Jamie John

Lots of people probably know about it already, but the behind the scenes vignettes for each episode this season on Sky Atlantic are pretty interesting. King's Landing in e5 is actually a massive set in the middle of Belfast. They had to construct a wall of stacked shipping containers 5 storeys high to stop people from being able to see in from neighbouring buildings. The amount of work that goes into each episode is incredible.

In fairness though the anti-church stuff and the Paradise Lost allusions aren't so much of a feature of the first book, but they definitely become more important later. Is there a UK air date yet?

I'm looking forward to this after absolutely adoring the books as a kid. It'll interesting to see whether they shy away from the anti-religious stuff in The Amber Spyglass, it makes it to a third season, that is. What channel is it going to be on? Thread title says BBC but the trailer says HBO, so Sky Atlantic?

It was okay/10 In my overall list of favourite TV dramas, it's not in the same god-level tier as Sopranos, Breaking Bad or The Wire, but it's still pretty damn good. I've certainly enjoyed watching it for the last 8 years and I think it's great how it's created opportunities for so many young British actors.

Too many to mention. I was going to get Civ VI on the Switch this week before I read a few reviews which explained how impenetrable it was to beginners of the series, despite the tutorials, then realised I couldn't be arsed.

Thanks for the recommendations, all. I ended up getting all three. And I agree that Yoku's is disappointing and tedious.

Is Sundered a rogue like? I've read a couple of reviews which say that the number of enemies charging at you from nowhere towards the end gets very frustrating. Did you complete it?

Shovel Knight is brilliant. Dead Cells is frustrating. The Messenger starts off well but becomes a very different (and not as good) kettle of fish half way through. I haven't played the others.

I ended up abandoning Dead Cells. It's a roguelike which takes too long to complete and necessitates fighting the same bosses on every run, which just ends up becoming repetitive and boring. The animation, feel and "flow" of the combat and movement are all great, however.

I didn't realise Firewatch was a walking sim. I'm always a bit dubious about those, although I enjoyed Gone Home and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. Does your character move quickly? And does the Talos Principle have an interesting narrative alongside the puzzling, like Portal and The Witness, or is it just a straight up puzzler?

Firewatch, Resogun and The Talos Principle are all sub-£4 in the current PSN sale. Are they worth my time?

I was thinking about getting it but read a few reviews which mentioned that the amount of enemies flying at you from random directions, especially towards the end, gets very frustrating.

I enjoyed the episode and it genuinely surprised me in places. It's only afterwards, once I stopped and thought about it, that a few issues occured to me, That being said, as I mentioned, it was an enjoyable 85 minutes of television that flew by. The production values are incredible. I have to repeatedly remind myself in watching a TV programme. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all ends next week. Something tells me it's not going to be a happy ending...

8. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson I enjoyed the central locked-room (or closed-off-island) mystery in this and found it suitably unputdownable in places. The sub-plot, however, involving the protagonist's involvement in a magazine, was less interesting and seemed a bit superfluous, like padding at the beginning and start of the novel, and it's quite telling that the film version (from what I can remember, at least) left much of it out. I'd be interested in reading the sequels but I'm not in a rush to go and buy them. Next up: I downloaded a few 19th century sci-fi novels a few years ago that I've not got round to, so I'm going to give those ago, starting with The Lost World, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Hopefully I'll like it more than The Time Machine. Previously:

Thanks all for your recommendations, although I've actually decided not to go for anything after watching a few video reviews for each one which have put me off, plus I've got too many games unplayed as it is. I thought long and hard about Prison Architect before I remembered that I don't really enjoy simulation games, plus it's supposed to be pretty obscure to begin with, from what I've read at least, and I don't think I've got the patience for it.