This bloody follow-up to a 2007 video game finds the two escaped inmates marked for death after tangling with the fearsome criminal gang The7. The contract on their lives cuts short Kane’s reunion with his estranged daughter and makes it harder for psychopathic Lynch to stay on his diet of self-prescribed pills. To shake the hit men, Kane and Lynch enter into an elaborate scheme pitting The7’s consigliere against a villain known as the Butcher of Bosnia. Writer Edginton (Victorian Undead) turns in a script that reads like a decent action movie—and Kane and Lynch are way more villainous than your typical antiheroes, leading to some funny, four-lettered exchanges. Mitten’s (Wasteland) art works best in the frenetic action scenes but doesn’t live up to the promise of Ben Templesmith’s (30 Days of Night) covers.

Verdict: First published over six issues last year, this is an interstitial work filling in some details between the original game and its 2010 sequel. Though enjoyable, it’s a nonessential title. Most libraries can skip it. If you’re looking for convoluted crime stories with gory gunplay, you’re better off picking up 100 Bullets: The Deluxe Edition.

[Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books, December 9, 2011]



View all my reviews

Halos and Avatars
Author: Craig Detweiler
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Released: Feb 2010
208 pages (229 with notes)

Introduction

Last time you heard from me, I told you that Philosophy through Video Games was a good effort and a nice try, but recommended you wait to buy it till the second edition comes out. This time, rather than talking about games and philosophy, however, I’m going to branch out and talk about games and religion.

“Why games and religion?” you ask. Well, my friend, you may recall that there have traditionally been two great enemies of video games in the US: politicians and religious parents. Specifically, Christian parents. Specifically, conservative Christian parents. Halos and Avatars is an attempt to convince concerned Christian parents that video games really aren’t that bad after all. And, perhaps more ambitiously, it’s an attempt to develop a new field: the theology of video games.

(Actually, I don’t know which of those is more ambitious. I’ll leave that to you to decide.)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Christian parents, and I think it makes every bit of sense that they tend to be concerned. (I think politicians should keep their noses out of it, but parents have the right at least to pay attention to what their children are up to.) But I also like video games, and thus I was happy to be asked to review a book that tries to show just how theologically meaningful such games can be.

The book consists of twelve chapters, contributed by different authors, along with an introduction and conclusion by the editor (Craig Detweiler), and an appendix. The contributions—let me warn you ahead of time—range from highly-intriguing to head-deskingly-awful.

Now, if you remember from last time, I’m an academic, and that means I do book reviews a little differently from normal people. If you get bored by my loquacity (I think that’s a word), feel free to skip ahead by using the handy li’l links at the end of each (sub)section. Just be warned: you might miss something amusing in the process. You never know.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Content

Introduction

The Introduction, by Craig Detweiler, presents the goals of the book, and the world of video games. It simultaneously tries to show that video games are good (not evil), interesting (not irrelevant), and theological (not debasing). This is a bit much to attempt in what amounts to a single chapter.

At times, during the Introduction, it feels like theology is irrelevant, and sociology/philosophy is the main issue. Then the (decidedly Christian) theology will suddenly reappear.

The Introduction ends with an overview of the coming chapters, as any good introduction should.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 1

“From Tekken to Kill Bill: The Future of Narrative Storytelling?” (by Christ Hansen), argues that movies are on the wane and video games are on the rise. It indicates certain possible implications of this shift, arguing that it might lead people to be more tolerant, and Christians to be less Calvinist (about predestination and free will).

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 2

“Ultima IV: Stimulating the Religious Quest” (by Mark Hayse) is an ode to the educational genius of Ultima VI. It argues that moral lessons are best taught in an implicit, rather than explicit fashion, and critiques Left Behind: Eternal Forces for being too in-your-face about its message.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 3

“The Play Is the Thing: Interactivity from Bible Fights to Passions of the Christ” (by Rachel Wagner) is a mind-boggling piece whose inclusion I can only explain as being due to an editorial oversight on Detweiler’s part. It argues that video games encourage a Gnostic approach to religion. The author, Rachel Wagner, clearly thinks this is a good thing.

Feel free to research Gnosticism when you get a free moment (hint: it’s one of the Big Heresies from early Christianity), and then come back and tell me whether being told that video games encourage Gnosticism is going to help Christian parents feel more comfortable about video games.

