• Books

    Exploring The Trail That Inspired ‘The Wind in the Willows’

    January 14, 2024 - By 

    Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows has never been out of print, and for good reason. There is something for everyone within the pages of this children’s classic, whether it’s following the amusing adventures of Mr. Toad or sharing in the honest friendship of Ratty, Mole and Badger. It exudes the charm and warmth of the English countryside, and the well-mannered ideals of Edwardian England, which Grahame was writing in. It is easily one of the cosiest books I read toward the end of 2023, in large part due to this pleasant, homey setting: the expansive rooms of Toad…

  • Video Games

    I Played Bloodborne Like a Couch Co-op Game (Pass-the-Pad style) and Now I’m Convinced It’s the Only Way to Play Souls-like Games

    January 6, 2024 - By 

    I’ve avoided Soulsborne games for as long as possible. I’m not the type of person who loves a challenge and I get gamer rage very easily, so I convinced myself that watching various Let’s Players handle them was enough for me. But since moving in with my partner, we’ve been working our way through a number of your typical co-op games. I think our success must have filled us with a bigger-than-usual dose of hubris the day that we decided we were going to beat Bloodborne together. Both of us having already dabbled in only the first Dark Souls, Bloodborne…

  • Video Games

    Crafting the Ultimate Game Map: My 5 Essential Demands

    December 28, 2023 - By 

    I’ve been thinking about maps a lot recently, probably because I’ve been reading The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands, in which various real authors explore the maps of books they grew up with, as well as those from their own books. Then, I started playing Carto, a cutie indie puzzle game where the player is able to alter the world around them by literally rearranging fragments of a map. This got me thinking about video game maps in general – what are my favourite video game maps, and what makes a good video game map, anyway? The perfect…

  • Books

    Three Studio Ghibli Movies that Transformed My Perspective on Book-to-Film Adaptations

    December 11, 2023 - By 

    I like to think I’m open minded when it comes to buying books, but there’s one type I always try to stay away from, the type of book that I even have a rule for: If you love the movie, stay far far away from the book it was based on. This rule wasn’t born overnight – it is the product of a long, sad history of reading the source material of my favourite movies. Apollo 13, The Jungle Books and even my beloved Lord of the Rings – they all followed one of two treacherous patterns. The movie was…

  • Video Games

    The One Thing Fire Emblem: Three Houses Does Better Than Any Other JRPG I’ve Played

    November 6, 2023 - By 

    Enjoying video games is hard when you’re an adult with a job. Free time becomes a scarce and sacred resource, and so naturally we become much more selective about what games we play. As much as I want to clear my backlog of From Software games, it’s a little hard to unwind after a long day by playing… Bloodborne. Sometimes I want something mindless, which is why I tend to rack up hours in sims like Planet Coaster, Two Point Hospital and The Sims 3.  But sometimes sims aren’t enough. Sometimes, a little more substance is needed. A good story,…

  • Books

    Books To Curl Up and Hibernate with this Autumn

    October 26, 2023 - By 

    What I’m Reading This Fall If a book wants to make it onto my ‘To Read Shelf’ toward the end of the year, I’m going to need it to be either: Bonus points for settings that evoke falling orange leaves and chilly forest walks.  Here’s what I’m reading this autumn: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees  For English countryside with a good amount of menacing fairy folk, Lud-in-the-Mist is our next stop. Mirlees’ first and only fantasy novel, beloved by the likes of Neil Gaiman and Michael Swanwick, treads the line between charming and spooky – making it perfect this close to…

  • Books

    The Best Fantasy Novel You’ve Never Heard Of – Lud-in-the-Mist Review

    October 22, 2023 - By 

    There was a time where it felt like I couldn’t read a fantasy book without also reading about Lud-in-the-Mist. Whether it was in an introduction, an author biography or the Wikipedia page of the book I was currently reading, there would invariably be a mention of Hope Mirrlees’ only fantasy novel and the influence it had on all fantasy novels that followed...

  • Video Games

    Am I the Only Person in the Solar System Who Didn’t Fall in Love With Outer Wilds?

    October 12, 2023 - By 

    Standing out from the Crowd Space-adventure games certainly aren’t scarce these days. With recent large studio games such as The Outer Worlds (2019) and smaller, kickstarted indie titles like The Way (2014), space enthusiasts such as myself can hardly want for titles to choose from. Outer Wilds manages to stand out in this sea of games with a distinct visual style that exudes cosiness. Its promotional art of campfires on small planets promise a mellow experience mixed with the lure of space travel. “Fuel up your jet packs and get your camping gear ready…” is the bold statement Mobius Digital…