#My.View.On

[sheepinthesky]

8 books of 2016

I haven’t read many books last year, which is very sad. (However, I have seen loads of TV show, haha!) Fortunately, most of the books I read were really great! Here is eight books I’d like to talk about.

THE FIRE WITNESS (Lars Kepler)

This is actually the third title in Joona Linna series. I never start with the first book, that’s too boring. Fortunately, I haven’t felt like I was missing something. Yes, sure, the story has already started, so some events were mentioned, leaving me a little bit confused, but it wasn’t that important for the main story. And it was explained, too.

I got this book as an ebook (one of many) for free in 2015. I figured out I could actually read some of them. I really liked the formatting. And I really liked the fact it was an ebook – the book is SO thick. However, because it was a digital book, I was unable to see the pages, so my brain thought it was short book and I read 500 pages in a week! I don’t usually read this quickly when it comes to thick books. They have very long chapters and it is kind of boring – even when the book itself isn’t boring. Maybe I’m just silly, though.

The story was gripping. It was pretty complicated, too. The case Joona Linna is investigating is about murder at home for troubled girls. Not only a girl was murdered there – another girl is missing! Of course everyone thought she was the killer – she wasn’t very nice girl at all. There is also a medium who claim she had seen the murder. Is she saying it for money? Is she really a medium? Joona Linna isn’t the only one searching for the truth – a lady who has been a foster-mother of the missing girl is trying to find her and uncover if she is really the killer.

It was very interesting and felt real. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact there were some adult scenes in the book. And I’m sure they had nothing to do with the story.

HEADHUNTERS (Jo Nesbo)

This was another ebook I got for free. I actually wanted to read something from Jo Nesbo before, so it was pretty nice gift. It was yet another “commuting” book – which is what I call books with short chapters. It was quick read and I enjoyed it.

The story followed Roger Brown, who was a headhunter and was stealing art pieces. That was really interesting to me, because my parents own an art gallery, haha. Roger find a man, Clas Greve, who is the best candidate for Roger’s client and he also has a very expensive painting. Great! Except not really, because Clas Greve is actually hunting Roger!

The book was very funny. That’s actually what I liked the most about it. It wasn’t trying to be all serious.

DYING TO GET PUBLISHED (Jennifer Fitzwater)

I actually found this book randomly at Amazon.  I really liked the name.

Jennifer Marsh, the main heroine of this book, is very silly person. She tries to, wait for it, get published. She writes mystery books, criminal books, even tried romance books, but nothing works for her. One of the responses she received said that she doesn’t know how criminals think. So she came up with the best idea ever – she will plan a murder and then write about it. Little did she know that her fake murder victim will get murdered. And she is the one who gets arrested – fortunately, they let her out and she can make her investigation.

I really liked the idea of this book. I found out it is actually a series – I wonder what kind of adventures she gets into in the sequels.

THE HALF BAD TRILOGY (Sally Greene)

When I first heard about the first book, I thought it was going to be bad. That was the reason I didn’t look for it or anything after Half Bad was released. Life went on and I went to senior high school and I made friends and one of them had that book. And she lent it to me. I read it and I loved it. Then she gave me the second book as a birthday gift, so I really have some nice memories with this series. Because the third title was supposed to get released, I thought about re-reading all the books. This time in English! I read the third one, too.

It has simple writing, which is very good. I suppose you can learn a lot of English words by reading that.

The story is a little bit dark. What I really liked about it was the LGBT+ characters. They were written really well. It felt natural. Although I suppose it was kind of the selling point. It wasn’t all that obvious, though.

The books follow Nathan, who is half white (“good”), half black (“bad”) witch. The white witches lock him in cage, because he’s not white witch. And they want to have bait to kill his father, who is the most powerful black witch. It’s so sad to read it, because the good witches are acting very wrong towards Nathan and his family. Everyone treats them bad. Nathan manages to find friends, though. (And his friends are great!) And somehow he gets into revolution. Will he be successful?