If you take the chapter seriously, it tells you that you cannot mix God and games because games are heretically evil. If you take it as an exercise in scholarly irony, it’s a critique of Christian orthodoxy in favor of video games. In neither case does it make sense that Detweiler included this essay in his book for Christian parents.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 4

“Islamogaming: Digital Dignity via Alternative Storytelling” (by Heidi Campbell) is a review of the ways in which some Muslims have reacted to (and designed) video games. It argues that there are usually three responses of religious groups to “new media technologies”—”acceptance and appropriation, rejection and resistance, or reconstruction and innovation”—and says that recent games designed by and for Muslims are evidence of the first and third responses (p. 73).

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 5

“Wii Are Inspirited: The Transformation of Home Video Gaming Consoles (and Us)” (by Kutter Callaway) is a celebration of “embodiment” (a buzzword in contemporary philosophy and theology). Where philosophy traditionally emphasized the intellect, many current philosophers and theologians are emphasizing the body (see pp. 83–84). (I can’t decide whether this is much-needed balance, or a reactionary swing.)

The popularity of the Wii, the chapter argues, is due to God’s Spirit moving through our culture, causing people to yearn for a more holistic experience (pp. 84–86).

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 6

“Myst and Halo: A Conversation with Rand Miller and Marty O’Donnell” (by Lisa Swain and Craig Detweiler) is an interview with the co-creator of Myst and the co-composer of Halo‘s soundtrack. It’s actually a very interesting conversation, and the only support I saw for the cover’s claim that Halos and Avatars “includes behind-the-scenes interviews about Myst, Riven, and Halo.”

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 7

“Madden Rules: Sports and the Future of Competitive Video Games” (by Matthew Kitchen) argues that sports video games are actual sports (and discusses the question of whether video games encourage an unhealthy kind of competitiveness). I found it exasperating.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 8

“Poets, Posers, and Guitar Heroes: Virtual Art for a Virtual Age” (by Andrew McAlpine) is a chapter-length argument that video games—specifically Guitar Hero—are a waste of time because they not only do not involve the player in genuine aesthetic experience (e.g., creating real art), but encourage self-centeredness.

But ultimately it [Guitar Hero] has nothing to offer but diversion, a way to forget who we are for a little while and play pretend. We have to remember that we’ve been offered so much more; our World 2.0 is wired for communication and expression. (p. 134)

This is another chapter that won’t convince Christian parents to let their children play video games—in direct contradiction to the book’s mission. Once again, I can make no sense out of Detweiler’s having included it.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 9

“BioShock to the System: Smart Choices in Video Games” (by Kevin Newgren) argues that “if games are strong enough to do harm, they can also do good. They have great potential for creating a meaningful and moving experience for participants” (p. 136). The chapter involves a discussion of what makes for good stories. It also repeats, in essence, the analysis of chapter 2. “In Left Behind, knowledge is imparted, while in BioShock the learning is lived” (p. 144).

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 10

“‘Till Disconnection Do We Part: The Initiation and Wedding Rite in Second Life” (by Jason Shim) argues “that wedding rites performed in Second Life can be as real and meaningful as those enacted in one’s First Life.” In fact, “wedding rites enacted on Second Life may even be more real, as they encourage a serious reflection on the process of marrying and require the conscious construction of the ceremony” (p. 150).

Needless to say, this is a pretty strong claim, but the chapter’s argument in support of it is unfortunately weak.

This chapter contains another two rather glaring instances of editorial inattention. First, it refers to “J.L. Austin’s Speech Act Theory.” No such book exists (that I can find, anyway).

Second, the chapter claims that “Infidelity, like the wedding rite, is a social construction” (p. 161). In other words, what it means to be unfaithful to your spouse, and hence what it means to be faithful to your spouse, is not something determined by God (who Christians believe created marriage in the first place). Rather, it is something determined by the society you happen to live in.

Show me the concerned Christian parent who will be comfortable with the claim societies just make marriage up as they go along, and I’ll show you a flying pig.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 11

“Role Playing” (by Daniel White Hodge) makes an intriguing argument. “By engaging in narrative, gamers are able to experience God in an entire new dimension and are allowed to find God on their own terms within that story—not within the confines of a prepackaged salvation formula. Gaming narratives can become a form of hermeneutic to interpret and analyze Scripture within community” (165). And, “At their best, video games can become a lens through which participants see life” (166).

However, the chapter is an editorial epic fail. Examine the following quotations with me.

