Overwatching Fallout

I promised, as part of running this blog that I would include reviews of all manner of things. I have continued my Goodreads reviewing and as a result have a handful of book reviews available to read now. I also have a review of Doctor Strange and now I am going to review the best video games I have played in 2016. 

As a disclaimer, these are games are the Xbox One versions (my gamertag if you care is Mistborn22) while the two games at number 10 exist as placeholders owing to the fact that I have yet to play them. I also did not include NBA 2K16 or Just Dance 2016 among this list despite playing them. 

FULL INFOGRAPHIC 

Reviews

1. Overwatch (10/10) - Overwatch is one of those games I go back to again and again just to play another ten minutes. The original product was excellent fun, but then Blizzard included free DLC, events, specific themed skins, external comics and lore, and a competitive mode. Easily one of the most polished and fun games out there to play. Just watch the following video for an idea of the entire world surrounding this game!

2. Diablo 3 (9/10) - Diablo III is one of those games I had always meant to try until this year. When my friend Adam went home to the Philippines he briefly let me play this game. I was hooked (and to this point it is my second most played) because I am an absolute sucker for fantasy rpgs. Particularly if the lore and story are interesting. A world of soulstones, angels, demons and racial conflict? Diablo III has that and more!

3. Fallout 4 (9/10) - I'm not as far into the game as with some of the others, but the sheer level of worldbuilding and detail is incredible. The fantastic side-quests, character choices and overall game is highly polished. In fact I spent most of my time so far performing side-quests and winning favour with fellow vault-dwellers in order to build up a variety of settlements. It is a game that reminds me of Simcity mixed with COD-style shooting and general RPG fun.

4. Arkham Knight (9/10) - All of the Arkham Asylum games are excellent and Arkham Knight I felt, really put a full stop on a magnificent series. The sense of playing as Batman in an increasingly larger world, solving crimes and puzzles and stealthily making your way around was incredible. Critics complained that the Batmobile was used too often in this game, however I felt the balance between the story and the use of the devices was wonderful. In all the best Batman game I have ever played.

5. The Witcher 3 (9/10) - This is a game that would be much higher. Except, I have only played 6 hours of its incredibly long story for one accomplishment. The world (based on the books by Andrei Sapkowski - also excellent reading I might add) is one of monsters. Monsters who are men and monsters who are the ghouls and vampires of myth and legend. Playing as a monster-hunter you have the opportunity to take on these contracts and follow a sweeping storyline. And even after just 6 hours I have a sense at just how grand that storyline is.

6. Dishonored (9/10) - Want to be a silent assassin with incredible magic abilities? Yeah, me neither - but that's exactly what Dishonored is all about. You start the story as Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress, who is framed for her murder and imprisoned. Fortunately, you are freed by a group of loyalists who explain the situation and set you on a path of vengeance and redemption. Plus you get incredible abilities such as possession of rats, blink teleportation and windblasts. Play how you want: stealthy and bloody, stealthy and innocent, or with a hail of gunfire. High-chaos, low-chaos, the choice is all yours!

7. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (9/10) - The Lord of the Rings is my favourite book series and the films are among my favourites also. I was worried that Shadow of Mordor would depart far too much from the established lore, however it is a wonderful addition to the lore and the game physics are unique. The concept of bosses who remember past-encounters with you thanks to the wonderful Nemesis system is terrific, as is the Assassin's Creed-style combat and wall-climbing.

8. Sunset Overdrive (7.5/10) - It turns out that the makers of such games as Ratchet and Clank (and reportedly Spyro) had further unique ideas up their sleeves. I downloaded this as a free Games-With-Gold offering and boy is it fun chaos. For those who prefer there is a profanity and gore filter, and countless other options for editing your game character and play style. Yet the sheer idea of grinding around a city, defeating hordes of mutated fizzy monsters is pure fun and colourful (self-mocking) delight. 

9. Star Wars Battlefront (7.5/10) - I suspect that I, like many other 'super-fans' of Star Wars was expecting something a little more fine-tuned. Of course, it appears that spending the extra 30 dollars (per pack) for the DLC may bring the experience that was hoped for and in and of itself Battlefront is not a terrible game. It's merely that it could have been a better Star Wars experience with a campaign, greater choice of troop types (which was what made the originals fun) and more maps (again with better choice). Hopefully the sequel will improve these elements!

The Magic of Writing

Recently, I started watching Penn and Teller: Fool Us on Netflix. Only the first season was available but it was fascinating watching magicians, mentalists and other illusionists attempt to fool two high-profile magicians in a television show format. Below I have linked videos of some of the more impressive tricks I saw performed.

On Saturday 12, I also watched Dynamo perform his magic in Rod Laver. Despite having seen his tricks on tv before it was incredible to witness him put a phone into a bottle live in one quick motion. Admittedly his tricks with levitation are less impressive in a darkened theatre, yet some of his vanishing and transformation tricks were seamless and captivating.

