Best Games of the 2010’s

Music recommendation: This is a longer article, so I recommend tuning in to SOMA FM’s Defcon radio channel, they‘re usually playing mint tunes any time of day (they even have an app!)

Well guys, who saw this one coming? We’ve entered into a new decade, so it’s time to look back and determine the best games of the 2010’s. My approach was to think of the best games I’d ever played, and see how many of them came out in the last 10 years. More came out than I had expected!

Side note: while I play lots of games, I don’t play EVERY game, so there might be some curious omissions.

Evil Within 2

My first survival horror game was the first Evil Within, which sucked imo. I played it cause there wasn’t really anything else to play on the PS4 at the time. It was poorly optimized, so framerate was all over the place, but more importantly its take on horror was boring, and terribly cringey.

Evil Within’s idea of horror. Scared yet?!

The only scary thing to come out of the first Evil Within was Laura, which was terrifying. I didn’t end up beating the first Evil Within cause I got bored.

Fast forward a few years and I’m in Spain for a short trip. Evil Within 2 had just released… and it was already being discounted by 50%. It wasn’t selling well. I picked it up on a whim since it was a new game, and super cheap. I guess my expectation were low, since the first game sucked, but the trailers were cool, so I was excited. And man, did this game deliver.

The opening of the game is terrifying, with perfectly timed, unnerving jump scares. It was already scarier than the first Evil Within had ever been. But more importantly, its approach to horror was novel. The pace was excellent, the ambiance was cozy (in a silent hill 2 kindof way, so very unnerving), and the gameplay was appropriately stressful.

The main gameplay loop involves exploring small open worlds and gathering resources, always making risky decisions about whether you’re ready to enter an ominous building or not. Ammo is limited, every missed shot hurts. You always feel vulnerable, because there are few checkpoints, and if you die you usually have to reload your previous save. Exploration is always rewarding, and always dangerous. Drinking coffee (which refills your health) feels sooooo good.

I actually hate coffee outside of Evil Within 2

I forced a buddy of mine to play it, and he couldn’t beat it because it was too stressful. I was trying to explain to him that that’s something you WANT in a survival horror game, but he wasn’t convinced.

Progression is excellent, you’re always meaningfully leveling up your character or his weapons (of which there are many). The game has a comprehensive crafting mechanic that always forces you to choose between ammo and health (and you always need both).

Between the open worlds are linear, story focused, dream-like sequences, which culminate in a boss fight. The story introduces MULTIPLE antagonists, has many twists and turns, and takes you to loads of varied environments (both open and linear). Speaking of, this game has more enemy types, boss encounters and characters than it has any business having. IT IS BURSTING AT THE SEAMS WITH CONTENT! (I should be a marketeer). They even updated the game to support playing in first person!

The poltergeist is fucking horrifying. The original song it awesome.

This game is a survival horror masterpiece, and it’s terrible that its sales were so low. Luckily, the studio behind the game, Tango Gameworks, is still around, and (as of this writing) are working on a new game called Ghostwire Tokyo, which I’m OBVIOUSLY keeping a close eye on. The ex-director of Ghostwire Tokyo is this bubbly, Japanese lady with a bombastic personality, but she stepped down for some reason? It doesn’t bode well for the project, but I’m crossing my fingers Ghostwire Tokyo ends up being a commercial hit, the studio really needs it

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Yes yes YES, this IS my favourite video game genre! Immersive sims are objectively the best!

Immersive sims specialize in emergent gameplay, and provide you with many different ways to achieve your objective. Let’s say you have to enter a club, but you aren’t on the guest list. In an immersive sim, you could sneak in through the vents, or bribe the security guard, or even beat the security guard up, all of which are valid solutions to getting into the club. Popular examples of this genre include System Shock, Deus Ex, Prey and Dishonored

I remember seeing the gameplay trailer for this game when I was in high school, and thought it was goofy that you could drag a body around but still have both of your hands on the gun. But it was goofy in a good way. The game came out and the reviews were excellent

At it’s core, Human Revolution is a stealth game, my OTHER favorite genre. Just like Evil Within 2, the game is divided into small, dense open world environments, with linear missions in between, culminating in a boss. Unfortunately, the bosses in this game aren’t good, one of the few things they got wrong. Since I relied heavily on stealth, I rarely leveled up my firepower or health stats, so when I had to fight a boss I was terribly under powered, and kept dying until I figured out the boss’ attack pattern. Boss battles are frustrating, but apparently they’ve been “fixed” in the director’s cut of the game.

What cements this game as one of the best of the decade is how fleshed out and real the world is. The wealth gap has widened, corporations have more power than the government, and the world is literally run by shadow organizations akin to the Illuminati. It’s classic cyberpunk. The game dabbles with themes of renaissance; maybe human augmentation will have such a profound impact on humanity that it will start a second renaissance? I don’t know, but lots of ppl wear goofy outfits.

Cities can be explored at your leisure, and it’s where the game really shines. The cyberpunk cities of Human Revolution are cold and oppressive, themes reflected in the advertisements that plaster the walls, and especially in the conversations you overhear. Cities are dirty and armored cops are everywhere.

The music compliments the aesthetic of the game perfectly. It is brooding, suffocating, oppressive, grand. The soundtrack conveys the feeling that man is on the cusp of something important, and dangerous, something that might maybe totally destroy humanity. The story is also excellent, introducing memorable characters and a conspiracy that reveals itself layer by layer.

The gameplay is polished (and most importantly fun). The augmentatiosn are meaningful, and all guns can be upgraded with cool attachments. The tranquilizer rifle has an awesome augmentation that anticipates an enemy’s movement, thereby helping you aim better. The hacking mini game is really cool, and can be made easier by using single-use viruses/wormholes/software that the player finds throughout the game. There’s even a social mini game where you select different dialog options to try to convince an NPC to give you something peacefully. All these different branches of gameplay (stealth, shooting, hacking and social) can be upgraded according to each player’s preferences.

The marriage of excellent gameplay with awesome world building categorically makes Deus Ex Human Revolution the best immersive sim to come out last decade!

Dark Souls

This is the only From Software game I like!! After Dark Souls it’s been pretty downhill imho. Dark Souls 2 was hella dumb, Dark Souls 3 was all castles and flaming swords, and Bloodborne had a confusing “story” (if you could even call it that). I didn’t try Sekiro cause it’s insanely hard apparently.

