T.K. Wade -- Author: 2025

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: reYal [Video Game Review]

"reYal" is a video game developed by xrrawva. It was released in 2019. It is one of the very few examples of a video game played from the extremely rare second person perspective.

The game is a 2D, top-down, retro-looking game. You control a single character who can walk around a small room with buttons on the wall. There is a door, but it's locked. The buttons are labeled up, down, right, left, and action. Interesting enough, those are the same inputs you can give your character with your keyboard or controller. So far, this is a normal game. You are controlling a character and can make him do things.

Now, the moment you tell your character to press one of those buttons, a new character in a separate room will react to that button press in the same way your character reacts to your keyboard or controller inputs. At this point, you might be thinking, "This is an interesting game mechanic." You are playing a game of a character who is playing a game of another character. But here is the problem, this game goes about five layers thick. Or maybe it is six layers if you count yourself. Technically you are one of the characters, but at least you can use a controller without having to press buttons on a wall.

So before long, you will have to move your character and help him control a guy, who is controlling a guy, who is controlling another guy, who is controlling yet another guy. With every new guy you need to control, the amount of inputs you are expected to put in becomes increasingly more complicated, and it can be easy to get lost in the logic.

The problem is not knowing what you need to do. It is more of a matter of keeping track of it all. You have to concentrate really hard while remaining relaxed. If you make even one mistake, it can take a lot of time to unravel it. And remember that it is not enough to just get a guy to the button, you have to also get him to turn towards the button, and finally to actually activate the button. That is a heck of a lot of work to do something so simple.

This is the very definition of a second person perspective video game. You spend the entire game telling characters what to do rather than doing them yourself. Yes, you are technically in control of the first man who is way at the bottom of the stack of rooms, but you are not thinking about him as much as you are the other people in the other rooms. Your brain has to disconnect from the guy you are controlling and extend outward and upwards into realms that it usually doesn't like to go. There is a reason games are not normally second person: it hurts.

"reYal" is a well-made game, and I would even go so far as to say that it is a good game. Despite the latter sentence being true, it is not actually a fun game to play. I don't even think it was meant to be. Anyone can beat this game if they are willing to put in the hour or so to finish it, but it is more of a test of one's willpower to actually bother with the chore of doing it. It's more of a science experiment. It is a game that says, "I am the way that I am, and there is nothing like me." And you can smile and acknowledge that in good faith, but it will never actually be a fun and enjoyable experience.

The game is also $2.00. It is an extremely fair price for what it is. I can't help but recommend it for that price. Even if you have no intent to actually finish it, it is a very interesting and mind-bending experience. "reYal" is a good game that that is no fun to beat, but I actually did do it. I was happy when I finished it. I was happy because it was over, but I was also happy that game existed to prove to us all that a fully fledged second person game was probably never going to be a good idea, and we should just stick with what we have. Cheers.

This blog was written on March 23, 2025.

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Monday, June 2, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Mutant Alley - Ares [Book Review]

[This review contains no spoilers, but it is a review of an erotic piece of literature. You may not want to read about that, and, if so, feel free to skip this one.]

I don't normally review erotic literature. I have done it before with my review of "Tanuki Tango Overdrive." Since most of my content is pro-Christian, I did consider not reviewing this, but the book actually ends with a call for attention. He is a struggling artist and writer, and he needs these reviews to help him out. My heart cannot abide abandoning someone in need, and so I have chosen to do this review anyways.

"Mutant Alley - Ares" is an erotic science fiction book written by Rex T. Loveshaft. Yes, I know that's probably not his real name. I have to give him credit for the clever wordplay though. It was published in 2024. The author of this book is actually a software engineer and has made a number of video games based on his strange, often dystopian, science fiction worlds. There is also a couple of games based on the book I am reviewing now. This is a guy who has a dream, albeit an erotic one, and he puts all of his talents to use making it a reality. And to also be a writer is no joke. This guy means business.

The story is that there was a war where dinosaur hybrids were used in the fighting. When the war was over, and the hybrids were retired and allowed to enter society with no real rights. These were really big and strong anthropomorphic dinosaurs. They remind me of the huge animal people from the comic book series "Elephantmen."

Because they were forced to live on the outskirts of society, they had to turn to prostitution in order to make a living. Anybody who had the kinks to have sex with a oversized dinosaur hybrid could do so for the right price.

The real drag of the story is that there is a scientist who is trying to revive the hybrid project in order to overthrow the current government and give the hybrids rights in the new order. He hires a guy named Alex to do some work for him, involving a T-Rex Hybrid named Ares, in order to get this done. I don't want to say much more than this, because we will end up getting into most of the erotic notes of this book.

Make no mistake, the story in this book is good dystopian science fiction. The author is very good at keeping a firm grip on the story and not letting the erotica overtake it. In fact, there were a lot of chapters that was just story, and some of it had some infiltration and action involved with it. Good stuff and actually well told.

The erotica itself is handled with a bit of humor. The idea of humans and dinosaur hybrids having sex is treated as a weird thing, and the people involved all sort of acknowledge it. This gives the story a humorous edge. Even if you are not into it, you can see how something like this might be a bit awkward, and that's okay. I loved the humor in this story.

My only real criticism is that the ending felt a bit rushed. The story up until that point felt very well paced, but a conclusion sort of felt as if it was just dropped on me in the last two chapters. It did not bother me too much, as everything is explained, but I would have enjoyed it if the book had just extended itself a few more chapters to go into more detail about what actually occurred.

The erotic elements portray a more hedonistic world. It includes an equal amount of straight and gay content. It does go into romantic elements but from the perspective of mutual lust. It gets kinky at points too. All sex in the book are between humans and dinosaur hybrids.

All literary fiction is valid, but I still expect people to take what they do seriously. The author of "Mutant Alley - Ares" does this, and I recommend it to anyone who might be interested. He has written a sequel, and I will be reading it.

This blog was written on March 23, 2025.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Who's Who in Oz [Book Review]

[This blog has spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"Who's Who in Oz" is a book written by Jack Snow. My copy was a reprint from 1988, however the original book was published in 1954, placing it in the Oz canon between #39 "The Hidden Valley of Oz" and #40 "Merry Go Round in Oz." It is not included in the canon list because it is not really a story as much as it is a compendium of all the Oz books previous to this one at the time. However, it appears to be canonically written with the assistance of the Wogglebug, which, to me, makes this entire thing seem official. Not to mention that Jack Snow is one of the official Royal Historians of Oz.

The book is broken down into three main parts:

1. An alphabetical listing of every single character found in all of the Oz books up to that point. Each section begins with a letter that signifies some aspect of Oz, and it also allows the reader whose name begins with that letter to sign his initials and thusly become a registered citizen of Oz by doing so. This is the broadest part of the book, and everything is written very well as if by the author or the Wogglebug himself. The first book each character is found in is listed every time as well as the page number where they were initially introduced.

