Jamiroquai Game

My daughter rocks as a furniture dodger

It isn't often that some game comes along that my wife actually asks me to download for her. Yesterday, the Jamiroquai Game by Buncho Games came across her Twitter feed. Being a big Jamiroquai fan, she was intrigued. A half hour later both she and the daughter were dodging blocky furniture in a sterile white room as Jay Kay from the band just like in the Virtual Insanity video. Laughter ensued.

The free indie game is available via Game Jolt for PC computers - here. It is a recreation of the video mentioned above in that you walk around the room as black furniture comes sliding along at your (from the back or left or right). You just need to dodge as long as possible. The game keeps score of how many pieces of furniture you dodge.

It is a very simple game and uses the Virtual Insanity song as the sound track. You can move using the WASD or arrow keys and can restart the game anytime by hitting the space bar. It's that simple. Where it becomes brilliant is the crashing sound and physics of the avatar once he is mowed down by one of the sliding black seats. He flops to the ground in a broken heap still twitching.

The game is simple and addictive and fun. It won't hold your attention long, but you will have fun with it. I imagine a swipe or tilt powered mobile version would be downloaded millions of times just because it is that type of easy to play type of game. Good work on Buncho Games for making this one. If you have a PC, go give it a try. I give it 5 Mick Happies for the laughter it brought at our house. Here is a recreation of my wife's first game.

Daredevil Season 1 Review

2015 is turning out to be a big year for Marvel properties. With an Avengers movie, Ant-Man, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and two new series via Netflix, A.K.A. Jessica Jones and Daredevil. You can't find a place to avoid superheroes these days. I am actually getting a little burnt out on the genre and formula. Why does everything have to culminate in a "Save the World" level climax? Luckily, Daredevil is a little bit different on that account.

Daredevil is a 13-episode series from Netflix, Marvel and series creator, Drew Goddard, is based on the comic of the same name starring a blind lawyer with exceptional senses who fights crime in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in New York City. Matt Murdoch, Daredevil, is played by Charlie Cox (Stardust) and is joined by his law partner, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (Elden Henson). Together they work to be scrupulous lawyers in a town fraught with criminals. They are helped by their assistant, Karen Page, who is played by Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood). Karen also gets help during the series from a reporter, Ben Urich, who is played by Vondie Curtis-Hall. Okay, enough introductions.

At a young age, Matt Murdoch saves a man from being hit by a car but is hurt himself in the accident, which leaves him blind due to a chemical spill. Murdoch's father is a bruiser of a boxer who does his best for his family while having to deal with the corruption around his sport. This is all seen in flashbacks in the first two episodes. When we first really meet Murdoch, he is preparing to defend his and Foggy's first client, Karen Page, who is accused of murdering a co-worker.

From there the story twists and turns through 13 episodes where we find that the city is being overrun by criminal elements all associated with one Wilson Fisk played by Vincent D'Onofrio. Fisk has pulled together a coalition of heroin producing Chinese, drug dealing Russians, Yakuza and a money-laundering business man. Together they are working to re-make Hell's Kitchen into a better future. What isn't clear is who's better future that will be. Maybe the drugs and crime are just a means to an end.

Over the course of the season, we get to see Murdoch become a vigilante hero who uses his martial arts training and heightened senses to do some truly amazing things. They even provide an explanation of sorts as to how it happens. We also get to see the motivations of the criminal element, who are just as deep and flawed as some of our heroes. The entire season is essentially one big story told in 13 parts. There are ups and downs in how well the story is told, but it comes to a satisfactory (if a little rushed) ending.

One of the challenges of the show is that it is very dark and gritty. Probably best watched in a dark room where some of the black edges of each frame will be a little more visible. Watching on my iPad mini in a bright room wasn't always the best choice. Daredevil also has more than its fair share of violence, but it seems to fit the grounded, not over-the-top powers of the main hero. On the plus side, D'Onofrio is fantastic as Fisk and truly scary at times. One of the other standouts is Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, a nurse who saves Murdoch a time or two. Toby Leonard Moore as James Wesley, Fisk's right hand man, is fantastic and cultured and stable while his boss seems complete unstable at times. Another great thing, which is funny to say, is the opening credit sequence (seen in the photos here) where parts of the city are drawn with flowing blood. Amazing stuff right on par with Game of Thrones' intro.

