superborb | Entries tagged with review: games

Metal from Heaven, by August Clarke:

In an industrializing fantasy setting with a horribly oppressed labor class, a lesbian highwaywoman seeks her revenge. Reading this was roughly like being hit over the head, so much was happening. It was quite satisfying and the whole hung together, but it picked up and abandoned complete genres as it went. I'm not sure its politics fully held together, but it sure was a ride.

Where the Axe is Buried, by Ray Nayler:

A revolution brews in a world where the West is ruled by AI Prime Ministers and the Federation is ruled by the President, who maintains his grip on power by transferring his mind to new bodies. Very meaty, though no individual idea was especially novel, it was put together in a satisfying way. I liked solving the puzzle of who was pulling the strings and the larger plot, but despite its ostensible focus on systems, it is very much a Great Man type of story. Really enjoyed!

The City in Glass, by Nghi Vo:

The story of a demon who loves a city, told over centuries. A beautiful read, but not too much substance. Well, it was still satisfying as a story of grief and moving on, but because of how brief each described snapshot is, it felt less substantial than it ought to have? I enjoyed this, but found it forgettable.

Semiosis, by Sue Burke:

Pacifist colonists escape the war and ecological disaster on Earth for a distant planet, and the story of the colony and the alien life they encounter is told by one character per generation for seven generations. The science is pretty bad and not consistent: if no Earth plants/animals can survive, why are humans the exception? Why not try to bring some samples over? And then after all the detail about how the biochemistry is different... it's similar enough that they are largely affected by drugs the same way. I also wish it dug more into the difficulties of pacifism or how specific culture is (the prohibition on eating the dead is not universal even on Earth...). Basically, while the story itself was satisfying and I really enjoyed the conceit of the generations passing, I wish it were more than it was.
PS: If you're worried about reproduction on the new planet and only have frozen ova/sperm for reproductive technology, why not have way more woman colonists in gen one?
Spoiler CW: there was two paragraphs of on screen rape that came out of nowhere

Gauguin (game): A sudoku like game that I enjoyed for being a bit tricky to figure out. I was searching for puzzle-y games to play while nursing, and went through several similar type games (Tents and Trees, Star Battle) for being too easy... I wanted to like Cosmic Express or Mini Metro for this, but they require too much movement during gameplay. Games like Two Dots and Candy Crush get a little too same-y since they aren't solvable the same way, and games like Rummikub and Azul are too solvable when played against the computer. Basically, I'm too picky, and I fear the end result of this is that I really need to get into Tsumego...

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder, by Asako Yuzuki, trans. Polly Barton: A journalist gets a bit too involved in the worldview of a woman who has been jailed for allegedly killing her boyfriends, and who has garnered the hatred of the public for unapologetically prioritizing herself and being fat.
- The weight stuff was unexpectedly hard to read...
- The lesbian undertones were interestingly obscured by the protag's view, but also really pragmatically stated; in her world, going to a girl's school meant she was cast / cast herself as a prince character to the other girls.
- The food descriptions are quite good; I really wanted rice with butter and soy sauce after.
- Either journalistic standards in Japan must be very different or the protag must not be a very good journalist.
Didn't quite come together for me, the subtle commentary not quite refined enough -- like, it felt like it was trying to say stuff subtly, but did it really say anything in the end... I did like parts of it though, and it was a very distinct voice.

Interior Chinatown, by Charles Yu: Asian American studies 101. Not in a bad way necessarily, but not sure I came out if it having felt the content was new; however, the structure was very creative. I expected a little bit more oompf from the ending though. Still, a propulsive read.

The Hidden Palace: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker: Sequel to The Golem and the Jinni. Vibe is more of the same, and it doesn't really do a ton that was novel. None of the new characters were quite as good as the OGs. I enjoyed reading this, but it isn't a must read IMO.

Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, by Henry Grabar: As the tin says. Some interesting case studies, nothing especially novel in the overarching argument, but ties it together. I didn't feel like the thesis was especially strong (seems that writing it during the pandemic should have changed said thesis more than it did).

In This House of Brede, by Rumer Godden: A successful professional woman leaves her high status, respected position in London to join a cloistered Benedictine monastery. When Providence is part of the premise, it does Watsonionally explain a lot of "and then the protag was a great friend of someone random that solves their problem." I largely enjoyed this, the focus on living in community, the head hopping style as we learn about the nuns and their stories.

