Oh boy, oh boy, it’s the freakin’ weekend again people! And you know what that means! It’s time to break out the beers and wallow in self-pity! YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

This week I’ve been delving hard into Monster Hunter World now that it has come to PC, a game in which you kill monsters, make a sword out of their bones and then proceed to beat the same kind of monster to death with the remains of brother/sister/mother/father/cousin/whatever. Honestly, the more you think about this game and it’s never ending parade of boss fights the more you realise that you play as a complete dick intent on single-handedly wiping out the innocent beasts inhabiting the land.

But seriously, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. The name really captures everything you need to know; it’s you versus monsters, each one of which is a boss battle in its own right. And from them you’ll craft new gear. It’s a simple, grindy loop that gets complicated with some serious crafting, and man, I think I’m addicted. It just all works so well. Keep an eye out for my review, which will arrive whenever I stop trying to terrorize the local wildlife in real life. Turns out it’s really hard to make a functional helmet out of a cow skull.

The other game I’ve been playing like mad is F1 2018 which came in for review around a week or so ago. But I’ll spoil my opinions right now, so if you want to wait until the actual full review skip to the next paragraph; if you already own F1 2017 it’s not worth the purchase unless you can get a deep discount. However, this is still the best game in the series to date, so if you haven’t made the leap to F1 yet or are still on F1 2016 or older then it’s worth your cash.

On the board game front I’m still engrossed in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. Man, I cannot stress how amazing that game is, either alone or with friends. It delivers compelling stories and really taxes the mind.

On the book front I’ve been reading the first book in the Powder Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan. Called Promise of Blood the first book sets up the idea of a world that’s at the gunpowder and musket stage but with magic. There are people named Privelaged who can control the elements, but also Powder Mages who can snort gunpowder to become stronger and faster, and they can even detonate gunpowder and curve bullets in the air.

The first book deals with a coup and follows several characters such as Tamas who is leading the coup and Taniel, a powder mage.

The writing didn’t manage to grab me at first, coming off as a bit clunky, but McClellan manages to find his feet soon enough, and while I don’t think his prose are particuilarly amazing his world more than makes up for it. The man has a great imagination and I’m intrigued to see where the story goes.

Finally, I’ve been watching Disenchantment on Netflix, a cartoon that comes from the legendary brain of Matt Groening, the man responsible for The Simpsons and for Futurama, a show that I adored. This one follows the adventures of Bean, a princess in a medieval world who loves to get drunk. Through some weirdness she winds up with a demon whose goal is to corrupt her further and an elf who came from a land of candy. Yes, it’s bonkers.

The first couple of episodes were rough, but I’m about two-thirds of the way through and its found its groove now. The characters are great, the storylines have been consistently funny and there are a few nice emotional beats, too. Whether it could ever compete with Futurama remains to be seen, after all that show was the master of luring you in with laughs then sucker punching you in the feels. Mind you, it couldn’t do that until a few seasons of building the world and characters, so hopefully Disenchantment will get that chance. Anyway, I reckon it’s worth a watch.

So my beloved and revered readers, what are you playing this weekend?