Anyway.

The first person to recommend me this game was a coworker at the factory I worked at during summer. He said it’s super hard but super satisfying. I wasn’t convinced though, cause you die all the time and I didn’t need the frustration.

Around a year later, a buddy of mine named Rogue (not really his name but that’s how I write it) also recommended it. He said it’s super hard but super satisfying BUT THIS TIME I actually gave it a shot and it really WAS super hard and super satisfying. Luckily Rogue was there to walk me through the beginning of the game, since the game does a terrible job of explaining its mechanics, or how to equip spells or bows etc.

Anyway.

The game is excellent, hard but fair, with awesome weapons, armor, spells, bosses and environments. However, my favourite thing about this game has nothing to do with gameplay or visuals, but with its approach to storytelling. Yes. The lore runs deep in Dark Souls, but you wouldn’t know that from how little information the game gives you. Every item you pick up has a short description, meaning you very slowly uncover the story as the game progresses.

Typical item description in the game. Who the hell is Sif??

And I loved it. I remember reading lore while at work in the summer (I was back at the same factory but working in the quality assurance department, so I had access to a computer with internet). I was obsessed. The world of Dark Souls is portrayed in an oddly nostalgic way, like everything is a memory, and it really struck a chord with me.

The bosses are unique, and their designs are excellent. Many are optional, which is DOPE because it makes the game highly replayable.

The game is depressing, but it isn’t in your face about it. All the characters you meet turn crazy, or die, or end up as assholes (that you then have to kill). The world is dying, as are the gods. You’re character is already dead. It’s always cloudy, and probably cold. Anor Londo is a lie. Kingseeker Frampt is a shill. Most players will end up dooming humanity to another cycle of servitude.

But.

Even though everything sucks, your character continues to progress, and better themselves, even though the world is burning down around them. Maybe it’s a metaphor for the real world (or something), about how even if the world sucks you can still get better and become useful and beat the bosses and feel good. Personally, I never bought into the whole “the world sucks, life is suffering” mentality, the world is actually awesome bro, and objectively getting better every day, but for those of you that think life kinda maybe sucks, maybe Dark Souls will kinda help.

Witcher 3

Who didn’t see this one coming?!

Witcher 3 is the best RPG I’ve ever played, and the only Witcher game I’ve ever played. Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way: the graphics are great, the combat is wonderful (though many don’t like the combat, but they’re wrong), the locations are awesome and the story is fun.

But the real reason I love this game is because of the writing. Before Witcher 3, I was content doing silly quests wherein I had to collect 3 bottles of wine, or kill 3 chickens or whatever. This game however raised the bar for what constitutes a “quest”. Now I need new characters and tough decisions between equally shitty outcomes to even consider a side quest.

I’ll give an example:

One of the first side quests you do in the game involves finding out who burned down some dwarf’s forge. You find the guy, some 20 year old who got too drunk and wasn’t thinking. He implores you not to tell on him, but like, he burned down someone’s business! He should be brought to justice!

So you report him, and soldiers come and are like “yeah burning down the forge is treason so we’re just gonna kill him lol” and then they take him away and ~gasp~ kill him.

And you’re probably thinking like, “wtf I didn’t want him to die!!!” But he DID die, a consequence of YOUR decisions. What’re you gonna do, reload your save? NOT report him? The guy burned down the dwarf’s garrison because he hated non-humans, he was a racist! But ALSO he didn’t need to die! The game is filled with these kinds of difficult decisions, and are what makes Witcher 3 the best written game I’ve ever played.

I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to classic RPG’s (in that I’ve never played any), so maybe Witcher 3’s writing quality is nothing NEW, but it was new FOR ME. But back when Witcher 3 came out, I would’ve never considered playing an isometric, old-ass RPG. Witcher 3 took the writing quality of a classic rpg and added it to a open world game with a not-boring, not-turn-based battle system. Why hadn’t anyone thought of doing it before??

Yeah, I agree, this is WAY better than turn-based combat systems

Well, probably because it’d be super expensive to create a game with as many characters, animations, quests and dialogue as Witcher 3. Luckily, Witcher 3 was made in Poland, where I’d estimate video game development costs are around 30-40% cheaper than in USA, or France.

This game has significantly raised awareness of Polish culture worldwide, and CD Projekt Red’s success with the Witcher franchise has propelled Poland’s video game industry into a huge and thriving one, which employs thousands of people! It’s big, and important, and proves that the highest quality games can be built in Eastern Europe. Now, after Poland’s success, many countries in eastern Europe are becoming game dev hubs. I myself currently work as a video game programmer in Prague! The quality and success of this game validates aspiring game devs in eastern Europe; they too can pursue their dream career without having to leave their home. For an eastern European like myself, that’s invaluable.

Portal 2

The first Portal sucks. One of the late game puzzle elements was this floating energy ball that you had to guide into a slot, but it was IMPOSSIBLE to tell where the ball was in 3D space since it didn’t case any lights or shadows?!?! It was an extremely frustrating mechanic that luckily got scrapped in Portal 2.

Luckily, all the new puzzle mechanics added to Portal 2 are great. I loved the gels, lasers and light bridges.

Portal 2 even has a coop mode, though I’ve never played it

I love lore, and this game has it in spades. From the very beginning, there are mysterious murals that kindof explain events that took place long ago. There are even ties to the Half Life series (which isn’t completely dead!). The antagonist, just like the first Portal game, is an evil, wonderfully written robot named GLaDOS.

The game starts out pretty standard, with you entering a puzzle room and GLaDOS shit-talking you. Then you complete the puzzle, and end the level with GLaDOS talking even more shit (to you). The writing is stellar, and hilarious. In fact, the writing is SO on point that GLaDOS’ comments feel like legitimate rewards for completing a level.

Around a third of the way through the game however, the formula changes. Your character falls deeeeeeep underground, and has to work her way back up to the surface, while simultaneously exploring the history of Aperture science.

*This is not a spoiler!* It’s just funny!

I loved Portal 2’s approach to storytelling in this section. The game takes a show-don’t-tell approach that greatly aids with the feeling of exploration. There’s a mystery to be solved! Who exactly is Cave Johnson?

Finally, the characters introduced on your journey are great, with completely fleshed out personalities. How do you do that when your characters don’t have faces?!