The Doors of Eden, by Adrian Tchaikovsky: A world much like our own is actually part of a series of parallel universes with different sentient creatures and a misfit group must save the world. I guess it being not actually our world might explain things like the UK having an SSN, but that was pretty weird. The cultures and worlds all had a sameyness and the characters, both human and non, felt quite thin. (It very definitely suffers from the 'whole world is just one culture!' trap.) It was a fine romp, but despite all the talk about Tchaikovsky having 'weird aliens,' I wasn't impressed.

Killingly, by Katharine Beutner: Based on the 1897 real-life disappearance of a Mount Holyoke student and telling a story of what might have happened and the people that might have been around her. [Rot13] V qba'g guvax n qbez sheanpr va 1897 jbhyq or ubg rabhtu gb perzngr n obql naq guvf vf npghnyyl rkgerzryl cybg pevgvpny? But otherwise what it says on the tin, though a bit thin and the ending is very pat. I liked the college students and their descriptions best, but otherwise, I would only recommend it to people who do like that kind of historical fiction.

https://368chickens.com/: I played across my phone and computer, so I dug into the code to check how many tries it took me -- 32 for the first win, then I think I got a method that worked. It does make me feel like a game theorist could come up with some interesting principles about winning based on the random chicken selector...

Jiang Ziya (2020) (DNF): Part two of the animated Ne Zha series. The fight scenes are pretty tedious, so I DNF'd in the end.

Ancient Detective (2020) (DNF): I don't think I'll ever come back to this, and I did follow the group watch until ep 16 / verdict was that it wasn't really worth finishing, so I guess I might as well boot this out of my drafts. It's a detective story, but in that boring way where it follows the standard detecting case solving storylines in terms of beats -- lots of talking over clues / people around to be witness, arguments about who is accused etc with everyone in the case standing around, then smaller discussions with a Watson. Finally, the killer admits to it after being confronted and explains his motivations, and the recap of how the crime happened is extremely lengthy. The medicine was bad (blowing on an open wound! Dry finger bones being attached to each other!) and the sound mixing was extremely bad. However, there were fun moments! The distinctive weapons were nice, and there were some genuinely funny scenes (the character that records all the happenings triggered some as that premise might suggest, and my notes say something about a sad poetry recitation being really funny, though it's been... over a year, so not funny enough for me to remember it that long afterwards).

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard (DNF): This was very much pop history, with minimal citation, and I didn't feel like it was scaffolding me enough for me to retain any of the info.

I have ALSO skimmed a number of sleep training books, but they are all useless.

( Books: The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Kingdom of Characters (DNF), The Lie Tree, The Periodic Table, Minor Feelings )

( Other: Prune (game), Arrival (2016) (DNF), Emma. (2020), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Love Like the Galaxy (DNF) )

I have been in Graeber purgatory for the last three months and I am STILL NOT DONE with Dawn of Everything, so uh. Some mostly non-book media! (I... am mostly enjoying it, but it's just very difficult to read through in one sitting, which makes my progress slow.)

Make, Sew and Mend, by Bernadette Banner: An overview of hand-sewing techniques. From

sophia_sol's rec. It was well laid out in terms of the order of covered topics and mostly clear, though it was occasionally excessively wordy. There were a few times when I had to reread a sentence a dozen or so times before I understood what was happening and afterwords felt like it could have been expressed with more clarity. On the one hand, I'm not an experienced sewer so it makes sense that I would be confused sometimes; on the other, surely that is most of the intended audience, as the techniques covered are not particularly fancy. I did learn how to properly anchor my thread! And corrected a few other things that home ec misled me on.

8UPPERS: In conjunction with their album promotion, Kanjani8 released this movie, where they are gangsters who have suddenly acquired a baby. I guess a lot of background was supposed to be revealed in teasers in advance, but the plot still made sense without it. Not that the plot is that complicated or deep, but it is coherent! Mainly, they cast a cute baby and there are lots of found family scenes.

As We Like It (2021): An all-female cast retelling of As You Like It, set in a neighborhood of Taipei where internet is banned. It opens with many gay and lesbian couples as background, but an 'I'm not gay' freakout is what keeps Orlando and Rosalind-as-a-boy apart? And the het couple being able to have a baby is why they're superior? There are briefly mentioned gay couples, but it does come across as being far more comfortable with lesbians (or the playacting of a lesbian relationship) than with gay people. It tries to conclude with a 'gender doesn't matter' message at the end, but... all the main couples are het, though played by women, and the closest they get to queerness is the slight gender bending of Rosalind-as-a-boy. It was a fun romp, just not as queer as it seemed it'd be.

