Box Break: 2025 Topps Baseball Series 1 Jumbo Hobby Box #3

 Check out the autograph and relics I pulled.

Game Review: 'Split Fiction'

Games can so often be isolating experiences, but the dynamic and thrilling "It Takes Two" injects the magic back in co-op play.

Developer Hazelight Studios, fresh off its triumphant, Game of the Year awards-raking 2021 release of "It Takes Two," continues its mastery of co-op gaming with this triumphant follow-up, which capitalizes on all the promise of its predecessor while delivering a far more mature, challenging and satisfying narrative.

The genre-hopping enterprise puts you in the role of one of two storytellers, with your online or local partner playing the other. You work together to unfold the tale, which takes you from one chills-inducing setting to another. Solo play is nonexistent, forcing hermetic gamers out of their comfort zones to infuse human connection with their quest. You'll find yourself making new friends, making playdates with current buddies, and possibly restarting dormant connections with old friends with spur-of-the-moment invitations. 

Don't let this requirement be a dealbreaker for you. Hazelight does everything in its power to make the game accessible to all. In what is both a clever marketing ploy and an altruistic outreach effort, the game's early stages are accessible to anyone via a game share feature. This masterstroke reminds me of the early days of 3DS online play.

Operating with the vivacity of an amusement park thrill ride, "It Takes Two" takes you on a series of unexpected, refreshingly intuitive adventures that make you want to keep coming back for more. Even more impressively, it helps you forge personal connections that guide you to improve on one another's ideas, settle conflicts and channel your brainpower and dexterity toward a common goal.

"It Takes Two" proves once again that Hazelight is one of the most intriguing, intelligent and creative voices in gaming. Every moment of the game feels fresh, wild and bold, and the moments you'll share with the gamers you play with will no doubt be as priceless as mine. This is the game to beat for 2025 Game of the Year honors.

Publisher provided review code.

Box Break: 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter Value Box #2

See which minis I pull.

 

Early Game Review: 'WWE 2K25'

Each year, 2K Games sets the tone for the pro wrestling year with a new entry in its annual series. The dev team at Visual Concepts has to balance itself atop the turnbuckle by paying tribute to up-and-coming superstars and their developing fanbases while honoring the towering past of the organization.

Due out Friday, "WWE 2K25" manages the trick nicely, looking to create as much of an impact as cover performer Roman Reigns did when he first entered the ring in 2012.

Out of the gate, the narrative establishes itself as a reverent observer of the franchise's past and the way it continues to influence the present. By wrapping itself along the famed Bloodline, which stretches back to the tag team dubbed The Samoans in the late 1980s, carried on through the ensuing decade with the debut of Dwayne Johnson as the Rock, and thrives today in the form of Reigns. 

The game sets you on a path that echoes that of the Big Dog himself, attempting to dominate both in the ring and at the watercooler with its Rule Beyond the Ring tagline. MyRISE lets you roll into the game's story mode, playing a part in a wild, twist-filled narrative worthy of a pay-per-view special.

Taking a cue from the NBA 2K franchise, there's a hub world dubbed The Island that lets you guide your created wrestler through various challenges and attractions, grinding for XP while trying to avoid the temptation of pay-to-win mechanics. 

Other prime additions include new brawl environments and match types, intergender competition, a Bloodline Rules Match, Underground Match and barricade driving. Add to that some subtle visual upgrades and gameplay enhancements, and you get a package that's hard to resist, even for players still enthralled with "WWE 2K24."

In my first match out of the gate, I chose the 1997 version of the Rock to square off against Andre the Giant. Severely outmatched and easily tossed out of the ring, I formulated a desperate strategy to dance around outside the squared circle until the referee had almost reached his disqualification 10-count. Then I slipped back under the ropes, planted a kick on Andre's face when he tried to follow suit, and claimed the cheap victory, reveling in the booing crowd and announcers' complaints that the result didn't feel justified. This sort of iterative WWE action is electrifying and has me coming back for more.

While I yearned for a more robust cast of past stars, this game's roster, which includes the likes of ody Rhodes, Liv Morgan, Rey Mysterio, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, Jacob Fatu, Rob Van Dam, Lita, LA Knight, Chyna, Batista, Nia Jax and Becky Lynch, provides plenty of potential for intriguing matchups and cross-generational drama. DLC promises brawlers such as the Motor City Machine Guns, Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and Jordynne Grace, plus WWE Legends including Mark Henry, the New Age Outlaws, Jesse Ventura, New Jack, Junk Yard Dog, and Tito Santana. 

