Week 16 - The Week, Lately

Unlike last year, I got to spend my Holy Week in the city while everyone else managed to retreat from the empty shell that Manila turns into during this time. In the meantime, I got myself to finish quite a few things over the past four days.

I've had a copy of The Amulet of Samarkand, a graphic novel adaptation of the Bartimaeus Sequence book, hidden away for the past few months. It was a lot grittier than I expected and overall an entertaining read.

I also got to finish several video games that have piled up recently.

First and foremost is The Cave, an Android title that's up on the Humble Bundle site as of late. It's much better than I anticipated and I was hooked for several playthroughs now, trying to unlock story-related content. I have a review up for that on Wednesday.

I've also managed to borrow a copy of Battlefield 4 for the PS4. It's a sad statement for first-person shooters that I got through the single-player campaign in a little over six hours (and on Hard mode too). While the multiplayer content is a blast, the fact that the current generation of games have a yearly fee for online services (on top of buying the games themselves) put things on a sour note.

I'd have to say though, Total Eclipse of the Heart is an excellent opener for the game.

I also got to play Hotline Miami, a surreal and violent game set to the tone of the neon-lighted alleyways of the 80s. I can't help but imagine Robocop's Detroit given the tone and soundtrack of the game. I like the difficulty presented by the game in the form of a mortally fragile protagonist. The gameplay design encourages players to commit mistakes and provide a challenge without being too rage-quittingly difficult, which is a decent pace.

Lastly, Batman movies. I've been on a DC binge lately trying to catch up to their direct-to-video releases. So far I've only watched the two-part series The Dark Knight Returns, which in itself is based on the excellent Frank Miller graphic novel of the same name. Looking forward to a bunch of Justice League movies over the next couple of days - and I must say I've been liking Superman less and less for them (and also Injustice).

That's about it. Later!