Einstart 3D Printer http://amzn.to/2ovXZ3J
Books to Movies 2017
Anytime I hear about a movie releasing that’s based on a book, I try with all of my might to read the book first. Once you see the movie, it’s impossible to go back and read the book and not picture the actors from the movie or anticipate the plot. It’s more or less ruined.. not in a bad way, just that there’s no way to unsee what you’ve seen.
A few titles I’ve done this with most recently:
Room by Emma Donoghue: great book great movie
The Revenant by Michael Punke: FANTASTIC book. Read in one sitting. Ok movie (they changed a bunch, but acting was good)
The Martian by Andy Weir: great book great movie
Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins: I could not get through this book so I didn’t even bother with the movie (which received terrible reviews)
Inferno by Dan Brown: I loved this book, although many did not. Heard the movie was terrible, so I didn’t bother. Shame.. I love Tom Hanks.
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey: I liked neither
The Fault in our Stars by John Green: great book but even better movie – a rare occurrence
Here are some titles of book to movie adaptations coming in 2017 that I’ll be checking out:
The Circle by Dave Eggers – very excited for this
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The Gunslinger by Stephen King – started it a while ago, but found it hard to get through. Just me? I’ll give it another go.
The Empire of a Thousand Planets (Valerian) by Jean-Claude Mézières and Pierre Christin – not sure about this one
The Shack by William P. Young – read this a long time ago and want to re-read before the movie
It by Stephen King – one of my all time favorite King books. If I had the time, I’d read it again, but have you seen how long it is!?
The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin – never heard of it, but fantastic actors and good book reviews
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie– ashamed to say I’ve never read an Agatha Christie book..
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls – started this book a while ago, time to finish
The Handmaids Tale by Margret Atwood
Affiliate links are used in this post.
Books to check out: Hugo Awards 2017
I’ve vaguely heard of the Hugo Awards before, most likely seeing it mentioned next to an author on Amazon, but I’ve never really looked into them. If you’re not familiar with awards, let me save you a click. This is from wikipedia:
“The Hugo Awards are a set of awards given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and were officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards until 1992.”
As a fan of both Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, reading about the Hugo awards definitely piqued my interest. The only problem was that I had never heard of ANY of the books nominated for Best Novel. So that made me think.. what the heck am I missing?? Why have I not heard of the books nominated for awards in a genre I love?! So I looked them all up on Amazon and they are ALL highly reviewed but with a relatively low amount of reviews. So I guess the titles just haven’t touched a large audience? Regardless I decided to see if they made the list for a reason and added all of the Hugo nominees (at least for Best Novel, Best Novella, Best Related Work, Best Graphic Story) to a list. We’ll see how many I can get through before the winners are announced at this years Wondercon on August 11th. If you’re interested in joining me on this journey of discovery, please let me know and we can start a Hugo book club (or something). I’d be very interested in finding others who have also read these titles.
For full list of all categories and nominees: http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2017-hugo-awards/
Here’s the shortened list of the titles I’ll be checking out:
Best Novel
All the Birds in the Sky, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor Books / Titan Books)
A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becky Chambers (Hodder & Stoughton / Harper Voyager US)
Death’s End, by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu (Tor Books / Head of Zeus)
Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)
The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin (Orbit Books)
Too Like the Lightning, by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)
Best Novella
The Ballad of Black Tom, by Victor LaValle (Tor.com publishing)
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson (Tor.com publishing)
Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com publishing)
Penric and the Shaman, by Lois McMaster Bujold (Spectrum Literary Agency)
A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com publishing)
This Census-Taker, by China Miéville (Del Rey / Picador)
Best Related Work
The Geek Feminist Revolution, by Kameron Hurley (Tor Books)
The Princess Diarist, by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Fairwood)
The View From the Cheap Seats, by Neil Gaiman (William Morrow / Harper Collins)
The Women of Harry Potter posts, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com)
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Small Beer)
Best Graphic Story
Black Panther, Volume 1: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)
Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening, written by Marjorie Liu, illustrated by Sana Takeda (Image)
Ms. Marvel, Volume 5: Super Famous, written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by Takeshi Miyazawa (Marvel)
Paper Girls, Volume 1, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Cliff Chiang, colored by Matthew Wilson, lettered by Jared Fletcher (Image)
Saga, Volume 6, illustrated by Fiona Staples, written by Brian K. Vaughan, lettered by Fonografiks (Image)
The Vision, Volume 1: Little Worse Than A Man, written by Tom King, illustrated by Gabriel Hernandez Walta (Marvel)
Affiliate links used in this post.
My Most Anticipated Games 2017
Considering I’m writing this in April, let’s forget about the first 3 months of 2017 and set our eyes to the remainder. Why does this list seem so short? I actually can’t answer that. It seems as though not many games that fit my tastes are releasing in 2017 (?) or maybe have just not been announced yet. Hopefully, we’ll get some good ‘surprise’ indie games to fill the gaps. This list will be updated as I come across more titles releasing this year. If you know of any I missed, please let me know!
All games are for PC unless otherwise notated.
April
Outlast 2 – April 25
What Remains of Edith Finch – April 25
Little Nightmares – April 28
May
Prey – May 5
August
Middle-earth: Shadow of War – August 22
September
Destiny 2 – September 8
Unscheduled 2017 Releases
Crackdown 3
Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4,XBOX)
Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)
For a full list, not edited by my personal taste bias, I suggest checking out Game Informer’s full list for 2017. It has it all (or seems to at least).
