Full Archive
A complete archive of every post, unsorted.
Played a lot of games this year, but finished very few. This is my first quick rundown of games I've played but don't have enough to discuss for their own entries.
It feels like an annual tradition to gripe about how the current year is the worst ever. It’s a social media trend as predictable as the immediate outrage to the latest Facebook interface update. As melodramatic as I find the ritualistic whinging to be, however, even I cannot help but feel 2020 has been uncharacteristically depressing. Much of that has to do with the social isolation inflicted by Covid-19, but there are several other factors that have regularly dragged my mood down throughout the past several months.
As a result, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to seek solace in video games, just as I’m sure many others have. Unfortunately, the vast majority of games I’ve dabbled in have been met with some degree of apathy or disinterest. Even if I enjoyed playing them for a little while, few had legitimate staying power.
For that reason I decided it might be worthwhile to collect what thoughts I have on those incomplete games, feigning a sense of productivity rather than acknowledging that time could have been better spent doing something else. 2020 is evidently the year in which I’m a gaming tourist, taking the occasional trip into a title before bouncing off into another fictional world.
What better place to kick such tourism off than with a visit to the underworld itself.
The day has come to discuss Sucker Punch's latest open-world game, once again showing Ubisoft how it's really done.
The strength of Ghost of Tsushima lies in its blend of mechanical freedom and emphasis on adaptability in its narrative.
I can see a version of Ghost of Tsushima where a player’s combat preferences and dialogue choices alter the direction of the narrative. A conclusion decided not by one singular choice at its final confrontation, but an accumulation of smaller decisions throughout.
I can see it because that’s how the development studio Sucker Punch designed each of their inFamous games to operate. Ghost of Tsushima instead shucks away the shallow morality system of its predecessors, allowing access to all combat abilities regardless of play style or preference, and as a result granting the player true freedom in mechanical expression. Conversely, the narrative becomes more linear, rail-roading protagonist Jin Sakai onto a specific, predetermined path regardless of the player’s actions in game. Gameplay freedom comes at the cost of narrative control.
There are some players I’ve seen object to this, yearning for a more adaptive story that would be influenced by their decisions. Even if a player decides to fight honorably in each encounter – disregarding the mandatory tutorials forcing the player to act dishonorably – the Khan antagonist will still speak as if Jin has abandoned the samurai’s code of honor.
While I empathize with their disappointment, I think this division of mechanical freedom and narrative linearity has ultimately resulted in a better game. Though I can see the same duality present in Ghost of Tsushima’s cast as I had in every inFamous game – such as the opposing philosophies of Shimomura and Yuna acting as a refinement of the conflict between Lucy and Nix from inFamous 2 – the end product is better than if it had attempted to accommodate player preferences through shallow moral choices.
Chris and Steve try to muster some degree of excitement together for the next generation of consoles, but... meh.
Despite the misleading name, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is perhaps one of the most intelligent shows I've watched in a long time.
I would have never given My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU a single glance had my brother not been watching it. Even if the title were the more accurate translation of My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong As I Expected, it would carry with it assumptions and expectations that would drive me away.
It’s not an eversion to romance as a genre, either. If anything, my favorite fictional romances and romantic tales tend to come from Japanese media. Be it the original live-action Shall We Dance? – a story which fits broader definitions or the word “romantic” rather than the more common and restricted perspective – or the meaningful relationship highs and lows of Hikaru Ichijyo in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, I find the the amorous developments in anime, role-playing games, and film to focus more on each character’s complementary personalities and the trials of navigating the maze of emotional vulnerability. Most other romance comes off as some cheap wish-fulfillment escapism whose conflict is generated through contrivance and blatant foolishness.
Over the past twenty years, however, the nature of Japanese Otaku have changed, and therefore the nature of romance in anime has shifted. Amorous comedies have more often felt shallow and empty, such as Gamers!. The show is certainly entertaining, but the love… square? serves no greater purpose than to deliver punchlines through constant and convenient misunderstandings. There is no deeper study into why these misunderstandings happen and what impact they have on the protagonists finding contentment in their relationships. Just as the title of My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected – from here on referred to as its Japanese shorthand Oregairu – the romantic comedy in Gamers! goes wrong as any viewer might expect and predict.