When I started watching the show, my wife asked me "Why do you like these superhero shows?" I really don't have an answer. Maybe it is the escapism or the idea that a flawed person can overcome those issues to make a difference. In the case of Daredevil, I liked that it wasn't solely about destroying everything (though there is a lot that goes boom). Hard to say what it is I like, but I did enjoy it and will be back for more.

If you are looking for realism, you will need to suspend disbelief a few times as Daredevil chases cars by running over rooftops or heals quickly after taking beatings. What you do get is a more grounded story than most superhero shows/movies and while there is an ultimate battle for Hell's Kitchen, the whole world isn't at stake. In the next season, I hope we get even more of Nelson and Murdoch as lawyers and broaden the story to encompass more than one main villain. At the end of the day, this is a very good show. It won't be for everyone, but it has a lot going for it and Cox is convincing as the blind lawyer and ultimately, hero. I am hopeful for the other Netflix/Marvel shows coming in the next year or two. Daredevil gets 4.5 Mick Happies.

The Martian Review

In my family, we have a tradition. If you drop something, break something, fall down or otherwise injure yourself, but will be all right, you just call out, "I'm Okay!" That way everyone knows we don't need to rush over and run off to the hospital. The Martian by Andy Weir is a bit like that just about every chapter and it's great.

The Martian started as a self-published serial novel on Andy Weir's website, then a $0.99 e-book on Amazon and later was "discovered", published by Crown Publishing Group and optioned for a movie directed by Ridley Scott. The New York Times Bestselling book is the story of a manned mission to Mars, the third such mission in fact, and begins with our main character, Mark Watney, in mortal danger. Things just continue to be dire for Mark from there.

At its heart, this is a castaway story of survival. Mark, a botanist and mechanical engineer, has to find a way to survive everything Mars can dish out with limited supplies and only a sliver of hope of rescue. What is great about the book is the way Mr. Weir weaves solutions based on real-world science (most everything is plausible). Math is applied along with chemistry and plain old ingenuity. I really liked the feel of old-school space exploration with more modern references as well as a dash of 1970s nostalgia (which also fit well with the space exploration background - anyone of a certain age has the two pretty well intertwined in their brain).

I heard of this book through the Sword & Laser podcast, so I knew much of the story ahead of actually reading it. I also knew that a movie was in the works, starring Matt Damon, so I found myself visualizing how the story would translate to the screen (very well in my opinion). I am sure there will be parts of the story that will be cut to allow the movie to fit the time limits of film, therefore you should read the book before seeing the movie.

Pick up a copy of The Martian. The iTunes e-book version had a Q&A with the author, an essay about writing the book and questions for readers groups as extras. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It has reinforced the fact that though I read a lot (A LOT) of fantasy, books set in space are my favorite. The Martian gets 5 Mick Happies. Can't wait to see the movie now.

Silicon Valley Season 1 Review

One of the benefits of having access to HBO Now is the ability to stream HBO's previously aired shows. That meant that I was able to share the entirety of Season 1 of Silicon Valley with my family before Season 2 began. Silicon Valley follows the trials and successes of a small tech start up as they try to bring their new software to market. Incubated in the house of Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller), Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) is joined by Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) when his compression algorithm is shown to be revolutionary.

Together the four work with "Jared" (Zach Woods), who has an understanding of business organization the others lack, and Monica (Amanda Crew), the lead from the venture capital firm that has given them seed money. They fight to develop the algorithm into a suite of products before a large tech firm, Hooli, can beat them to the punch. Season 1 ends with a major showdown between Hendricks' company, Pied Piper, and Hooli.

This is a mature audiences-focused half-hour comedy. One of Gilfoyle's lines in the premiere regarding the liquid shrimp he has just eaten nearly made my wife spit-take her mouthful of water across the room and she was hooked. Silicon Valley is the brain child of Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. In this case, the show probably is more reminiscent of Judge's Office Space than Beavis and Butthead, but there are shades of both in the humor and character interplay (especially Dinesh and Gilfoyle). Overall this is a show about young brilliant people who struggle to handle the success and opportunity they have earned.