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2017/01/13/2017-video-game-release-schedule.aspx
Fractal Design: Nano S
Nano S: http://amzn.to/2kAHj4q
ITX Budget Build housed by the beautiful Nano S from Fractal Design.
Fractal Design Nano S next to the Define C
Affiliate links are used in this post.
ITX Budget Gaming: Pentium G4560
Back in the day, when I was traveling to LAN’s frequently, I really wanted to do an ITX build. In those days, we definitely didn’t have as many options as today. So when Fractal Design sent me the Nano S to check out, I jumped at the chance to throw together TWO ITX builds. This is the first as a budget build that comes in under $500! It came out very ‘basic’, so you know I had to flash it up a bit with some DIY mods. PSU Shroud, CPU cover, custom sleeved cables and I/O covers all made by me using acrylic sheets, a heat gun and spray paint.
Specs and Amazon links with US prices:
Fractal Design Nano S case: http://amzn.to/2nqkjqm
Pentium CPU: http://amzn.to/2mMN9UU
Gigabyte H110N Motherboard: http://amzn.to/2mdvIts
Zotac gtx1050 GPU: http://amzn.to/2mTElNj
Ballistix RAM 8gb DDR4: http://amzn.to/2nqvGif
EVGA 500W PSU: http://amzn.to/2nqkkur
Affiliate links are used in this post.
Favorite Indie Games 2016
Note: I adore indie games. Specifically, ones that think outside the box and bring something new to the world of gaming. If you know of any great ones I missed or new ones for 2017, please send me a message via Twitter or the contact page. I’m always looking to check out more games! Here’s the list of my favorites released in 2016.
Inside
First up is one of the most popular and award winning games of 2016. I had to include it on the list just for the fact that I had my doubts about it, but honestly could not put it down once I started playing. In fact, I shamelessly finished it in one sitting. Granted, it’s a short game at just a few hours, but wow.. and the ending.. jeez. Yeah it got a lot of buzz across other sites and award shows for being the best indie game, and while it wasn’t my absolute favorite, I definitely can’t leave it off this list.
Abzu
I did NOT like this game at first. In fact, I had to check like twice on the steam store page to make sure it wasn’t a VR game and I was just missing it. You start out just swimming around looking at fish with generally no direction, so it’s easy to mistake it for a VR title. I put about 15min in and quit, thinking this just wasn’t the game for me. But then I heard someone else talking about how great the game was on a podcast, and I was like what the.. what am I missing. So like a good lil gamer, I went back. And they were right. The game suddenly turns into a game, a very simple one, but a very touching one and one that I am SOOOO glad I not only went back to, but finished. Bravo to those devs. Abzu was unique, refreshing and felt very special. Even if small. It normally sells for $19.99 but that’s a bit steep for the only 4hr game, so I waited for a steam sale and got it for 5.99 which felt perfect. Highly recommend playing with a controller.
Oxenfree
Oxenfree was one of the next games I heard about over and over, but about which I knew next to nothing. I didn’t see it streamed nor did I read about the story before playing. Thankfully, I was very glad I didn’t. It’s not the type of story you want to have spoiled or spoil for someone else. It’s of the ‘choose your own adventure’ sorts. Like an Until Dawn 2d scroller. The story and the characters really pull you in, and I felt their fear while on this island of horror. The devs did a great job with the unique art style, the dialogue, and the unique story. At times I felt the controls were a bit rough and the long paths of nothing got a tad old, but the game is short enough to not be too much a pain. There are different possible outcomes and endings, so choose your answers wisely.
Firewatch
Firewatch was the 3rd title that I saw repeatedly mentioned in top indie games lists and it also made mine. If Inside or Oxenfree didn’t hit you in the feels, then maybe Firewatch will because it is not a light game. It deals with some heavy topics and has some nice twists. Go into this game not reading anything about it for the best experience. Another game with great art style and dialogue between the two main characters. It’s short, almost too short. I would have enjoyed more days in the forest just completing meaningless jobs. I may have enjoyed that more than the way the story took the game. I will say that the beginning and ending of the game could almost be two different games in a way. It could have been better, if longer, but overall another must play.
Turmoil
I never thought drilling for oil could be so fun or addicting. This game is relatively simple but does have some strategy elements. I spent WAY too much time playing this game not to include it on this list.
Icey
ahhh I want to talk about Icey, but I don’t because I want you to be surprised. So don’t read about this game, just play it. I can compare it to a few other games that took a similar route, but that would give it away so I’ll just say I highly recommend picking up this game if you see it on sale.
Salt and Sanctuary
If you want a game that’ll make you break a keyboard (or controller) with violence and great gameplay to boot, then I highly recommend Salt and Sanctuary. I died a lot with just the first boss, so if you’re a fan of Dark Souls and boss heavy games, then get this game while it’s cheap. While I didn’t get too far in this game, mostly because I knew I needed a break when I pounded my desk so hard that I got nervous for my tempered glass case sitting next to me, I do recommend it if this style is your jam. I’ll be sure to revisit it with a glass of wine next time.
Other notable mentions:
Hyper Light Drifter: Great soundtrack, pixel art and old school zelda style gameplay. Steam link
Plague Inc (finally full released): This one has been around for a while. You destroy the world by creating a plague. Surprisingly hard. Steam link
Owlboy: I didn’t get too far into it, but I can see the appeal. Steam link
Reigns: Chill and hilarious card game. Very unique. Steam link
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