Magic tricks have always fascinated me. Currently the swiftness and skill of how magicians out-think their audience with misdirection, forcing and sleight of hand fascinates me. The following article focuses on psychological studies into the concept of how such tricks work on the mind of the audience: https://www.google.com.au/amp/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/385468/?client=ms-android-samsung

Magic, in my eyes, is all around us. The writer, regardless of genre, must capture that magic. They must misdirect their reader with clever red herrings or breadcrumb trails in their plots. They must force the reader to reach a conclusion that is satisfying. A simple plot becomes a marvelous plot (or magic trick) when you stay ahead of the audience. Hence essentially the real secret of magical writing is through clever planning to ensure that you are always one step ahead of your readers.

Review: Academ's Fury

Academ's Fury by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jim Butcher's first two books in his Codex Alera are fascinating - weighted with capable, yet flawed female and male characters, and full of political intrigue and adventure. The very concept: an alien world populated by future descendants of the Roman people is intriguing. However, at times the writing itself feels 'too neat' and the suspension of disbelief falters.

The book follows Tavi, a young man in a world of furycrafters, who cannot furycraft. Furycrafting is the magic system of this world, whereby each citizen has possession of one or more elemental spirits called furies. This concept is of course, based upon the Roman mythologies and the concept of the one 'freak hero' in a world of magic who has none himself. In this book in particular, however, the reader witnesses the development of Tavi as a man - whereas in the first book he was a young adolescent. This develops Tavi as an interesting character and leads the reader to want to follow his journey onwards across the continuing novels.

As far as fantasy works travel this is a 'nice' book. It is a neat distraction that allows the reader to pass away the time without every being anything grander. Yet it is for this reason that the novel works entirely. It is polished escapism.

At times Jim Butcher weighs his story and world down with various political machinations which add a depth of realism to his characters and story but which drag down the entertainment value. Which leads me to consider that I must complete the entire series before making an appropriate judgement of where the entire narrative is leading towards.

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Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had an interesting discussion recently about what is more crucial to a text: characters or setting. as in the case of this reviewer of Doctor Strange, they believe it to be a series full of links to the occult. I personally however found the last book of the series to be full of themes that pointed to Christ (as seen in my review here of The Deathly Hallows) and have reached the decision that Christians should embrace, rather than purely reject, pop culture movements that do touch on such themes.

This all leads us regardless to a cauldron of social-expectations: those who hyped up this book, believing it would be another fantastic novel; those who downplayed the book because "Harry Potter is not that good"; those who avoided the book like the plague for its "dangerous material" or because they did not care; and those like myself who recognised that this was the script for a stageplay. As someone accustomed to reading plays (it is common practice in English education to need to read plays) I was ready for this and therefore enjoyed the book. However, it appears the reaction was not the same for many other readers.

The criticism of the play, therefore can read as very immature or uneducated on some accounts. However, should we simply ignore criticisms if the audience who bought a book on a particular premise feel betrayed by the contents of a novel? On one hand, if the reader fails to make themselves aware of the true nature of the book they have no one to blame save themselves. On the other, it is clear that the very existence of a script such as this is the product of rampant consumerism.

Yet despite the commercial reasoning which pushed this script into bound and printed form, the play itself provides an intriguing story. Some critics have complained that the characters of Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione feel different in this novel - that they are not the same characters. At moments I felt that this was certainly true. However, I also felt that given that Harry was a very passive character to begin with, that it was true to his character to become the father-figure that this play presents him as.

I will say little more, if you are contemplating reading this play it is likely that you are a fan of the series or simply want to see what the fuss is about. I will state that I enjoyed the overall story, although seeing a familiar set of characters shown in a play was oddly different. It is not a work for everyone (unless you share my fondness for reading play scripts), but it does possess a poetry which, at times, out performs the wonders of the original times. Yet this in and of itself is a short-lasting magic.

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Relevant Magazine Review of Hacksaw Ridge

“As we know if we don’t worship something healthy we’ll end up worshipping, more often than not, something rather unhealthy,” he says. “Look at our consumer culture. Look at our celebrity culture. You name it. We worship the wrong thing; or if not the wrong thing, something that doesn’t actually feed us in a deep way.”
Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/film/chosen-one#6OPdBlfxz3yBKgtp.99

Dr Strange The Most Theological Marvel Movie So Far

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/doctor.strange.the.most.theological.marvel.movie.so.far/98950.htm

Review: Brooklyn

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Context is a crucial element to understand for reading any text. Whether this is the context in which a text was created, the context of the author's own biases or judgements, and the context in which you personally are reading the text. Or in the case of this review, the context in which I read Brooklyn.

This is important, because for the last six months I have been inactive on Goodreads due to five major reasons. The first is that I moved to the country at the start of the year. The second is that I became a provisionally-registered English teacher. The third is that on June 25th I married my beautiful wife. The fourth is that I have been busy as a result of the previous three. The fifth however, is that I have during my few moments of free time begun writing consistently on the concept for a novel, and also have taken to blogging over at jterrington22.blogspot.com.au (which is also where my Goodreads reviews will simultaneously be published along with other thoughts, opinions and reviews of other things such as films or video games etc.)