The characters in Portal 2 are proof of how far excellent voice acting and writing can go. Excellent, satisfying puzzles, wonderful storytelling and hilarious dialogue ensure you’ll have a smile on your face the entire time you’re playing Portal 2.

Titanfall 2

I loved this game. I’ve never played the first Titanfall, but it doesn’t have a campaign, and I’m pretty sure the multiplayer is dead now. If you haven’t played any Titanfall game, the traversal mechanics are insane: you can double jump, infinitely run along walls, and USE A GRAPPLING HOOK TO SWING LIKE SPIDERMAN!! It has wilder speed and traversal mechanics that even Doom! If you haven’t played Doom, stop reading this blog now.

Traversal never gets old! I wish that Apex Legends (a successful battle royale game set in the Titanfall universe) also had the same traversal mechanics, though the reasoning the studio gave for omitting them is understandable.

Anyway, the campaign is awesome, and the multiplayer is dope as hell. Seriously, this game has the best fps mission I played this decade (those that have played the game know the one I’m talking about). I won’t give anything away. There’s another cool mission that takes place in a massive factory that’s assembling entire apartment units. In said mission, you traverse topsy turvy, horizontal, diagonal, (orthogonal?) apartments. It’s disorienting, surreal, and hella fun.

The relationship you forge with your titan (giant robot) is way better than it needed to be. Said relationship is enforced through conversations you have with the titan, where you choose the reply, how often do you see that in an FPS! Speaking of, your titan fells very powerful, and the titan’s default weapon has crunchy, satisfying sound design. The titan unlocks various weapons/ loadouts that are useful in different situations, so piloting the titan always feels fun.

Finally, I actually understood what side of the war I was playing on (which is more than I can say about any Halo game). But this game also has awesome multiplayer!

I rarely play multiplayer games because most of the multiplayer fps games are either COD, Halo or Battlefield, and that’s BORING. But man, Titanfall 2’s traversal makes the gameplay far more fun than those other games. The traversal is super fast, so you don’t have to spend alot of time getting to an objective. The unlocks are great, the powers are cool, my only complaint being that there aren’t enough weapons.

As a match progresses, grunt enemies spawn, meaning even though a map is huge and a game is only 6v6, you always have something to shoot at. You can OF COURSE call in your titan in multiplayer, something you do around twice a match.

Furthermore, when a team wins, the losing team loses the ability to respawn, and attempts to escape in a drop ship. The winning team now hunts the losing team, or attempts to destroy their drop ship for extra points. These different phases add significantly to Titanfall 2’s multiplayer. Matches are never boring because the moment-to-moment gameplay changes around 3-4 times per match!

It’s a shame that this game, like Evil Within 2, also didn’t sell well. EA, the game’s publisher, decided to launch the game at the same time as Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty, and most ppl, predictably, bought Battlefield 1 or COD instead

I, and many others, were worried the Titanfall universe would get canned due to Titanfall 2’s poor sales, but Apex Legends, a game set in the Titanfall universe and developed by the same team has been a massive success. Here’s to hoping for a Titanfall 3!

That’s a wrap, thanks so much for reading everyone!

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Anka Čekanová, or What Being Forgotten Looks Like

Music Recommendation: This will be a short, melancholic, diary-like entry, so this song fits the bill. I’ve read that the song is about the environment heating up, and all the celebrities depicted in the music video are ACTUALLY meant to show how the media distracts us from actual, important issues. Do you think global warming is gonna kill us? Comment your thoughts down below!

Anyway.

I recently moved to Prague for my dream job in game development. I won’t get into the details, but suffice it to say it’s been great so far.

My new company ended up covering an airbnb for me while I looked for an apartment. Pro tip: never accept an apartment you haven’t seen (also never take an Uber ride without going through the Uber app, fuck you Marek).

The airbnb was in highly touristic, expensive downtown Prague, and you could tell: the doors were large, the bathtub was great, and the building’s hallways were adorned with photos from bygone eras.

Specifically, there were many photos of a woman named Anka Čekanová (pronounced Anca Czechanovaaa for all you non Czechs (literally all of my subscribers)).

She was a stage performer, in the 1920’s. Soon, “the 20’s” will mean the modern day

I liked the photos a lot (I don’t know why), and she must’ve been important, since her photos were all over the place. And maybe she was, at the time, but not anymore. There isn’t a terrible amount of info about her on the internet, and if your info isn’t on the internet, it doesn’t really exist. Information that isn’t accessible (to the public) isn’t terribly valuable (to the public).

What I mean is, the more info about you is available, the more real you are. Your average person with an Instagram account today is more real than Anka Čekanová will ever be. She was a celebrity in Prague in the 20’s! But now she’s a footnote.

If you google “Anka Čekanová”, you get some Czech sites with some short info about her, and then immediately some facebook profiles of real life Anka Cekanova’s.

Maybe her ancestor owns the apartment building, and had some photos lying around, and thought they looked cool, which they do

When I googled her, all I found was that she died in 1965 (before both of my parents were born), that she had a twin named Wenceslas (who doesn’t even have a wikipedia entry), and that her father was a factory owner. She had two children.

The Czech wiki article doesn’t tell you much more.

Most of us won’t even be footnotes after we die though, so Anka wins this one. Do you think you’ll amount to a footnote in history? Leave a comment below!

My Favourite Cities

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Accompanying music: a quirky, industrial OST from the quirky, industrial game Machinarium

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was not only my first time in Asia, but my first time really traveling ie. staying in hotels and wrestling with the local public transportation system. It was the first stop on a trip that continued into China, but I liked HK far more than what I saw in China (I went to Shanghai and Beijing after HK).

It’s a very clean city, with amazing architecture. I love sky scrappers, and HK has the most in the world, by a huge margin. HK has huge, new skyscrapers and old skyscrapers that look too skinny to stand.

Old and new, together. This image is stolen off of 123RF.

This was a common theme in HK, the clash between new and rich, and old and grimy and “authentic”. Imagine a marketplace where you can haggle for off-brand charging cables, next to not one, but TWO Rolex shops. Why would you have TWO Rolex shops next door to each other?? Now that I think about it one of them was probably literally a cheap Chinese knock-off store. Or maybe both.

Food is extremely important for me when I travel, I find it’s the best way to absorb a foreign culture. That being said, I can’t say much about the food in HK, I traveled with someone that didn’t care for food too much, so we stuck to “safe” aka boring places. The food was fine.