The trilogy is accompanied by two “half-books”, short stories. They’re set before the trilogy. Half Lies, the first one, follows Nathan’s friend Gabriel and it tells the story how he got his gift (magic powers), The second short story, Half Truths, follows Gabriel and two additional characters and is about the first meeting of Gabriel and Nathan. They’re very good, too, and worth the read if you liked the trilogy. Half Truths might be a little worse than Half Lies, but just a little.

THE RETURN (Hakan Nesser)

This is another series I’ve started by reading the third title, haha. It was free ebok, too.

I liked it little less than The Fire Witness, because the writing was more complicated. However, the story was worth it.

The book starts with a school trip. Sounds weird, haha! And the school trip doesn’t end up good. A little girl is lost and when they find her, she tells them she found a body. And tha’s when the investigation starts! The main story is interleaved with a story about a prisoner who got to go home.

And the main hero is really scared, because he has to undergo a surgery.

BZRK (Michael Grant)

I wanted to read this book for so long! Finally, I’ve been able to read it, thanks to my friend who let me borrow it, and I really liked it. I took a long time with it, though. Not sure why, but towards the middle I just stopped reading. I’m glad I finished it, though. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood to read.

It is about pretty interesting subject matter – nano weapons! Brain control! The story follows a boy, whose brother got crazy and is locked in nuthouse, and a girl, who is very rich. And kind of dying, which is stopped because she has tiny robots in her brain. And those two get a new name (based on crazy people!) and new powers. Well, they end up sharing their brain with tiny robots. I can’t even imagine what that must be like. Their nano robots can see everything up close but they still can see things with their eyes. I would end up with headache, I suppose.

Yeah, and those teens have to save the presidents of big countries, or else the whole world will be united. As in, everyone would share the same mind.

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Paula Hawkins)

I bought this because I was about to go on train. And I’m a girl. I was a girl on the train reading The Girl On the Train! Okay, I guess that’s not all that interesting.

It’s not the greatest thriller (Gone Girl was better), it Is enjoyable read, though! You would probably guess the culprit pretty easily – don’t trust the reviews inside the book.

I found the narration of this book really interesting, because the main heroine is an alcoholic. She is pitiful. On the other hand, she kind of solves a murder!

Rachel catches the same train every morning. She is always watching the same building next to the house she used to live in. She is watching people who live there. She’s imagining their life is perfect. Until she actually sees the woman cheat on her man. That really confuses Rachel and she wants to do something. When the woman goes missing and eventually winds up dead, she knows she has to tell someone what she saw – she has to save the man who probably everyone sees as the culprit.

THE MELANCHOLY OF SUZUMIYA HARUHI (Nagaru Tanigawa)

I love Suzumiya Haruhi. I’ve seen the anime, I’ve read the manga. It was about the time I read the novels, too.

Suzumiya Haruhi is a girl who’s NOT interested in ordinary humans. She wants to meet aliens, espers, time travellers! She’s very smart, very talented and very hard to communicate with. Kyon, the protagonist, somehow befriends her. And thanks to Haruhi, he ends up in weird situations he wouldn’t otherwise get into! Haruhi opens up a school club, S.O.S. Brigade, which has a mission to seek the unordinary. She gets people to join her club. And little does he know, they’re actually an alien, an esper and a time traveller.

This book was released around the same time as Harry Potter in Japan and it sold more. Here everyone is into Harry Potter and in Japan, they’re into Suzumiya! Of course they’re both totally different books.

It is very funny and interesting read. It’s a mix of genres, really. It’s a little bit of romance, a comedy, a thriller, a mystery, a sci-fi...

[sheepinthesky]

What’s on my tablet?

I’ve got a tablet device recently. I was toying with the idea of buying one for a while now, but… I always ended up thinking I don’t need one. I have phone and I have a computer (a laptop, to be exact!) so there was no reason to get one. My parents got a good deal on one of those devices, though, so I did end up having one! I was kind of sad when I got it, though. I had gotten a message from my father, “I bought you something!” I thought he was talking about food, and I was hungry at the time. Well, wasn’t food. And I was still hungry.

