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November 2022 Retrospective

The Good

Read The Bands of Mourning & The Lost Metal

Over the last five years I went from not knowing who Brandon Sanderson was to reading 15 of his books totalling over 3,200,000 words. I think it is finally safe to say that Brandon Sanderson is my favourite writer.

This month I read both The Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal to close out Era 2 of the Mistborn series. In a world where 99% of films, video games, and books all seem to botch their endings, it was so refreshing to put down The Lost Metal and feel completely at peace. To me the perfect ending is where you are thoroughly satisfied with how the main story threads conclude but cannot wait to see where the world at large will go. You don't know what is going to happen, but you can visualize so many different possibilities and you don't really care which ones occur. Contrast that with standard cliffhangers that literally need to pick up the moment afterwards.

Brandon Sanderson so far has done an excellent job with not only the endings for each of his books, but also the endings of self-contained trilogies/tetralogies. The Cosmere is so detailed yet so mysterious that even with each book slowly pulling back the curtain I am simply enjoying being along for the ride.

It sounds like the fifth book in The Stormlight Archive has been postponed until 2024 so I'll probably finally read Elantris in 2023 to continue feeding my need for knowledge of the Cosmere.

Pepsi, Where's My Jet?

In the mid-90s Pepsi aired a commercial that said for 7,000,000 Pepsi Points you could get your very own Harrier jump jet. For most of us it was a joke, but for one 21-year-old man it became a calling and eventually led to the creation of the Netflix docuseries Pepsi, Where's My Jet?

A hilarious and eccentric cast of characters really bring this tale to life. Over the four episodes there are so many "what the fuck?" moments that I don't want to risk spoiling anything. If the idea of someone taking on a major corporation to force them to buy military grade hardware as a contest reward doesn't interest you then there really isn't anything else I can say.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022 Film)

All Quiet on the Western Front is an adaptation of a book by the same name. It centres around a young German soldier during the First World War and is absolutely unapologetic in its portrayal of the brutality that occurred.

I think this is a film that everyone should watch but you gotta make sure you are in the right frame of mind because you are not going to come out feeling great on the other side.

The Bad

Toronto Rental Market

One of my goals for this month was to find a new place to live. Unfortunately the Toronto rental market has lost its mind and increased nearly 30% year-over-year to an all-time high. It makes me question what even is the benefit of living in Toronto anymore and perhaps it is time to move back to the burbs.

Pokémon Scarlet

I have a vivid memory from when I was a teenager, walking into my local Electronics Boutique and picking up a copy of Pokémon Blue for the original Game Boy. I had read all about this game in Nintendo Power and somehow Game Freak managed to exceed all the expectations of my tiny little child brain. It started an obsession with Pokémon that lives to this day.

So it absolutely pains me to say that the only thing stopping Pokémon Scarlet from selling less than a thousand copies is that it has Pokémon in the name. Everything about this game screams indie developers first attempt at a Pokémon clone. If I was being kind, I'd say that this feels like a vertical slice a developer would create in preproduction to prove that that an idea is worth investing in. Not that it would be Nintendo's tent-pole release for the holiday season. Don't forget that Breath of the Wild, which is widely regarded as one of the best open world games ever made, was released almost six years ago! There is more going on in the tutorial zone of Breath of the Wild than there is in all of Pokémon Scarlet.

Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time. Beating out the likes of Star Wars, Mario, Harry Potter, Batman, Call of Duty, and even the fucking Marvel Cinematic Universe! I would like to think that means we can hold Game Freak to a higher standard and stop them from shipping buggy yearly releases. But as I write this Pokémon Scarlet and Violet has already sold over 10 million copies, making it the fastest selling console exclusive of all-time. So something tells me we're gonna get Pokémon Douche and Pokémon Turd Sandwich in 2023.

Honourable Mentions

God of War Ragnarök

Everything I wrote about God of War (2018) in my "Games of the Year 2018: The Good" article remains true for God of War Ragnarök.

The visuals are stunning. The voice acting is phenomenal. The world is breathtaking. The story is captivating. But the gameplay is severely lacking.

I had my fingers crossed that Sony Santa Monica was going to take the combat to another level in the sequel but unfortunately there was absolutely nothing worth changing in their eyes. All the same problems of God of War 2018 exist in Ragnarök. It actually may have gotten a bit worse because I found myself fighting the camera way more often than I did previously.

After putting 35 hours into the game to see the "true" ending, I honestly wish I had just watched all of the cinematics on YouTube. It probably would have only taken me seven or eight hours and I would have derived the same enjoyment I got from playing the game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022)

I know last month I couldn't stop ranting about how bad Modern Warfare II's singleplayer was, but this month I put a lot of time into its multiplayer and I'm happy to report that it is a lot of fun. It is not revolutionizing the genre but it is a really well put together first-person shooter. It honestly made me wish I still had friends who play these types of games because playing with randoms is never as much fun. So if you're reading this and you wanna shoot other people in MWII I am always down.

Review November Goals

December Goals

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