You can get by on English easily.

The thing that cemented HK for me as a world-class city is the fact that things HAPPEN there, all the time, always, be it a public wedding, or baby sitters gathering above highways on their one day off a week, or public interviews with movie stars. HK set a bar for “energy” that hasn’t been matched by any other cities I’ve been to since.

I much preferred it to Shanghai and Beijing, which I visited later on the trip. Shanghai was super polluted and ppl kept asking me if I wanted a “sex massage” like, no joke, every 100 metres. Beijing was just kinda boring, and you could NOT get by on English.

I ALSO took THIS image in SHAGHAI, which was KINDOF polluted

Chicago

What, not New York?! The thing about New York is that whatever view you’re picturing of New York right now, in your mind, you only see from the top of a skyscraper. You don’t get that awesome view of buildings lining central park by walking through the streets, which is where you’ll spend most of your time.

Chicago is me favourite American city by far, I much prefer it to New York, which feels oddly sterile

No matter where you walk in Chicago, it’s much easier to get a beautiful, spacious view of some big ass buildings. The roads are wider, meaning it’s easier to breathe, and the food is pretty great. I recommend the Purple Pig (the waiter was constantly rushing us, in USA waiters and restaurant staff basically live off of tips, so they need a high customer count).

Old skyscrapers in Chicago. Skyscrapers were INVENTED in Chicago you know

The old skyscrapers are impressive, especially given that it’s easy to get a good view of them, since many line the Chicago river.

While I don’t recommend doing this, I had a somber experience visiting the University of Chicago, which, while beautiful, is right in the middle of one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago (in case you didn’t know, Chicago has the highest number of murders in the USA, but if you look at it’s population, it isn’t that bad). The university is rich, it has an annual tuition of over 50k USD, and it was weird seeing boarded up businesses and a cop on every street corner in the adjacent neighborhood. I walked into the university library and asked where the bathroom was. The security guard (who was a senior?) said “this is a private institution”, that if I’m not a student I can’t use the facilities. I scrambled out and asked a student which directed me to a bathroom that didn’t require a student card to access.

I don’t think the bean is overrated at all, and look at that view!

This doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience, but it was a memorable one. I got a clear picture of what America is while in Chicago, from the waiter who rushed our meal, to the marginalized, dangerous neighborhoods, to the dickhead senior security guard. So I loved it!

Buenos Aires

Not skyscraper central at all, but still pretty!

The most fun cab ride I’ve ever been on was in Buenos Aires. There are hundreds of cars on the main avenue at night, but surprisingly little traffic! Or maybe I just got lucky. Still, that cab ride perfectly personified Buenos Aires’ energy. We even saw a mid-day robbery!!

Our trip was marred by an exchange rate fiasco, wherein the official exchange rate for the Argentine peso was actually HALF of the black market exchange rate (actually called the “blue” market exchange rate in Argentina’s case, but let’s keep things simple and call it the “black” market exchange rate from now on).

Basically, we exchanged Canadian dollars, in Canada, into Argentinian pesos before the trip. When we got to Argentina, we noticed prices were hella high. Like, 5 CAD for a small coffee, in a styrofoam cup? Something wasn’t adding up. The official exchange rate at the time was around 1 CAD = 6 Argentine pesos. But the black market exchange rate (the exchange rate you got if exchanging with locals, or shops, under the table) was around 1CAD = 11 Argentine pesos! Basically, everything was twice as expensive as it should have been. So we ran out of money with 4 days left in our trip. We were eating bread and sun dried tomatoes in our last few days in Argentina -__-

So heads up, if you’re going to Buenos Aires, look up if the blue market exchange rate is still a thing etc.

I don’t think we ever ended up going here. If you haven’t figured it out yet, most of the photos are off of Google

But otherwise, Buenos Aires was awesome! I remember visiting a venue that used to be a mansion, one half of the venue was a restaurant, and the other half was a laid back club, with a huge outdoor terrace. I ordered a mojito, which took 10 damn minutes to make, but is still, to this day, the best mojito I’ve ever had.

The food was great, lots of beef obviously, but the portions were too large. I know that sounds like a weird complaint, but I’m talking AMERICAN sized portions here. I couldn’t believe how much food they gave us at each meal. At first I was surprised at how fat the people weren’t, given how large the portions were, but then I noticed that people don’t really finish their plates?

What I mean to say is that Buenos Aires has a vibe that I can’t really explain, the people are very social eaters, loud and boisterous, so they barely touch their food (they always finish their wine though), and seniors enjoy coffee at restaurants at 11pm at night. Overall, I recommend Buenos Aires for the vibe it has, but be careful, it can be dangerous.

About that robbery we saw: it was the middle of the day, around 2pm (siesta time, so the streets were empty), and we were on a city bus tour, turning off of the main avenue.

An old couple was walking on the street, and this shitty motorcycle pulled up, driven by a skinny guy, but a huge guy was sitting in the back seat. The huge guy gets off the motorcycle, walks up to the couple, throws the old man on the ground and proceeds to rip his watch off, and his wallet. The victim’s wife was trying to kick the robber, and hit him with her purse, but the guy didn’t even notice. Then he lightly jogged to the motorcycle, got on the back seat, and they drove off. I was on the second floor of the tour bus (I hate tour buses but one of the ppl we were with insisted on doing it, so we did), so I got a pretty good view of the action. I made sure to take off all my jewelry after that encounter.

It’s still a cool city, with many pretty areas, and great food, and awesome night life, but yeah, stuff can still happen, so be careful.

Paris

I used to be a big Paris hater. I mean, I hate museums, and apparently French people are mean, so it definetly wasn’t for me. Then I watched Amelie, and in 2 hours and 9 minutes my opinion completely changed. Amelie mostly takes place in Montmartre, a particularly beautiful neighborhood in Paris, and I was floored at how Paris looked. It ended up as a 4 day stop on a European trip I took back in 2016.

Since then, it’s been my favourite European city, by far. Everywhere we walked we ran into beautiful, old churches, or giant, gorgeous parks, or cobbled streets lined with classic Parisian buildings.

If you’re under 25 and an EU citizen, most famous destinations are free of charge. My favourite destination was the Notre Dame cathedral, which was unfortunately damaged recently 😦 I hope they open it up again soon.

