What’s Up Week 27: Slowing Down

As the coverage season (at least for me) approaches, things are slowing down mostly because time becomes less and its the process to just not burn out on certain types of writing before getting to the main thing.

READING

• Lifelike by Jay Kristoff

Currently reading: The Serpent-Bearer and the Prince of Stars

Its been a long time but I finally wrapped up Lifelike (and got a mild sunburn in the process). I have some pros and cons to Lifelike for sure. Putting obvious fatigue and and being preoccupied with other things aside, Lifelike did take me a little while to get into so I have some issues with it but at the same time, its a good comparison for Jay Kristoff as a solo author writing sci-fi and his ideas while comparing them to when he teams up and co-wrote the Illuminae Trilogy. That review is coming up soon-ish.

PLAYING

Seeing as it was an event coverage weekend, gaming was not really that much at home. Instead, I did try out a few games at Montreal Comiccon. You can find the recap of the Indie Game Zone HERE. Below are some games that we had a chance to try out:

• Aeolis Tournament
• Tech Support: Error Unknown
• City Game Studio

I linked up the Steam pages in case you ever are interested and wanted to check it out!

Other than that, its been pretty much the same as I’ve been on the move mostly so playing mostly mobile games:

• PinOut
• Two Dots

I’m going to be honest that I don’t think gaming is going to be too vibrant. But I have skipped two mobile games roundups for Game Warp so the hope is to get one of those up by the end of July as I have been playing a lot of mobile games.

WATCHING

• Lick the Star (short)
• The Virgin Suicides

Movies and Tea is still in its After Hours episodes with only one of three episodes released. Due to my busy schedule, Elwood and I had decided to get the first episode Season 3 recorded to just get things started. Our next author, in case you don’t follow the Movies and Tea Facebook page, is Sofia Coppola. We chose her for multiple reasons. One of them being that her movies are more dramatic which definitely is a change from Paul W.S. Anderson and Guillermo Del Toro. We kick off with The Virgin Suicides, which I had seen only a few years ago but I don’t think I reviewed because I couldn’t quite grasp how I felt about it overall. This time though, I tried really hard to make sense of it all and notice the little things. I’m not going to talk too much about it as you can hear it all on the upcoming episode.

BINGING

• Umbrella Academy (Season 1, 2019)
• Stranger Things (Season 3, 2019)

Currently binging: Love Signal, River Flows To You, “My Highness” The Class Monitor

Back to some Netflix TV binging for us this past week as the husband was on his vacation (well, staycation). I wanted to check out The Umbrella Academy for the Montreal Comiccon and wrapped that up during the beginning of the week. Maybe on Canada Day. Then the husband got really excited about Stranger Things Season 3 launching on Thursday and started that up right away so despite media coverage season, I still found some energy to watch it and I think, we binged it over evenings. I’m prioritizing the TV binge for Stranger Things and Umbrella Academy so it should come out over this month some time. Its already in the works.

As for the currently binging stuff, My Highness should end next week whereas River Flows To You and Love Signal is still in early stages. For the moment, I’m not starting anything new until after July. At thats the plan…but you never know with a new season for Queer Eye, Sugar Rush and Orange is the New Black coming up in July, its going to be hard to resist.

That’s it for this week’s Whats Up!

Montreal Comiccon 2019 – What to Do and See

I’ve been covering Montreal Comiccon for the last few years mostly for Game Warp and shared some of the cosplay and hauls over here but have never really talked about Montreal Comiccon in depth. This year, I’m thinking that there are some fun little bits to highlight as a beginner’s guide to Montreal Comiccon, in case you are in town and might consider it a fun event or think its one that you’d like to check out at some time in the future (just a guideline since guests and such change every year, as expected).

The 11th annual Montreal Comiccon starts today on July 5th and runs throughout the weekend to end on July 7th at Palais de Congres in downtown Montreal. Over the three days, there are over 200 activities including panels, workshops, concerts, masquerade, improv, board games, screenings, autographs sessions, photo ops and more related to all things pop culture: anime, movies, TV, comic books, gaming.

On interesting fact to know is that all kids five and under go in for free all three days, while kids ages 6 to 12 get free admission on Friday and Sunday.

Here’s some of the highlights of whats to come over this weekend, for further info, you can find the schedule HERE.

GAMING

Set in the vibrant game development scene of Montreal where not only multiple AAA studios has their offices or headquarters, there are even more independent game developers lurking in every corner. One of the big highlights of Montreal Comiccon for gamers is the Indie Gaming Zone. Indie Gaming Zone will have many game developers showing off their games recently released and in development along with their playable demos so that you can experience it and share your thoughts with them as well.  We will be  having coverage for the Indie Game Zone over at the Game Warp Blog (as well as on That Moment In) during this weekend.

In other gaming highlights: Dreamhack doesn’t hit Montreal until September but before that, you can get a taste of it at the Dreamhack Gaming Zone where there will be a VR station to try out some VR games while also having a PC Freeplay Zone. You can also find the Tabletop Gaming area where there will be an assortment of board games to try out with your friends. While if you are in a more competitive mood and up for a challenge, there are activities for Combat Archery and Rage  Academy (Axe-Throwing) that you can check out.

