The month went by in a flash, and a lot of stuff happened, yet again.
Writing these summaries and weeknotes makes me realize that even though time seems to fly, there really is a lot of stuff going on all the time and we just canāt process it as easily without actually recording it somewhere.
I recently reconnected with a friend that actually shows up in a picture almost 20 years ago, as a baby in one of the physical photo albums we keep, we somehow met back then! Even if I donāt remember, that event remains in that physical object, which is pretty neat.
Anyway, this whole month saw a lot of progress when it comes to reading and gaming, I got a bit of a boost thanks to how things lined up, which is pretty cool, hereās some of the media I experienced throughout October!
Gaming
I completed two games! Thatās pretty great right? Doing well to take games off the backlog at a rate close enough to how much I keep adding games to it.
Completed
- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - This was a fantastic old school, story and lore-heavy, puzzle/platforming adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed, after getting over the usual early 3D game caveats it has. Absolutely ahead of its time with excellent puzzle design and awesome tricks up its sleeve that honestly made me use my brain at full throttle. The voice acting, art and boss design, everything here is just great for its time.
- Hyper Light Drifter - One of the not-so early indie games that became an instant classic. Inspired by retro adventure games with a focus on combat, exploration and wordless storytelling, this game does everything really well, except maybe a finnicky game mechanic that isnāt too bad anyway. I really enjoyed playing this in short spans here and there. Give it a go! A great couch multiplayer experience too.
Ongoing
- Hollow Knight: Silksong - I wish I could have played a lot more of this one, I am now in the endgame of Act 2, finding secrets and areas before I face against the final boss. This game has been an absolute joy and I plan to continue the adventure alongside the next game of this list. Still not done with it!
- CrossCode - I started playing this with a couple of friends and we are progressing together and setting stopping points for others to catch up. I am actually behind right now, even if I made a lot of progress early on, my short vacation without my Switch really messed up my progress! Will catch up soon.
- Full Metal Furies - Again, just played it once, awesome co-op beatāem up rpg game.
- Ember Knights - Just played it once, good hades-style roguelike co-op game.
- Slice & Dice - Best mobile roguelike game, still playing here and there.
Manga
- Ariadne in the Blue Sky - Up to chapter 205, which is 78 chapters since last month! Again, the story of this game has gone places even more. I am rather invested in seeing what will happen to these characters now that I am so close to the end of it! Will it deliver? will it flop? No idea.
- Chainsaw Man - Up to chapter 218, which basically means I am caught up again, not that many chapters since last time though. A lot of weird evil stuff is going on and everyone is broken I guess.
Anime & Shows
- TRON: Uprising - An absolutely fantastic work of art of a TV Show that didnāt get a second season because this world is flawed to the core. Incredible writing, animation and themes, great characters and art design, I loved it so much itās the first show to get a separate blogposts dedicated to it. Just masterful stuff.
- Record of Ragnarok - I watched the second season of this on a whim, and it was rather cool. This was apparently a PowerPoint presentation for a lot of people, I must admit, I noticed it wasnāt as great as some other stuff I watched, but I was rather hyped by the battle outcomes and the backstories, so I didnāt really mind or cared about the bad animation that much.
- Death Note - Another single episode out of nowhere was watched, so that is nice. itās weird how I manage to just rethread stories after so much time happens, but well, it keeps working for me.
Books
Completed
- Babylonās Ashes - The next book in the Expanse series, a wild ride as always, with a bit of a slow ramp up that makes everything worth it! It was a little harder to follow given the huge variety of characters with chapters and viewpoints, but I still really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the next one though.
- Overscan - A collection of short stories featuring real humans sharing just some good old speculative fiction short stories. I am overdue on my review of it but thatās because Iām considering a reread, given how short it is! This was a physical read too, which was a nice change.
Ongoing
- Exit Strategy - The next novella of The Murderbot Diaries, have barely made any progress but I plan to finish it this month.
Movies
Well, just like Alien before, TRON became a bit of a temporary obsession of mine, what a series!
- Oceanās Eleven - Watched it early in the month with family, it was a very fun and enjoyable movie! And all those actors in one place was fun to see.
- TRON: Ares - Went to the movies and saw this and the discourse around it, I personally thought it was fun to watch, although I hadnāt seen the previous films in years, barely remembering the plot of them. Still, standalone, it was fun, and the soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails was quite fantastic as well!
- TRON - I had to see the original 1982 release, and I couldnāt help but be amused by its concepts and ideas. However, it is extremely confusing even for those familiar with computers. I saw it again with a friend, and she barely understood what was going in. The movie just throws ideas and random stuff and some of it sticks while some of it is just confusing. Still enjoyable for what it is.
- TRON: Legacy - I really enjoyed this movie, I remember seeing it back in the day, although years after its release. I thought it was so cool, and I still think so today. The cinematography is fantastic, the score is simply sublime. I thoroughly enjoyed it despite its flow and pacing issues.
- KPop Demon Hunters - A complete surprise! I had seen the praise this movie got earlier in the year, and I can confirm it is indeed really good. The music and lyrics were awesome, the story and characters were all pretty complex and multi-dimensional. Overall, a fantastic movie!
Podcasts
Interestingly enough, I only listened to 36 hours of podcasts this month, thatās the lowest of the year, listening to full albums again is definitely to blame.
- Into The Aether - Spooky season showed up, and even Parasite Eve made an appearance, so that was absolutely thrilling for me, although Brendon was missing during that episode.
- Trash Taste - Quite a few episodes were listened to :P
- Boring Books for Bedtime - I just keep coming back to H.G. Wellās A Short History of the World. So good.
- Retro Game Time Machine - Listened to a few bits of episdoes but havenāt finished many actually.
- The Ten Minute Bible Hour - Some great progress on Matthew was done!
Device Usage
I have no idea what happened but my device usage history got lost on my phone, it registers only like 29 hours for the whole month, which is great but itās not the truth at all. In any case, whatever!
Also, I barely used my laptop this time around so I wonāt bother to share it either.
Kobo Reader
I read for a total of 13 hours
- Exit Strategy for 15 minutes (13 pages)
- Babylonās Ashes for 12:30 hours (655 pages)
Finishing thoughts
Thereās quite a lot of highlights this time around, mostly, the TRON movies, finishing not one but two videogames, and finishing a couple books as well!
Some other cool stuff happened throughout the month, which is detailed on my weeknotes. Media-wise though, I am quite happy with all I managed to watch, read or listen to.
I kind of still hate how much my brain returns to the word āconsumeā, but Iāll keep avoiding it like the plague. Thankfully, I can still say I enjoyed pretty much everything media-related this month.
Until next time!