This bad boy (Arc de Triomphe), for example, is free for EU citizens under 25

Also, Parisians were NEVER mean to us, though I did start every conversation with “Bonjour”, which is apparently a must-do if you want decent service.

We went to a really cool art exhibition at the Grand Palais, which I highly recommend visiting. I’m NOT a museum or art guy (I did NOT like the Louvre, but you know, you HAVE to see the Mona Lisa), but the Grand Palais is mostly hollow on the inside, and for some reason I’ve always loved large open spaces

This was the exhibition I caught at the Grand Palais

I will say that food wasn’t that good, we tried lots of different restaurants, and I can safely say food in Toronto is better, for example.

Look, the point is we were never trying to go anywhere; all we’d do is wander around the city, our hostel was based in Montmartre (I highly recommend basing yourself there), and we would just walk towards the Eiffel Tower. By doing this we saw the Parthenon, Tuileries Garden, Marche des Enfants Rouges (highly recommend for some interesting food), Grand Palais etc.

Tuileries Garden, another must-see in Paris

Everywhere you walk, you’ll see glorious, beautiful structures, which is why it’s my favourite city in Europe: because you don’t need a destination to enjoy Paris.

Fanks for reading!

Science Fiction Book Recommendations

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Recommended listening: I couldn’t pick some industrial, cyber punk song since this list features books from different sci fi backgrounds, so I’m falling back on a favourite DnB track of mine. Very calming!

Introduction

I’ve been reading for quite a few years now, mostly in the bathtub (while taking a bath). I definitely prefer fiction to non-fiction, and generally gravitate towards sci-fi, specifically hard sci-fi. Think Star Trek, not Star Wars. Think science fiction, NOT fiCTiOn “sCiEnCe”.

I like dystopia and potential futures, so I actually really gravitate towards cyber punk, but anyway.

Also, as an engineer, I love when real(-sounding) problems are solved by real(-sounding) solutions.

For example (and as an aside), I love how the game Bioshock, which takes place in an underwater metropolis, has a level in a forest, which provides the oxygen for the underwater city of Rapture.

Stuff like that made the city of Rapture feel more real. Anyway, on to the recommendations:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by PKD

Is the above goat/sheep (I can’t tell) electric? (I can’t tell)

I’m a big fan of Philip K. Dick, I even read a biography on the guy. Many famous sci fi movies are based on his works, including Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly (one of my favourite films). Bladerunner is actually based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Of course, he didn’t enjoy any success from these movies, since he died before any of them came out.

He lived the typical, impoverished life of a writer.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is one of my favourite works by him; the future feels real, the action keeps you on the edge of your seat, and the plight of the “antagonists” is very releatable. It’s like, the first cyber punk work, showcasing a dilapidated, high-tech low-life future, where animals have basically gone extinct.

The author suffered from different mental issues, like schizophrenia, and had weird hallucinations/ visions. Also, he took lots of psychedelic drugs, which also gave him lots of hallucinations! That’s double the hallucinations folks!

Because of this, he was very paranoid, and this book successfully transfers some of this paranoia to the reader, which might sound unpleasant but is actually fine, unless you’re already paranoid all the time.

Also, don’t be a dick and skip this book just because you’ve seen Bladerunner: Final Cut. They follow very different stories.

Rendezvous With Rama

This is probably my favourite science fiction book of all time, and in my opinion the best book by Arthur C. Clarke (better than Childhood’s End and Fountains of Paradise for sure). The book intimately describes the real problems encountered if a giant cylindrical object in space were to be docked and examined by humans.

Further, it proposes real problems and their corresponding, real-sounding solutions. For example, simians can be trained to do repetitive tasks, and they require far less oxygen than humans, making them perfect “assistants” on space ships. The plot unwinds in a layered fashion, with every chapter ending with a “cliff-hanger” or sorts, which keeps you reading.

This book would work wonderfully as a series. Morgan Freeman is a big fan of the book, and has been trying to make it into a movie for years. I hope he instead pitches the idea to Netflix or Amazon or something, I think a show based on this book would be awesome (though, admittedly, expensive to produce)

Count Zero

This cover has **nothing** to do with the plot

I have a weird relationship with William Gibson. My favourite media genre is cyber punk, and this guy basically (literally) wrote the book on the genre.

I’ve read his sprawl trilogy, but I dislike Neuromancer (too many damn details, I couldn’t follow what was happening because of all the bullshit), and I don’t like Mona Lisa Overdrive (one third of the plot pretty much doesn’t matter? and is barely cyber punk?)

Currently I’m reading Spook Country, it started off cool; a more realistic, post cyber punk-ish work, taking place in modern times, but I’m over halfway through and there doesn’t seem to be much of a plot. Like, it’s not going anywhere. Basically, I’m not a fan of most of his novels.

All that being said, I really liked Count Zero. I know it’s weird to recommend the second book in a trilogy, but I don’t think it REALLY matters if you read the other two.

This image also has nothing to do with the plot, but it showcases the setting well

In typical Gibson fashion, there are 3 different narratives, and they’re all pretty interesting. He toned down the over-detail that Neuromancer had and the plot was therefore much easier to follow.

It involves a chosen-by-AI-gods novice hacker, a woman who works for a hyper rich dying dude, and a corporate war between two rival companies trying to wrestle control of a biochip. Nukes are involved. What more could you want?

Burning Chrome (Short Story Collection)

This is an anthology of short, MOSTLY great, MOSTLY cyber punk stories written MOSTLY by William Gibson and a few others

I can’t say much about it, if you like gritty, dystopian, “realistic” depictions of the near future (ie: cyber punk) then check out this short story collection, most of the stories are great!

Foundation

This image follows the plot of the entire trilogy

This is the first in a trilogy (well, technically it’s a series, but that stuff was appended after the fact, so they don’t quite count) of books about the fall of the Galactic Empire and humanity’s attempt to rebuild it.

It’s hard science fiction, but doesn’t delve too deep into the science-y side of things. Basically, a new mathematical branch of sociology is developed which can accurately predict the future of extremely large populations (think trillions). The fall of the galactic empire is foreseen, and a Foundation is set up to build a new one. This first book follows many characters during different time periods after the fall of the galactic empire, with the story spanning hundreds of years.

Don’t worry, the book is not long.

