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• I haven't yet finished my octopus book, but I have read it in front of enough co-workers to be repeatedly asked whether I'd watched My Octopus Teacher yet. Can finally say yes - and I really enjoyed it! A short documentary on a man who visited a wild octopus every day for nearly a year, there was of course anthropomorphising and spiritualism mixed in heavily with the animal behaviour, but not in an unbearable way; I honestly sympathised with many of the sentiments expressed. I think it's fairly well-known these days that peaceful observation of nature, and building a sense of connection and belonging with the entirety of the world around you, not just the societally elevated human parts of it, is good for one's health. The footage is stunning, too. It's funny that we look so wistfully to the stars for strange life when it's right there in our oceans. What an amazing little creature.
• Finished book 6 (Babylon's Ashes) of The Expanse with some effort. After the high stakes, game-changing events of book 5, this one proved enough of a drag that for a while I was getting through it one stubborn chapter at a time. Part of this is down to the decision to spread the story across over a dozen POVs, which resulted in far more navel-gazing than felt justified by the quality of the navels on offer. After a certain point we've heard it all before, guys - enough with the philosophising. The ending was decently punchy, at least, and the story seems to be shifting back towards the mystery I'm most interested in. I did also enjoy touching base with a few characters who hadn't been seen for a while.
• Space Sweepers has been doing the rounds as a recommended film in my circles, so I hopped on board. Visually, it's a treat; narratively, it's chockers with found family, dystopic social commentary, ridiculous action dramatics, and melodramatic personalities. So, you know, absolute chaos, but very endearing chaos. Bubs was a delight.
• I'm only a handful of episodes away from finishing Rebels, but damn if I can get myself to commit those last few hours. The final season is just... not great. (Also did something of an incredulous spit-take to find out Hera and Kanan weren't supposed to have been a couple this entire time? Y'all.) Futurama thus remains my primary dinner entertainment at present, occasional soul-deep cringes aside.
• Also struggling to commit to the last legs of Fallout 4. The beautiful, expansive world is consistently undermined by the fact that 98% of the quests I receive are exactly the same: go here, kill things, return. I managed to slip into a Skyrim-esque mood that provided me with some rhythm for a while, but the underlying story just isn't intriguing enough to pull me through the time investment needed to wring real value out of this game. I like shooters! I don't like playing shooters masquerading as RPGs for 70+ hours. I feel little connection with these factions who paste different faces over the exact same shopping lists of sidequests. It doesn't matter who I do it for, the demands never change: go here, kill things, return.
• Finished book 6 (Babylon's Ashes) of The Expanse with some effort. After the high stakes, game-changing events of book 5, this one proved enough of a drag that for a while I was getting through it one stubborn chapter at a time. Part of this is down to the decision to spread the story across over a dozen POVs, which resulted in far more navel-gazing than felt justified by the quality of the navels on offer. After a certain point we've heard it all before, guys - enough with the philosophising. The ending was decently punchy, at least, and the story seems to be shifting back towards the mystery I'm most interested in. I did also enjoy touching base with a few characters who hadn't been seen for a while.
• Space Sweepers has been doing the rounds as a recommended film in my circles, so I hopped on board. Visually, it's a treat; narratively, it's chockers with found family, dystopic social commentary, ridiculous action dramatics, and melodramatic personalities. So, you know, absolute chaos, but very endearing chaos. Bubs was a delight.
• I'm only a handful of episodes away from finishing Rebels, but damn if I can get myself to commit those last few hours. The final season is just... not great. (Also did something of an incredulous spit-take to find out Hera and Kanan weren't supposed to have been a couple this entire time? Y'all.) Futurama thus remains my primary dinner entertainment at present, occasional soul-deep cringes aside.
• Also struggling to commit to the last legs of Fallout 4. The beautiful, expansive world is consistently undermined by the fact that 98% of the quests I receive are exactly the same: go here, kill things, return. I managed to slip into a Skyrim-esque mood that provided me with some rhythm for a while, but the underlying story just isn't intriguing enough to pull me through the time investment needed to wring real value out of this game. I like shooters! I don't like playing shooters masquerading as RPGs for 70+ hours. I feel little connection with these factions who paste different faces over the exact same shopping lists of sidequests. It doesn't matter who I do it for, the demands never change: go here, kill things, return.
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On the plus side, purely as a point'n shooty, I do love the environments and how well-constructed the set pieces can be.
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The environments are great though. Really love the variety in how wildlife and non-humans move and interact, and having weather brings a HUGELY immersive element to the setting. Some of the most fun I've had is in just wandering around overland, admiring the scenery, until something inevitably tries to rip my head off.