The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada — and its surrounding area — has one of the most horrifically, criminally inflated housing markets I’ve ever seen. A $1 million CAD home in Vancouver (Source) Regardless of whether you’re renting or “buying,” surging housing costs in Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver Area have been displacing the…
What Cyberpunk 2077 Does Well
At first, I found Cyberpunk 2077 massively disappointing. It emphasizes player choice but offers little. Its open-world is pretty but mostly populated with filler content. And it frequently sidelines role-playing efforts so it can tell its own story. But fifty hours later, and having surrendered my expectations, I’m enjoying the game for what it is:…
9 Books I Read in 2020
Reading is a pastime I’ve come to enjoy more as I’ve grown older. And with my renewed appreciation of the medium came a goal to read more in 2020. For me, digital mediums like film and video games are often more stimulating than books (my blog archive is proof of that). But my entire working…
Beneath its Presentation, Cyberpunk 2077 is a Cybermess
After seven years, CD Projekt Red’s highly-anticipated action RPG Cyberpunk 2077 is here, and it’s a cybermess. And I’m not just talking about the apparent lack of polish or abundance of bugs. Cyberpunk 2077 is foundationally flawed: a bizarre Frankenstein monster cobbled together from elements of other, better, games. Many of its gameplay systems are…
Live and Let Die: Supernatural, But Unremarkable James Bond
Digging through the James Bond catalogue has been one of my go-to film pleasures over the years. To my knowledge, few other film series can match the continued output and relevance of Bond. There are a whopping 25 films in this franchise (including the soon-to-be-released No Time to Die), and 27 if you count the non-Eon…
Cancelled My World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Pre-Order
This post’s title might lead you to believe that I think cancelling my video game pre-order is newsworthy. I assure you, it’s not, and I’m not here to proclaim my victory over consumerism or anything to that effect. But the Shadowlands delay got me thinking: It’s probably for the best if I don’t submit to…
Street Thievin’ and Corporation Deceivin’ in The Outer Worlds
Occasionally, I’m reluctant to try new things, which causes me to miss out on some good stuff. The most recent example of this seems to be The Outer Worlds (2019), a sci-fi FPS RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment. When Obsidian initially released The Outer Worlds, many players and reviewers painted the game as a spiritual…
Cinema Quickie: Second Skin (2008)
My nostalgic thirst for all things World of Warcraft has hit hard this year. It’s a pattern that’s repeated nearly every autumn since 2010, wherein the colder weather and dreary days send me spiraling in search of fond memories. And Blizzard’s decade-and-a-half-old MMORPG must be something special because my mind seems to pull me towards…
Bummed About Shadowlands Being Delayed
This is ancient history by internet standards, but Blizzard has delayed the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Shadowlands. Originally, Shadowlands was scheduled to launch on October 27th, 2020. But, citing quality concerns, the studio made the decision to delay the game. I’m assuming all is not well with Shadowlands, because Blizzard hasn’t even set a new release date. As of…
7 Months Without the Gym
Since hitting my twenties, exercise has become a crucial facet of my life. It’s how I offset all the malaise, muscular atrophy, and cognitive degeneration associated with spending 90% of my time in front of a screen. But, when COVID-19 arrived in mid-March, I dropped my thrice-weekly gym habit like a hot potato. I had…