Despite its title, Oregairu is not as predictable or contrived. It certainly is not a shallow, feel-good, escapist comedy of errors like Gamers! Everything is wrong as the protagonist expects because he himself is broken, wounded, and building a defensive barrier against the confusing and hostile experience of high school society. The show isn’t a romantic comedy, It is a thorough examination of human psychology, emotional vulnerability, and social structures.
It was a busy month as I worked on job hunting, prepping the next video, and just overall trying to get my mental health in order.
When I first began to redesign the website, stepping away from the “GamerTagged” domain and into a more consistent RamblePak “branding”, I decided to try and do regular monthly reports as personal encouragement and accountability regarding productivity. I had not only wanted to be transparent, but to also help explain my progress towards the next video.
These updates instead became yet another method for me to feel inadequate, measuring myself up to impossible standards I’d impose on no one else. Nevertheless, there is something appealing about the “monthly report” concept. So many of my drafts sit incomplete either due to my own high expectations, or due to all of the different projects occupying my free time. By giving myself a regular monthly update to provide, it not only allows me an opportunity to keep the blog somewhat active, it also affords me the opportunity to enjoy writing without the stress. In other words, better to treat it as an opportunity to enjoy a hobby than another way to self-flagellate.
So once more I’ll be attempting to conclude each month with a summary of what I’ve been working on as well as media I’ve enjoyed that don’t necessarily warrant their own posts.
Of course, we might as well start August with one of the most time consuming necessities of my personal life: getting back to basics with JavaScript while job hunting.
Chris and Steve come together to discuss 11 pages of Phantom Menace nit-picking and script doctoring to come away with a positive impression of the film that caused so much nerd rage.
A not-so-super combination of mechanics and presentation result in what would better be titled Marvel's Adequates.
Over the past several years I’ve written a lot about Destiny 2, and spoken even more words when recording the podcast. I’ve had a love/hate relationship that has finally achieved a peaceful acceptance. The grind will never be perfect, but the combat is so solid that it’s enjoyable enough to just dive back in with friends every so often.
Without that top-notch satisfaction of popping the skulls off of Fallen troopers or melting strike bosses into paste with my Hunter’s damage enhancing void tethers, it wouldn’t last. There would be no debates about whether Destiny 2 is worth returning to because the gameplay wouldn’t sustain the over 500 hours spent on it. Though my friends and I gripe about having to slaughter the giant Worm God thing for the umpteenth time, or being slotted into running Savathun’s Song yet again, the repetition is less a problem and more an inconvenience due to each individual skirmish remaining exciting, engaging, and, for lack of a better word, fun.
I did not get to sit down and co-op a mission with Steve during the beta for Marvel’s Avengers, nor did I truly get to experience the majority of multiplayer content on offer. I plan to do so during the Open Beta this weekend and the next. My time with the Closed Beta was spent completing the single player missions, the first “multiplayer” mission, and then the first HARM room exercise – a sort of practice arena that allows you to experiment with character move sets while simultaneously tackling challenges. When I had completed that first multiplayer mission, I leaned back in my seat, looked at the screen, and asked myself a simple question:
Could I repeat this same mission as often as Savathun’s Song or the Giant Worm God in Destiny 2 and have a good time?
There's just no fun in playing a game that you feel no good at.
I’ve started DOOM Eternal twice now. Once on the standard difficulty setting, then on the lowest. I do not find it a bad game, nor do I think I’m necessarily “bad at it”. Considering that I have roughly twenty extra lives stocked up in my easier run-through, I’m pretty sure I could, with enough patience, tackle this game on its standard difficulty.
There’s a lot of stuff here that I like, or at least enjoy on paper.The platforming and navigation elements of its levels are far more engaging than those in DOOM (2016) (henceforth referred to simply as DOOM). Unlike its predecessor, Eternal relies less on a labyrinthine structure to encourage player exploration and more on leaping and mid-air dashing sequences to test reflexes and environmental awareness. I find such activities far more satisfying and refreshing than simply sticking my nose into every nook and cranny, wondering where the heck I’m expected to find the button that opens the secret door several combat arenas back.
