No-lifing our hobbies

As a death-metal art project: 9/10.

As a practical, comprehensive rulebook: 3/10 (and that's being generous).

For shaking up the TTRPG scene: 7.5/10.

My desire to ever play it: 0/10.

Boris & Natasha

Gets bogged down a couple of times, when covering gaming crackdowns in US government workplaces and the struggle to make competitive "Minesweeper" fair after the discovery of a massively exploitable flaw, but once the editor's tractor pulls him out of the sand, the author is off on another interesting topic. No regrets on my part. Oh, and it was inspired by a Spectrum game!

Let's go, Ura!

Kickstarted an X-rated comic-gamebook by an Italian publisher. The physical tome hasn't arrived yet, but they sent through a .PDF of that....

...along with a regular comic (my censoring below) and sketchbook, plus wallpapers.

Filthy fun, the lot of it. They tried to do something innovative with the gamebook, where Connie speaks to you, the reader, and awards lovehearts to help you progress. It's ultimately a very simple quest, though.

Do I regret backing the project? Nope. Connie is cute and there's a ton of variety in the artwork - saucy "camera angles" galore.

VAR - checking for possible red card

COMIC COVERS OF THE WEEK

The judges have declared it a dead heat between Rick Veitch's trippy depiction of Swampy adrift in time(?) and Zatanna rocking out with her stockings out, courtesy of Adam Hughes. Tnioj srenniw!

SONGS OF THE WEEK

* The country-fied cover of Bomfunk MCs' "Freestyler" by Steve'N'Seagulls (Finland).

* Punk ripper "The Stupidest Animal In The Zoo" by The King Blues (UK).

* "Time For The Needy", more indie-rock gold from Egoism (Australia).

* "Sigui" by Malian-French songstress Fatoumata Diawara. Entrancing. 

* "The Touch" [Reformatted Edition] by Knights Of Unicron feat. Stan Bush (US).

* The beautiful cover of Jaurim's "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One" by Roy Kim (Korea). Only a world-class voice would dare.

* "Junk And Pong" by Asmi (Japan). Appealing sung-spoken pop.

Addster's pick >>> "Twenty-Five, Twenty-One".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8SUXEw5LW4

TWO THUMBS UP

I think I said enough about the previous two volumes... This is just as brilliant, slightly funnier and a tad subversive (e.g. the midichlorians reference). Luke shines. Ironically, in translating the trilogy into antiquated, "difficult" verse, Doescher elucidates the motivations at its heart.

ONE THUMB UP

When next you visit the Delphi Oracle, please ask her why I spent cash money on this. Because I don't know. Ah, well, it's read now. Lovely food shots and a few inspiring ingredients/useful techniques, which is the minimum you want from any cookbook. Outsiders might baulk at lines like, "If they can find them, drow prefer matsutake, though shiitake or maitake will do in a pinch," in a description of a mushroom broth favoured by the dark elves. Let's face it, "Heroes' Feast" isn't aimed at those folks. For us "D&D"-ers, the higgledy-piggledy collection of snacks, soups, meat or veg mains, desserts, cocktails, etc. makes perfect sense when the recipes are grouped by fantasy races and linked to fabulous locations.

Golden joypads

Prime newie "Ghost War" is missing only three things: believability, logic and a single original idea. I gotta get my eyeballs on a French or Korean movie soon, 'cos I honestly don't enjoy shooting these barrel fish. Miller acts circles around the others, even if the defining characteristic of her MI6 operative is that she smokes (at least they make a joke about that towards the end). The music isn't bad. The ol' rogue-element-within-our-ranks plotline is just so lazy and boring; a waste of time. Do some effing research and come up with a topical scenario! Or is it a case of the makers being scared to offend any particular country for fear of losing viewers? Then they should use a fictional analogue like DC Comics does - Bialya, Markovia, etc. - while sticking to themes which are relatable.

What if your Uber...

...was an itasha with underglow and a boot full of thumping stereo? Yeah, that'd rule.

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BEER OF THE WEEK

Smooth. Right level of flave for a lager. No chemical after-taste. Large and in charge!

No string theories attached

When it comes to espionage tales, I am not so discerning. Which was just as well in the case of "The Copenhagen Test". It began silly - the protagonist is a spy whose brain has been hacked - and continued being silly for eight episodes, adding or changing *anything* just to provide frequent twists. Simu Liu's mindfucked agent, Alexander Hale, was likeable enough, as was Melissa Barrera's mysterious Michelle (apart from when she wasn't). I didn't care for the rest of the charas. Or the worldbuilding. I didn't care for the flashbacks. I certainly didn't care for the weak, illusion-of-progress ending. Furthermore, the series had zero of note to say about real intelligence organisations or geopolitics. I'm surprised the reviews I've seen weren't harsher. Gods help us if actual spy agencies waste resources like the clowns depicted in "T/C/T" do monitoring/attempting to control one unlucky dude.