Or: How I Learned To Value My Time
Yeah, I know; it’s been a while. What can I say? The summer’s over, and we’ve been trying to get back into our old routines and establish new ones. Hopefully I can make this a more regular thing over the autumn period…
I’ve Been Reading…
For my money, Slow Horses is the best show on television right now. But the show’s return this month made me realise I’d never read any of Mick Herron’s original Slough House books. So I went back to the original novel, and to nobody’s surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Herron is a wonderful writer: I was surprised to learn just how much of the show’s wonderfully sardonic dialogue was lifted straight from the source material, and his descriptions of the seedy underbelly of London are a treat. I reckon I’ll work my way through the rest of the novels in the near future. If nothing else, it’ll make the wait between seasons of the show more bearable.
I’ve Been Watching…
I don’t normally play horror games, but 2026 was the year I decided to pull up my big boy pants and dive into the Resident Evil series. Honestly, I wish I’d started sooner, because they’re brilliant. As an adaptation of the 30-year-old franchise, Zach Cregger’s new movie of the same name is fairly loose. But what it nails almost perfectly is the experience of playing the games. Watching protagonist Bryan run away from flesh-eating zombies, whimpering as he fired a gun wildly in their general direction, gave me vivid flashbacks to many evenings I’d spent holding a controller.
I’ve Been Playing…
Video games often have a weird relationship to time, and it can end up hurting their narratives. My infant son might have been kidnapped in Fallout 4, but that isn’t going to stop me from getting distracted by side quests and collectibles. The Blood of Dawnwalker presents an interesting solution to this problem by giving the player granular control over when time passes. Half-vampire protagonist Coen is given 30 days to rescue his family from the big baddie, but the days don’t pass until you don’t decide how to spend them. I wish the game committed to this idea more completely: I did everything I wanted to do and still had a week to kill before I met my deadline. Still, it’s nice to see a developer taking a novel attempt at tackling an age-old problem.
Got any recommendations from me? Get in touch and let me know!
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