The tablet I have is Lenovo TAB 3. Its OS is Android, surprisingly. I own a Windows Phone, so that was an excitement – back when I owned an android phone, I loved Kairosoft games and now I could download them again. However, it was sad not to be able to customize my main screen like I could on Windows. That was maybe the only thing Microsoft done good – home screen customization!

There’s this girl in my class, who has tablet and she’s doing a lot of school things on it, so that was my number one mission – to download all the productive apps! I’ve downloaded Microsoft Office software – Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. Surprisingly (or not) those apps are better on android than on windows phone. Hm! I’d say they’re essential apps. Or, at least Word. You could probably live without the others. OneNote for Android made me finally use the newest version of OneNote on my PC. I used before only 2007. Truth to be told, I still use it, because I like it better, but I keep on syncing my notes in the newest version and I can read my notes on my tablet. So cool. Well, that’s what sync does. However, very useful for me! I keep on rewriting my school notes into OneNote and this way I can have all of my notebooks with me. On the go. Even two years old. What’s not easy to use is actually writing notes in it. Quick notes, that’s good. But if you want to format them and make them look nice, it gets a little hard. I thought that maybe I could start rewriting my notes during recess, I don’t think I will. Maybe short ones.

What my parents actually had in mind when they bought the tablet was actually e-book reading. I kept reading e-books on my phone and, well, they thought that screen was too small! So for my e-book reading I’m using Amazon Kindle (obviously, for all my Amazon orders), AlReader and Comic Screen. Alreader is very good. The design and interface is okay. What matters, though, is that it opens up everything. It kind of messes the search of books, because it finds all the random files from games, but I can finally read everything in one place. It can even open up the Amazon books. I like to read them on the Kindle, though, because it syncs. I haven’t really used a lot of Comic Screen, so I can’t tell anything about it. Yet.

Of course I did download some unproductive apps. It’s android, there’s a lot of them. I did actually download 32 games, but I didn’t open up, like, a 2/3 of them. Some that I did open and they interested me are PicrossLUNA, WorkeMon, Heartstone, Politicats, Unbox, Alpaca Word, Fallout Shelter, Kintsukoroi, Egg, Inc. and Atomas. I don’t play them very often (Surprisingly for me! I have probably grown up.), but some of them are sure fun. PicrossLUNA is amazing, because it’s picross. I didn’t get that game when I was little but now I’m grown up lady and I’m smart and I can do pictures bigger than 5x5! Wohoo. It has really nice interface and design, and there are helpful features, too. For example, when you finish a row, it automatically crosses off squares where nothing can be, so you don’t forget. That helps a lot. I haven’t put a lot of time into WorkeMon, but the concept is very interesting! You basically keep running around the town, trying to get people to work for you for a low salary all the time. Sad. For them! Politicats and Egg, Inc. are basically two same games. They’re those idle clicker games. I like them because you can progress the game by not playing. Great if you want to play and work. I suppose. Kintsukoroi is zen game. It’s really good for relaxation. It’s series of 3D puzzles, where you try to repair broken jars. Cute. I don’t have any clue what Alpaca Word is about, all I know is that it has cute 3D alpacas in it and you can fight other alpacas and you probably want to catch them all. Pokémon. Alpaca styled, though. Atomas is “2048 styled game”. It’s really good, because it’s so different from the original 2048. First, it’s chemistry. Second, it has powerups. Third, it is played in a circle. It’s more fun, honestly. Heartstone and Fallout Shelter are very popular games, so let me just say I like them. And I’m bad at them. J

There are two apps that I found really, really useful. Forest and AlarmMon. Forest is an app in which you plant a tree and if you are productive for 10 minutes or more, the tree grows up and it stays in your forest! And if you fail to be productive, it dies. It’s such a manipulation. Very cute manipulation. AlarmMon is perhaps better for phones. It’s an alarm clock app. What is so unusual about it is the fact you have to play a game in order to turn off the alarm. And it can be something easy like pulling off three flower petals or something not so easy at 5 AM like a multiplication.

