First Quarter Book Review

I have continued to spend time this quarter reading Warhammer 40,000 material, and I have gotten through a large brace of it. I love this stuff.

I read the second and third volumes in the 7th Edition core book set, Dark Millennium and The Rules. The first is an exploration of the lore of the setting, where the second is exactly what it sounds like. The game is in 8th Edition at the moment, but a lot of the rules remain the same, and the differences are interesting.

I have also subscribed to the all-things-Games-Workshop magazine White Dwarf, and I am reading my second issue of that. They are now running new short stories in each issue, the first of which was called The Herald of Doom, and showed the Black Legion beginning to arrive at the planet of Vigilus, which was already under siege by both Orks and Genestealer Cults.

There was a Black Library Celebration week in February, during which they released the Horus Heresy stories Lantern's Light, Bringer of Sorrow, and Ghost of Nuceria. These were centered around Mortarion, Arkhan Land, and Angron, respectively.

I read the novel Vulkan: Lord of Drakes in a couple of days one week, and The Buried Dagger the next, which was the story of the fall of the Death Guard to Nurgle, and the beginnings of the Grey Knights chapter of Space Marines, out of the latter part of the Horus Heresy.

There had also been a Black Library exclusive anthology of Primarchs short stories called Scions of the Emperor which I bought and read and then quickly sold on again on eBay, since it cost me approximately four times what it should have. It was well worth it, though. The stories contained therein:

Canticle - Ferrus Manus in his earliest days on Medusa
The Verdict of the Scythe - Mortarion tries an alternate path in the Great Crusade
A Game of Opposites - The Khan foils Iron Warriors late in the Heresy
Better Angels - Sanguinius mentors one legion warrior artisan
The Conqueror's Truth - Konrad Curze shows his legion's truth to a remembrancer
The Sinew of War - Guilliman becomes the defacto leader of Macragge
The Chamber at the End of Memory - Dorn stumbles upon forbidden lore of the lost legions
First Legion - Late in the Great Crusade, The Alpha Legion approach The Lion with an offer to ensure he is made Warmaster

Foiled by Black Library's past collector's editions of books and their exclusive stories, I found alternate means to read a few of them.:

The Wonderworker, set between the first two books of the Black Legion series, about Khayon's recruitment of a fellow Thousand Sons sorcerer to Abaddon's ranks,

A Flash of Silver Among the Corroded Ghosts, set after the second book in the Black Legion series, about Khayon's first encounter with the Grey Knights,

and In the Grim Darkness, a companion piece to Guy Haley's Dark Imperium, about Decimus Felix, and the interesting treatment he received from Belisarius Cawl after being selected to become one of the first Primaris Space Marines.

At the moment I am reading Chains of Golgotha, a novella from the anthology Legends of the Dark Millennium: Astra Militarum, about the ongoing rivalry of Commissar Yarrick and Gazghull Mag Uruk Thraka, the canny Ork warboss, as well as February's White Dwarf.

Resident Evil 5

I've been having a good time lately playing Resident Evil 5, and that's not something I ever really thought might happen.

I played some of the demo on the Xbox 360 back when the game first came out, and fairly quickly wrote it off, or so I thought, due to how the controls felt in the new era of Gears of War and whatnot.

Shawn Elliott's words on the game on the old GFW Radio podcast stuck with me, though, and at some point much later I heard about the DLC expansion Lost In Nightmare that sounded interesting, in that it brought back Jill Valentine and the Mansion from the first RE. I bought the game for a low price on Steam in a sale, and it's sat on the backlog from that point on until just recently when talk of the now newly released Resident Evil 2 remake make me think back on how much I liked that game in its initial incarnation 20+ years ago now.

I felt like playing some RE. Which is maybe not completely unheard of, given the fact that I went back and played a little RE4 on PC sometime last year.

RE5 feels a whole heck of a lot like RE4, only with a co-op buddy along for the ride. I dislike multiplayer, and doubt anyone would be able to or want to play, so I am going through the game solo, but Sheva is a big help and no hindrance at all, so far.

The game's methodical pace and different take on combat from most shooters, which it's tempting to think of RE5 as--it's less that than survival horror--makes for a more laid-back and chill time, even when you are under attack from tens of infected townspeople. They move pretty slowly most of the time, and you are given enough time to run away and regroup a little bit if need be.

I'm not sure if I am making the most effective use of my bullets, though. It seems like the thing to do is to shoot to stagger, then knife where the opportunity presents itself, or punch if possible, though I haven't figured out the rhythm of making that an option yet.

I'm less focused on gaming as a whole these days, which might have the odd effect of making it easier to focus play on one title. I'd like to play through this game and the aforementioned Lost In Nightmare DLC. It's good fun so far.

Fairly Light Februrary

Video gaming has been thin around my house lately. My daughters have probably spent more time playing Just Dance 2019, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros. on Switch, and Minecraft on PC, than I have playing altogether. I've spent a lot of time on painting and playing and reading about Warhammer, but that's another subject.

I have played some of a Warhammer 40,000 video game, though. I've continued through the Armageddon campaign, finding the game more comprehensible the more I have become familiar with the units of the Imperial Guard over the past couple of months. I have actually gotten to the point in the campaign where the Space Marines have decided to show up and help fight off the Orks. I'm excited to test out some of their units in the next missions.

I have also revisited the old favorite, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I am running a long-term game club for the game through the GameBytes Show discord and podcast. I plan to complete the series this way. At the moment, I'm halfway through Chapter 4 of the first game. I'm playing on an easier difficulty this time through, and it's keeping it nice and light and enjoyable, since I'm mainly along for the story anyway.

Z week came up for the backlog blitz, and I went with Zeno Clash II. I may have to skip Z next rotation, having used both Zeno Clash games, now. The second seems like more of the original, but refined. The graphics seem better, if still in that very strange and very original fantasy style that I kind of hate and kind of appreciate at the same time. Otherwise, its still first-person brawling. There are probably improvements and added mechanics, but I didn't play enough of the first game to really be able to say.