Gaming also has a good few panels. From the more technical game concepts like Fantasy Map-Making to Narrative Nightmares & Lessons Learned which will talk about writing video games to the basics of launching your game via crowdfunding, Crowdfunding 101. There are also panels on specific games like Jurassic World Alive, Overwatch and Watch Dogs 2.

MOVIES & TV

Movies is a big part of the pop culture with multiple franchises having their cast show up to talk in Q&A panels. At the same time, they are also available for photo ops and autographs. Some of the highlights would be Harry Potter franchise has James & Oliver Phelps and  Tom Felton. Set in the same universe, Dan Fogler from Fantastic Beasts movies is also there. Star Wars fans can see Ray Park.

Disney fans will be happy to find Jim Cummings, the voice actor of Winnie the Pooh and Darkwing Duck as well as Paige O’Hara, the voice actress of Belle in Beauty and the Beast. You can also find Ethan Peck from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (who might be there for the more recent Star Trek: Discovery) while in the superheroes movie world, Shazam!‘s Evan Marsh is also present. Fans of Highlander and Mortal Kombat can see Christopher Lambert in a panel. For fans of Quentin Tarantino films, you can also check out the panel with Michael Madsen.

The guest of honor does have to go to Elijah Wood who has not only TV series under his belt but also The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as various indie horror films in his filmography.

This year’s TV-related guests has an incredible line-up. There will be The 100 panel with Bob Morley, Eliza Taylor and Tasya Teles. The much more recent The Umbrella Academy has Robert Sheehan and Cameron Brodeur also in a panel together. Lana Parilla will be there if you are a fan of Once Upon A Time.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Of course, that is just touching on the categories we cover here. Anime, cosplayers, comic book artists (Dan Parent, Kevin Eastman, etc) as well as wrestlers, MMA (Georges St-Pierre) and kickboxing figures will also be there this weekend. If you need a break, the Artist Alley and Exhibition Hall is always a nice place to check out a ton of cool merchandise and of course, some great art from different artists based on pop culture in their own style.

That’s it for this general guide!
We’ll be covering Montreal Comiccon and will be having Day 1, 2 and 3 recaps.

What’s Up – Week 26: Halfway through 2019

We’re halfway through 2019. Man, time just flies by. We’re in a bit of a mixed bag now. I would love to recap the first half of 2019. At the current stage, I’m quite behind in the Goodreads challenge and my favorite book of the year so far has to be Obsidio. In terms of games, its been quite slow in the reviewing and not so much the playing lately but my favorite game so far is

READING

Currently reading: Lifelike

At about 90% done, this past week was a lot of fatigue at work and such that it was less time reading and more time just napping when I got a chance. Lifelike is a decent story. I have a few issues with it that I’ll talk about it in the book review which should be coming up. A little backlog going on right now, which is good, since I need it to break up some of the upcoming film review heavy month.

PLAYING

• Geometry Dash
• PinOut

Going back to some older games that I was playing before this week. Some people find Geometry Dash frustrating or raging but I actually find it rather relaxing to play. Maybe its the music or the simplicity of the game mechanics and the complete focus you need to complete the task. At the same time, PinOut has been downloaded again onto my phone for a little pinball fun.

WATCHING

• Tau
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Movies are still a bit light but I’m okay with that because you don’t even want to see what my Fantasia Festival list looks like right now. It was at a shocking high amount which I had to cut down for time and sanity purposes (as well as sleeping and working needs). However, the two movies that I chose to watch this week were pretty good. I know Pirates of the Caribbean 5 is not exactly a masterpiece but I’ve always had fun watching these films. The humor works for me. Its really the highlight through probably goes to Tau, which seems like Netflix is getting a decent sci-fi run on its Originals seeing as the last film I saw, I Am Mother was also quite decent. There are some little issues but overall, its not bad. Review for this one coming up in the next double feature. Side note, I still have two films to wrap up the 26 films for the Netflix “alphabet” but I didn’t get around to watching the movies so we just work with what we have at the moment.

BINGING

• Love Timing (Season 1, 2019)

Currently  binging: “Your Highness” Class Monitor, Heart Signal (Season 2), Umbrella Academy

Love Timing finally ended and so far, I have to admit that this version of the whole social matchmaking concept works the best out of the three that I’ve seen. I’ve noticed there is one more version of it on the Zhejiang TV channel. I’ll line that up for later viewing probably. Putting that aside, I am the most invested in this series maybe because both the observing commentators (whatever you call them) were quite natural and fun while still having some little info here and there. At the same time, the way the linking part works also was the most fun to do and the real people involved was also a good span of both personalities and had a nice dynamic that you can see change over the course of the time they spent at the house.

On the currently binging end, things have slowed down quite a bit. I’m still watching Your Highness Class Monitor which honestly is getting slightly disappointing. Heart Signal Season 2 is just one episode a week and its at their 2nd episode so things are still just opening up but I’m not too invested just yet as compared to the first season. While the husband and I did start up Umbrella Academy on Netflix and am half way through the season. Its good because Umbrella Academy has a panel at Montreal Comiccon and I’m looking forward to finishing it before then.

That’s it for this What’s Up!
A little bit old and a little of catching up and a little bit of new.
It seems like a  nice place to be at half of the year.

What have you been reading/watching/playing/binging?