The Books and Games that got me through 2020

 Tis the year-end. And here I am reflectin' on the year past. 

Its been a Topsy-turvey year so far. Things don't go to plan, but in 2020 the plan was tossed into a black hole. Holed up in your home for months, watching the stories unfold on news channels - mostly pretty bleak hasn't been that great for the mind. 

Add to it the work pressure. Where things used to take a few mins, now it takes a day. There is this story of a server going down in the office which needed to be restarted. The launch was in a few days. The offices - actually the whole country - was on lockdown. How do you do that ? Its been crazy. 

I do not watch much TV apart from a few shows like The Kapil Sharma Show. Most of my free time goes into gaming and reading. Following is the list of 2020. ( You can also check out the list of books from 2019 here )

Books

I haven't read a lot of books this year. My goal was 12 books, and I have fallen short of that. Not enough time. Here's a small list from this year :

Ender's Game 

This was a re-read. I had read this book a few years back. Then watched the movie. Then read the book again. Now it started to make a lot more sense than earlier. After researching a bit it seems that this book is binary - some people like it some don't. I liked it after the 2nd reading.

 

 

 

 Dune

A sci-fi classic. However, I don't really rate this one high. The reason being that this says sci-fi, but it really has very limited sci-fi aspects to it. Its more of a political setting with a prophesy. Over the years, I have started to dislike stuff with prophesies, as that means that main hero is really not doing anything themselves. Its all written in the stars. I like books where the hero stumbles along and tries to make the best of the situation. I re-read it again this year as the new DUNE movie is coming out, so wanted a refresher. 

The Anarchy

This book by William Dalrymple traces the history of how a small company run out of a small building in England became the biggest corporate of all time, and conquered the unconquerable lands of India. This book along with An Era of Darkness (by Shashi Tharoor) and The Men who Ruled India ( by Philip Mason ) provide a good insight into how England was able to rule over India. 

Roars and Trumpets : Tales from the Wild

A fantastic book by Gurpreet Singh who spent much of his life overlooking tea estates in Assam and his encounters and love for the wild life there. A must read if you are interested in wildlife and doubly so if you ever had wondered "what was life like in India a few decades back" . It traces the life story of Gurpreet Singh from the time his dad used to take him hunting in the North West Provinces before India got Independence to the life in the far flung reaches of Assam. A time when guns could be carried in as baggage in planes !

Early Indians

A book that traces the ancestry of Indians via DNA studies of current population and matching with the DNA from archaeological remains found all over the world. While the book is good in the sense that it tries to make the esoteric scientific advancements and how the migrations happened, it is very repetitive, like the publisher told Tony Joseph that his book was too lean and he needs to add more content into it. The unfortunate effect is that in many places things are repeated again and again.

Black Panther Comics

For a brief time, Comixology was giving Black Panther comics for free as a tribute to Chadwick Boseman. So I got as many of them as I could. 

Wakanda Forever !

A Promised Land

A master orator, Obamas latest book is a riveting read (I still haven't finished it). It traces his journey from his early days into the field of politics. A very straight forward written book, and I was quite surprised by how easy it is to read.

Games

 I play a lot of games, and the list below is of the games I really enjoyed playing this year. This is not the complete list - ping me separately if you are interested :)

Majesty : The Fantasy Kingdom Sim 

This is a really old game, but I keep going back to it. The simple reason being that there is no other game like this one. Here, you cannot control the heroes directly. Instead you hire them and then place bounty flags on the monster lairs and other places of interest and the heroes go and fight on their own. There is a pretty good AI system so the units go and buy their upgrades as they see fit. The dialogues of the units is also very funny - e.g. the wizards crying out "I am melting" when they die. Just a fantastic game, and with the steam sale, you can get it for less than Rs 100. 

Path of Exile 

The successor to Diablo 2. Diablo 3 is also out for a few years now, but it is not very good - definitely not better than Diablo 2. Path of Exile is a pretty good ARPG and its Free to Play. I have been playing this game for years on and off. This game got me through half of the year. However, the latest update on Heist is when I lost interest. 

 

 

Skyrim

This game does not age at all. A RPG (Role Playing Game) set in a fictional world of elves, dragons and all sorts of fantasy creatures. In most RPG games you usually select the stats you want to improve on gaining an experience level. However, in this game, the leveling up is very unique. You gain experience based on which skills you use. E.g. I played as a stealth archer. For that I had to sneak around a lot and use bows a lot. The freedom that gives you with this playstyle is amazing. A game I keep going back to. I had never finished the main story line of this game , so this year, I did that - twice. There are hundreds of side quests that I still need to do. What a game ! Released in 2011 and still going strong. Hang on a sec while I gather a few more butteflies ;)

Kingdom Come : Deliverance

This is a Role Playing game set in a medieval setting. You play as the son of a local smith and circumstances lead to an epic adventure. Its got gorgeous graphics. If you like a historical setting for your games, you should try it out.

Oxygen Not Included

By far my favorite game of the year. This is an adorable colony simulation game where your people are stuck in an asteroid because of course the transporter got a glitch. Now you need to dig out the asteroid, mine minerals, make rockets to get out of there. I don't really like the other games from the same developer ( Don't Starve etc), but this game is such a beautiful soothing game that this has become my favorite game. And its an engineering simulation on top of that. E.g. different gasses float at different levels, making complex mechanisms for getting sustained oxygen etc. 

Wasteland 2

Wasteland 3 is out, but I hadn't played much of the other wasteland games. Wasteland 1 was very old and I don't think I can go back to that kind of graphics style. So, here I am playing Wasteland 2. The game is a RPG, but unlike Skyrim or Kingdom Come , its not an open world. So, you move around in small maps and have to counter the threats of a post apocalyptic world with killer rabbits and overgrown plants. A very fun game. 

 

Total War : Warhammer II

Psst. Do you like LOTR kind of large scale battles with elves and dragons and orcs and overgrown rats ? This game is for you. 

I've had this game for a long time, but never really got into it. This year it changed. It is a turn based, grand strategy, epic battles game. I used to think its more like Civilization and tried to play it like that (BTW, Civ 6 is the worst of the lot) . However, I finally figured out its more like Heroes of Might and Magic and then the game started becoming fun. Its pretty demanding on computer resources and with my current system I have to play it on lower settings - but its still a lot of fun. Each faction has their own playstyle and there is a lot of replayability in this game. Highly recommended if you consider yourself a great general and want to see battles with thousands of on screen units including fantastical beasts. If you prefer something more realistic , try the other Total War games. 

Thanks for reading this. Please leave your suggesting for books and games in the comments below !