Josho Brouwers's Blog
May 11, 2017
The importance of memorable characters
What makes a story engaging? It’s something I’ve been wondering as I make my way through Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17. It’s a science-fiction novel from 1966 about a young linguist, Rydra Wong, trying to decipher the language – codenamed ‘Babel-17’ – of an alien Invader. It’s a novel that’s very much focused on ideas and […]
April 28, 2017
Replaying Mass Effect 2
Ever since its release, I’ve been slowly making my way through Mass Effect: Andromeda. It’s been a good time so far, despite some janky animations and other glitches. The game was developed by more or less the same team who also did Dragon Age: Inquisition, so the missions are spread out across a little more […]
April 9, 2017
Why can’t X be more like Y?
It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog post for my own website. What can I say? I’ve been extremely busy with my editorial duties at Karwansaray Publishers and have only recently started to feel like I’m getting a handle on things. I’m planning on rebuilding this website, as well as building a […]
May 21, 2016
The new Doom
Id Software, developers of the first Doom, released in 1993, created a new instalment in the series, also called Doom; it’s probably intended to be reboot. I loved the original Doom back in the day, which spawned the first-person shooter genre. In a few words: the new Doom is fantastic. It’s fast-paced, looks gorgeous, and […]
May 13, 2016
The Ultimate Dinosaur
Spring is the time to clean out the house. I’ve emptied the attic (for the most part) and given away a few boxes’ worth of books. One of the books that I’ll never give away is The Ultimate Dinosaur, edited by Byron Preiss and Robert Silverberg, and published in 1992. I got this book as a present […]
April 24, 2016
Super Tribes
A few weeks ago, I renewed my mobile phone contract, which came with an iPhone 6S. I used to have an iPhone 5S, but went with a Nokia Lumia 1520 back in 2014. I liked my Windows Phone, especially the quality of the photos it took, but the apps left a lot to be desired. Since […]
April 16, 2016
Classic Bond
Recently, I managed to convince my girlfriend to watch all of the classic Bond movies, one after the other. We started with Dr No (1962) and then watched From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), and finally Diamonds Are Forever (1971). They’re […]
March 30, 2016
Far Cry Primal: closing thoughts
After a little more than a dozen blog posts, it’s time for my adventures in Far Cry Primal to come to a close. It has been an interesting and enjoyable journey that, aside from giving me the opportunity to play a really good game, also gave me the excuse I needed to delve back into […]
March 29, 2016
Far Cry Primal: walk free
How far we’ve come since Tutorial Land! Before the Easter break, I had wandered through Oros, completing most of the specialist missions, including those of comic relief character Urki. Today, I will finish the main plot of the game by slaying the leaders of the two rival tribes: Ull of the cannibalistic Udam and Batari of […]
March 23, 2016
Far Cry Primal: added VALUE
This is a post about Far Cry Primal, but it isn’t part of my game diary series. There is a research group called VALUE, short for Videogames and Archaeology at Leiden UnivErsity (not a typo). And it so happened that they organized a meeting earlier today at the university to talk about Far Cry Primal: how it depicts […]
