Roll up roll up come and get your Sunday Morning Stuff!
What have we got in this week’s edition? Well same as always, I’ll be chattering on a bit about what I’ve been reading, what I’ve been playing, what I’ve been listening to, and what I’ve been watching. It’s a simple concept. Keep up.
For a bit I talked about running as well, but you’ll find that elsewhere on the site if you’re into that sort of thing.
Anyway, without further ado and all that.
Reading
I’m still reading The Shining alright it’s a big book leave me alone I should have finished it by now but I haven’t so lets just MOVE ON.
Playing
I feel like I’m in between games at the moment. Dragon Age XI is out on Switch, and I’m itching to get into it, and Outer Worlds is tantalisingly close. But what about this week? What was I going to kill my time with? Since I have Game Pass I tucked into The Surge, since the sequel was out. I was very much into the fantastic limb targeting system, which allows you to dismember specific body parts, which is not only gory and satisfying, but also increases the chances you have of scoring scrap and armour parts from the corpse of the defeated enemy, allowing you to level up and power up your armour and weapons. But it’s kind of just too janky for me. It’s tough, because that’s the whole gimmick I suppose, which is fine when the mechanics of the game are solid and fair feeling, but ultimately I just didn’t feel that way about The Surge.
If you are really, really into Souls-like games then give it a go, or perhaps skip straight to the reportedly significantly improved sequel.
What I have spent a lot of time with is SteamWorld Heist, a game I talked about weeks ago at this point but have only recently got back into. For what it is, it is a pretty much perfect game. Cheap buy in, beautiful art and animations, bursting with character, simple fun.
I like it, a lot.
It’s a turn-based combat game where you move through 2D ship environments, plundering them as a crew of steam-powered space cowboys. Although there is a story to carry you through from ship to ship you can repeat scenarios to grind levels, and you’re unlikely to get sick of them because they are procedulary generated. It’s the best of both worlds.
Tons of characters. Tons of weapons. Great art. Great music. Get it.
Listening to
My listening this week has not necessarily been focused on the brand new but on the just missed. Did you know that Joe Keery had an album out? Yes, that is Sir Steve Harrington himself. Yes, it’s pretty damn good. I’d heard Djo’s Roddy single a while back but the release of the full album – Twenty Twenty – somehow missed me.
Now that I’ve managed to go back and take a gander, I can give a solid nod of approval.
It’s un-apologetically appealing to fans of Tame Impala’s earlier work, coming across with a bevy of melancholic but accessible psychedelic tunes which might not exactly change your world, but will most certainly make you nod your head.
I can also offer up something slightly more to the minute as the prolific Hello Meteor has delivered us another slice of textured, tonal bliss with Dark Secondaries. The autumnal vibes are laid on pretty thick, with skittering, pitter patter drum beats scattered across the record like the thick dropping of rain from drooping red leaves, especially on one the lonesome Say’s Phoebe, an absolute highlight from another transcendent project.
Watching
I told you last week that I would be finished with Undone by the end of this week and I am indeed done with Undone.
It is really quite good.
This is exactly what I want to watch on what is now “TV”. Freed from the restrictions of networks and programming blocks this is the kind of freaky excellence that we should be being blessed with. It is a show with purpose, with a singular story to tell and a determination to tell it in a gleefully divergent manner. The way it ends leaves rooms for further seasons, but it doesn’t need it, and I don’t want it (although would I watch it? Probably. Definitely. Yes).
Now you’ve had your fill of my stuff get out of here, go on. Get.
Or don’t. If you want you can hang around and read a bit more of my nonsense, or check out my Twitter, but only if you really don’t have anything better that you could be doing…since you’re already here I can only presume that you don’t.
run into words 