2. An overview of all of the Oz books written up to that point. These are brief summaries that do sometimes spoil some of the story. They also include the book's author and illustrator.

3. An overview of the authors and illustrators of all of the Oz books up to that point. These act as mini biographies to help you understand who these people were.

The entire book was presented like a regular Oz book, even including the "This book belongs to ____" at the beginning. I always liked that, although I never filled any of them out. I don't like marking up my books. Also the book contains an absolute ton of illustrations for most of the characters mentioned. It is really nice to not only read about these characters but to see them as well.

The reason I did not review this book back when I was at this part of my journey was because it was too difficult to get ahold of. Even now it was a whopping $50 just to get a reprint. But I feel that, now that I have read it, my journey around Oz is now complete (for real this time!). As I implied, I do consider this book canon even if it isn't a proper story. It is a book that would exist in the Land of Oz and has oversight by the Wogglebug. What more do I need? If you can get a hold of a copy, I do recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning more about the marvelous land of Oz.

This blog was written on March 17, 2025.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Shape of Things to Come [Book Review]

"The Shape of Things to Come" is a very long novel by H. G. Wells. It was published in 1933. Seriously, this is a very long book. It clocks in at 155,000 words. It took me months to read. Let this review help you decide if you want to make the same journey as I did.

This book sort of sells itself as a science fiction, but I question that. The idea of it is that a friend of the narrator was receiving visions or dreams about a possible future in the early 30's. This is after WW1 but before WW2. The book contains none of the events of WW2 and barely anything of Hitler. It is as if those things did not happen. This man is apparently seeing how the entire world forms together as a socialistic one-world state. To me, the whole thing about it being one man's vision strikes me as an excuse to give the book a narrative story feel, but honestly... H. G. Wells just wanted to go off about his socialistic fantasies here.

The first part of the book is mostly just about how bad war is. You will probably not have too much trouble relating to what he is saying in these pages. War is bad. There is nothing good about it. But this ultimately leads to a change in people who want the world to get better. It progresses to a worldwide socialist revolution that takes hundreds of years to be fully realized.

In order to get to this, the author relates how various things such as religion, capitalism, and the concept of the family and personal possessions must be irradiated to make this vision a reality. Yes, the book goes really hard against Christianity, because that's what socialists do. They don't want one standard of morality; they want it to be whatever the herd wants it to be, which can be fickle over a long period of time as well as across the world itself.

The book also details the sudden and inexplicable removal of all government at a later date, leaving everything in the hands of the people. I guess H. G. Wells never realized that people in power tend to want to keep it. He gave the human race way more credit then they deserved. Oligarchies should have formed in his scenario, and he gave no plausible reason why they wouldn't have.

By the end of the book, everything seems great... except for one very disappointing thing. There is almost no talk of futuristic technology even by the year 2100. Honestly, it still really feels like a slightly better version of the 30's. The most spectacular technology he came up with was prefabricated housing. That actually does exist today, and everyone agrees that it isn't as good as the alternative. Where are all the flying cars, spaceships, and other cool things? No. It's all about humans just living in a socialistic world state. There is still science, but it's barely getting anything done.

If you find "The Shape of Things to Come" on an online bookstore, you might see it with flying cars on the cover. This was simply slapped onto it because the book was public domain and by H. G. Wells, a man famous for his unique views of the future. This book barely qualifies as a science fiction and certainly does not have any flying cars.

This book was simply a medium for Mister Wells to spout off about his socialistic beliefs, and it is thinly vailed as a science fiction book. The whole book is extremely whiney. It constantly complains about anything that it doesn't agree with. It does not show an encouraging view of the future, but it does show a world where everybody is controlled by a population that is godless and with no definitive morals. Anyone who disagrees must conform. I ask you: how was H. G. Wells not terrified by his own fantasy? How was he not disturbed by his own look into the future. He was such a great visionary, but his final vision was the most boring of them all.

If it isn't clear, I do not recommend this book unless you want to look into the mind of a socialist. If you already know what that's like, then you can skip this long book entirely. Don't be fooled by the author resting under the title. It was simply a vehicle to pitch his ideology and nothing more.

This blog was written on March 16, 2025.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Troopers' Playground [Video Game Review]

"The Troopers' Playground" is a video game developed by Matthias Worch, and it was released in 1996. It is a 9-level map pack for Doom II.

Not bad! Not the best either. A bit short for a Doom II map set. Usually they end up being 32 maps long, but this one keeps to the old formula of the original Doom's nine.

There doesn't seem to be much of a story here. It was just an attempt to make a set of really interesting maps. The thing that stood out to me was the way enemies sort of phased into each area. Like, I kept finding rooms that appeared either empty or with just a few enemies in them, and then a whole lot of other enemies would sort of bank around the edges or come from behind pillars. This happened a hell of a lot.

Also... do you like Shotgunners? This map set has Shotgunners. They are everywhere and in almost every single room. I personally love the shotgunner enemy. To seasoned Doom players, they are basically shotgun-shell dispensers. I think that may be my favorite thing about this map set. I love seeing them, and I got to see them all over the place.

The maps themselves were fun to explore, but they generally felt like classic doom maps that didn't really feel like actual places. Remember that this map set came out a couple years after the original Doom II. People had not quite figured out how to be clever with the maps yet. It felt like a step back from all the more modern ones I had been playing, but honestly it's no big deal.

The final map was another Icon of Sin fight... OR WAS IT?! Actually it was a direct fight with the severed head of John Romero... who technically is the Icon of Sin. They had him going up and down an elevator with little windows that gave you a chance to shoot at him. It was a silly ending, but I had fun. I think they gave him more health in this one too.

Either way, I liked "The Troopers' Playground, if anything for the abundance of Shotgunners. I do recommend it. It is listed as a featured mod in the excellent Doom+Doom II Remaster by NightDive Studios. If you are a fan of the shotgun, then download this one.

This blog was written on March 11, 2025.

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Monday, May 19, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Revolution! [Video Game Review]

"Revolution!" is a video game developed by Thomas van der Velden. It is a special map set for Doom II. It was released in 2009. If you recognized his name, I reviewed his other Doom mod called "Harmony" a little while ago.

"Revolution!" is a very relaxed and fun Doom II mod that doesn't ever get too difficult unless you pump up the difficulty yourself. The missions are fairly straight forward and the maps look like real places. Velden is really good at creating environments that are like this. For example, the first missions takes place on a moving train. I have actually seen this done before, but it is still really cool. It is actually impossible to make a moving train in classic Doom, so the whole thing is just a clever illusion.