Luca (2021): Summer adventure coming of age movie set in Italy, where a sea monster child explores the human world for the first time. (I got the rec from someone on DW, but I can't seem to turn it up in search, as searching "Luca" also turns up hits for "Lucas"...) Fun, easy story to watch. I didn't love the animation style, but so it goes. I really like that Disney+ movies are available dubbed in lots of languages, and they're often pretty ideal for language learners in terms of speed etc.

Debrief (RP): Alternate Cold War with ghosts, one hour, two player game. From

skygiants' rec. This was the first time I did an RP and I am not sure I'm very good at it! I played with bf, and we were much more inclined to negotiate openly and also not add character quirks that would make it more difficult to succeed lol. It was fun! Being time limited makes it an easier introduction too. If you play, warnings for upper class white men in mid 19c Britain attitudes and histories.

Am I doing a mid-June Media Diet solely so I can discuss The Color of Distance even though I didn't have quite enough for a dedicated post? ...Yes.

The Color of Distance, by Amy Thomson: A human biologist is stranded on a world where the amphibian-like intelligent life has extremely refined abilities of biological manipulation. From

skygiants' rec -- DW search was NOT pulling up the rec, but it seemed like it could only have come from a Becca rec. THIS BOOK WAS 1000% MY JAM. So much my jam that I hadn't realized the books I had been reading were not my jam?? Anyway, a list of things that were my jam: weird aliens with development/society that were well thought out, difficult cross-cultural communication, extended academic presentations and associated nerdery, characters who kind of hated each other a bit and had to work through it, complicated disputes that didn't have simple resolutions where the characters' needs were in conflict. The ways that learning about each other impacted/changed how they viewed the world! I did not like the ~alien word~ emphasis at the very beginning, but it stopped afterwards thankfully. Also, stranding her when they know about her being on the planet seems ...kind of evil? And not going after them in the first place when they went missing conflicts with their strict leave-no-microbes-behind policy and evil? The book also has a very 90s sci-fi obsession with overpopulation, and does mostly fall into the one-species-one-culture trap. I am very sad that the sequel is apparently not good, but I loved this book so much!

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin, by Gad Beck and Frank Heibert, translated by Allison Brown: The first part of the memoirs of Beck, a half-Jewish teenager in Berlin during Hitler's rise to power and the Holocaust. From

skygiants' rec. Beck so clearly cares about people and understanding people, and the strength of the memoir is (IMO) the description of so many different, complex people from many walks of life. I found especially interesting the descriptions of the daily life of how their underground network operated -- and the many people who needed to be coordinated -- and that two of the non-Jews who contributed were motivated by spite after a perceived betrayal by the Nazi party. A short, complicated read.
CW: underage sex with adults in positions of power and, obviously, Nazi Germany

The Past is Red, by Catherynne M Valente: In a post-apocalyptic world, the survivors live on a giant floating garbage patch. From

sophia_sol's rec. I thought the worldbuilding and plot was quite shallow. The impression is rather like a series of ideas without thought about how they'd connect and follow-through? Also, I did not enjoy the prose very much. I did like the moral it tried to convey about loving your world as it is and living for the sake of living.

These Violent Delights, by Chloe Gong (DNF): Romeo and Juliet retelling in rival gangs of 1920s Shanghai. The prose is melodramatic and repetitive in a tedious way, and could have used some serious polish. Characters are rather thin, with 'snappy' dialogue and actions prioritized: e.g. breaking things to make a point just reads as if this supposedly mature protag is a total brat. I finally gave up at the line, "Despite the shine, it was brisk out today, chilly in the sort of way that drew the roses in the garden a little straighter, as if they couldn't afford to lose a single second of the warmth filtering through the clouds." Second... of warmth... Maybe I'll come back to this when I'm feeling more patient with superficiality.

Mini Metro: A puzzle game where you build a rail system as a city grows. I needed a new mobile idle game after Two Dots was becoming a bit repetitive, but Mini Metro in the standard mode is a bit too real time for that (one of modes is to create an efficient system, and so you can't lose). However, I got sucked into trying to beat all the city achievements. Each city has an achievement where you have to build your rail lines with a particular restriction and reach a certain number of travelers transported. And now that I've done all of them, I can put it down in my Media Diet hahaha. I liked that the achievements encouraged you to try different techniques! The game does a good job of differentiating each city even though they can only tweak a few things-- notably, the map itself, but also the speed of the trains and some of the power-ups you get. From youtube, it seems that Mini Motorways, the sequel game, improves upon the base idea, but it's not available for mobile (yet?).