As it nearly all of its predecessors have done, "WWE 2K25" has reignited my fascination with the pastime, making me feel excited to play out permutations of prototypical WWE wildness on my own screen. This is a game worthy of its cover star.

Publisher provided review code.

Book Report: 'Everything is Fucked: A Book About Hope'

 

A Journal: EVERYTHING IS FUCKED: A BOOK ABOUT HOPE by Mark Manson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mark Manson is a sneaky philosopher, wedging in classical, Freudian and Buddhist themes with his rough-hewn, locker room-style comedy diatribes. Delivered in the audiobook via a deadpan style that sometimes undercuts the urgency of his message, the often rambling, occasionally poignant set of observations on the misery wrought by materialism manages to carve a sharp impression.

The subtitle is misleading. The book is only about hope in that it is out to destroy it. In Manson's thinking, hope is an ever-dangling carrot that is the root of depression, violence, rage and misery. Only through the rejection of fleeting highs, he reasons, can you strive to a higher purpose. The pleasure, as he sees it, is in the pain.

There is much to relish and appreciate in Manson's book, and there is also plenty of unkempt, half-baked solipsism that might have been cultivated into a more consistent theme with better editing. But Manson pulls off a parlor trick by dreaming up a fantastic title, beginning and ending, leaving the reader feeling fulfilled. These may be empty calories, but they sure are tasty.

View all my reviews

Box Break: 2025 Topps Series 1 Baseball Jumbo Hobby Box #2

 See what autographs and relics I pull.

Box Break: 2025 Topps Series 1 Baseball Fanatics Exclusive Value Box

The first value box of the new season yields guarded optimism.

Early Game Review: 'Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars'

Two of the most influential role-playing games in the past 30 years are taking a victory lap in the form of a buffed-up anthology, thanks to Konami's "Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars." Due out March 6, the game is set to take JRPG fans on a nostalgic trek. Those who own the PS4 versions of the game will get the PS5 upgrade automatically.

Originally released in 1998 and 2006, the games are back in a form that resembles the look and feel of the primary releases. 

In the first game, you lead a Liberation Army against a brutal tyrant, shifting the 108 stars of Destiny in order to reshape history. In the sequel, you guide a pair of friends, members of the Unicorn Youth Bregade, who face down the Highland Kingdom in a long-running border dispute that continues to smolder.

Clever dialogue, intriguing combat, addictive leveling and an engaging story pules both games. Both work as master classes in character development and storytelling that works on several levels.

Upgrades abound, with all background illustrations uipgraded to HD, new effects that enhance the pixel art animation and revamped environmental sound effects. Quality-of-life improvements abound, including autosave, battle fast forward and a conversation log.

Both of these "Suikoden" games deserve to be revisited, and are far more palatable to modern sensitivities in this form than were the original releases. If you've waited to dip your toe into classic Suikoden, now is the time to take the plunge.

Publisher provided review code.

Box Break: 2022 Panini Absolute Baseball Hobby Box

 There is an "average" of one autograph or relic card per box... See how the numbers broke for me.

Game Review: 'Lost Records: Bloom Tape 1'

 

Developer Dont Nod, the maestros behind the likes of "Life is Strange," "Jusant" ad "Tell Me Why," heads back to its adventure game roots with "Lost Records," a two-part episodic release that drips with 1990s nostalgia. 

The first part, "Bloom" was released Feb. 18, and the follow-up, "Rage," is due out April 15.

You play as a woman who agrees to reunite with friends from the 1990s to make good on a pact. The events of that area are interspersed with modern-day goings-on in a time-skipping narrative that manages to build up suspense for thunderous payoffs. 

The game has a thrillingly jarring way of shifting between the feeling of a slow burn and a tense thriller.

The Don't Nod proves to be well-schooled in 1990s minutiae, with touches that, as a teen of the era, brought a smile to my face.

Rich dialogue, fascinating storytelling twists and an immersive narrative are the game's strengths, helping it make up for a methodical pace and uninspired visual look.

Overall, "Bloom" is a promising and fascinating start to the "Lost Records" duology, setting the stage for what looks to be a rewarding payoff when "Rage" releases in April. An under-the-radar the release that hasn't yet earned the adulation of Don't Nod's flashier efforts, these "Lost Records" are well worth the search.

Publisher provided review code.