Lathany

I've finished Old Skies: excellent, enjoyable story, good puzzles and a lead character in whom I became emotionally invested.

I've recently played Orwell: Keeping An Eye on You. It's got interesting gameplay and moral choices and is indeed named for the author.

A good year, I think, although I would have given a different review back in September or October when we were down a bathroom as well as a kitchen! After all, the second half of the year was somewhat dominated by the building work, but we do now have a shiny new kitchen to show for it. I wouldn't want to do it again any time soon – but also don't have to.

Time-off this year for me went well: I had a couple of relaxing holidays in the South Downs and Long Melford. I also had a number of interesting and entertaining work events. Many of my friend-colleagues are either taking time out or moving on next year and I'm going to very much miss them.

We finished Heresy, She Wrote which I thoroughly enjoyed. There is now Heresy in Paradise scheduled for next year. My 2024 also involved, much Darktide, plenty of SteamWorld Heist II and a bit of Return to Moria as well.

In general terms – overall I enjoyed the year and ended in a good place.

In detail
As per usual, a month-by-month breakdown.

January – It was a chilly, uneventful month. I worked, played Darktide and watched some films.
February – The Hatted One joined the twins and I for the Infinity Mirror Rooms exhibition at the Tate Modern. I had dinner with Liz W at Tas.
March – Uneventful, with a quiet birthday celebration.
April – There was a Kew trip. There was also some gaming: both video and roleplaying.
May – We saw The Kills at the Troxy at the start of the month and Dom ran an awesome, mad game for Alistair's 50th. We spent a week in the South Downs on a family holiday enjoying a castle, Marwell Zoo and Jane Austen's house.
June – We attended Martin and Ebee's civil ceremony day. I had a work awayday in London and at the end of the month Dom and I went to Gymkhana for my birthday meal (organised in March).
July - I watched the General Election online with Alistair. I attended Lesley's retirement do, meeting up with many former colleagues.
August - Visited Kew and saw my first Banksy. This is also when the building work started on the new kitchen.
September – Bea and I got cat tattoos together, I had a work trip to Edinburgh and Bea and I had a long weekend in Long Melford.
October – We celebrated 32 years together at Trinity, we visited Krys and Chris, we completed Heresy, She Wrote after 18 months and... I'm not quite sure how many sessions. At the end of the month I had a hospital appointment, but was declared clear of issues.
November – There was a work AwayDay housed at the Tate Modern. Gem and Olivia came over for board games and Bea and I had a sunny Kew Trip.
December – The kitchen work finally ended, I survived two back-to-back work Xmas dos and my mother stayed a few days over Xmas.


The Lists of Things
As is my tradition, here are my lists of things of 2024.

Twenty-one books read for the first time.
The Midnight Mayor - Kate Griffin
Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz
The Martian - Andy Weir
Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz
Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Airs Above the Ground - Mary Stewart
The Neon Court - Kate Griffin
The Minority Council - Kate Griffin
Stray Souls - Kate Griffin
The Husbands - Holly Gramazio
The Word Is Murder - Anthony Horowitz
The Sentence Is Death - Anthony Horowitz
A Line to Kill - Anthony Horowitz
The Twist of a Knife - Anthony Horowitz
The Bookseller's Tale - Martin Latham
Network Effect - Martha Wells
System Collapse - Martha Wells
Artemis - Andy Weir
The Glass God - Kate Griffin
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

Favourites
1. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir: I got this because I enjoyed the Martian and this one is even better. Science-heavy, surprising and with an engaging central character.
=2. Network Effect - Martha Wells: Frankly, the whole Murderbot series has been great, but of the two full-length books, I preferred this one. Engaging, fast-moving and I love the central character. This is more at the space opera end of sci fi.
=2. The Husbands - Holly Gramazio: This is one of the most thought-provoking, yet entertaining books I have read. A magic attic that provides different married life alternatives for the protagonist Lauren and shows how the rest of her life changes. Definitely recommended (and I'm planning to make it my pick for my bookclub).
4. Stray Souls - Kate Griffin: I think the best of her Kate Griffin phase (I met her writing as Clare North). It's something like the fifth book, but the others before it are also well worth it. It's London-based fantasy set in the present day. And there's a supernatural support group in it.
5. Moonflower Murders - Anthony Horowitz: I've read a lot of Horowitz this year, but I like this the best, in part because I like Susan the best of his protagonists. Interesting double detective story switching from a book detective (Agatha Christie like) to a life one (Susan).