The time skips make the book very easy to read, since a new, exciting setting is established with every time skip. If you like it, I recommend reading the following two books, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation, they’re also awesome!

Come to think of it, the Foundation trilogy would ALSO really work as a series! Due to the time skips however, it’d only work as an anthology series, like Black Mirror or whatever. Each book could be a separate season! I hope you’re listening @Netflix!

Best Restaurants in Oslo, Norway

I’ve lived in Oslo for around 3 years, and have tried out quite a few restaurants. Many of them are not that good, but you’ll understand why, once you look at my PATENTED method for determining the quality of a restaurant.

I have an engineering background, so I take a systematic approach to this, and all aspects of my life. I think it’s fairly objective:

Quality Scale (in no particular order)

FulFILLness (get it?) – I shouldn’t be thinking about food after leaving your restaurant, unless I’m thinking about how good the food was

Price – I generally don’t go to restaurants where a meal costs more than 200kr (20 euros (just divide by 10 to get the price in euros from now on)). Navigate to the bottom of this article to understand why I follow this general rule

Taste – I’m a fairly capable cook, so if I’m going to spend 2x/3x the money it would cost to make a meal at home, it can’t taste bad! This metric, obviously, is closely tied to cost, and increases in importance as the cost increases

Quality of Ingredients – I’m not a picky eater, buuuuuuut I don’t like processed meat, and love vegetables

Time of Delivery – generally, if I’m eating out it’s either a special occasion, I’m short on time, or I’m super hungry and want to eat now. It’s usually the latter two. So if I can count on the meal arriving quickly, then that’s a plus

On to the list!

San Francisco Bread Bowl

Definitely the *c o o l e s t* place on this list.

As the title implies, this place specialized in bread bowls, so stews/chowders/curries in delicious sourdough (I think?) bread bowls. They also optionally toast and butter the extra bread, which I highly recommend. The prices are excellent, between 110kr – 170kr.

It’s vegetarian friendly, the vegetarian/vegan options are hearty, and much cheaper than the meat options. The Indonesian bowl is great!

Also, this place is guaranteed to fill you up! If you aren’t full, just munch on the bread bowl until you are.

Finally, this place gets high ~a e s t h e t i c~ points, for its cool California vibe. The music they play is dope, similar to KCRW radio from California

Sato Japanese Dining

I’ve only been here twice, but I ordered completely different dishes, and both were great. The place can be pretty expensive though, prices range from 190kr to 300kr+. But it’s super tasty, and the portions are ginormous!

It’s important to note that this is NOT a sushi place, it’s a Japanese restaurant (though they offer sushi) . They have all kinds of traditional Japanese fare that you haven’t heard of.

It’s a good place for a date, because they have all kinds of traditional Japanese fare that you haven’t heard of , but you can pretend otherwise.

D-SAN

They actually changed their branding a couple of days ago, it’s commie-red colored now

This is my defacto dinner place when I’m in a rush, since it’s close to
Grünerløkka, which is where I usually find myself for social gatherings. I mostly eat the banh mi, but the sushi is also good. They recently added bubble tea, and the Taro bubble tea was good, but ask for no ice, they add too much.

The banh mi sandwiches cost up to 79kr, and are large and filling

These things actually suck, get a banh mi instead

I’m pretty sure I’m their number 1 customer, and the world’s only D-SAN expert. Here’s my Banh Mi ranking, from best to not best: pork spear, lemongrass tofu, lemongrass beef, chicken.

If you ask for spicy, it will be SPICY, which is actually difficult to find in ~~Oslo~~/~~all of Norway~~/ all of Scandinavia.

Plah Home

The “Home” part of “Plah Home” is important, since there’s 2 Plah’s in the city, a bougy one and a plebeian one. You will go to the plebeian one.

It’s expensive, 200kr minimum but maaaan the food is seriously amazing, and super filling. I only went there once, but I distinctly remember the meal, it was some pork curry on rice or something, it was super good.

The place is very small, so I recommend making a reservation!

It’s strangely difficult to find photos of their food, so take my word for it? I don’t normally take photos of my food, I’d feel very silly doing that, in public, since I’m not active on social media. Maybe I’ll make an article regarding my privacy concerns some day. Good idea!

Piri Piri

This is an awesome Portuguese chicken place, the menu is divided into a Chicken section and a Sides section. This is my first time trying Portuguese chicken, so I can’t comment on how good or authentic it truly is, but my Portuguese buddy thinks it’s pretty good.

Every table has three sauce bottles with awesome, spicy flavors.

Food and portions really look like this!

The sides are great, with lots of options, I recommend the Roasted Vegetables or the Mashed Potatoes.

Prices hover around 150kr – 170kr for chicken and a side

Villa Paradiso

I’ve eaten a LOT of pizza in my life, but it’s mostly been North American, fast food style pizza (I lived near Toronto, Canada for 13 years). This was pretty much my first time trying Italian style pizza, and, I’m not exaggerating, the N’duja pizza is probably the best pizza I’ve ever eaten, full stop.

I’ve since tried various pizzas here, they’ve all been great, all under 200kr, and all left me fullFILLed. This is ANOTHER great place for a date, if you’re into that.

Justification for 200kr Being the Ideal Max Cost for a Meal

It’s worth noting that VAT for take out and eating in is different in Norway, but restaurants account for this by having higher prices if you’re eating in. This post is about eating at the restaurant itself, and won’t get into the economics of ordering take out.
Taxes are very high in Scandinavia! Let’s do a case study: VAT in Norway is 25%, and corporate tax is 24% on net revenue. That means that (if my calculations are correct) the business actually receives around 57% of the money from the sale of goods. Let’s keep it simple, and say that they receive 60%, meaning the gov takes 40%.
That’s all fine (and dandy), but when you go to a kebab joint, and order a kebab costing 100kr, you’re actually getting a kebab that is “worth” 60kr. That’s a loss of 40kr, so no big deal. But it’s 40kr per 100kr you spend.
A meal that cost 300kr means it’s “worth” 180kr to you, so a loss of 120kr. I understand that the cost of goods is based on demand, not cost of production, and I fully support the capitalist model. But a meal is a meal, I have three of them a day, 365 days a year. A “loss” of 80kr is about all I can justify for a single, casual meal, which is why I try to stick around the 200kr mark.
Also, I’m a really good cook.

