A roundup of noteworthy things I’ve played, read, listened to, or watched over the last few weeks.
It was simpler times.
🎤 Gary Gulman: “Born on 3rd Base” (2023) – For me personally, a funnier special than his previous two.
🎮 PowerWash Simulator | Xbox – I have no excuse. I liked it a lot for some reason. At some point my mind turned this game into part 2 of the excellent Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. You’re alone and hallucinating conversations with ghosts and other people that you never see, while cleaning what they have left behind.
📚 Trevor Hopkins: “Dark Matter” – A fan fiction Culture novel, and I gotta say, this worked very well for me. If you miss Iain M. Banks as much as I do, and long for new Culture stories, check out Mr. Hopkins' catalogue!
We only learnt of our son’s secret online life after he died at 20 – “When Mats Steen died from a muscle-wasting disorder, his parents believed that his life had been a tragically lonely one — until hundreds of emails from strangers arrived. It turns out that he’d found friendship and even romance in a gaming community”. I’ve cried a little bit reading that article.
🎮 Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice | Xbox – Looks and sounds fabulous, but I’ve dropped the game after a few hours; I just can’t deal with its whole everything right now.
🎤 Kurt Braunohler: “Perfectly Stupid” (2022) – Good stand-up special from a comic I hadn’t heard of before.
🎮 Sifu, Xbox – A lovely Kung Fu game. I love the idea, I love the look, I lack the skill.
🎮 Donut County, Xbox – Short, sweet, cute game where you play a hole in the ground, mostly. I liked it!
🎤 Tom Papa: Human Mule (2016) — Two weeks later, I don’t remember anything from that hour, though. But I know I enjoyed it while it lasted.
