The Jabberer

The High Ones are certainly a terrifying foe, making no place feel safe, but surprisingly at the end of the day there's little power they have besides their ability to taunt you. I've wanted to write a review of Enderal for a while now, for years even, yet it took for its release on Steam along the "Forgotten Stories" update for me to finally sit down to play through it last summer. It's a mod for Skyrim made by Germans, yet it's far more than just a simple mod. Enderal is an entire game, and you'd only know it as Skyrim by scant details. Hell, it's probably even better than Skyrim , offering up a deep, thought-provoking story about the human experience on top of gorgeous locations, memorable moments, a more fleshed out leveling system, and more. The story made me think so much that I devoted an entire section of this review to going over what it all equates to. It's undeniably something that deserves and demands to be experienced (all for

So I spent Thursday watching Sonic the Hedgehog , and it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected (especially post- CATS ), but it still wasn't great. The characters weren't really compelling and to tell the truth I found really none of them to be entertaining, and the story was as likewise. Still, the CGI and overall feel of the film was much better than it easily could have been, and the extra effort put into the remaking of the film definitely shows. It could have been a horror, and it's still not a great film, but it's easily watchable. My biggest complaint with the climax is that no other characters (apart from Sonic and Robotnik) feel like they matter at all, but without the presence of the other Sonic  characters that does make sense unfortunately. So the story of Sonic the Hedgehog is essentially every Sonic story ever told, except as a prequel with a few key differences. I probably played the original Sonic in Flash format for about five minutes before d

I wish the cover was a bit more understated, but it's pretty unassuming regardless. The only thing that would clue you into this wild ride would be the phrase "Classic Vietnam War Memoir". Earlier last week I managed to finish Philip Caputo's iconic 1977 memoir of his experiences of the Vietnam War called A Rumor of War , and while harrowing and not terribly surprising, I found it to be a thoroughly enlightening experience. I generally don't read non-fiction (though I'm working to rectify that) and this also was required for a history class, so the odds of me liking this were a tossup. Hell, the only reason I opened it was both out of boredom and because I was reminded by my professor, but I was hooked (to use the worn-out phrase). It paints an image of contrasting naivety and bitterness, exhaustion and vigor, and heroism mixed with black rage all within the internal experience of the author. There's definitely something uncomfortable about being so c

So I finished watching the 2020 BBC Dracula miniseries last night, and it was a really confusing experience. Told in three parts, the miniseries covers pretty much the same story beats as the original work, but the most of the runtime is devoted to Dracula's pre-Britain escapades. Parts one and two are nothing short of fantastic, but then it all falls apart in part three, which is one of the more awful things I've seen in a while. I liked the series overall (because 2/3 ain't bad, but not great), so let's bite into 2020's Dracula , a strange tale of great setup ruined in the final act thanks to the genius of Stephan Moffat. In case you couldn't guess, the first part is my favorite. It has a bit of everything one needs for a scary night by the campfire, including helpless victims. I've already mentioned that the Dracula miniseries is told in three parts, but it's important to qualify what those are, because while the third part is undeniably the

The insidious influence of the Color is perhaps its most frightening aspect, distracting its victims and overwhelming their senses as it transforms them for its purposes. So I watched Color Out of Space , a film adaptation of the HP Lovecraft short story of the same name starring Nicholas Cage, and to tell the truth, I didn't expect much. There's definitely easier options of source material to adapt than the cosmic horror of Lovecraft, and a story about an indescribable color is a hard sell on a visual medium. However, Color Out of Space is surprisingly well-crafted, eerie, and exciting, using modern cinematic effects and (largely) great techniques in order to perfectly capture the essence of Lovecraftian storytelling in all its unsettling wonder. The plot of Color Out of Space is essentially the same as the short story of the same name written in March 1927, but taking place in the modern day at a secluded farm in Arkham County (the only world building in a surprisin