Well. In the end I’m glad I ended up having a tablet. Maybe some of the apps interested you! If so, I hope you’ll like them as much as I do.

[sheepinthesky]

Pokémon Sun and Moon

I love Pokémon! I have played a lot of Pokémon games, but I didn’t complete most of them. Truth to be told, I think I actually only completed two from the main series. And two side games. Yay! I’m a Pokémon Master.

While I’m, probably, not a Pokémon Master, I do enjoy a good run of Pokémon story line. Pokémon Sun and Moon actually brought us something new. And there weren’t really any changes so far for, I don’t know, 20 years? I’m sure there were some changes here and there, but nothing as big as getting rid of Pokémon gyms! And it happened here! When I heard about it, I reacted with “Wait. What?” What even is Pokémon world without a Pokémon gym? Right?! Well, the answer to that is: a good change!

While we no longer have Pokémon gyms, we have Island Trials. The game is set on Alola Island. As with every game in the series, the setting is inspired by a real world location. Can you guess which one? Hawaii! Aloha!

It makes sense there wouldn’t be gyms in Alola region. It’s pure. Let the nature decide if the person is a good enough Pokémon trainer. I really loved the trials. They weren’t only battles. And there weren’t NPCs battles, thanks Arceus! That was one game I really disliked about past Pokémon games. The NPCs in gyms slowed me down so much. It was kind of annoying. There are battles before the final battle, of course. Not that many and not that long. And there is always a little quest accompanying it. Search for soup ingredients. Find some Pokémon. Take a photo of paranormal activity. It’s so much fun.

Speaking of taking photos, Pokémon Sun and Moon brought us back Pokémon Snap! Kind of. All around Alola, there are spots where you can wait for a wild Pokémon to appear and take a photo of them. Then you share it on Instagram, or whatever social media they use in Pokémon world, and based on the quality of the photo you get likes! And you can upgrade your camera with likes. That is so cool. And funny.

The device you use to take those photos is actually your Pokédex. Or, Rotomdex. It’s a Pokédex that’s possessed by a Rotom. It’s weird. It feels very similar to Level-5 game, Yokai Watch. The Rotomdex talks with you and says weird things. And I haven’t played Yokai Watch, sadly, but I know it’s a little weird. This was the first Pokémon game that actually had a big rival, so I guess that’s why it feels a little bit weird. Because weird was found to sell good.

Interesting thing that Rotom can do is QR Scanning. You can basically scan all random QR codes and they will give you information of random Pokémon. For every scan you obtain 10 points, or more for special codes. When you have 100 points, you can activate Island scan and find a non Alolan Pokémon you can catch. Or you can scan a specific pokémon’s QR and add it to your Pokédex and make it a little easier for you to complete the national dex.

Honestly, completing the national dex and getting the shiny charm was made so easy in this game. The Pokédex entries actually tell you the specific place you can catch certain Pokémon at. And there aren’t many Pokémon in Alola region as well. So, maybe this could be the first game you start shiny hunting!

What Alola does have though, are Alolan versions of generation 1 pokémon. The Internet loved Alolan Exeggutor. They’re all amazing. Mostly ridiculous, but that’s a good, too! A lot of them have mustaches and Alolan Persian looks like it had been drawn by a kid. Alolan Marowak is very pretty, though. Besides looks, they have also different typing – Alolan Vulpix for example is Ice instead of Fire. So you can feel the excitement of coming up with the perfect strategy on how to use your favourite Pokémon once again. Yaay.

Do you know what was the most amazing new feature of Pokémon Sun and Moon?

Poké Ride. It’s a pager that allows you to call Pokémon so they can help you. How? By using surf. Or strength. Or fly! That’s right! There are no Hidden Machines anymore! I can’t stress how amazing that is. There is no need for “HM Slaves” anymore. You can actually freely explore! And have your full team with you.