Thanks for reading the article!

Soundtracks You Haven’t Heard

This music contained in this post is great for background listening. I prefer music without lyrics generally, since I mostly listen to music while at work, coding (I’m an IT developer). Specifically, I prefer video game soundtracks, since the music is generally made to be listened to on repeat, without being invasive

An IT Developer (at work?), according to Google images

I don’t really listen to albums anymore, there’s too much good music out there, I don’t want to spend my valuable time repeat-listening to an album until I like it, effectively learning to like it.

Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but I’d rather listen to the BEST songs by multiple artists instead of all the songs by one artist.

This change came about after stumbling on radio.garden, a website which allows you to listen to radio stations all around the world, like Plastic radio (Sydney, AUS) or Leproradio (Yekaterinburg, RUS). They did not sponsor this post.

NOTE: You’ve maybe heard the Oblivion OST, so it won’t be featured here. Let’s begin!

Boogiepop Phantom OST

Boogiepop Phantom is a weird anime, it’s kinda scary and messed up. I never finished it, though it’s short.

The OST on the other hand, is 90’s fringe electronic music. It’s really good to groove to, the songs are great, except for a couple (you’ll know which ones). The OST goes through many different moods, from cozy ambient to upbeat dark electronica (well, mostly upbeat dark electronica).

Sample: Not an upbeat dark electronica song

Silent Hill 2 OST

The KING of cozy dread music, the Silent Hill 2 OST has nostalgic guitar melodies and industrial, drone-y songs, nothing in between.

I’ve never played the game, but DID watch an entire playthrough of it because the soundtrack was so good. Don’t do it, it’s not a very fun game to watch a playthrough of, it has a lot of obtuse puzzles in it.

Sample: If this doesn’t hook you don’t bother with the rest

Sim City 4 OST

Now this soundtrack is guaranteed to boost #productivity by almost 15%! It’s all upbeat background music, if that makes sense. It sounds like concentration and firing synapses ie. it sounds like city planning.

The best part is that it’s long!! This OST should hold you until lunch at the very least! And look at that cover!! Doesn’t it make you want to live in a neo-gothic metropolis?????

Sample: My favourite track. It’s jazzy.

Spice and Wolf OST

This music is from one of my favorite animes, though I couldn’t tell you why, other than that the character designs are great. I also really like economics? You can easily imagine this music accompanying a medieval harvest festival.

It’s good for rustic-festival-painting-day, but more commonly used for board-game-nights.

I don’t like board games very much, BUT Settlers of Catan is good

Sample: Opening Track

I hope at least one of the above soundtracks have boosted your productivity, if only for an hour. My mission, after all, is to boost economic output. Thank you for your contribution to the global economy, reader!

Machinarium OST

Machinarium is a game made by Czech studio Amanita Design. It’s a point and click adventure, meaning I’ve never played it, but the art style is wonderful, it has a kind of chaotic, fake future design that has always appealed to me.

The soundtrack is unique, it’s simple and ambient, with an industrial feel. You can’t pinpoint the instruments used, it sounds like the music is played on the metal city (pictured above) itself!

Sample: Opening Track

Salmon Taco Recipe

Accompanying music: GLXY- Agua, a wonderful, energetic DnB track. It feels fresh, just like this meal!

I live in Norway so obvi I eat quite a bit of salmon. This is a simple, quick, delicious recipe for salmon tacos.

Ingredients for one serving

80 – 100 grams sushi grade salmon (don’t ask me what sushi grade means, it’s probably just marketing)
4 CORN tortillas (the small ones, not gigantic flour tortillas)
Not soft goat cheese (you could do sheep cheese or whatever, but not soft)
Spices: paprika, salt, cumin
A delicious, spicy taco sauce (not Old El Paso, something exciting!)

Preferably hot sauce should come with fancy packaging

Preparation

Ultra simple, it should take around 15 mins total!

Add cumin, salt and paprika to both sides of the raw, sushi grade salmon fillet. Turn pan on high heat, wait for it to get hella hot, and add a little butter or oil (though neither is really necessary, the salmon wont stick too bad to your pan, (unless you have shitty pans)).

Salmon ought to sizzle when placed in pan

Put raw, SUSHI GRADE salmon fillet in the pan, and cook until darkened and kinda sizzling, then flip. The outside will be well done, and the inside will be slightly raw, which I vastly prefer to cooked-through salmon.

While salmon is cooking, put some thinly sliced goat cheese on 4 corn tortillas, and microwave them on low to melt the cheese a little. This part is important. Do not melt the cheese by throwing tortillas in the oven, it’s inefficient, takes longer and dries out the tortillas. The resulting tacos will be hard to eat, since the tortillas won’t fold easily, because they’ll be hard, and dry, and they’ll scratch the inside of your mouth.

This is what happens if you use the oven. It’s much worse than it looks. Haven’t touched it since.

Up to you, but I feel dried out tortillas really detract from the eating e x p e r i e n c e. I prefer them nice and soft.

Once salmon is done and cheese is kinda melted, you’re pretty much done. Take a portion of salmon, put it on a tortilla, lightly squash the salmon so it’s more evenly distributed, add some of that delicious, not-old-el-paso taco sauce, and enjoy!

Don’t worry, the framing of the above photo annoys me too

I always eat them with a side of cherry tomato salad, another one of my classic, simple, completely-original recipes. Thanks for reading the post!

Souls Game Ranking

Accompanying music for reading this post: Ambient Souls Music

~SPOILERS AHEAD~

People like rankings! Especially from uneducated perspectives!

I’ve been playing the souls games since the time of the first Dark Souls. I like them, they gud, but I find their quality varies. The general sentiment is that Souls games are consistently excellent (I’d plug metacritic scores here, but metacritic is bad, use opencritic instead), but I think their flaws are generally downplayed.

I mean, no, I haven’t beat Dark Souls 3, and I barely played Demon Souls, but I’m still ranking them, because this is MY blog, so YOU don’t make the rules, I do.

5. Dark Souls 2

I really didn’t like DS2. It was a mess in terms of art direction, and the world wasn’t interconnected. Bruv, you take an elevator to the top of a windmill, which leads to a castle, and you beat the boss by getting the poison out of the boss room by lighting the mill on fire (not by using the poison resistance ring, which is what I did and it didn’t do shit)

DS2 also has completely asinine level design, like a castle guarded by mammoths, a desert church sticking out of wall and a flaming Bowser level.