The story of "Revolution!" is very interesting. Here is a copy-and-paste of the story as written by the developer:

The story revolves around a chaotic being known as "The Father". The Father had a son ("The Son") which was a being of pure evil and rebelled against him. The Father created humanity as an army to stand against the Son. The Father left a device called "the Oracle" which was intended to show humanity its true purpose; when humans had evolved sufficiently they would discover their true purpose and the battle against the Son would begin.

The Son discovers the plan and attacks humanity before it has finished evolving. Nonetheless an army of marines succeeds in defeating the Son. The monsters previously commanded by the Son become humanity's slaves. The Father, although pleased, becomes worried that humanity will eventually conquer the universe.

Earth begins to colonize a planet known as "Utopia". The monsters are used to build the colony. On the planet the Oracle is discovered; the monsters use this to break free and take over the colony. The monsters seize the transporters on the colony and use it to begin an invasion of Earth.

The story sounds really serious until it becomes kind of silly. And the opening of the game does feel very silly. It brings you into various resort-looking places such as pools and hotels where the demons have revolted. You almost feel a little bad for them, but ultimately you realize that they have to be stopped. I do think it is funny that we basically enslaved demons which gave them kind of a right to go on the defensive. Funny!

The game does get very serious and cool as it progresses. I enjoyed exploring the different areas more than anything. Velden is just so good with classic Doom architecture. I think he might be one of the best map makers, even likely better than the original developers of the base game in many respects.

This 32-map set did have two secret maps, but I don't really remember them all that well. I guess they were not that big of a deal. I don't think I hated anything though.

It ends with yet another Icon of Sin battle but done in a way that it doesn't actually look like it. It's just modeled in a way that fits the story better. The mechanics are there, but it has been visibly changed. It made for a final battle that was similar to the Icon of Sin map but easier to execute. And let's just be honest, the original Icon of Sin fight was kind of bullshit.

There is no reason not to play "Revolution!" It's funny at times, charming at others, and just all around cool. I recommend it. You can find "Revolution!" as a featured mod in the excellent "Doom+Doom II Remaster put out by NightDive Studios.

This blog was written on March 6, 2025.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Pygmalion's Spectacles [Short Story Review]

"Pygmalion's Spectacles" is a short science fiction story written by Stanley G. Weinbaum. It was published in 1935. This story is notable for being the first piece of fiction to predict a somewhat accurate depiction of virtual reality.

In this story, a man has invented a set of spectacles that, when worn, will convince the wearer that he is somewhere else, experiencing another world. Although its mechanics are a little out there, the user is actually experiencing a movie filmed by the inventor. But the spectacles make everything he filmed feel very real. There is even smell involved, however we don't have that in today's virtual reality... yet.

The reality the man was placed in was like an elven fantasy. It is something like one would see in D&D or from Tolkien. Actually, to be honest, it reminded me more of the world from Shawn O'Toole's "Eye and Ear" series. It wasn't the same theme though. It was more of a romance.

The bulk of this story is about the fantasy the protagonist experienced while wearing the spectacles and how convincing it was. Anyone who has played VR games will understand what this man was experiencing to some degree. That said, the story itself is very good and the ending was amusing.

Although I cannot say for sure, I wager the reason nobody ever talks about this story is because it was probably panned when it first came out for being unrealistic or silly. But the truth is that it is not silly at all. It's really a very interesting story that carries the reader along with its fantasy extremely well. And let's just be honest... he wrote a realistic and plausible story and did not even know it.

I do recommend "Pygmalion's Spectacles." It is public domain now, and I actually found my copy for free. This is great science fiction. Mister Weinbaum died the same year this story was published, so he never knew anything about modern VR. That's a shame. I am sure he would have really enjoyed it.

This blog was written on March 2, 2025.

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Monday, May 12, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: After Ten Years [Short Story Review]

"After Ten Years" is a short story written by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1966. Despite actually being published, it is completely unfinished and has no ending or resolution of any kind.

This story is actually about the Trojan War from the perspective of the King of Sparta. It starts at the point he is waiting inside the horse to be deployed. He is also there to get his wife back. That would be Helen of Troy, the daughter of Zeus. But when he finds her, she has aged, and he is stuck with an ugly woman that everyone expects him to remain married to.

Crazy stuff, but it doesn't really go much farther than that. The emotions are running high, and there is the weird possibility that it might not even be Helen after all. She might be some sort of eidolon or something. Either way, the saddest thing about this well-written story is that it just suddenly stops.

Apparently, C. S. Lewis just lost interest in it. He moved on to other things. It is said that he did not even know where he was going with it and was more into the setting and characters than he was with giving it any real plot. To my knowledge, it was never actually intended to be published, but was published anyhow.

What is here was very well written and interesting. Despite the truth, it does feel like it is going somewhere very mysterious. Sadly, it is left up to our imaginations to decide what that ultimate truth would have been. Despite it's unfinished state, it is interesting enough to read. I recommend it.

This blog was written on February 24, 2025.

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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Forms of Things Unknown [Short Story Review]

"Forms of Things Unknown" is a short science fiction story written by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1966. This is kind of a weird one to review because of how the story actually plays out.

So this story was published a few years before we actually went to the moon. By this point, everyone was pretty clear on what it might actually be like, but we were not 100% sure yet. So what makes this story interesting is that it is a "going to the moon" story written almost right up to the actual point that we did it for real.

But this is not a story about the first moon landing. It's more like the forth. The reason its the forth is because the last three landings ended up in a suddenly cut radio transmission... and then nothing. So in a very real way, this story begins as a soft horror. The horror, in this case, comes from the mystery of several lost astronauts on the moon.

The main character of the story is named Jenkin, and he is next in line to try his luck. He is doing it because he is obsessed with the mystery and is willing to throw it all away just for that one opportunity to see what in the world had happened to those poor astronauts.

Now up to this point in the story, you'd probably be on the edge of your seat. I was. I dearly wanted to know what had happened. Even if Jenkin is lost, the narrative is following him, so you get the feeling that you'll get answers even if we lose the main character. It's an interesting way to pitch a story, and it works to build tension. You, of course, don't want to lose Jenkin, but the curiosity is still there.

But here is where there is a slight problem. The ending of the story is steeped in the surreal, the strange, and the obscure. It is a weird and fuzzy ending that doesn't quite explain what is happening. It may just be muddled by the author, or it could just be an artistic decision. It's hard to say. But I read it, and I don't really fully understand the things I saw, or Jenkin saw rather, in his apparent last moments. I do think, however, that it is something best left for interpretation, which is what I am going to do. I won't be spoiling the ending of this one.

I think "Forms of Things Unknown" has enough merit to recommend it. People should read it, but do be prepared to maybe not really understand the ending. It might also mean something different to each person who reads it. But regardless of what you see and hear, one thing is certain: Jenkin found what he was looking for.

This blog was written on February 19, 2025.