Speaking of combat, id Software has also expanded upon the health regenerating nature of glory kills, additionally distributing ammo and armor supplies through the judicious application of violence. While all of these resources can be found scattered around each combat arena, the most efficient way to keep the Slayer topped off is to light foes on fire, chainsaw them in half, and rip and tear their huge guts until the colorful resources burst from Hell’s spawn like candy from a piñata.
These ideas are all great. They ensured that I did not wholly dislike my time with DOOM Eternal.
So why do I groan at the prospect of playing more as I might express exasperation at the thought of working overtime? Or mowing the lawn in 90° fahrenheit heat?
Steve has been temporarily replaced by special guest Shamus Young to gripe about Microsoft, discuss life without Twitter, and occasionally digress into tangential topics regarding games.
Further study of Japan's economic situation provides a better understanding of just what it is that Persona 5 Royal is trying to address.
I had never heard of “The New Breed” until I read You Gotta Have Wa, the book by Robert Whiting that I referenced heavily in my prior write-up on Persona 5 Royal. Hiromitsu Ochiai was one of the baseball players detailed within the chapter, often outspoken against the traditional mentality of “fighting spirit” within the sport. He was a member of the shinjinrui, the “new breed” generation of young adults in the 80’s that were embracing individuality.
I could not help but wonder what happened to this generation, old enough now to be managing companies and even preparing for retirement. In 1988 the New York Times wrote that this “New Breed” favored forty-hour work weeks, vacation time, and the freedom to switch companies and careers over the excessive loyalty to one’s company – and therefore the excessive work hours spent – that their parents and grandparents bore. The affluent lifestyle of this generation – referred to as “Juppies” by the Chicago Tribune the same year as the Times article – more closely resembles that of a middle-to-upper-class American life than what one might expect of a Japanese.
So why is it that a modern piece of Japanese pop culture like Persona 5 Royal would represent older generations – those that would have been young adults of this “New Breed” in the 80’s – in a harsh light that favors all the old traditions they’d supposedly rebelled against? What happened to that “New Breed” and its desire for reasonable work hours and a comfortable lifestyle?
It turns out that it wasn’t just the affluent young adults that were gluttonously revelling in their excess. The entirety of Japan’s economy came crashing down in the early-to-mid 90’s due to irresponsible spending and poor investment, and the consequences are still being felt today.
Chris and Steve lament the games that demand more of your time than necessary.
Chris and Steve discuss what games they've been playing, with a primary focus on Persona 5 Royal and games from not 2020.
Steve has actually been replaced by our pal Nolan this episode to discuss the many aspects of the game Darksiders 3, which Steve did not play.
The promising potential of a developer rediscovering his love of games is tarnished by the mediocrity of its gameplay and occasional self-indulgence in its narrative.
My interest in Travis Strikes Again diminished once its gameplay had been revealed. The preceding two titles of the No More Heroes franchise lack mechanical depth, but they possess a blistering pace of violence punctuated by bloody dismemberments and suplexes executed through simplified motion controls. A differently stylized version of DOOM’s Glory Kills, preceding one of the shooter’s defining features by almost a decade.
That stylish satisfaction looked to be missing in Travis Strikes Again, replaced by the top-down hack-and-slash antics more reminiscent of Gauntlet than the frenzy of Devil May Cry simplified. While I like to try and receive each type of game openly – even spin-off titles like Metroid Prime: Federation Force – the less hectic game style just had far less appeal to me.
It was only after seeing the thoughts and impressions of a few YouTubers I follow that my curiosity was once more piqued. Many on Twitter had observed Travis Strikes Again to potentially be game director Goichi Suda’s most personal work. TheGamingBrit’s deep dive on the game would push me towards a purchase. I became determined to see for myself what sort of auteur work was hidden within this low-budget follow-up to a game franchise forgotten by mainstream audiences.
What I found was certainly a personal work, but one whose most interesting content is tainted by the far more oppressive presence of mediocrity and self-indulgence.