There are other good new features, like hyper training and stuff like that. It’s all meta game and it’s more for competition than for casual gameplay, so I’m not talking about that. Let’s mention Poké Polago, where you can grow berries, search for items, level up Pokémon, EV train, raise happiness and hatch eggs. All by idling. Yes, you don’t have to play the game anymore to level up Pokémon. Just leave them in a box for a long time, and they’ll be level 100. That also means that Pokémon Nursery is no longer for levelling + breeding. Its sole purpose is breeding now. Poor ditto won’t even level up now.

I should mention some things I did not like before I move on. Z-Crystals. Remember Pokémon X and Y? Or even ORAS? There were Mega Evolution. I did use them. Not really for the power, but because they looked cool. But they were helpful and powerful. Z-Moves are powerful too. I didn’t use them at all though. They have a really long cutscenes and the non-special Z-moves are pretty boring looking, too. So that’s why I didn’t really bother with them.

Do you remember Pokémonn X and Y?  Or ORAS? I know I asked this before. There was Pokémon Amie. A new feature that was actually needed in order to level up Eevee into one of the Eeveelutions. Well, there is no longer Pokémon Amie. We have Pokémon Refresh in Alola. I don’t seem to remember if you could actually heal up Pokémon by using Pokémon Amie, and if not, then Pokémon Refresh is pretty useful. What I do remember though, is the minigames. There are no minigames anymore! And by there, I mean the series as a whole. There used to be this arcade where you could gamble and it was fun, then there was Pokémon amie and in Sun and Moon, there is nothing! Wow. It almost seems like they want us to play the game.

The worst thing? Online Play. Remember Pokémon X and Y? It had such a good system. They got rid of it. Festival Plaza looks nice. It reminds me of this one mall from Black and White 2, which you could upgrade and buy thing at… you can upgrade your Plaza and buy interesting stuff there as well. You can choose which shops to have. And there Is a lot of shops. You can even dye your clothes here. It’s really cute. But if we use it as something to connect with others players, it’s really bad. It takes a long time to load. It takes a long time to find the friend/person you want to play with. It’s not good.

It has something like a minigames. There is a lot of them, they all have different names, but they’re all the same. And if you play alone, you can’t win. J It’s fun!

But those things did not ruin the Pokémon story for me. Your character is moving to Alola region, to Melemele Island from Kanto. You’re young and you’re just about to get a Pokémon! Professor Kukui, who doesn’t wear shirt, befriends you and sends you on an Island challenge. He’s trying to make you into a Pokémon champion, because Alola hadn’t have one before.

And so, off you go. You get a Pokémon from Hala, the Melemele Island Kahuna, who is also your new best friend/rival Hapu’s uncle. You can choose from either Litten, Popplio or Rowlet. They’re all cute, so good luck with choosing. It wouldn’t be a Pokémon game if there wasn’t an apocalypse in making, though. Before you actually get to choose your starter Pokémon, you meet Lillie, who has a mischievous Pokémon called Nebby. While trying to save Nebby, who run away from Lillie, you get into danger, too! And a legendary Pokémon, Tapu, the Guardian of Melemele Island, saves you. And they immediately know you’re someone special and give you a rock. Sparkling rock.

During your adventure you not only meet Team Skull, who are causing trouble mainly by being silly, but you also find out there are dimensional holes and ultra-beasts, Pokémon from another dimensions, are moving into ours. And you have to save the world. Become the Pokémon Champion. Help raise Lillie’s and Hapu’s self-confidence. It’s not easy to be a main hero in a Pokémon game anymore.

[sheepinthesky]

Tender Loving Care

I always say videogames are better than movies, because they’re interactive. But what if you actually have a movie that is interactive? Then that’s pretty great, too!

Mainly because FMV. I have a thing for games with FMVs. They’re so retro and weird. And the story, or writing is so cheesy usually, too. Tender Loving Care, however, is not a game with FMV cutscenes. It is actual interactive movie released in 1998 by Aftermath Media. And John Hurt is starring in it! It is based on novel of the same name. And it’s weird, but serious.