When playing games, it is only natural to get emotional and want to win the game while playing, yet this goes deeper than a mere in-the-moment excitement. (p. 166)

This is the kind of sentence that freshmen in college write. Either drop the initial clause (“When playing games”) or drop the “while gaming” clause. You don’t need both. It’s an editor’s job to catch such mistakes.

For gamers, the emotions behind games are just as real as the game itself, and are not to be ignored. (p. 166)

This implies that the “emotions behind games” are not real at all, since video games are, by definition, unreal. Semantic ambiguities like this are also the kind of thing an editor should catch.

Apocalyptic games never depict the end of the world as a pleasant picture. (p. 167)

(a) Apocalyptic games “depict the end of the world as [an un]pleasant picture.” (b) To depict something is to paint a picture of it (whether literally or metaphorically). (c) To depict something as a picture, therefore, would be to paint a picture of a picture. So, (d) apocalyptic games paint a picture of an unpleasant picture. (e) What is that unpleasant picture? It is the end of the world. So, (f) the end of the world is a picture, of which apocalyptic games paint a picture. But (g) of what could the end of the world be a picture?

“Protoevangelium is considered by many scholars to mean ‘the first gospel’.”(p. 169)

This implies that there is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars on this issue. There can’t be, however, as we can see from a basic etymology of the word:

“Proto” means the same as “original” or “first” (as in prototype). “Evangelium” has two parts: (a) “ev” (from the Greek prefix “eu-”), which is a prefix that means the same as “good,” and (b) “angelium,” which means the same as “news” or “message” (cf. “angel,” which means the same as “messenger”). Thus, “evangelium” means the same as “good news” or “gospel” (since “gospel” means the same as “good news”).

What else, therefore, could protoevangelium mean other than “first” or “original gospel”?

These are all errors that an editor is supposed to catch, especially because their presence distracts from the message of the text.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Chapter 12

“Cybersociality: Connecting Fun to the Play of God” (by John W. Morehead) is intriguing but vague.

[T]he experience of play in video games and digital cultures can be considered as a form of spiritual experience and a hint of transcendence as the player steps out of the real world of time and into the sacred space and time of the play environment. (p. 181)

That about sums it up.

But consider another editing mistake:

With these three ideas in place, they can be considered in application to video games and digital cultures. (p. 186)

This is a freshmen-level syntax blunder that has no place in a published book. It should read something like, “Now that these three ideas are in place, we can consider them in application to video games and digital cultures.”

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Conclusion

“Born to Play” (by Craig Detweiler) offers some brief gestures in a few directions, without much development. Though tantalizing, it’s not clear to me why it was included.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Appendix

“Beyond ‘Turn that Thing Off!’: Elevating the Gaming Conversation between Parents and Kids” (by Kara Powell and Brad M. Griffin) might actually be a helpful discussion for parents who are seeking to deal with their children’s gaming activities. That it was relegated to an appendix is another example of poor editing.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Evaluation

Craig Detweiler is to be congratulated for having a noble vision: explore what is good and inspiring about video games, in relation to Christian theology, so as to help Christian parents both understand and appreciate the games their children play. I’m glad he had the idea and tried to realize it.

However, the actual execution of his idea was a disaster.

My suggestion, therefore, would be as follows. Do not buy Halos and Avatars unless:

1. you are an editor who needs to convince your boss that when you do your job right, it actually makes a huge difference, or
2. you are doing a survey of the use of “narratology” (the study of the story side of games) and “ludology” (the study of the “game-play” side of games) in 21st century video game analysis. (These two concepts show up multiple times throughout the book.)

A few of the chapters (e.g., Detweiler’s Introduction, chapters 1, 2, and 4, and the Appendix) show great promise, especially if developed further. The whole, however, is unfortunately incoherent and ultimately a waste.

What I would like to see is Detweiler take his Introduction and expand it into a monograph-length work. He has enough material in the Introduction—and he presents it with such enthusiasm—that I think it would be well worth doing. If he did, I would definitely want to give the book a read.

[ Intro | Content | _{Intro - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 -12 - Conclusion - Appendix} | Evaluation ]

Guinness World Records 2011: Gamer’s Edition
Publisher: BradyGames
Released: Jan 2011

This is an example of the variety found in Guinness World Records’ latest collection of video game records.

Having spent over a hundred hours playing Fallout 3, I have to imagine error1 missed the point of the game, but more power to him for exploiting glitches to do his speed run. I wish I had made the numerous glitches work for me.