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Monday, May 5, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Ministering Angels [Short Story Review]

"Ministering Angels" is a science fiction short story written by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1958. This doesn't happen very much, but I actually struggled to follow this one. I apologize that this even happened, so please take any issues I have with this one for a grain of salt since my opinion may not be a very good one. Either way, I am going to keep this one short.

The story here has to do with the colonization of Mars. It is a sort of slice of life of social life happening there on the initial colony. A lot of the drama comes from some women from Earth who show up and start trying to bring up some talk about how sexual morals may be a thing of the past. It is the main discussion happening in the story.

I did think it was cool to see a science fiction story written by a Christian and with the moral perspective included, but I really struggled to follow along with what was happening. I think that recommendations in this case should be omitted. You might read it and understand it more than I did. The way it was written just didn't absorb well. There was also a lot of dialect [British] which really hindered it as well. I'll still take the blame though. That's all I got for this one. Once again... apologies.

This blog was written on February 16, 2025.

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Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Batman Doom [Video Game Review]

"Batman Doom" is a video game released in 1999. It was created by ACE Team Software. It is a total conversion of Doom II replacing all the maps, enemies, and weapons to now have a batman theme.

I was originally looking for Star Wars Doom mods when I found this. I did find one, but all it did was change the looks of the maps, but all the maps were basically the same. "Batman Doom" is actually a fully made campaign, and possibly the only Batman first person shooter that I can think of. It is a 32 map set that do include two secret levels which are sadly very hard to access. (I still found them though.)

The development team went through a lot of trouble to turn Doom II into Gotham. They made everything look like a cityscape, and I think they did really good. I am pleasantly happy with how nice everything looked for a game made in '99. The only really odd thing was that the doors, which clearly had doorknobs on them, still moved up like the original Doom doors. You get used to it, but it was still silly. To be fair, there was no way to actually get a door to swing open in Doom... although they still somehow do it in the final level. I... I don't actually know how... but... they did... just that one time.

During the long campaign you go up against the likes of Killer Croc, Tally Man, Penguin, Scarecrow, Two-Face, the Joker, and finally there is a showdown with Bane after having to refight all the former bosses in quick succession. Oh, yes. And I know you are all asking, "Who the heck is Tally Man?!" Tally Man is a DC villain, but not really a Batman one. I think they got him mixed up with Victor Zsasz, who is basically the same type of villain. You can do your own research into it, but it did give me a giggle.

As far as character design, the enemies look like they were barrowing from the Animated Series, but Batman's design reminds me a bit too much of the Hanna-Barbara version. It all works through.

The weapons were all changed to be non-lethal types, although I personally feel that the tern "less lethal" should be used. Some of the weapons I got felt really overpowered. I certainly don't want to be shot by any of them. Some were a bit more obvious such as the taser which replaced the chainsaw. Oh, and I would be silly not to mention the most overpowered shotgun I have ever used in any game ever: The Blastgun. It fires a whopping 20 pellets with a huge radius. It takes a long time to reload, but if you get up close to someone and fire this, they are probably going down. I used this more than any other weapon.

In case you are wondering if Batman gets to do any fist fighting, you really don't do very much of it unless you wanna get hurt. Personally, I would have preferred the game drop you on a berserk item at the beginning of each level (and maybe remove the red filter) to give Batman a realistic melee prowess throughout the entire mission, but I guess this was a lost opportunity.

Each mission had you go back to the Batcave to see who the next villain was going to be. These maps were always small and had no enemies, but there was always a special secret hidden in each one that was fun to look for. It also gave you a chance to unwind a little between missions.

These missions are very well crafted and actually feel like you are in Batman situations. They captured the spirit of Batman extremely well. They do get better as the game goes on. I was not enjoying the first few maps as much, but that was mainly because I didn't have a very good arsenal yet. Once you get better weapons, the game all around picks up. Getting stuck with a limited supply of Batarangs kind of sucks.

All the enemy types were appropriate. They even gave the Penguin wind-up exploding penguins to fight. Cute! That said, I think the enemy list could have been a little better. The developers did simple enemy replacement, but they had to use entire enemy slots to replace with the bosses. That's too bad.

The two secret levels were based around the Scarecrow. You find the first one by finishing him off extremely quickly, which is not super intuitive, but it pales in comparison to the second secret map which has you trying to lead an enemy to walk to a certain spot to get a door to open. Without a guide, I would have just killed him. Once you get to that last secret level though, you won't be disappointed.

I think I've said enough. I do recommend "Batman Doom." It's well worth your time. You can find it in the regular mod list of the Doom+DoomII Remaster. And despite the weapons being non-lethal, it doesn't actually feel like it. In fact, one of them was an actual flamethrower. How is a flamethrower non-lethal? See what I'm getting at?

This blog was written on February 14, 2025. Happy Valentine's Day!

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Monday, April 28, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Shoddy Lands [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the main thrust of the story.]

"The Shoddy Lands" is a short story written by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1956. This one might be interesting to the modern crowd, especially those who get very heavy into video game technology.

That first paragraph might be a bit misleading, because this story is not about computers, video games, or any technology whatsoever. Let me explain. The story is about a man who is getting a visit from an old friend. This friend brings over his fiancé, although he sort of did it without announcing he would. The protagonist is not the type who likes having those sort of encounters forced upon him.

Strangely, while they are talking, he slips into a different reality. Now, this new world he is in has what is commonly called in video games "a low-poly environment." Everything around him is just barely recognizable as grass, flowers, and trees, but they are simply lacking the detail to appreciate up close. You may notice things like this in older games from the 90's, such as on the N64 and PS1. "Doom" is another great example of low-poly. You might see a tree that could have been drawn by a child, and even then you might only see just one side of that tree no matter where you look at it from. This is the sort of experience the protagonist of the story appeared to be going through.

Since the story was written in an era before this sort of technology, it is quite interesting that it is so relatable in the modern day. What he is actually trying to describe are things that have little detail because the "mind" that he is inside does not really care for those things. When that "mind" does care about something, they tend to have better detail. In this case, those things are specific flowers, women's dresses, and jewelry.

The truth was that the man had somehow slipped into an alternate dimension that was the embodiment of that woman his friend had brought over. There was even a giant version of her that was far more beautiful than the real thing present in this strange world.

What was it all about? Answer: feminine narcissism. Although this doesn't apply to all women, Lewis was making a point. He was also making the point that this woman was not really a great pick by his friend, as she seemed more obsessed with herself or perhaps what she could get from her soon-to-be husband.

But feminine narcissism is a thing, and it isn't good. It is sadly one of the reasons why so many unborn babies are killed every single day. Lewis strikes a good cord with me in this story, and I am very pleased that he bothered to write this. I recommend this story. It is politically incorrect, and thank goodness for that.

This blog was written on February 12, 2025.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Man Born Blind [Short Story Review]

[I entirely spoil this story.]