It is in this context that I found myself picking up Brooklyn as a Year Twelve VCE English text. Upon reading through it I found myself impressed by the manner of its construction and the variety of themes it tackles. It is in many ways a highly feminist text (in other words it positively tackles issues that do and have affected women), a beautiful literary historical novel, and an interesting look into one young Irish girl's transitioning life from girlhood to womanhood.

Eilis Lacey is an intriguingly passive character, a young girl offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to travel to Brooklyn where a steady job and better lifestyle awaits her than offered in Ireland. The one issue is that Eilis never wanted to travel to America. She is, at the novel's opening, presented as perfectly content to remain in a state of simplicity in Ireland. However, because her family (her mother and her elder sister Rose) insist, Eilis never complains and obeys their desires. The question hovering over the story from the beginning revolves around whether Eilis can ever become an active agent in her own lifestory. And it is this question which Colm Tóibín seeks to answer as Eilis transformatively finds herself captivated by her own spontaneous love story.

While hardly the most elaborately written novel, there is a beauty in the simplicity that Tóibín constructs his tale with. The entirety of the plot is presented as if the reader is directly hovering above Eilis' shoulder, viewing her every decision and occasionally deriding her naivete. It is this which allows the author the authority to channel secrets and hidden character motives across the plot. (Why did Eilis' sister want Eilis to be the one to travel to America? (view spoiler)[Why does Eilis keep her romance hidden from her family? (hide spoiler)])

The novel rotates through a myriad of thematic content: racism, feminism, family, migration. All themes entirely relevant for today's audiences, given the lack of stability in the modern world due to these themes. It is the ways in which the novel presents these themes however, that is truly excellent: African American women shopping amongst 1950s white-Americans, Eilis gradually developing the ability to choose what she wants, Eilis leaving her family behind.

For all of these reasons, I classify Brooklyn as a satisfying and entirely 'neat' novel. It is a novel that displays technique, editing polish and clever thought without the 'purple prose' that some authors lavish upon their work. It is a novel which some readers may find lacks in terms of its emotional pull, with such a passive protagonist. However, it is the way in which Colm Tóibín presents Eilis as passive which provides a wonderful frame for him to display the potent and important thematic elements.

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Review: Empire of Storms

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Empire of Storms is the penultimate novel of the Throne of Glass series. Like many popular novels it has its flaws, but it is a novel which continues to develop the characters and the relationships between characters. Some readers may harbour a belief that Sarah J. Maas is balancing too many characters and that she does not handle this dynamic element well. Others may argue that this novel does not progress the overall plot particularly well, that they feel that Maas is simply 'making things up as she writes.' I for one find the positives of this novel contribute immensely to the running plot, and thoroughly enjoyed reading this work.

At the end of the day a review should serve a purpose. It should be the same as how teaching English should serve a purpose, or how a house should serve a purpose. If I cannot convince my students that English lessons teach them life skills then I become a poor teacher. A house without the ability to be a shelter to its owners merely becomes four walls and a roof. An excellent review, should therefore seek to convince the reader of the reason why they should or should not continue to participate in using the product. It becomes difficult then to write a review of a series of books, five books into a running series.

Why is this? It is because by this stage most people likely to read this review will be A) readers thoroughly enchanted by the series or B) disenchanted readers seeking to find any reason to continue. I propose therefore, that a review of any book in a series should aim to convince existing readers as to whether it is worthwhile for them to continue reading and to convince readers who have not read the first books in the series to begin reading. With that in mind I will suggest why you should or should not read this series.

1. Why you should read the A Throne of Glass Series:
a) Because it is popular: While this is hardly the most compelling reason to read any novel, often popularity stems from a reason. In this case, there are characters and a story world that characters have bought into and loved.
b) Hulu are making a tv series: Again, while hardly the most compelling reason to read a series, it is a reason. Who wants to be behind with a book series when the television series is releasing?
c) Because of the magic and world: A world of Faery, witches with iron teeth, assassins and evil kings is one of those fractured fairytale settings that is difficult to ignore.
d) Adventure, character development and cliffhangers: You have a group of interesting
e) The moral themes of good versus evil: Given that the main character is an inhuman assassin, yet somewhat relateable, the novels do explore a series of intriguing moral dilemmas that are worth considering in YA fiction.

2. Why you should not read the A Throne of Glass Series:
a) If YA fiction with all its tropes and archetypes is not your cup of tea: They feature in this series somewhat prominently.
b) If you cannot stand wish fulfilment: I skipped a few chapters in this particular book because they were hopelessly sappy wish-fulfilment love scenes. My personal rule of thumb when it comes to romance scenes in books is that you do not have to describe everything as it would be in life and that you should also avoid including information which takes your audience away from your characters and plot. The love scenes in this book in particular break all of those rules.
c) If the idea of a fantasy world of witches, assassins, evil kings etc. does not fascinate you then avoid this series at all costs. They are the focus of this series.

In short I believe the positives for reading this series outnumber the negatives. However, it is up to the individual to choose between whether they want to spend their time (or money) reading this, or investing elsewhere. In terms of popular YA fantasy fiction I rank it amongst the finest series I have read, but as stated it is not without its flaws.

4.5 stars

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