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Book Thoughts: Someone you can Build a Nest In

I was looking for my next book after reading Chain-Gang All-Stars and saw a random post on Mastodon about a novel called Someone You Can Build a Nest In, which pitched itself as a horror fantasy romance novel. The rest of my to-read list looked a bit daunting so I dove in.

It was a fun short read. The protagonist is a shape-shifting monster who falls for a human, and the rest of the story surrounds the resolution of their differences (and the fact that the protagonist's new girlfriend's family are monster hunters).

Game Thoughts: Abandoned 07-2024

While I've been trying to finish all the games I start, sometimes I just don't have the energy or a particular game just doesn't hit right and I put it down early. As a result I don't get around to writing about them, which is a shame because I frequently refer to my own blogposts as a refresher on what I did or didn't like about a given game or book.

So, for future me's reference, here's a handful of recent games I didn't quite make it through:

(Drilldozer, Pokemon Unbound, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, A Space for the Unbound, Cocoon)

Book Thoughts: Chain-Gang All-Stars

A friend of mine recently recommended Chain-Gang All-Stars and I thought it was a really cheesy title for a book, but gave it a shot anyways.

After finishing the audiobook version of the novel, I'd just like to say: Holy shit.

Book Thoughts: I am a Strange Loop

I've wanted to read a bit of philosophy-of-the-mind for some time now, but never really got around to it. After a discussion on consciousness with a friend a bit back, I was recommended the works by Douglas Hofstadter. His big-dick book "G.E.B" was a little intimidating, but the title of his more recent work "I Am a Strange Loop" resonated with me (my own online identity being tied to my loop-like spiral logo), and I've just finished the audio version!

Firstly, a bit of praise: I'm a philosophy noob, and the author's heavy use of allegory and analogy made digesting the book's core ideas approachable and entertaining. I've managed to grind my attention span into dust and was concerned the general dryness of philosophy texts would have me reaching for other things to read -- but while it wasn't a particularly gripping read, it absolutely held my attention the whole way through.

Game Thoughts: The Forgotten City

I've just finished playing The Forgotten City; a first-person mystery game I bought after perusing a random forum thread.

The game's in the same vein as something like The Outer Wilds in that there's a looping mechanism that has you replaying a short segment of time over and over as you eke out secrets.

Where The Outer Wilds has you flying through space alone, The Forgotten City is a much more social take on the concept, and has you spending most of your time in conversations with ancient Romans.

It was honestly great! There's a couple places (especially at the start) where the dialogue was painfully awkward, and the character models sometimes take you for an uncomfortable trip to uncanny valley, but those are minor nitpicks when stacked up to the fun I had getting to know the characters and figuring out what was going on.

At 6-ish hours to get the "real" ending, it's not a particularly long game, but as of late I've definitely taken a liking to games I can beat in 1-2 weekend evenings.

Thoughts: Heaven is a Hostel in Chongqing

In 2018 I traveled to China to meet my partner's parents for the first time. I was nervous; China gets a pretty bad rap and has several travel advisories tied to it. I was also nervous to meet my future in-laws, but that was just the anxiety-cherry on top.

We had time to do some additional traveling, so we picked some destinations of interest that aligned with our travel plans: We'd enter via Hong Kong and leave via Shanghai. We had to go to Harbin for the parental meeting, but we had a little bit of time in the middle to add an extra destination. I voted for Chongqing.

I had only recently learned of the existence of the city after eating Chongqing Xiaomian (literally "Chongqing small noodle") which is a very spicy and very numbing regional noodle dish. A little bit of digging revealed that Chongqing wasn't just some small city that served spicy noodles, but a monstrous tourist destination in china with a population of 30 million. Also, it's the birthplace of hotpot. Hell yes we were going to Chongqing.

Warning: several large photos after the break.

Game Thoughts: 1000XResist

I've just hit the 1000XResist credit sequence roughly one week after going into the game completely blind, having knee-jerk purchased it after 10 seconds of game trailer.

I regret nothing - the game was fantastic. I spent most of the week horizontal with a back injury, and couldn't have asked for a more engaging distraction as I healed.

This title won't be for everyone. It's a very linear visual-novel-esq game consisting almost exclusively of talking to NPCs and listening to monologues in small exploreable areas. You mostly watch the story unfold. But what a story!

This is games as art. This is a story that explores a lot of concepts via its bizarre post-apocalyptic setting. Humanity's been wiped out by an alien-borne virus that causes people to cry themselves to death. Only you and your clone sisters remain, dutifully serving the ALLMOTHER.

Warning: Massive spoilers after the jump.

Book Thoughts: Snow Crash

A couple days ago I finished the audiobook version of Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson.

I didn't know what to expect going in (having never read anything Stephenson) but I honestly wasn't super into the package as a whole, despite all the good stuff packed into it.

Game Thoughts: Final Fantasy Tactics A2

About a month ago I booted up Final Fantasy Tactics A2 on a whim, and quickly became helplessly addicted to the game. I look now at my completed save file which claims I sank 111 hours of my life into this game -- this is untrue as I played the majority of the game on 2x speed, but I'm still shocked at how quickly those hours passed.

I often go into games seeking story or novelty. I like a game with world-building, or something that tells me a story. Character development, surprises, mystery.

This has none of that. In FFTA2 The characters are flat, the driving storyline amounts to "go explore and have fun, maybe that will get you home", and outside of some interesting or funny quest lines there's not much of note going on in Ivalice.

Everything else, however, hit all the right buttons so hard.

Game Thoughts: Klonoa (GBA)

I beat Klonoa: Empire of Dreams today on my day off.

I got my hands on an Analogue Pocket about a month ago and really wanted to play something I hadn't before, so I took it upon myself to visit the local retro game store and drop too much money on old games I could easily emulate. Everything I actually wanted was out of my random-purchase range, so I ended up buying Klonoa -- a series I know by name only.

It was a great little puzzle platformer, and I must say the Analogue Pocket really makes GBA titles look good.

I think there was something like 5 worlds x 7 levels plus 6 bosses. The bosses and snowboarding levels were hot garbage, but the normal levels had some really decent puzzling throughout and the auto-scroll levels actually posed a challenge.

I'll need to play a different game to test out the Analogue's sound system, because the SFX and music in Klonoa were pretty terrible, but I'm excited to finally tackle some of the physical GBA and GBC titles I've collected over the years.