Weekly Wrap-Up :: W44-2015

Concept art taken from the upcoming game "Dreadnought".

There use to be a time, what seems like ages ago, when I used to publish these Speedlinking articles listing all the EVE Online news. So I thought that I'd start doing that again, listing all the interesting bits of info tweeted of the course of the week, movies and trailers I've seen, and stuff I'm reading.

What I'm watching:

• "The Man In The High Castle" [PILOT]
• "League of Legends PROJECT: Overdrive" by Axis Animation
• Video: Deconstructing the art design of Dragon Age: Inquisition

What I'm reading:

• "Newton's Wake" by Ken MacLeod - Took me a while to get into it, but now I'm hooked.
• "Beacon 23: The Complete Novel" by Hugh Howey - Hooked after the first sentence!
• Pre-Ordered: "EVE: Valkyrie Hardcover" by Brian Wood

Gaming:

• EVE Blog Banter 68 "If I show you my rig, will you show me yours?"
• "Microsoft Will Focus Primarily On Xbox Live Usership, Not Console Shipments" via Game Informer
• "Ubisoft joins Open Gaming Alliance" via Games Industry
• "Respawn & Nexon partner for Titanfall franchise" via Games Industry
• "Big changes are coming to Star Citizen in the Alpha 2.0 release." via PC Gamer

Concept Art:

• Some fantastic space colony concept art by Bryan Versteeg (aka @spacehabs)  via SpaceHabs 
• Beautiful Terraformed Mars Concept Art

EVE Blog Banter 68: If I show you my rig, will you show me yours?

They say "Better late than never..." Well that's all fine and dandy, but it makes for a shitty first impression. Or in this case, for a shitty re-introduction. I wanted to jump back into the  EVE Blog Banters, my child of yesteryears, who's all grown up and soon turning six, with a BANG! But the Blog Father is bit rusty, and three days late will have to do!

Enough ramblings (damn, I AM getting old!).

The 2015 Science-fiction Book Challenge that I'll loose

I'm pretty much fucked.
That's my considered opinion.
Fucked.
...

Ok, so I'm no Mark Watney, and my life is in no way in danger. But the plan I had, to read 15 books in 2015, is pretty much fucked at this point. Yeah, 15 - as in fifteen - books in 12 months. That's a lot. For me, right now, at this point in life. But it was doable. Or so I thought.

At this point in time, on this 3rd day, of the 9th month, of the year 2015 C.E., I've read 3 of those 15 books. Which means I'm 7 books behind schedule - according to Goodreads' 2015 Reading Challenge.

Yeah, 15 won't happen. Foogettaboutit! But, looking at my friends progress on that same Book Challenge page, I see that I'm not alone - 7 out of 30 books read, 2 out of 15, 9 out of 20, etc.

So let's forget that UNREACHABLE challend and let's focus on what I've actually read and what I plan on reading till the New Year.

So far I've read:

1.  Scatter Adapt and Remember, by Annalee Newitz (review: 7/10)
2. 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson (review: 8/10)
3. The Martian, by Andy Weir (review: 10/10)

As I said, that's not much, and no way near where I wanted to be at this time of year. So here's a revised challenge that I think I can realistically reach by the end of the year: 4 additional book. That's one book a month. With a bit of discipline, I should be able to reach that goal. One hopes so.

Here are the next 4 books I plan on reading:

1. Solarversia, by Toby Downton
2. Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1), by James S.A. Corey
3. Abomination, bt Gary Whitta
4. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

There's a bunch of other books I would [have] like[d] to read (take a look at the image of my bookshelve above), but being realistic, I'm sticking to a book a month!

What's your list? 

What have you read so far this year? 

I'd love to know!

Awesome: Deadpool Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Ryan Reynolds Movie HD

Deadpool Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Ryan Reynolds Movie HD

via YouTube http://youtu.be/gtTfd6tISfw

NEW Teaser!!! Star Wars VII - The Force Awakens TV Spot #2

Goose bumps!

Week 32 Wrap-Up

"Cities Of The Future" by Jonas De Ro (DeviantArt - Facebook)

What a better way to get back into blogging than to do a wrap-up of the last week's links, articles and videos of interest. I intend to do these once a week, just like I did with my "EVE Online Speedlinking" posts.

Hope you enjoy and feel free to comment and post links that you came across over the last week, and which I will have most surely missed.

• Games for Windows "wasn't the right approach" says Microsoft
• Master Chief Never Fights Alone in Halo 5 Guardians
• Massive changes are coming to League of Legends' champion pool, starting with juggernauts
• Destiny ditches Peter Drinklage, adds Nolan North
• DIY: Building a Thunderhawk From Scratch
• Halo 5: Guardians Goes Big with Premium Hardware
• All future Xbox 360 Games with Gold freebies will be backwards compatible on Xbox One
• Returning to the First Gears of War With the Series' Creator
• 21 best Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts you should know

Videos:

• Here's the full red band Deadpool trailer
• Mirror’s Edge Catalyst Gameplay Trailer
• CCP Games' Gunjack - Reveal Trailer
• Horizon: Zero Dawn Official Trailer - E3 2015

Friday Video: Ex Machina - Official Trailer (2015) [HD]

This one looks promising!