Gorogoro Kitchen: A youtube channel, mostly vlogs of daily life / flea markets in France by a Japanese couple. I find the rhythm of these vlogs very soothing, and also love looking at flea markets.

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art, by Rebecca Wragg Sykes: A rather long (though not as long as I thought as I was reading, the last 12% is an index) pop sci book summarizing the historical and current state of research on Neanderthals and speculating (pretty conservatively?) about the unknowns. (From

narie's suggestion!) Scientifically, it did not dwell on the pieces I was more interested in (how were the reconstructions done etc), in favor of tons of detail about exact remains (reasonable, and even interesting when they reappeared in later chapters). I had complained about pop sci books not having enough detail; this attempts more successfully to be basic survey of the field than most, but lacks the citations and further readings that something for the scientific audience would have, and that I did miss. The flavor text in the beginning of each chapter were largely uninteresting, and the prose did sometimes become... purple. I'd only rec this if you were very interested in nonfiction or Neanderthals and also a fast reader. Favorite footnote, explaining how they knew the babies were breastfed: "Nitrogen in part tracks the place in the foodchain, and since babies are effectively eating their mother’s bodies, this makes them look like hyper-carnivores."

Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki: Speculative fiction combining deals with the devil, interstellar refugees, and violin prodigies. I was skeptical of the opening scenes, which were a bit jarring as they tried to combine those very different strands, but was quickly sucked in. I didn't overall think it quite worked all the bazillion elements it tried to sprinkle in into one whole story (food/location shout outs, wildly varying levels of description, anti-trans violence, in addition to the intrinsic everything about the premise). Also, I'm not usually a fan of the intrinsic genius trope. However, it had great momentum and I did compulsively read the whole thing in one shot, so I would rec if the premise seems fun.

Delicious Romance (爱很美味): Short drama about three 30 year old women navigating work drama and their love lives, hyper targeted to 30ish women. Very much 'it's the journey, not the destination,' and ends on an ambiguous note (setting up for a movie sequel). The more meta-ish pieces were very natural and fun-- e.g. they have the kid versions of the leads, who are very well cast, providing backstory and commentary and those scenes are nearly all very well done. Generally, when it's good, it's not afraid of being cynical or making sharp commentary, mostly about the pressures on women. It also presents a positive view of drag, even if the gay guy is a bit shoehorned in. I guess overall, maybe half of the show (early on, then again towards the middle-end) was engaging, but half was full of super cringey, unrealistic plot lines. Lots of choices for humor or how workplaces work being done for the effect, and then post justified or just left to drive the plot. (Allergies in show have no relationship to real life; spelling out of harassment/sexism so you get The Point; very rosy view of the work needed in a restaurant.) Ultimately, the major problem was that the show did not meet the expectations of the usual cdrama strength of interesting, compelling characters and relationships, which is core to a show like this. I'd only recommend this for people who are both really into this genre and have free time.

High on the Hog ep 1: Exploring African American cuisine, with a focus on history; the first episode is set in Benin. (From

dolorosa_12's rec) I really liked one of the interviewees, Jessica Harris, who was very knowledgeable, but the show was somewhat superficial in focus, not going in depth on the history or food. For example, at one point they eat foods that are meant to be foods that predate the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but it involved both corn and chilis? I'm not sure if I missed something obvious, but it would seem that that would need some more words of explanation. There were some interesting scenes, I just need higher information content in my documentary style shows.

Passing (2021): In 1920s NYC (and shot in black and white!), a black middle class woman unexpectedly meets her childhood friend, who has married a white man and now passes as white. From

silveredeye's rec! My little brother observed that this felt like English class, with all the ~symbolism~ etc etc, but I thought it was in a way that I enjoyed? I also totally called the foreshadowing of the [rot13] sybjrecbg snyyvat vaqvpngvat gung fbzrbar jnf tbvat gb snyy bhg bs n ohvyqvat naq vg jnf tbvat gb or nzovthbhf jung unq unccrarq, so perhaps I was just in the English class mode haha. It was rather heavy handed in the commentary on class (the childhood friend can cross class boundaries while the protag enforces her class boundaries) and also when they reiterated the characters' motivations to make sure you picked up those details. Anyway, I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it'll be something I come back to?

Monument Valley: A cute little puzzle mobile game, recced by

halfcactus. I can't say it was really worth the $4 though, for maybe 2-3 hours of easy content? It comes with the base 10 levels, and a small Ida's Dream standalone. There's some more chapters and a sequel game to buy, but it was just rather boring and fiddly (the mobile controls on spinning were not great). Great art and music though.