Twelve novellas read for the first time.
Demon Daughter - Lois McMaster Bujold
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain - Nghi Vo
On the Fox Roads - Nghi Vo
All Systems Red - Martha Wells
Vermeer to Eternity - Anthony Horowitz
What the Dead Know - Nghi Vo
Artificial Condition - Martha Wells
Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells
Exit Strategy - Martha Wells
Penric and the Bandit - Lois McMaster Bujold
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory - Martha Wells
Compulsory - Martha Wells

Favourites
1. All Systems Red - Martha Wells: As above, the first Murderbot tale I read.
2. When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain - Nghi Vo: Like the Empress of Salt and Fortune this was well-written, engaging fantasy and not quite like anything else.
3. Penric and the Bandit - Lois McMaster Bujold: Solid Penric stuff, if not as good as some of them.

Nine computer games finished.
Home Safety Hotline
Ni No Kuni 2
The Case of the Golden Idol
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Firewatch
Tacoma
Steamworld Heist II
Incubus
Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria
Favourites
1. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide: This nailed the 40K atmosphere, the multiplayer was solid and fun. Also, not exactly beautiful, but excellent graphics.
2. Steamworld Heist II: Hatted bots saving the world in a turn-based strategy game that was fun, large and didn't require much computer space or power to run.
3. The Case of the Golden Idol: A rather good puzzle game that involves a lot of thinking and clues.

Twenty films I saw this year.
Marry Me
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Orion and the Dark
The Lost City
Dune 2
Tales from Earthsea
The Lego Batman Movie
Paradise
Atlas
The Matrix Resurrections
Inside Out 2
Appleseed Alpha
Beverly Hills Cop Axel F
Glass
Bullet Train
The Adam Project
The Equalizer
Godzilla Minus One
Whisper of the Heart
Carry On
Favourites
1. Orion and the Dark: it had been described as Inside Out meets Being John Malkovich. The description was fitting and the film was great.
=2. Bullet Train: Thriller / comedy about a number of assassins who find themselves on the same Tokyo train. I would say it's not going to be on my best film ever list, but was unexpectedly watchable and entertaining (and apparently based on a book). Brad Pitt is a decent lead and has a good support cast. Also, cameos.
=2. Godzilla Minus One: This starts slowly, but turns into a very good film. Set in Japan around the end of the War and featuring the named massive monster.
4. Dune 2: Epic, cinematic. I didn't like it quite as much as I hoped, but still good.
=5. Inside Out 2: Not as good as the first, but worth a trip to the cinema.
=5. Carry On: Engaging, and I agree not as formulaic as some. Also a Christmas film. Die Hard isn't knocked off its pedestal, but at least this is something worth beating.

Eleven seasons of TV
Shadow and Bone - season 1
Altered Carbon - season 2
The Signal
Bodies
Yu Yu Hakusho
Fool Me Once
Cowboy Bebop
Supacell
1899
Travelers - season 1
Arcane: League of Legends

Favourites/ordering
1. Bodies: It involved multiple interesting characters, various mysteries and time travel. I wasn't too sure for the first two episodes (and there was a lot to follow), but got really hooked on the next two. Five and six were also great, then the penultimate episode was a bit poor but the ending was good. I particularly liked that the four main leads were all police officers in different time periods.
2. 1899: It's weird and has isolated seavoyage / ghost vibes. It was supposed to be three seasons, but was cancelled. It's from the creators of Dark and I would say is better and weirder. I think cautiously recommended - the questions in the first season are mainly answered - but you end up with a set of new questions at the end.
3. The Signal: A German science fiction mini series about an astronaut and her family. It was an interesting premise and good characters. I think it was also the right length for its story, so recommended.
4. Supacell: A British superhero television series set in modern-day South London. It is about a group of five ordinary black people, unified by family history of sickle cell disease. This was the “origins” equivalent of Heroes and quite good – but I found it hard to get into the story initially.
5. Cowboy Bebop: A live action series based on the 1998 Japanese anime television series. Interesting, sadly only ran to one season, but I liked the characters and the atmosphere.