Thomas Middleditch, who I thought was one of the best parts of the movie Fun Size, is great as the incredibly smart but socially inept Richard Hendricks dealing with situations he just isn't equipped to handle. Probably the funniest characters in the show are Jared (Woods) who is completely straight-laced compared to the others and Martin Starr is very good as he delivers the deadpan and dry humor as Gilfoyle. Season 1 is 8 episodes long and the first four episodes are very funny and while there is a bit of a lull during episodes 5, 6 and 7, stick with it. The season finale is some of the funniest television I have ever seen. We were all struggling for breath by the time it ended. Luckily, Silicon Valley has already been picked up for season 3 so Richard and the team will be working together for quite a while.

If you are looking for a mature comedy about twenty-somethings trying to make it as entrepreneurs, give Silicon Valley a shot. At times the show is some of the funniest television out there and overall is extremely good. Silicon Valley gets 4.5 Mick Happies. Can't wait for another episode to air tonight.

In Real Life Review

Like many gamers, I have played Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) at some point in my past. For me it was Multi-User Dungeons like Valhalla (now rebuilt as Asgard's Honor) and Genocide. I never got into the World of Warcraft (WoW) and Everquest games. My daughter did play around in WoW a little and that always made me smile a bit. Now I do play Path of Exile which falls nicely into this genre. I do know that there are a lot of problems that have evolved with the MMORPG format. Not the least is bullying of players and real-money economies building up around the game where those with time sell the fruits of their efforts to those with little time and lots of money. I was then pleasantly surprised to find out that Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang had combined to develop a young adult focused graphic novel, In Real Life,  that explored these subjects all with a girl protagonist.

The story focuses on Anda, a young girl who's family has just moved to a new town. There she hears about an online game, Coarsegold Online, and convinces her parents to let her play. After that we follow the story as Anda meets other players and learns a lot about the world of Coarsegold Online, our world and the impact of one's actions.

The artwork by Jen Wang is vibrant and fully enhances the story being told. This is a great book for anyone with children that are getting ready to play online games. It broaches the subjects I mentioned before as well as opens up the opportunity to talk about those topics with your kids. Along the way they can learn for themselves the best way to interact with other people online where doing what is right or wrong is sometimes more than just a choice of following the rules or not.

Pick up a copy of In Real Life, read it and share it with someone else. You will be glad that you did. Written with a young adult audience in mind, there is still enough depth and story here for adult readers and, again, I think it is best when thought of as a story you read together with a teenager for the dialogue it will raise. Once you finish In Real Life, there is a short story on Tor.com called Con/Game with the same characters. Due to the short length of Con/Game, I don't recommend reading it first as you will not have an understanding of the characters or backstory and thus Con/Game will not be as entertaining as it could be. In Real Life, 4 Mick Happies, is available digitally and in paper form at all booksellers. Enjoy.

HBO Now Review

The family and I have been sans cable TV for nearly 4 years now. One of the things we have always said is that we have no problem paying for the content we want to see. We just don't want to be paying $60 - $100 a month for a bunch of channels we will never watch. Don't even get me started on commercials as well. We bought 3 apple TV boxes for our televisions and started streaming Netflix (we already were paying for Netflix on top of our monthly cable TV bill). We supplemented Netflix by buying season passes through iTunes to any TV shows we wanted to watch. Upside was access to shows the day after they aired without any commercials. It even felt like we were saving money when we used credit card points to get iTunes cards. Since then we have purchased replacement apple TV boxes twice but overall we probably have saved a few thousand dollars by not having cable TV. On thing that always bothered me was that we couldn't access shows like Game of Thrones because a) HBO wouldn't allow season passes for the show on iTunes and b) they wouldn't allow viewing of their content without a cable subscription, until now.

This past week saw the rollout of HBO Now, a standalone HBO streaming service available without cable subscription. For $14.99 a month, you have unlimited access to HBO series and whatever movies they are currently offering. Though a bit pricey over all when compared to Netflix's streaming service, HBO Now does offer some things Netflix can't.