Tender Loving Care starts when Dr. Turner ask us, the viewers, for help. Something bad happened in a house and he wants to know our opinion, because we didn’t know any of the people connected with it.

Michael and his wife Alison are a couple and they have been traumatized by the dead of their daughter. Alison is in denial and she thinks he daughter is still alive. Dr. Turner recommends Katherine Randolph, who is using unorthodox methods which are helpful for patients like Alison. Michael hires her, then. However, it’s not all that great. It seems like Katherine isn’t helpful at all – she keeps acting like Jody, Alison’s and Michael’s daughter, is still alive. Alison gets better, because she’s actually doing things. Katherine and Michael don’t like each other, because Katherine isn’t telling Michael everything and he gets a little jealous, too. How do you think it will end? That’s actually up to you.

The movie is divided into 16 episodes and after each episode Dr. Turner asks you, the viewer, how they felt during the episode. Do you think Katherine acted good? Do you think Michael loves Alison? What do you think Michael felt when he first saw Katherine? Sometimes it’s really random question, though, like “Do you have stomach problems?” Because that is related to the story! Based on your answers here, the game defines the ending you get.

Then, there is a little gameplay sequence. You can look around 3d rendered house and read Alison’s diary, listen to Katherine’s recorder or snoop in Michael’s computer. Pretty fun and you can find interesting details in this sequence. You can read about famous woman who kill or about sexual deviations! 

Next comes TAT test – Thematic Apperception Test. This is actually very fun, because however you react, it will define your psyche. You can see your final profile at the end of the movie, or you can see a shorter version after each episode. The test shows you pictures and you say what you feel about it.

I played the old CD version, so the video quality wasn’t all that great. It was also released as a DVD and since 2012 it is available for the iOS.

Watching this movie is definitely an unique experience I would recommend!

[sheepinthesky]

Time Mysteries: Inheritance Remastered

As a child, I didn’t like Hidden Object Games. I haven’t played a lot of them. I remember that they were usually on those sites where you can download an hour long trial and then buy the final version. Well and I always stopped playing after ten minutes. I find very interesting that now I’m enjoying them. A lot.

One of the most famous HOGs are made by Artifex Mundi. It’s a Polish company that doesn’t only do hidden object games - they also worked on Gardens Inc., a time management game. Time Mysteries is their most famous trilogy. It got remastered with the steam release.

The game follows Vivien Ambrose, whose father was kidnapped by a strange man supposedly from the future. Vivien must travel through space and time to rescue her father and because accidents happen, she also must find her inheritance she lost - seven magic rings.

What I found really interesting about the story was the fact that Vivien is a scientist. Her father is a scientist. Her grandfather was a magician! And Vivien, being a scientist and all, isn’t really curious when she finds a magic ball. Which talks. I would wonder, “Does it have any wires in it?” or something like that. But Vivien? She just accepts it’s magic and time-travels away!

The story is fairly short, a little bit silly but worth the price. And there are some time travel interferences in the story, which is amazing.

The hidden object scenes are a mess. Like they should be. Sometimes they’re kind of ridiculous and they put really brown object on a brown object. And the resolution isn’t amazing so it’s sometimes really hard to see. You have to look really, really properly. That’s part of the fun, though.

It has a puzzles in between the story and the scenes, too. The difficulty of those puzzles isn’t that hard. There was only one hard puzzle as far as I can tell in a later chapter, which seems accurate. They were also very forgiving.

What I really didn’t like about this game were the find 7 differences mini games. Some of them were just ridiculous! I’m not the most observant person in the world for sure, but I still think it wasn’t cool - difference in number of small, blurry people in the background etc.

With that all being said, it’s a good game. It’s quite relaxing and short. Easy to 100% complete, too, if you’re into that kind of thing. (Which I am!) And you can practice your observing skill. I’d rate this game 6 magic rings out of 10.