Media Recap 2015 - II

Posted on Wed 02 December 2015 • Tagged with Media Recap

After watching TotalBiscuit’s video for There Came an Echo I wasn’t really into playing the game, but when the soundtrack went up at Big Giant Circles I couldn’t pass it up. Bought it some time ago and still love it, especially “Ignite Defense” and “LAX” (those are great Audiosurf tracks, BTW).

You should really listen to the soundtrack.

Video Games

  • Audiosurf 2 (Steam, formerly Early Access)
  • Deponia (Steam) - Hard to like the game given that none of its characters is written in a likable way. It does contain some rememorable scenes though. “Rufus has stolen the screws from the children’s merry-go-round.”
  • Dragon Age 2 (Xbox 360) - Playing again with all the DLC to show the girlfriend how constrained the team was making this, as well as how great the dialogue was.
  • Guild of Dungeoneering (Steam) - Yes, you can actually sell games based on their trailer soundtrack.
  • Halo 1 (Xbox One, Master Chief Collection) - Bought this one together with my Xbox One in order to relive the old times. Have fond memories of ploughing through the actual Halo 1 with Martin.
  • Halo Spartan Ops (Xbox One, Master Chief Collection) - Unless I got something wrong this seems to be the multiplayer replacement for Firefight. I loved ODST’s Firefight and am deeply disappointed by this. I used Firefight as a kind of training ground for the campaign, but the Spartan Op I played solo was boring.
  • Ironcast (Steam) - I couldn’t resist buying a new “match 3” game, especially one with elements of a roguelike. It was marked down during the Steam Exploration sale. Like this one quite a lot. I wish I had found the ‘skip’ button in dialogues earlier though. I accidentally clicked away quite some choices.
  • Kingdom (Steam) - Beautiful indie title which is deeper than one would expect at first sight.
  • Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories HD (Playstation 3) - Last time I played this game was a pirated version of the Game Boy Advance edition some years ago. Still, the later boss fights were as tough as I remembered them and I tended to switch off the PS3 due to rising anger at least one per boss fight in the mid-section.
  • Life is Strange (Xbox One) - While I am not as heavily into Life is Strange as my girlfriend, I can acknowledge it for the interesting and original game that it is. Its contemporary theme struck a nerve for the both of us.
  • Rune Factory 4 (Nintendo 3DS)
  • Secret Files 3 (Steam) - Disappointing. Feels incomplete, almost like sentence.
  • Starbound (Steam, Early Access)
  • Startopia (Steam) - Felt nostalgic. Initially played this title years ago when I borrowed it from Lukas.
  • Terraria (Steam) - Terraria has arrived on the Mac. I don’t need to say more.
  • The Witcher 3 (Xbox One) - Holy… I adore the Witcher books and absolutely, wholeheartedly recommend The Witcher 3 to anyone on the look for a gritty, mature and sarcastic fantasy adventure RPG. I played this with the girlfriend on a completionist run. The game and its awesome first expansion Hearts of Stone kept us busy from June to November.

Books

It’s a Witcher book aside from the main five books which was an entertaining read. Then there’s Jennifer Estep’s series about an assassin which had the usual fault of her books: She is explaining everything in every book in minuscule detail again even though many people will either still remember or read the books a binge.

Books by Richard Schwartz

I bought a stack of books from the friend of a friend who wanted to clear house. Those turned out to be very entertaining fantasy novels by Richard Schwartz. I haven’t read the single titles in this universe yet, but due to traveling I spent some iTunes credits on the later books in order to avoid packing more. I even turned on data roaming and bought one book in the train in Germany - that should give you a good impression how much I enjoyed the series so far.

  • Das erste Horn
  • Die zweite Legion
  • Das Auge der Wüste
  • Der Herr der Puppen
  • Die Feuerinseln
  • Der Kronrat
  • Die Rose von Illian
  • Die weiße Flamme
  • Das blutige Land
  • Die Festung der Titanen
  • Die Macht der Alten

Movies

I’ve suggested watching the Fast and the Furious movies since I like them and in turn I watched the Harry Potter ones since I didn’t know them. Due to conflicts of time and interest we haven’t seen the last two Potters yet.

I recommend Inside Out. I can’t remember when I’ve had such a nice time in cinema. It’s easily my favorite movie of the year. Yeah, don’t go and watch Minions - it’s disappointing and weak.

  • Fast and the Furious, The
  • Fast and the Furious, The: Tokyo Drift
  • Fracture (Netflix, DE: Das perfekte Verbrechen)
  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • Inside Out (cinema, DE: Alles steht Kopf)
  • Jumper (Netflix)
  • Minions (cinema)
  • Transporter, The (Netflix)
  • V for Vendetta (Netflix)
  • xXx (Netflix)

Videos on Netflix

The Netflix series consumption has been more or less the same. Some Grimm, some Sherlock, a lot of Elementary. I have also checked out a documentary series about famous chefs which proved to be interesting.

Presentations

Podcasts