With HBO Now, you get access to content like Game of Thrones, Sex in the City, The Sopranos and Entourage (along with others). All available right after they originally air (no waiting for the season to end or the DVDs to be released a year later). You also get access to a mix of older and recently released movies, most of which are not available on Netflix. There are also the sports (mainly boxing), comedy and documentary specials that HBO has produced. HBO Now is accessible by computer, an app on Apple TV as well as a mobile device app (I have been using it on my iPad Mini). There is also one feature in the app that is unique compared to Netflix, the +10 button, allowing you to fast forward 10 seconds, which is so much better than trying to track forward using the scrolling bar - which always leads to buffering delays on Netflix.

HBO Now interface

As with any new service, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of. The first movie we streamed on our Apple TV, The Heat, had a lot of stuttering in the video playback - no problems with the sound. The user interface on the mobile app is a little limited on the home screen when you first open the app, I find using the menu button the best way to navigate. The other drawback compared to Netflix is that content rotates on and off the service much faster than with Netflix (not including HBO-specific shows and specials). The monthly cost is also a little on the high side for the total amount of content provided, but the free first month helped mitigate some of that cost.

Main front screen for HBO Now - the 3 menu button upper left is your friend

I was able to sign up and register my device quickly through the iPad app using my iTunes account. This means I can pay the monthly fee through iTunes and not worry about my credit card being hit (as long as I keep an iTunes balance up). You can stop the subscription renewal at any time, it only renews one month at a time. Want to see all of a given show, sign up for a month after it has aired and stream it all then let the subscription lapse.

HBO Now is exactly what all content providers should be moving toward. There is no need for a "middle man" cable provider curating a large number of channels - we want and will pay for access to specific content we want to watch. It is cheaper for the viewer and directly benefits content providers who offer what we want to see. Is the service perfect, no, is it a good start, yes. Especially with the free first month, you should jump in and give it a try. HBO Now gets 4 Mick Happies. Now back to watching The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Misenchanted Sword Review

Back in the 1980s I was reading most any fantasy book I could get my hands on. There were epic fantasies like the Lord of the Rings, more pulpy fare like Gary Gygax's books centered on Gord the Rogue and others. Somewhere in that mix, my dad and I read The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans. The Misenchanted Sword was something different from the other fare of the time and has become one of my favorite books.

The Misenchanted Sword is a standalone novel and first in what would become the Legends of Ethshar  series. This is the story of Valder, a scout, in the middle of a Great War that has been going on for generations who finds himself lost behind enemy lines. He finds a hut to shelter in, but some of his enemies come and burn the place down. He survives and runs into the owner of the hut, who is very angry to see his place ruined. The man who owns the hut turns out to be a wizard and enchants Valder's sword to help get Valder to leave. The rest of the book is about Valder and the sword and how his life is changed by the wizard's choice to help him.

What is different about the book is how quickly you become immersed in the world and the story. The book is not long, but you get a pretty meaty story about Valder and his challenges (I am trying to avoid spoiling anything). It also introduces you to a world that is fleshed out and vast, having started life as a role-playing campaign setting before becoming the backdrop for many novels. Lawrence Watt-Evans also has an easy style to his writing that blends humor and irony with nice twists, good for readers just getting started with fantasy.

Like the Discworld series, The Legends of Ethshar novels take readers to different parts of Ethshar and focus on different characters in almost every book. There are a couple that continue the story of one character or another for move than one book but in the early novels they are usually standalone. However, each peels back another layer in the overall world. There is war, magic, adventures, politics and more to be found in the stories. Overall, as of right now, there are 13 novels and one short story collection in the series. The most recent books having been written by the author as part of a reader-funded experiment on his website. He seems to be done with that experiment, but hopefully not done with writing in Ethshar.

Over the years, I have owned two copies of the book and loaned or gifted both away to try to share the story with other readers. It may be hard to find, but I think the Del Rey version has the best cover art, but any copy is good. If you like fun adventures with neat twists and imaginative world-building, you should give The Misenchanted Sword a try. Compared to the door stopper sized books in Fantasy today, you may find the shorter, but no less enjoyable, Legends of Ethshar books to be a breath of fresh air. Plus with as many of them as there are, people liking longer series will be covered as well. Here's hoping there are more Legends coming. The Misenchanted Sword gets 5 Mick Happies.