So, 2025? Less kitchen work will be good and I already have several plans and arrangements lined up. I'm feeling cautiously hopeful.

Farewell 2024.

If anyone is looking for a decent strategy game that doesn't take hours to download (and features cute, hatted robots) then I recommend Steamworld Heist II.



I liked it even better than the original and it's much bigger.

I played Firewatch in a week as it's about five hours long. It's got beautiful scenery, finding things on the map is interesting and some engaging dialogue.



I have a review on GameFAQs.

Chris recommended Chants of Sennaar - a rather excellent language puzzle game.

GameFAQs has just posted my review.

Recommended to anyone who likes the idea of working out different fictional languages.

I played Mass Effect Andromeda after I finished the original Mass Effect Trilogy. I had been told it was a rather different sort of game, so that part was not a surprise. Whilst there was plenty I liked – enough that I did finish it – there were also a number of problems and, more crucially, disappointments.

First up, the good. I thought the premise behind Andromeda was creative. That they were exploring in another galaxy and particularly how this ends up being tied back to the original trilogy. I liked that Ryder was a different kind of character to Shepard. I enjoyed going through the vaults and the different worlds. I also did like exploration as a theme. Some of the missions, generally many of the squadmate missions, were very interesting and different and I tended to look forward to doing them. Also, I liked that the fate of the Arks were very varied. Finally, the space travel was gorgeous.

Now the mixed. The new squad was OK. Some of them were great (generally the non-humans), and others not so much (generally the humans). Ditto people on station and on the ship. Whilst some missions were interesting, lots of others were samey. I was disappointed that the weapons and armour systems were not more interesting. And where were my tropical fish? I missed those and didn't consider the hamster nearly as good. Plus, why does the Pathfinder end up making all the decisions? What's the actual point of those other people who technically have command roles? Finally, the various "moral" choices that Ryder makes are interesting, but I was less clear about the consequences.

Onto the annoying. Too many of the “little” quests involved skipping from planet to planet when a big deal had been made about giving the main character an actual ship. And those quests were tedious, there needed to be some sort of delegation system. Plus, there's only so many times you can buggy in your Nomad across the same parts of planet without getting bored. Then, whilst I can see they wanted to make a big deal of the 3D nature and the jump packs... I got lost far, far too often in places with multiple levels. They needed signposts. Oh, and the bugs. Why are there still game-breaking bugs Bioware / Electronic Arts? (With side comments about EA itself demanding its own game launcher on my PC.)

And finally the really bad. Namely, what happened to the plot? The game got underway, rather promisingly, with three different plot strands other than the actual Pathfinding. One concerns the other races you find in Andromeda, a second is about the ancient – now vanished – race (Remnant) and the third is about how the Andromeda fleet got its backing and what happened to the original leader. It was the second two that interested me the most, particularly the last one... and they aren't answered in Andromeda. Instead the game was clearly written with the idea of it being the first of a series. This was really annoying, particularly as the plot content felt very thin on the ground anyway compared to the original trilogy (which did have a satisfactory ending to its first instalment).



So overall, decent but disappointing. It always had a lot to live up to, but I felt fell much further short than it should have done.

GameFAQs has now posted my review of IMMORTALITY. Summary: Three movies and related footage: image-search concept, great acting and interesting story premise. Also, creepy.

GameFAQs have posted my review of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow. It's a Wadjet Eye published game, so I expected to really enjoy it. Sadly, this wasn't the case.

Instead I found it depressing. My fault rather than the game's as the issue was it was exactly what it kept saying it was going to be. It's well-designed and the puzzles are good... it's just not what I wanted it to be.

GameFAQs has published my review of Everybody's Gone To The Rapture. It's one of those walk-around-and-explore-to-see-the-story games made by the Dear Esther company. In general, well-done, interesting, tragic and beautiful.