"The Man Born Blind" is a short story written by C. S. Lewis. I actually had a lot of trouble figuring out when it was published. I'm gonna just say 1977 since it was bundled along with "The Dark Tower," which I recently reviewed, but it is possible that it may have been published sometime before then.

The title of this story is very self-describing. It is about a man who was born blind, although he has been given his sight back. Throughout his blind period, he was always told about light, and he was very curious about it. Once he could finally see, he still could not really understand the concept of light. The author does a decent job at explaining why this is. It is a psychology issue.

Basically, it has less to do with him not understanding what light is and more to do with people doing a terrible job explaining it to him. Light gives him the ability to see things, but he sees the things and not the light itself. He just wants to see light, not just reflections of light. I know it sounds silly... and to be fair... it kind of is.

The story wraps up with him running into a painter who tries to explain what light is, since he has to sort of create the concept of light on a painting he is making of some sort of cliffside. This sadly convinces the man to jump in to his death in his final search for light. Yeah, he dies.

I'll be honest... I thought this story had some really interesting concepts about how formerly blind men might perceive the world, but I did not really like it all that much. The ending just felt shocking but in a silly way. I don't really recommend it.

This blog was written on February 12, 2025.

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Monday, April 21, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: North Carolina State Constitution [Document Review]

The "North Carolina State Constitution" was first written in 1776. It's current form was ratified in 1971 and has 14 articles.

I am here more to talk about reading your state's constitution more than I am to talk about what I read in mine. The only thing I want to mention about the NC version that I thought was really cool happened in Article VI Sec. 8 where is clearly states that anybody running for public office will be disqualified for the position if they "deny the being of Almighty God." Hell yeah.

Anyways, I just read this because I think if you live in a state you should be familiar with its constitution. You should also read the US Constitution too obviously. Either way, be sure you know what your actual state believes in. It is very easy to get ahold of. I may have ordered a paperback copy, but your state constitution can be easily viewed online for free. It's one of those things that you certainly don't have to do, but you probably should do it anyways.

Do I recommend the "North Carolina State Constitution?" Well... do you live in North Carolina? If so, then yes. It is a boring read though! The US Constitution is a much easier read and seems to be in a plainer language. But there was enough there to teach me a thing or two about my state, and I feel a lot better having pushed through it. That's all.

This blog was written on February 10, 2025.

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Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Dark Tower [Book Review]

[I spoil quite a lot of this story. I don't really spoil the ending because there isn't one anyhow.]

"The Dark Tower" is a novel written by C. S. Lewis. It is unfinished and also fragmented. What remains of the novel was published posthumously in 1977. Apart from the fact that Lewis never finished this book, parts of it are actually missing, likely burned by someone who did not know exactly what they were throwing into the fire. But what remains is a fascinating piece of literature, so don't let that bug you too much.

The story of "The Dark Tower" has to do with some people at Cambridge who were experimenting with a device called the chronoscope. It is a device that can peer into either the far past or far future. It has no way of actually setting it though, so there is no way to know exactly which period is actually being viewed.

However, what these gents actually see through the window is so incredibly surreal that it brings to question what is actually being seen. One of these odd visions takes the form of a man with a stinging horn coming out of his forehead, who they dubbed the "stingingman." If he uses this sting on someone, they become emotionless drone-like beings.

Things get even crazier when one of the people watching this "Othertime" ends up materializing on the other side and even turns into one of the stingingmen. It is here that the men begin to wonder if they are even seeing another time at all. Things are just too strange, and it is hard to fathom how this sort of world could exist on earth at any point in the future or the past.

The titular dark tower seen through the chronoscope is the same as the tower at the Cambridge library. How could it exist there when things are so weird? And lastly, one of the men watching ends up getting his soul switched with his double on the other side, trapping him in Othertime. This makes up the second major half of the story where you actually get to explore the other side of the chronoscope.

I say that he has a soul swap, because he actually does become the stingingman in the Othertime universe. He thinks like him, has the same urges, has the same language, but he is not the same man. That means that the stingingman is still the stingingman, but someone else is pulling the strings. This goes well with what I call the "meat puppet" theory for how the soul works. A soul controls the body, but the body still is what it is regardless. The mind, all of its knowledge, and memory, have nothing at all to do with the soul. A person's actual identity seems to come from the soul, however, that has very little if anything to do with the body and it's brain. You are who you are regardless of what your brain thinks it is. This actually lines right up with my own personal beliefs.

There was also one other incident before the book abruptly ends that, although subtlety presented, gave me a very pleasant shock. In one scene, the transferred stingingman was reading from a book in that world's own language, and he read about a genuinely evil man that was doing experiments on children. When he read that the man was later assassinated, it seemed to me that he tried to say "Thank God," but couldn't actually say "God." Although it isn't completely clear who he was trying to thank, the point was that there was no word in the stingingman's head that could reference the one being thanked.

The latter paragraph suggests that the world on the other side of the chronoscope might actually be Godless. This could be true considering one of the men watching it called the place Hell. Now, I'm not saying that this place really was Hell. It is more suggested that it was a parallel dimension that was running alongside our own timeline. However, if this place truly was Godless then it certainly comes close to being like Hell, insomuch as it is a place separated from God.

I am very sorry if this review is confusing. The story itself can be confusing at times. It does not help that entire swaths of content is missing from it, and also that it simply stops before there is any real conclusion. It is a bit frustrating, to say the least. However, what is there has enough to make it all so very interesting, and I do recommend that you read this one through. Just take it for what it is. Don't worry so much about what is missing, and focus on what is there to read. What you will get from it is an extremely surreal fever dream that came out of the mind of the man who gave us Narnia. It is very much worth the journey.

This blog was written on February 10, 2025.

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Monday, April 14, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Arrival [Video Game Review]

"Arrival" is a video game released in 2021. It is a map pack made for classic Doom II. It was created by Walker Wright also known as Pavera. I found it in the Featured Mods on the excellent Doom+DoomII Remaster put out by NightDive Studios.

"Arrival" does not really have a story. It is just a map set that proposes a set of challenges for the player. There is nothing wrong with that, since Doom has always been about the gameplay. That said, there is no better story than "guy with big guns kills demons a lot."

The theme here has to do with very... VERY large maps with a lot of enemies everywhere and constantly. They are not slaughter maps. Most of the enemies you face are the weaker sort, but intermixed with Arch-viles and Revenants. This combination often puts you in a situation where you have to make extremely hard pushes through a crowd in order to get to the key you need.

And you will be looking for those keys. All the maps need those keys for you to escape. You will be spending most of your time exhausting yourself trying to get the keys, usually all three of them, just to get yourself to the ending. These maps are intended to really tire you out by just constantly giving you a lot of fights.

