"Dishonored" Doesn't Bother With Spelling

Reviews of Dishonored are embargoed for a bit so this isn't a review by any stretch. This post is more along the lines of "impressions."

First, for some reason I can't stop reading the title as "Dish ono Red!" No real reason for that, it just happens. Maybe it's because I've been staring at the title looking for the missing "U." Localization of video games is big business but apparently Bethesda Softworks and Arkane couldn't be bothered to slip in a "U" for Canadian and British gamers. Or possibly the "U" escaped at some point and wound up at Nintendo.

The Rat Plague is pretty cool. At first, I thought maybe this was like The Plague in the traditional sense but this is actually a rat plague in the Biblical sense. I'm looking forward to how that part of the game pans out -- a squeaky third faction.

I can't figure out if Arkane was going for Steampunk or Whale Oil Punk or Medieval redux or American Civil War or what with the design of the characters and setting, but I'm certainly enjoying the look of the game. For some reason these clashing styles are blended together to make something interesting to watch and look at.

Reading

Every time I finish a book lately I realize just how much I miss consuming books like I used to. A book would last me a few days at the most before I was on to the next. And it was a constant stream -- I always had another book on deck so I could just keep reading. That voracious intake has slowed due to any number of things but mostly I get an hour or two in the evening to dedicate to solitary pursuits like reading or gaming. A commute by transit helps a bit because it gives me a little over two hours to concentrate on reading (and ignore the other smelly commuters).

And it was on the bus, that I finished George Mann's Victorian steampunk "The Immorality Engine." Good read, with little in the way of substantial character development but high on the "things exploding messily" scale. I liked it and it goes out of it's way to set things up for the next book. What stays with me are the descriptions of the automatons, the slanted world that rides a boundary of occult, real history, and steampunk clockwork, and the way Mann rolled out the story. Would I recommend it? It's summer reading through and through. That's not a bad thing! I enjoy these kind of pulp stories where things explode messily, usually via some kind of fantastical machine/contraption. For example, there are steam-powered mech-like vehicles included! I think Mann needs to get an illustrator on-board to provide some art for the inside of the book. Or possibly turn the whole thing into a graphic novel.

Next up: Will Ferguson's "Spanish Fly"