Happy April, everybody!
If you’ve been following my blog at all, you will know that I have been pretty obsessed with Monster Hunter: World lately. I also read and watched Annihilation, which was incredible. The new Tomb Raider movie won me over too, mostly because of how amazing Alicia Vikander is in the role. Since I also read the novel Borne (by the author of Annihilation), have watched most of the new Jessica Jones series on Netflix, and finished watching the first season of the new Star Trek series — I had a busy month. I feel so accomplished, just with how much entertainment and storytelling I managed to absorb!
This month I want to re-focus on my goals for the year. The two biggest are creative writing and being healthy.
Since April has a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) challenge, I’ve decided to make a personal writing challenge: to write every day this month, even if it’s only for 10 minutes. These NaNoWriMo months are always great at getting me back in the habit of writing, and I can’t wait to make real progress on my novel in the coming weeks!
At the end of the month, I’ll be running in a 10K, my first run of the year. I am only just getting back into running after almost a year off, but I managed to run 4 miles this past weekend — so I know I can push myself to reach the full 6.2 miles by the time of the official run. I’m excited at the prospect of getting back into that kind of shape. Running for me is not always enjoyable, but it’s the hardest workout I know, and that’s why I feel like it’s worthwhile to make it a regular part of my life.
In geekier news, I just saw Ready Player One and loved it. Although I’ve heard mixed reviews of the book, I was so enamored with the movie that I want to read the novel now.
While I’m still playing Monster Hunter: World, I am also eager to finish and review the second season of Telltale’s Batman here. It might be my favorite Telltale game so far. Although I loved the investigation aspect of Wolf Among Us and the action-humor of Tales from the Borderlands, so far Batman has managed to play notes from all of its previous series and create something that feels truly well-rounded.
What are you up to this month? I’d love to hear what everybody is watching, reading, and playing in April. :)
— Ashley
Robo♥beat 
I started Enemy Within today too. Pretty interesting version of the world of Batman. Though I’m suddenly struck with the feeling that the game’s going to pull a fast one on me and that all my efforts to be nice to “John” and save him are actually going to end up having the exact opposite effect in the end just because it seems like the kind of thing Telltale would do…
Oh I know! I am so nervous about how John is going to end up. It’s great how Telltale managed to make such a well-known character fresh again. It’s cool to hear you’re into this Batman story too!
I was excited to see Ready Player One as this was one of the few books I read ahead of an actual announcement for it to become a movie. I too loved the movie, but Spielberg made significant changes from the book. For instance, Daito actually died in the book but kept him alive in the movie. There are many others but I understand they were doing it to condense it into a 2 hour movie and appeal to a wider audience.
I enjoyed reading the book, but there were parts I found a bit problematic, mainly Artemis herself and the relationship to Parzival. I definitely preferred the changes they made to her character in the movie versus how she is in the book. Even though the book is far from perfect, I’d recommend reading it. I loved all the references to pop culture and video games history. And Ernest Cline presented a unique world as well. :)
Oh interesting! That’s good to know about the book. I have heard similar things from others who read it, mostly though that they did not care for the main character! I just loved the world and references in the movie, so I’m interested in seeing how the book compares even if I end up liking the film version more.
My life is still kinda crazy, so I haven’t read, played, or watched a lot that’s particularly interesting. As time and energy allows, I’m working my way through the second book of “The Dragon Prophecy” by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory, which came out so long after the first I thought the series had been cancelled. It’s a flawed book, but I’m still enjoying it a lot.
I saw both Black Panther and Pacific Rim: Uprising recently. The former was actually pretty good, but the second disappointed, even despite fairly low expectations. It felt totally soulless.
I’ve watched my livestreamer friend finish off season two of Batman. I thought it was amazing, at least with the plot choices she’d made. Possibly a little too quick, but otherwise awesome. Season two started off a little weak to me, but it definitely ended stronger than season one.
I also liked Black Panther. Pacific Rim was still fun to watch for me, I liked the humor although the first one was much better! That’s cool you were able to experience the Batman games too. Do you have any favorite Telltale games?
I haven’t played any TellTale stuff myself, and Batman’s the only one I’ve seen Moiren stream in its entirety. I’ve just seen bits and pieces of others. I like the concept, but mostly they’ve had settings/subject matters that don’t interest me.
Lovely article keep up the good work.