Aside from trying to be too 1337, Guinness has put together a great volume and its wealth of current information makes a great case for this being an annual product. The book is divided into genre subdivisions, and they’re smart and thorough. Shooting, for example, is subdivided into First Person, Third Person, 2D Shooters, Online Shooters and Light Guns. Each major subdivision highlights a “Critical Hit” game which exemplifies the field, like Madden NFL for Sports.

There’s a mostly modern spin, but classic systems are referenced and there’s plenty of love shown to arcade games. With nods to Farmville (the most popular Facebook game whose most expensive item is a 5,000,000 farm coin/$2835 mansion), Minecraft (among the Best of PC Games), and the iPad (the first 3D iPad game is Flight Control HD), the book isn’t showing any lag.

Guinness adds extra value by sprinkling trivia throughout the volume and placing uncredited quotes at the bottom of each page which will have you flipping to the back of the book to prove you guessed the character and game correctly.

Finally, Guinness pulls in many lists like the Twin Galaxies scoreboards, Top 50 Game Characters, Best of E3, Golden Joystick and other bests of 2010.

Next year I’m looking forward to seeing if someone has unseated Halo 3’s $55 million budget as the Most Expensive FPS Videogame Ever Produced.

And if you think you can Set a Record, hit up the official site.

Fable: The Balverine Order
Author: Peter David
Publisher: Ace
Released: Oct 2010

Accompanying Thomas is his friend and servant James Skelton, younger but more worldly – having the kind of knowledge that comes from living in the poorer part of Bowerstone. Together they embark on an adventure taking them from the snowy peaks of Windside to the pirate-ridden waters off Blackridge and beyond. But what keeps this from simply being a series of events is the friction between the two friends – with Thomas’s idealism clashing against James’s pragmatism.

While The Balverine Order is set in the Fable universe, it’s not a direct tie-in to any of the games – taking place between games 2 and 3. It’s completely accessible to newcomers and well-written enough to please any fan of fantasy. The friendship between Thomas and James wisely grounds the action and an interesting cast of supporting characters fleshes out the adventure. There’s also a fun bit of sleuthing involving an angry northerner and a lost ring.

Bonus item: If you buy a physical copy of the book, you’ll also get a code for the Shardborne sword, a legendary weapon benefiting evil players.

Just looking at this Wordle, would you be able to identify these words as ones Lovecraft used in his stories? Maybe, if you saw the combination of strange, dark dreams, but where’s the classic Lovecraft lexicon? According to an on-going word count she’s been running, Lovecraft was less likely to drop the eldritch-bomb than you may have thought — only 23 times. Other ripe for parody verbiage is even less-used: antediluvian (10), stygian (6) and squamous (1) — only 1 use of squamous and I could have sworn you couldn’t swing a Shoggoth without hitting that word!

But this is beyond just being an intellectual exercise, these are happy offshoots of her Lovecraft ebook compilation, collecting all of Lovecraft’s original works from public domain sources like Project Gutenberg and DagonBytes.com. The end result is a chronological collection of Lovecraft work spanning from 1917 to 1935. This has never been done before and is completely free. Suck it, Derleth!

Read about the process and get setup assistance here or jump straight to the Nook (EPUB) version or the Kindle (MOBI) version.

Can You Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?
Also on Kindle
Author: Max Brallier
Publisher: Gallery
Released: Feb 2011

The main character is a male 25-year-old New Yorker with a crappy apartment, a crappy job and – frankly – a crappy life. In many ways a zombie apocalypse would be a step up, so when a morning meeting is interrupted with news of a cannibalistic attack on nearby hospital workers his (and your) mind starts working.

Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, flavor text describing your situation precedes two or three choices: do you stay hidden under the platform or make a run for it? You turn to the page number indicated by your choice and keep reading. Where this book differs is that the text is usually several pages instead of a paragraph or two, leading to the feeling that when you’ve reached one of the game’s endings you’ve just read a pretty cool zombie novella.

In all, there are 74 “An End”s spread throughout the book’s 400 pages, with one “The End” providing the definitive conclusion. In my playthroughs, I never found an instant-kill scenario and was never trapped in one of those loops some gamebooks have.

While Brallier includes the requisite amount of gore needed to properly tell a zombie story, the various paths edge between horror and black humor – providing an interesting amount of variation especially in terms of the other survivors you meet. That, with the varied locales, will have you holding your place in the book because maybe you didn’t decided to take the bridge out of town after all.