The fights are not always really difficult per se, but they happen so much and so constantly that you might find yourself psychologically losing it a little. I had to keep taking breaks just to wind myself down. The Arch-viles were a constant problem since they were always reviving enemies you had worked so hard to kill. I pretty much made it a rule to use the BFG whenever I saw them.

These maps also give you an absolute ton of ammo and health. You'll pretty much see the stuff lying all over the ground. It looks like a lot, but I found myself spending the time to gather it all up when I could. All that ammo gets used. It never ever seems like enough. If you play this one, just be aware of what you have. Don't let the abundance of ammo lead you into a false sense of security. You will run out if you are not careful.

I was unable to find a secret exit in this map set, even though there is an extra mission called "Dad Bod" or in the case of the remaster it's called "Father Figure." If you play the game through regularly, you end up with an actual bad ending where you get lost in Hell forever. They accomplish this by placing you in a map with no exit. The true ending comes from playing "Father Figure" which you have to access from the level select menu. And this, sadly, means you have to "pistol start" it.

Well, I did it. I pistol started it and was able to finish it... just barely. It was about as exhausting as all of them, but I'd say that it was a tad easier than most of them. But, Lord, these maps were just so very tiring to play. I loved how everything looked though. They are well made maps with some interesting challenges.

Do I recommend "Arrival" though? I actually do, but you need to be ready to fight and fight hard. You'll be white-knuckled from beginning to end. There's no way around it. Lock and load, space marine! It's gonna be a long one!

This blog was written on February 9, 2025.

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Word of Mouse [Book Review]

"Word of Mouse" is a children's book written by James Patterson and Chis Grabenstein. (Although probably mainly the latter in this case.) It was published in 2016. I actually started reading this book many years ago but stopped because... frankly it was boring me. But I decided to give it another shot recently, and things seemed to go a little better. I think it had more to do with where my frame of mind was at the time, rather than the subject matter.

"Word of Mouse" is like a children's version of "Miss Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." It's protagonist, a mouse named Isaiah, escapes from a lab that does tests on animals, but those same tests have made him extremely intelligent, even to the point of being able to speak and read English. He makes friends with other mice and one human girl who he has to communicate with by jumping around on a laptop keyboard. Very cute.

Most of the book has to do with him trying to survive outside of the lab but with the constant sadness that he left his entire family in such a terrible situation. The story picks up when he concocts a plan to rescue his family from the lab.

Now, you may be wondering if this book makes lab scientists look like vicious, evil animal torturers... and yes. It does. It absolutely does to a cartoonish degree. I'm not joking. These scientists absolutely love torturing animals and are always fearful that the ASPCA is going to find out what they're doing. Yeah, I didn't really care for this plot point. It felt very manufactured.

To be honest, I found much of the last quarter of the book to be somewhat surreal. The authors went through a lot of trouble to factor so many things in for the mice to deal with to make it seem realistic in the way that they interact with the human world. I did a similar thing back when I wrote "God and the Squirrels," where I had a team of squirrels attempting to "pilot" a car. But I was never trying to push any weird lab animal abuse conspiracies at anybody.

Like my "God and the Squirrels," this book has a lot of religious stuff in it as well, but mostly towards the end. A lot of the agendas get dropped near the end so you have plenty of time to fall in love with the characters up to that point. Yeah, it kind of sucks, I know. I'm not saying religion in books are bad, but the Christianity represented in this one was more progressive in nature. It had me scratching my head a little.

You need to understand something. I don't hate this book. It plays out like a children's movie almost to the letter. It's very entertaining, cute, and fun. It just ends on an unrealistic and surreal note. It's not a bad ending. You just have to accept it for what it is. And what it is... is just not as good as what came before it. This book gets a solid 75%. That's right. This book is 75% good. And the ending doesn't kill it; it just comes across as a bit forced and stupid.

But do I recommend it? Well, I do, but I don't think you should if the stuff at the end is going to bother you. It is wildly entertaining and well-written. All the characters are very interesting... except for the evil lab scientist. It's a mixed bag. Read at your own risk. (But let's be honest... "God and the Squirrels" is probably a better book.)

This blog was written on January 28, 2025.

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Monday, April 7, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Deathless [Video Game Review]

"Deathless" is a video game released in 2018. It is a full map pack for original Doom, created by James Paddock.

I keep running into these wonderful Doom map packs that continue to surprise and entertain me. "Deathless" is a four episode map pack that replaces the campaign from original Doom. It contains no weapons or enemies from Doom II. It also takes the plot from the original game too. All that's different here are the maps themselves.

The name of the game here is small maps. Every map in "Deathless" are very small, compact, and have usually an enemy count from about 6 to 40. Although the maps are small, they are still a lot of fun to explore. They don't take a whole lot of smarts to unravel them, and that was the idea. It's like playing the entire original campaign in bite-sized chunks.

As I said, there are four episodes like the original game had. In this version, they are called respectively "Lifeless", "Ruthless", "Deathless", and "Griefless." Each episode has one secret level which usually are smaller compact versions of famous levels from both Doom and Doom II. The designs of each map are very good. They all feel like small facilities being guarded by a realistic number of sentries. All the enemies are organically placed, making everything feel like it is supposed to be that way.

Another thing that is very notable about "Deathless" is just how accessible it is to anybody. For new gamers, this is an easy map pack to start out with. And if it gets too easy, the difficulty setting will help up the enemy count. Everything about this game is very satisfying. Just keep in mind that if you prefer the huge sprawling maps from the original games, you will not find them here. All these maps are small and wonderfully tight. Some of the best design I have ever encountered in Doom history.

I do recommend "Deathless" especially to people who are interested in a change of pace. Doom is known for their huge and complicated missions. It's good to change things up once in a while. This map set is available as a Featured Mod in the excellent "Doom+Doom II Remastered" put out by NightDive Studios. Give it a try!

This blog was written on January 27, 2025.

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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Beware of the Mouse [Book Review]

"Beware of the Mouse" is a novel written by Leaonard Wibberley. It is the fifth and final book of the Grand Fenwick series. It is also my favorite. The book was published in 1958, making it the second book released, but it seems to be the suggestion of the author that it be read last.

"Beware of the Mouse" actually takes place in the Middle Ages and goes into more of a history tale of the world's smallest fictional country. What's interesting about setting the story so far back in time is that very little has even changed. Even in the modern era, Grand Fenwick still lived as if they were in the Middle Ages. They even used the long bow, which is their weapon of choice.

The plot of this one has to do with a serious threat from France after the rival country begins deploying a new weapon called the cannon. It is a terrifying weapon that threatens to destroy anybody who has to content with it. France hates Grand Fenwick and wants to claim them for themselves. The issue is that Grand Fenwick knows nothing of gunpowder and cannons and worries that their mastery of the long bow will fail under such a frightening new weapon.

