Happy New Year: 2023 Review!
Greetings, as hard as it is to believe it’s time to say farewell to 2023 and to welcome in 2024! The year has seemingly flown in as it doesn’t feel that long since we were ushering in 2023. As its New Year’s Eve, that means it’s also time for my yearly round up of the entertainment I immersed myself in these past 12 months. If there was any particular media you enjoyed and you think it should be highlighted, feel free to mention it in the comments as I might be tempted to check it out myself.
Television Show of the Year: Better Call Saul
‘Better Call Saul’ is a spinoff of the smash hit ‘Breaking Bad’ and focuses on the side character of Saul Goodman, a crooked lawyer who played a crucial role in Walter White’s criminal empire. It is certainly a different type of show from the one that spawned it but despite a slow start, I rate both of these series very highly. I really enjoyed how it expanded the ‘Breaking Bad’ universe, introducing new characters and adding more depth to already established ones as the viewer learns how Jimmy McGill slowly transforms into his flashy alter ego of Saul Goodman.
Book of the Year: Full Dark, No Stars
A collection of four stories by renowned horror writer Stephen King, ‘Full Dark, No Stars’ was released in 2010 and the works within are connected as they share the same thematic idea of retribution. Undoubtedly, ‘1922’ is the work most would be familiar with thanks to the movie adaptation that came out in 2017. It is about a farmer and his son who make a monstrous decision when their lifestyles are threatened by the metropolitan aspirations of their wife and mother. In usual King fashion, their decision comes back to haunt them quite literally.
Game of the Year: Devour
‘Devour’ is a four player horror game in which players must banish satanic forces by destroying or incinerating 10 sacrificial items or livestock before they find themselves hunted down by a demon possessed cultist. It is a very fun and often challenging game that was published by a small British based studio which is still in its formative years as they only opened their doors in 2019. At present there are only a handful of maps available to play but I’m looking forward to returning to this game in 2024 when new levels have been added and seeing any new additions that have been included since I played it last.
Film of the Year: The Whale
Brendan Fraser of ‘The Mummy’ trilogy fame made a welcome come back to the cinematic world after a long period of absence as he stars in a unique offering from director Darren Aronofsky. 2022’s ‘The Whale’ is a depressing but engrossing film about a morbidly obese English teacher called Charlie who has more or less given up on life and is slowly killing himself with his poor diet. After he suffers a near death experience, Charlie realises that he wants to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter Ellie and makes active efforts to be part of her life once more.
That’s all for 2023! It has been one of the better years recently in my own opinion and I hope you had a great time. As always, I’ll be back to blogging in January with regular updates and I’m already playing around with various ideas for future Write Wise projects. I’ve decided to take it easy for a few months however after the considerable effort that went into the 2023 entries. Until then, I’m wishing you all the best for 2024!
Quote of the Day
I'm just a mean, green mother from outer space and I'm bad!
Audrey II
The Little Shop of Horrors
Merry Christmas 2023!
Greetings, the year has flown in and Christmas Eve is here once again! As such, I’d like to wish you a Merry Christmas for tomorrow and hope you have a good day taking it easy. We had a great Write Wise challenge this year to celebrate the occasion. It finished off a brilliant year that had some excellent pieces from each writer. I’m looking forward to what new works will come about in 2024 and will need to start thinking of my own projects in the coming weeks. There is one blog update left for 2023 in which I’ll round up the year’s entertainment but have a Happy Christmas before then!
Quote of the Day
Hello, Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan! Hey! Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!
George Bailey
It’s a Wonderful Life
Devour
Greetings, ‘Devour’ is a co-operative horror game from 2021 that was developed and published by Straight Back Games. The Edinburgh based company is fairly new, having only come into existence in 2019 when it was started by Joe Fender and Luke Fanning. They have one other title in their completed works to date which was released a year earlier in 2020. That other game is called ‘The Watchers’ which looks to be fairly similar to ‘Devour’ in terms of gameplay and subject matter. While ‘Devour’ has a maximum of 4 players, ‘The Watchers’ is limited to 2 as the players take on the roles of a brother and sister team as they stealthily evade cultists while trying to unravel the mystery behind their mother’s disappearance.
The plot of ‘Devour’ is very simplistic as it was never intended to be the main selling point of the game and it is effectively the same in all the variations of maps the players can explore. The players belong to a satanic cult called ‘The Watchers of Azazel’ and one of their fellow cultists has been possessed by the malevolent entity known as Azazel. They must banish and excise the demonic presence by destroying a total of 10 totems or ritual items. These totems differ in each of the five maps but they consist of sacrificial possessed goats, pigs and mice as well as inanimate objects such as spider eggs and books. The livestock need to be lured towards the player by placing food such as hay or a bowl of food.
As aforementioned, there are five maps at present with more due to be added in the future. The first of these is the Farmhouse which is haunted by Anna, the Asylum is watched over by Molly while the Inn has a particularly creepy antagonist in Zara, an arachnophobia sufferer’s worst nightmare. The Western setting of the Town is the undead gunslinger Sam’s terrain while Nathan lords over the Slaughterhouse. After each totem is destroyed, the difficulty is ratcheted up a bit more as the enemy becomes increasingly more deformed and faster paced. The bosses are aided in their attempts to kill the players with their ghoulish minions who have to be repelled by focusing a flashlight on them before the battery runs out.
‘Devour’ is definitely a fun game but after the player gains the satisfaction of figuring out how to beat the antagonists, it loses its appeal a bit which is probably the same for any game of its ilk. The characters do have backstories in their bios although little is done to distinguish them from any of the other choices in actual gameplay. There is also a minor set of objectives in each map as the player is tasked with locating 25 hidden objects which have been scattered about. This is much harder than would initially be believed as the player is often trying to outrun the possessed cult leader or is overrun by smaller enemies. This game apparently shares the same universe as ‘The Watchers’ which I might check out at some point.
Plot = 5/10
Characters = 5/10
Graphics = 7/10
Overall= 7/10
Quote of the Day
To my dear Prince Alexis... I did not "usurp" the crown. I found it, in the gutter, and I, I picked it up with my sword, and it was the people, Alexis, the people who put it on my head. He who saves a nation violates no law.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Waterloo
