🧟♂️ Sunday Shuffle #18
TV/Movies/Books recommendations reviews, and more...
Greetings from Newcastle.
Just a quick one, this time - and things have taken a turn for the apocalyptic, really. Even the video game recommendation I’ve given below, while not as obviously apocalyptic as say a Fallout game, sees a city on the brink of destruction and all but abandoned. I reckon that just about matches everyone’s state of mind at the moment!
Welcome to the Sunday Shuffle.
🎮 Batman: Arkham Knight - Xbox Series S. Not often I recommend a video game. Is this my first one? But this game is at least ten years old, and yeah, I’m late to it. But I finally gave it an honest-to-God try, and boy am I glad I did. The story is as vast as the Gotham City across which we get to glide, swoop, drive and battle. The developers really threw the kitchen sink at this one, drawing up quests and side quests from all over the modern Batman mythology. I downloaded the additional content, too, adding some fun cases involving four of Batman’s enemies not included in the main game. These new missions fold seamlessly into the overarching plot. I got my geek on and honoured phases of my own Batman fandom by switching to the Christian Bale Dark Knight Trilogy suit and car for the Ra’s Al Ghul mission, then switched to the Michael Keaton Batman ‘89 suit and car (where my love of the character began), then on to the Ben Affleck suit and vehicle for a little stint, before finishing the game in the battle-scarred original suit from the game to give the final moments all the gravitas they deserved. Now I feel like I can crack on with the Arkham Shadow VR game again, with the ghost of this unfinished business exorcised.
🎬 Leave the World Behind - Netflix. I think Mahershala Ali’s a hell of an actor. Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke don’t always make movies I want to watch, but you’re usually in safe hands with them performance-wise. This apocalyptic horror-ish thriller catches a lot of criticism and I do understand what irritates viewers about it. At the same time I found it compelling and it has stayed with me. There are some truly uncomfortable scenes in this one. I can’t give it a wholehearted recommendation like it’s my favourite film or anything, but I can recommend you try it if you haven’t seen it. Sure, you might feel a little sucker-punched by the ending, but there’s a lot of good stuff on the road to that point.
📺 Currently Watching: Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer - Netflix. I remember watching something about this case years ago - I want to say it was on Netflix too. I’m a couple of episodes in. Horrifying, gripping stuff.
📖 Currently Reading: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. The film didn’t appeal to me back in the day. Until it did. At which point I wanted to read the novel, so I didn’t watch the film. This is one of those novels that’s sat staring at me from my bookshelf for years while I worked through university reading lists. I can’t get enough of this thing so far.
🎮 Currently Playing: Red Dead Redemption 2 - Xbox Series S. Like Arkham Knight, here’s a game that just felt too huge in scope when I’ve dipped a toe in over the years since its release. I loved the first RDR (and Red Dead Revolver back in the day). I’ve turned my attention back to this one. I don’t have a lot of gaming time, but let’s see if this one can finally grab me.
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Best wishes and bad dreams,
Jack
All platforms mentioned above are the UK version, unless indicated otherwise.
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