As usual in this series, it is up to Grand Fenwick to act as the underdog while dealing with overwhelming forces going against them. In this case, the forces coming outnumber them 40 to 1. I don't want to spoil how it goes, but it was wonderfully told.

All the characters in this book are charming an wonderful. The knight known as Sir Dermot, an Irishman, steals the show by being both the bravest and the most cowardly all at the same time. His duality is hilarious, and I loved every single scene with him in it. Much of the story is about him trying to determine his destiny, not only as a knight, but as a man.

This story also is a great way to learn about how people lived in the Middle Ages. It all seemed very accurate to the era, which actually helped sell some of the more humorous moments. Nothing here is sensationalized. If something was awkward, then the author gives us the truth.

I think the best part of this book was that you don't need to read any of the other ones to get into it. It is entirely not dependent on the modern stories. I love this because it really ended up being, not only my favorite in the series, but just such a damn fine Middle Ages book in general. I'll even go so far as to say that, if you only read one, read "Beware the Mouse." It's really that good!

All in all, I loved this series. I am so happy they exist and are now apart of my imagination. Thank you, Leonard Wibberley, for these wonderful stories. I will always have a special place in my heart for the tiny country of Grand Fenwick.

This blog was written on January 26, 2025.

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Monday, March 31, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Thing [Video Game Review]

"The Thing" is a video game developed by Computer Artworks and published by Black Label Games. It was released in 2002, and the remaster was recently released by Nightdive Studios in 2024. It is considered the canon sequel to the 1982 film of the same name. Yes, it is canon. That was entirely confirmed.

I played this game on console back when it originally came out. I was fascinated by the concept, but found the game to be very glitchy and unpolished. Apparently the PC version was better, but I never knew that. Because of all the problems I had, I never bothered to finish it.

The remaster has given this game a new life, and it is yet another reason to love and adore Nightdive Studios for all that they do for us. This review is mainly for the remastered PC version.

Taking place mere moments after the original movie (and having nothing to do with the prequel that came later), this game follows the story of Blake, an American soldier investigating the site where the movie took place. Along the way, you encounter other people at the site, and they may or may not be the thing. Once again, we are in a situation where we have to be suspicious of everyone.

Or do we?

Honestly, one of my biggest complaints was how the game tries to implement the paranoia aspect from the movie. Without going too much into it... they sort of failed. I never actually cared if anyone with me was the thing; I was just happy to have someone to help shoot the creatures coming at me for as long as they were willing. If they changed along the journey, they were honestly easy to kill. The blood test from the movie was in the game, but it was not always accurate, and because of the reason I gave above, I never really was interested in forcing the thing to come out. So this was a fail.

The story, however, was very interesting. The game actually does make for a good sequel. It does involve a bit of stretching though. Like... it is about a secret military base that was examining the thing as possible weapons/immunity research. It doesn't make much sense, but the game still makes it interesting enough. I liked it.

The gameplay is fun and engaging, and the combat is exciting and thrilling throughout. Although sometimes the game forces you to leave people behind for absolutely no good reason. It baffled me whenever this happened. All I am saying is don't get used to anyone with you. Just be happy you're staying alive.

"The Thing" is a very flawed game in almost every aspect of itself, but the good news is that it is fun. It's a fun game, and that's all we can ask from something like this, I suppose. I do recommend it, although you really should get the remastered version. It is much better and even closer to being canon-accurate.

This blog was written on January 1, 2025. Happy New Year!

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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Going Down [Video Game Review]

Do any of you know a guy named Cyriak? His full name is Cyriak Harris, and he has been making music videos on YouTube for a very long time. These videos are very creepy and strange and often feature themes of cyclical repetition, fractal patterns, and mutations. They are intensely creepy and weird. He takes one theme or video and completely turns it into a terrifying nightmare set to some very discordant music that he makes himself. They are also often very humorous which contrasts pleasantly with the fact that they are terrifying. I have been a huge fan of his stuff for over a decade, and I always look forward to his new videos.

Well, recently I found a new Doom game called "Going Down" (released in 2014) that I downloaded completely at random. Honestly I was looking for a new game to blow off some steam on. I wasn't even going to finish it. The first thing I noticed was that I hated the music. It was discordant and silly and did not really sound like any music I had ever heard in the Doom games. I actually said to myself out loud, "This kind of sounds like Cyriak's stuff."

But then I had a sudden feeling of dread wash over me. I turned the game off and began searching information on the "Going Down" map pack. It was created by a user known only as "mouldy." And when I dug just a teeny bit deeper, I found out that the true name of mouldy was none other than Cyriak Harris. Well, I'll be damned. Cyriak made a Doom game.

And I figured he might have done a great job too since he was listed in the "featured mods" section of the Doom+DoomII Remaster. Anything in that category means that it is not just any Doom mod... it's considered one of the all time greats. And I then decided to play the whole thing through (all 32 maps) and see how much they stack up to Cyriak's body of work.

The whole concept of "Going Down" has to do with traveling from the top of a building and working your way down, killing everything you see along the way. This ultimately leads down into the basement areas... and eventually something that greatly resembles Hell.

Cyriak has perfected the concept of the "monster closet" by very strategically making a very empty room turn into a room full of enemies in seconds flat. One thing that is very particular to this map set is that, when enemies suddenly appear in front of you, they very often appear behind you as well. Cyriak loves trapping the player in between enemies very quickly. He's using a lot Doom voodoo to make it happen too. I have rarely seen so many tricks pulled in Doom in one map pack.

The map author also uses his sheer mastery of map editing to create situations where you can only use one weapon in a map, by either making all the other weapons less useful or just somehow taking the other weapons away. One mission had me only using the chainsaw and another just my fists. No matter what you are forced to use, a ton of enemies will be appearing regardless of if you feel it is fair or not... so just deal with it!

The main thing that happens so often in this map pack is that you can go from zero enemies to an absurd amount very quickly. I think this is his way to falling back to his music videos. In a strange way, it does sometimes feel like the monsters are repeating out in some absurd version of macro cellular mitosis.

There was also some witchcraft created by Cyriak that rather boggled my mind. In one situation, you are in an elevator, and when you take a few steps forward, the light go out and then, when they come back on, the whole room is covered in blood. That is not easy to accomplish in the classic Doom engine. He had to pull some very silly tricks to make that happen. He had to, in some crazy way, transfer the player seamlessly from one elevator to another just to make that happen.

The intermission scenes are silly. They have Doom Guy taking phone calls from his mother and mentioning that he is busy killing demons and such. His speech is very British. This is a bit off-putting, but it happened because Cyriak happens to be British.

The map pack had two secret levels which were very enjoyable and easy to find. The final mission had an original boss in it, and it was a very epic battle. It was followed by a epilogue mission where you are attacked in your own apartment complex. Very cool.

