April has been both hectic and relaxing as I have had time off work for almost the whole month. However with a trip to Bali in the middle, getting errands done that I had been putting off and a lack of videogames I was interested in playing I honestly didn't get many games completed. I started a lot of them but not many have stuck.

Finished Games.

Yakuza 4. I got this at release, it looked pretty cool and I liked 3 (I haven't played 1 or 2) but I never got around to starting it. In a departure for the series Yakuza 4 has 4 main protagonists, rather than playing just as Kiryu. I really enjoyed playing as Akiyama, a good hearted loan shark and Saejima, a prison escapee, but the cop character Masayoshi had a pretty boring storyline and kinda dragged even though his combat style was a little refreshing. The story revolves around a hit that took place in 1985 and the various set ups and moles within the different Yakuza families. The story is a little convoluted and at times it feels really forced. They also make their protagonists heroes by the end, when they were more interesting as flawed individuals, this is especially grating with the prison escapee Saejima. The graphics are passable and mostly just look like reused assets from 3, which isn't a bad way to cut costs. The voice acting is great. Just like after playing 3 its given me an urge to go to Tokyo.

Infamous second Son: Now I didn't like Infamous that much but with few AAA titles on PS4, my nostalgia for Seattle (I lived there for a few years in the late 90's early 2000's, and I've been back fairly recently) and my love of open world games I had to pick this up. First thing is first, the game is beautiful. The lighting and the facial modelling/animation is fantastic. I have a pretty good PC (i5/760) but I've felt like the PC has been hamstrung by last gen console development. If console games are going to look this good I cant wait to see high end PC ports in a few years time. Now the bad news , while the graphics are great for some reason your character seems to be on the world, not in it. I don't know if this is just because the game lacked polish or what but you walk on puddles not through them, when you climb walls you just kind twitch up them, its doesn't look like Delsin is actually climbing. Its like there is an inch deep forcefield around the character and it stops him from actually interacting with anything. The city looks nice but apart from one or two buildings (and ads for the stranger and subpop) it doesn't really look or feel like Seattle, which was disappointing. The combat was serviceable and occasionally got fun. The storyline was also serviceable, and moved the story along but it wasn't amazing. The open world was under utilized and felt empty. After Saints Row 4 open world super hero games need to step up a bit in the fun department and after GTA V I expect "based on real world places" to be a bit more real world. All this game really did is get me excited for GTA V on PC and current console (whenever that happens) and the next Saints Row. I don't think I would have bought this had there been more games coming out.

Other Games that have had significant time invested:

Planetside 2: MMO Can never be finished, played a lot over my holidays

Fract OSC: I'm almost done with the lead synth parts and I have the first green puzzle done but I don't know if I'll finish, its not really for me.

Dust An Elysian Tale: I'm about 90 minutes in and I'm just not feeling it. I know its a combo game but the whole thing feels floaty and I don't like the visual design.

Books:

Earth: a book by the Daily Show, its like a basic text book for Aliens once humanity wipes itself out. It was pretty funny, lots of very short jokes about almost everything. It could have used some more depth on specific topics but that would have ruined the premise of the book. I recommend for people who like the Daily Show.

Not So Funny When It Happened: a collection of pieces of writing about travelling and misadventure. I read it because I was about to go on a trip and I like a few of the Authors in the collection. Too bad most of the stories were dull and I had read the stuff from the authors I already liked. I was expecting humours misadventure what I got was bad stories about old women feeling embarrassed in swimsuits. It was not good.

Transmetropolitan: graphic Novel 1: I think I may have read this during its first run as actual comic books back in the 90's but I'm going to count it anyway because I could not recall or must have missed some of it (the bit with the president for example). Anyway Spider Jerusalem comes down from the mountains back to the city he both despises and needs because his spent the his publishing advance and needs to write some books. He gets a job with an old associate to pay the rent and starts digging into the news. I still like Transmetropolitan Its amazing how dated the future described in it feels and its sad to see Spider fighting many of the things we, here in the future have just quietly rolled over on. Still good made me rather sad however.

Lonely Planet Guide to Bali: OK so I was unsure if I should put this here but I decided fuck it, Its 100+ pages long, I read everything in it before and during my trip. It counts. Its just not very interesting for anyone who isn't going to Bali.

Movies.....Or fuck I've watched a lot of Movies so many I'm only going to spend a few words on each.

The Raid 2: Fuck Yes, goes see it if you like action at all.

The Grand Budapest: it you like Anderson go see it, a bit twee for me.

The Wolverine: better than the first, still not that great.

Thor the Dark World: Liked the last fight scene, everything else was bleagh.

Miami Connection: yes I sat through it, I like bad moves, Revenge of the Ninja for example, is actually one of my favourite movies and I can usually find some redeeming thing in most films but this was pretty terrible. The fights were awful, the plot of dumb and convoluted at the same time, it was shot poorly. The fucking friends song from Blood Dragon played twice, both times for significantly longer than necessary. I can't recommend even for people who like bad films.

The Rock: Yep I never saw the whole thing before. I didn't miss much, its average at best.

I Know there were some others but I can't remember them.