Ebook note: I read/played this on my Kindle and was amazed at how well it worked. Instead of flipping to page numbers, the choices are smart-linked and the bookmark function let me jump back to explore alternate paths.

Fragment: A Novel
Author: Warren Fahy
Publisher: Dell
Released: June 2010

Fortunately for readers, Henders Island is not a hoax. The two-mile wide island contains an ecosystem which has been isolated for hundreds of millions of years – with the resulting evolutionary divergence creating life which might as well be alien. Fearing that Henders Island might be weaponized, the president blockades the island and calls on an elite science team to explore it.

What follows is a combination of scientific exploration and adventure which reads more like a missing Michael Crichton book than a debut novel. Warren Fahy handles scientific debate and thrilling chase sequences equally well, while giving us a cast of interesting characters. His greatest accomplishment, though, is bringing fresh ideas to a concept which stretches back to Jules Verne.

Night of the Living Trekkies
Author: Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall
Publisher: Quirk Books
Released: Sept 2010

Plus there’s something troubling about the recent accident at the Johnson Spaceflight Center and the rash of bitings his coworkers are reporting.

If you recognize the handful of Trek references above, Night of the Living Trekkies is a book for you. From chapter titles which pull from every Trek series to discussions on whether the animated series should be considered canon, the book is filled with self-deprecating moments Trekkies (or Trekkers?) can identify with. However the many referential trappings don’t water down what is a legitimately creepy zombie book.

Authors Anderson and Stall move slightly away from the traditional undead giving us something closer to Scott Sigler’s Infected. Here the zombies reanimate, sprouting an eye with a crimson pupil somewhere on their bodies. The zombies seem to form a hive mind, working in concert to smash lighting and corner humans. There’s a decent amount of gore here and even if references to “Spock’s Brain” bring in black comedy, it’s still chilling.

The Star Trek setting also provides an interesting frame of reference, allowing for thoughtful comparisons between the ethos of the classic franchise and the realities of a zombie apocalypse and why, in the real world, problems are usually solved the Klingon way.

But the most fun comes from the disparate cast of characters. There’s Leia, who’s obviously at the wrong convention; Willy, last surviving member of the West Texas Red Tunic Club; Dr. Sandoval, who isn’t cosplaying as the Emergency Hologram from Voyager, but the one from First Contact; and more.

I’ve been a trade-waiter for many years, opting to delay my gratification for cheaper, sturdier shelf-friendly graphic novels as opposed to the floppy, hard to store single issues. Heck, I’ve been a library trade-waiter, waiting until my library added the titles I wanted to read — and we have a lot. [Graphic novels owned by the Palm Beach County Library System]

At this point, I only buy Walking Dead, The Boys, Locke and Key and Punisher collections — with the odd classic Conan reprint or other piece of childhood nostalgia. But I’ve gotten sucked back in to the monthlies.

It started with Brian Keene‘s Last Zombie. I’m a big Keene fan and didn’t want to wait, especially with the author of The Rising, City of the Dead, and Dead Sea returning to undead territory (info on these books). So I went to ComicPull and set that up.

Then Jonathan Maberry wrote the Marvel Universe vs the Punisher series. And I didn’t want to chance the Punisher/Spider-Girl team-up not getting collected (plus, I love MC2′s Spider-Girl and hoped buying this would delay The End – it didn’t).

Finally Marvel announced they were resurrecting Crossgen and something snapped.

So here’s my current pull list:

Deus Ex — DC’s prequel to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I’m a fan of the games, so why not try the comic?

Batwoman — Batwoman: Elegy was one of the best graphic novels I read last year. I’m looking forward to her on-going adventures.

Last Zombie — It’s Keene doing what he does best.

Lady Mechanika — ComicVine provides this elevator pitch: “A partially mechanical amnesiac, who begins a new life as a private detective and bounty hunter.”

Dungeons & Dragons — I want more D&D in my life, but getting a gaming group together isn’t happening. This IDW title is pretty damn satisfying.

Ruse — This Crossgen character is a steampunk Sherlock Holmes. Glad to see he’s back.

Sigil — Another Crossgen relaunch, about a girl from our time who’s thrust into a dimension crossing war.

Hellraiser — A new series from BOOM! Studios.

Batman: Arkham City — This six-issue series fills the gap between Arkham Asylum and the new game.

Note: I would also add a Warhammer series in an instant!

So what’s on your pull list?