I liked Majula though, I really liked how the focus changed depending on the distance, and the accent of the lady who levels you up was nice (Irish?).

*Some people say the theme is annoying but I liked it*

4. Dark Souls 3

I played quite a bit of this game, and I saw most of it since I watched my buddy play the whole thing. Man, EVERY boss was a guy with a flaming sword, here’s proof:

*Some bosses didn’t use flaming swords, so I omitted them*

The environs were BORING, everything was a castle:

Or as I like to refer to them: blue, yellow and red castles. Just like the Romanian flag!

Also, they nerfed magic, and stamina!! I love using magic in the Souls games!!

By this point in the series, it was clear they were running out of ideas for the Souls series, which is fair, because this was the 4th game in the Souls franchise. You can only take the Med-EVIL ~a e s t h e t i c~ so far. I didn’t play the DLC, but it actually looks super cool:

This image struck a chord with me (not that I know what’s going on)

3. Demon Souls

Barely played it, but the bosses look cool, and that’s enough for me

It was alot of annoying respawning, but this is the game that started it all. This is the game that started the invasion mechanic (one of the bosses could actually be another player), and cemented many of the mechanics used in the rest of the Souls series (this was the first game).

Even COOLER Boss, which is a flying MANTA RAY

Not as cool of a boss, but this one could be another player, and you coul equip that “helmet”

2. Bloodborne

Yeah, I started really enjoying this game, but as time went on I really didn’t. I loved the fact that movement wasn’t hindered by armor weight. Not a lot of weapons, but some were cool, I like the blades of mercy, the sword in hilt thing, and obviously the kirkhammer.

Personally, I don’t care for gothic horror or Lovecraftian themes or whatever, so that didn’t impress me, though I will say the art direction WAS cool. I liked all the secret areas and accompanying bosses

I really liked the hub area, but I DIDN’T like the long-ass loading time to get there

Cainhurst Castle is an optional area, and it’s my fave area!

My biggest complaint is the story, I didn’t like how vague it was. The whole time I was playing the game I felt like the lore was too broad, it never actually SAID anything. As the plot advanced, I understood less and less, so by the end nothing made sense, that Mikolash guy was so weird, but I annoyed my house mate by whispering “Kos… or is it Kosm?..” all the time, for a whole week, which was nice.

Kos… or is it Kosm… or was it… what was it again?… I think it was… what?

Blood tinge and dark magic we’re useless skills in your first run, which drove me nuts, since I love using magic in these kinds of games, and blood tinge was a skill that you may USELESSLY invest in, in your first playthrough. To be honest, I didn’t use the guns at all. I don’t like to counter in Souls games (main reason I’m not stoked about Sekiro), and that’s pretty much all the guns were used for, cause they didn’t do ANY damage.

Also you had to grind for blood vials!!!!!! WHAT??? How is that fun?! So I’d go to a boss, and I wouldn’t have enough blood vials, and I’d have to go grind! Over and OVER!!! I hated it!!!!!! And the loading times were long, so it interrupted the flow of the game! I couldn’t concentrate on a boss cause I’d have to spend 5 minutes every few deaths GRINDING!! It was inexcusable!

My only playthrough was tainted by the fact that I never saw the beggar, so I didn’t know I could send NPC’s to a shelter. Also, I told Gehrman to wake me up because I wanted the game to end, so I didn’t know there were two secret bosses leftover, which I’ve since fought since but still, they weren’t part of my initial playthrough.

Yeah, I probably would’ve ranked it even lower if I had played Bloodborne without Castle Cainhurst and Upper Cathedral Ward. There were many ways to miss out on lots of content, and this can’t possibly be considered a good thing. But it was fun, for what it’s worth.

1. Dark Souls

Bruv they didn’t come close to this one since.

Excellent progression, AWESOME bosses, extremely varied environs. I really liked Seath’s library, Anor Lando, the painted world of Arriety or whatever it was called, and the hellscape before entering an admittedly shitty lava area where Bed of Chaos (more like Bed of Chate) was.

Seath (a large dragon) wouldn’t be able to actually read these books, since the print would be too small

People talk shit about Blight town but YOU CAN SKIP IT, which I always do. I think the weakest part of that game is the Capra Demon, Blight town and the sewers (I don’t like the gaping dragon at all, I think it’s a boring boss, and those big eyed frogs that curse you were annoying in a bad way), but they can all be skipped so that’s a moot point, sorry.

I’m not a fan of firelink shrine, some people say it’s the best hub, but I don’t think they know what they’re talking about, because they’re wrong.

The lore explained an actual story, and everything was new, and exciting, and I got just enough info from weapons and loading screens and cinematics to keep me intrigued, unlike Bloodborne.

I would spend hours on http://darksouls.wikidot.com/ reading about locations and characters and gods and the world. I had different builds for different scenarios, which was great, now I play as a holy knight with a claymore, which be dope tings, cause I can use holy magic.

Magic was like, good and useful and there were three kinds: magic, pyro, and holy, and I used abit of all of them.

The main takeaway from this game is that it cemented “dark fantasy” for me as not being about violence and sex, but about overwhelming dread. The game had a cozy tone to it, akin to autumn, my favourite season. Everything was dead and dying and rotten, but some futile hope permeated the world, giving it a cozy, dreadful vibe.

Didn’t play DLC but lots of cool characters and story.

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Cherry Tomato Salad

Ok, first post!

This blog is going to have all kinds of stuff on it, it won’t have a consistent theme, so why not start with a simple recipe!

I figured out this combination fairly recently, and I’ve been eating it consistently ever since. It’s a good way to eat your vegetables.

Cherry Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

Cherry Tomatoes (not Grape tomatoes or anything like that)
Green Onions (not leeks, follow the recipe properly, thank you)
Soy Sauce (I don’t like the gluten free one, but whatever)
Olive Oil (I shouldn’t have to say this, but EXTRA VIRGIN obviously)

Process:

Chop cherry tomatoes and green onions, throw them in a bowl
Douse with some olive oil
This is the hard part: add not enough soy sauce. I know it sounds weird but soy sauce is super duper salty, and it’s very easy to add too much. So add an amount that you think “Yeah, no way that’s enough”, then mix and taste, and I guarantee it’ll be enough.
Enjoy!!