Ajit Pai Sucks, and Other Things You Already Knew

I'm softening a little on Nioh, now that I've adapted to the gameplay. Only a little, though... the bosses are still way too aggressive and the designers love to pull surprises from their bag of dirty tricks when you least expect them. The end of Kanbei and the Overlord traps you in a cramped room with skeletal samurai, bloodthirsty ogres, and flaming skulls, served up in rapid succession. That battle quickly turned into a Benny Hill sketch, with William frantically running from the horde of monsters nipping at his heels. Kill one pack of yokai and another appears to take its place, until the game finally relents and opens the door to the end of the mission. That's a side mission, by the way... the story missions are even more brutal. Some players crave this kind of challenge, but personally, I'd prefer something less stressful. Like air traffic control or brain surgery, perhaps.

Having said that, there are things about Nioh I do honestly appreciate. Some of the mooks in a stage handle their weapons with confidence, while others stumble after every swing, making it clear which enemies can be easily dispatched and which will make you earn your victory. The Guardian Spirits grant you temporary invincibility, occasionally relieving the pressure in the game's many tough fights. The combat is deep yet brisk, without the sluggishness of the Dark Souls series. There's a lot I would have done differently (what's the point of burying all the useful skills so deep in the game? I could have used the sneak attack and more arrows NOW), but I can't really say I regret the time I've spent with Nioh. You might not know that from all the swearing, though.

Switching gears from Nioh to Nook, I got a replacement battery for the e-reader I bought last week, and have been using it ever since. This is the first e-reader I've ever owned (not including this crappy thing, and let's never speak of it again), and the experience has been something of an education for me. Lesson one: the Nook is a very specialized device, and there's a lot it can't do. Even graphics-heavy PDF files are a poor fit, because the screen is too small for comfortable reading and there's no convenient way to zoom in on specific details.

However, the Nook handles text files, including its own EPUB format, with aplomb, letting you adjust the font size to your preference and displaying every page on a monochrome screen that rarely needs refreshing. The benefit to this design is that the Nook doesn't need to be powerful (and it's not, clocking in at a lightweight 667MHz), and requires only weekly recharges. So it's convenient, if only for its very specific purpose.

I just need to use it for that very specific purpose. I spend a lot of time on the internet (or at least did, before Reese's Peanut Butthole Cup sold it to the highest bidder), but I'm not a dedicated reader. It's rare for me to finish a book, unless it appeals to a specific interest or I'm obligated to do it. Maybe the Nook will finally give me a reason to sit down and read everything I downloaded from past Storybook Bundles, and all the orphaned literature generously supplied by Archive.org. You know, classic works like Jane Austen's Pride and Pre- no stupid, of COURSE they're all video game books.