Without a doubt, I recommend "Going Down" as an absolutely must-play Doom map pack. If you have the Doom+DoomII Remastered available, it is free to download. Also check out Cyriak's music videos on YouTube! They are super creepy and fun to watch.

This blog was written on January 15, 2025.

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Monday, March 24, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Harmony [Video Game Review]

"Harmony" is a video game created by one man named Thomas van der Velden. It was released in 2009 for PC. It was entirely made on the classic Doom engine.

Back in my old video game days, I used to play a lot of "Star Wars Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight." While playing this game, I soon found out that there was a huge modding community for it online. A lot of them just reused assets from the original game to make new Star Wars games for me to play, but some of them did what was, at the time, called Total Transformations or TTs for short. These TTs replaced all the assets of the game but kept the engine. In this way, the game could look entirely different and even represent source material for other universes such as the Alien franchise or even *gasp!* Star Trek!

"Harmony" is one of these Total Transformations but for classic Doom. Although, today they seem to prefer the term Total Conversion. Even though you are actually playing Doom, you don't see anything that resembles Doom at all except for the movement controls. Everything else is completely different from the scenery, the enemies, the weapons, and even the sound effects. But don't be fooled. You are actually playing Doom; it just feels like an entirely different game.

The ascetics of "Harmony" feel like they are ripped out of a cheesy 1980s scifi flick. It's actually based on a comic book written and drawn by the author of the game. I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of his art, but the overall design of his universe is amazing.

As far as the story of the game, I'll just copy and paste it to you since Doom games are reliant on text to explain anything:

In the near future: Led by greed and hatred mankind drove itself into another world war. The forces of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere attacked each other with everything their destructive arsenal had to offer. Nuclear, chemical and biological weapons wiped out entire countries. The combined effect of the weapons resulted in an unforeseen side effect; a supervirus emerged that mutated all the men on Earth. For unknown reasons the women were unaffected. But they weren't safe either...

The mutated men, though intelligent, lost touch with reality. From their corrupted minds a new order was formed; 'the Pax Pox'. Its first priority is to rid the world of the "impure".

The women who survived the war united to form an army against the mutant aggressors and called themselves "the Amazons".

Today one of the Amazon outposts is attacked and their leader; Amira is taken captured. Her last hope is her loyal friend; Harmony.

Will Harmony be able to rescue her friend and the rest of the human race?

That's all you really need to know to get into the game. The rest of it is pure action scifi video game. The monsters are all very unique and interesting. The 13 maps have a really nice scifi design to them, and often really feel like real places. I really enjoyed exploring them and fighting off all the various enemies and mutants that it had to offer.

My only big complaint came in the form of the second level. It was really long and tired me out. I almost quit. I kept working on it though and found the rest of the game to be much more engaging. I am glad I kept with it. The sheer love that went into making these strange maps really shows.

If you are interested in playing this game, which I totally recommend, you can find it in the Featured Mods in the excellent "Doom+DoomII Remaster" recently put out by NightDive Studios. It's free and worth the playthrough. It will honestly just feel like you are playing an entirely different game, and that is incredibly cool in and of itself.

This blog was written on January 24, 2025.

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Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Mouse that Saved the West [Book Review]

[I spoil the main plot of this book.]

"The Mouse that Saved the West" is a novel written by Leonard Wibberley. It is the forth book in the Grand Fenwick book series. It was published in 1981.

I just wanna say that I have really been enjoying this series. I love the whole concept of it. It's all very cute. I am going to read the rest of it right away.

This one has to do with the energy crisis which is not something I remember too well. I was just being born when this book came out. From what I understand, OPEC was being stingy with its oil prices, and it was making everyone sweat bullets because they didn't wanna pay the asking price. It's a bit confusing to me, since all you have to do is just drill your own damn oil, but it was what it was, I guess.

As usual in the series, Grand Fenwick, the smallest fictional country in the world, gets involved in a scheme to solve the world's problems. The idea they come up with is to fake Grand Fenwick as a producer of oil and then sell the barrels at cost. Hilariously though they end up striking oil for real.

I don't want to say more than that, but I do want to say that the character Mountjoy is someone who I generally see as very intelligent and reasonable, but I don't think he was as on the mark in this one. I think he bit off more than he could chew and made some bad decisions. Even so, he was still very cool. He is probably my favorite character in the series.

I do recommend this one. I didn't like it as much as the other ones, but it was good enough for a single read.

This blog was written on December 30, 2024.

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Monday, March 17, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Wurst Seller [Book Review]

[I spoil one of the comics inside the book.]

"Wurst Seller" is an adult picture and comic book made by Wallace Tripp. It was published in 1981. It is really weird. It was so weird that I put off reading it for like three years. I finally did it though. I went through it in one sitting.

I was actually gifted this book by my editor, which means I am a terrible friend to take so long to go through it. Really, I just have a hard time with bad jokes. This book is full of them. Some of them are extremely hard to understand. They just baffled me and hurt my head.

Make no mistake, this book is pain. Some of the jokes are genuinely funny, but the majority of them are jokes that will just make you groan really hard. I mean groan so hard that it hurts your chest. That was clearly the idea. The writer/artist wanted to hurt his reader. It is safe to say he succeeded.

I do want to point out that this book may look like it is for children, but it really isn't. Ignore all the cute, cuddly little animals. This entire thing was intended to hurt adults. I don't think it would be particularly damaging to kids, but they probably would not understand 75% of what's inside. It really takes an intelligent adult mind to comprehend most of this, which is ironic. He actually turns people's intelligence against themselves. That's insane.

My favorite part of the book was a single-page comic called "Little Bunny Wuffy and Tee Wee." It is about an extremely adorable bunny and a bird who goes around trying to cheer up other animals who are having remarkably terrible days. (I mean REALLY terrible. The worst kind of soul crushing days that can lead to suicidal thoughts or worse. I'm not joking.)

The problem with Little Bunny Wuffy is that when people have days like this, they don't want to see smiles and laughter. They want to be hugged and possibly helped. All Little Bunny Wuffy does is just spout off silly poetry about how they should just smile and get over it. Hilariously, the bunny gets eaten by a wolf at the end which nobody mourns.

One last thing about the Little Bunny Wuffy comic! There may possibly be a "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" reference. The bunny comes across a mother mouse who had her house destroyed and her children eaten up by rats. This is possibly the worst outcome of that story, and the bunny just teases her that she'll easily be able to make more children since mice are so prolific. Yeah, it was probably good that Little Bunny Wuffy got eaten. That was incredibly cruel.

That's all I want to say. I guess I will recommend the book purely on the grounds that it entirely accomplished what it set out to do. The art is good, and the man behind it is clearly insane. If you are a masochist who wants to destroy your brain, buy this book.

This blog was written on December 25, 2024. Merry Christmas!

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