similar, in that you are locked into where you can go. Because of how the stages are laid out, with subtle symbols indicating the correct way to go, not once did I have to look up where to go to advance the stage.

NHL '94 Rewind

To borrow a quote from Billy Madison, NHL '94 for the Sega Genesis is the greatest video game of all time. OK, that may not be entirely true, but I do think it is one of the best sports games ever made. I distinctly remember dominating this game on the Genesis (as well as the slightly upgraded NHL '95 on the PC). Everything about this game is just great - the sounds, the visuals (I said I was a sucker for 8 & 16-bit graphics), the gameplay - all of it is just perfect. Even just hearing the menu music is enough to incite nostalgia. When you take the ice and hear the organ music, or the unique grunts of the players, it takes me back to 1994 and playing the game on the Genesis on our old CRT TV. 

I had read about NHL '94 mode for NHL '22, where you could play the modern game in the style of NHL '94. I almost bought NHL '22 because of this, but decided against it. I had no idea you could buy NHL '94 Rewind as a standalone product. Once I discovered this a few weeks ago I immediately paid the $10 for the game.

I'm happy to report that Rewind faithfully recreates NHL '94, or at least my memories of the game. Everything is there - the menu music, the organ, the grunts, and the gameplay. It is a near-perfect of an all-time sports classic. I only have two minor complaints. The first is that I wish you could play an entire season with a team, not just a playoff. However, if I remember correctly, that feature also did not exist in the original game. My other complaint is that I wish you could use the rosters from the original game. When I first played Rewind, I was disappointed that the Red Wings had their current players (from 2022) and not Steve Yzerman and Sergei Fedorov. I was really hoping to dominate on Rewind like I did on the original with the Red Wings. Other than these two complaints, Rewind is great and well worth the $10.

My State of Mobile Gaming in 2024: Part 6 - Rollerdrome

 

I've been interested in Playstation Remote Play since the beginning when it launched on the PS4. Initially, however, I struggled to find a great use case for it. In 2023, I got the idea to use the service to play games on the weekends that I might not necessarily take the time to play otherwise (i.e. putz-style games). The release of the Portal solved a major issue that I had with Remote Play, and that is the inconvenience of playing games on the iPad. While it it neat that you can do this, you can't exactly curl up on the couch with the iPad in one hand and the DualSense controller in the other to play games. Despite this issue being solved, I still wasn't sure about how much I would use the Portal. It turns out that I have had no trouble keeping an agenda for the portable device.

I do use the Portal to play putz-style games such as Unpacking. These are games that I am interested in but do not want to necessarily spend my main gaming time playing. They are perfect for playing while sitting on the couch with a (sports) game on in the background. However, I've been able to expand my agenda quite a bit beyond this. Because of Playstation Plus, games are continually being added to the service. While some of these games I definitely want to play, there are a lot of games that I am interested in checking out but not sure if I want to dedicate my main playing time to them until I do a trial first. The Portal has been perfect for this situation, as I am able to fire up the device and try out these games while on the couch with Sarah. It turns out that there are a lot of games that meet this criteria, and in the 2 months that I've owned the Portal, I have not run out of games to play. I featured Rollerdrome in this post, as it is just one example of a game that I played on the Portal that I likely would not have played otherwise. Rollerdrome is pretty awesome, and some of these games that I started out with on the Portal I've decided to continue to play on the big screen in the basement, such as Final Fantasy VII Remake. Some of these game demos come in the form of actual Playstation Plus Trials, while others are the full game that has become available on Playstation Plus. A few of these games I've had downloaded on my PS5 for over a year without playing. The Portal has been a great way for me to experience and play games that I'm interested in but not sure if I want to dedicate a large amount of time to play. 

Unpacking

 

I'm a bit of a sucker for games with 8 & 16-bit graphics. With that being said, once this game was released and received positive press, it was on my radar to check out. It eventually came out for Playstation Plus, and so at that point it was a no brainer to download and play. I initially played the first couple of stages before placing the game on pause. The game is perfect for tinkering around with on the weekends (more on this situation in a future post), and once I got the Portal I picked up the game again and was able to finish it.

The game follows the life of a female protagonist. Starting as a young girl, her family moves into a home and your job is to unpack her room. As she grows, she moves into different environments that you have to unpack, including an apartment, her boyfriend's apartment, back to her parents house, and then into her first family home. Every stage begins with a set of boxes that you click on to reveal the contents, and you place the items into their correct locations. That's it. It's a perfect game to use a 16-bit graphics style, and as mentioned above, it's a great game to putz around with. It did get a bit repetitive and tedious by the end, however. I think the game length is perfect, and if it were any longer I probably would've bailed on finishing the game. The hardest part is that some of the items are difficult to figure out what they are, and thus it's hard to know where they go. But otherwise it is an interesting game and worth the few hours it takes to finish.