It’s been a while since I wrote anything, so I felt like putting out a quick post to get myself back into the swing of things. After a house move and a stressful job search, I got away from writing regularly and found it increasingly hard to come back to it the longer I left it. Anyway, I’m back at my old, comically slow laptop and ready to get back to writing about gaming. And maybe some other stuff, too: I’m toying with the idea of doing some short stories every now and then, but at the moment this is just a thought.

To give myself a little more structure to this whole process, I’m going to aim to post a short weekly update every Sunday night/Monday morning, where I’ll ramble a little about what I’ve been playing and reading that week and outline what to look forward to in the coming days. I may try to think of a snappy title for this, but don’t hold your breath.

And so for the inaugural edition of Scott’s Short Post About Stuff He’s Been Playing/Reading And What He Might Post This Week If He Gets Time/Can Be Bothered!

Games I’ve been playing:

• Mass Effect Andromeda
• NBA 2K17
• Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

I’m a bit of a sucker for a good sports sim, and despite barely knowing how basketball works I’ve sunk significant time into the excellent NBA 2K17. I’m terrible at the “playing basketball” part of the game, but the off-court management side of things is utterly engrossing, and I’ve been hooked on trading, scouting, drafting, trying to create my perfect team.

I also picked up Shadow of Mordor recently in a sale, and have been pleasantly surprised. Troy Baker hams it up a tad as the lead character Talion and I’m a little annoyed that they felt the need to shoehorn Gollum into the story, but slicing through waves of Orcs and Uruks is very satisfying, and some of the execution kills are gloriously violent.

Stuff I’ve Been Reading

Athena over at AmbiGaming just dropped an interesting post about art and graphical style in games, a topic that I’ve been increasingly intrigued by as technology catches up with human imagination. Well worth a read.

Sam at PixelDump is taking a critical look at the Uncharted series, and asking if it’s really as good as everyone seems to think it is. These games are very close to many people’s hearts, so this should be fun.

Finally, outside the world of gaming, I recently finished Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, a novel by Haruki Murakami. In an effort to get back to reading books and broaden my horizons, I picked up this book on a whim a few months ago, and it turned out to be an inspired choice. It’s equal parts haunting and profound, one of those books that makes you stare at the night sky and ponder you existence. Highly recommended.

What I’m Doing This Week

I’m finally crystallising my thoughts on Mass Effect: Andromeda into a couple of posts: one about the things I don’t like, and one about what the game does well. Look out for them in the next few days.

I look forward to reading what people have to say this week, and hopefully hearing from some of you in the comments. It’s good to be back.

Happy gaming,

Scott