Date of Posting: 19/05/2023
I consume a lot of media...things...and last week's article was fairly intensive so let's have an easier one this week and just talk about some stuff what I've been into lately. This is broken down by media type and doesn't any specific structure outside of that, so feel free to just skip around to whatever interests you.
I like games and I like thinking about and talking about games so get ready for a whole bunch of that. Here's some thoughts about games I've been playing over the last month or so.
Vigor has been in a bit of a death spiral for a while now. The critical flaws with the game (the LMG has been OP for a full year, movement is janky but not skill based, it's full of weird bugs) seem intractable, and the playerbase seems to be dwindling. However, it remains one of MY most played games because it's doing stuff nothing else is doing, with it's relatively freeform post-apocalyptic multiplayer extraction-oriented scavenging and shooting mixed with it's slightly arcadey level of abstraction and weirdness. It has a flavour like nothing else I've tried, and in fairness I've a lot of sunk cost (in terms of time at least, Vigor is F2P and I've probably spent about 2p per hour of gameplay so far).
However, it's a new season, which is bringing us a new map in the form of the war torn swamp of Myren, a very flat and open map with a huge gas station and military supply buildings in the centre, as well as a minefield and several trenches and bunkers. I've only had time for a few matches so far but I like it a lot already. New season also means new Battlepass, and it's about fucking time we had one with cosmetics I actually like. The last time we had this was...last Spring? It was Season 12 either way, and now we're on Season 15. No more military or weirdo wastelander shit, we're getting civilian gear and first responders. High-vis, firefighters, paramedics, exactly what I've been literally asking them to do.
The new gun seems pointless (a fancy bolt action sniper rifle) but so far everything about this season is solid. I'm not confident Vigor will still be with us in 2025, and it's currently a nightmare for new players to get settled in as they simply cannot obtain the crafting plans for *anything*, but for me I'm happy with what we've got right now.
I'm 104 hours into Elden Ring and approaching the endgame content, and I am at that stage where I can play for perhaps 3 hours a month before I'm completely sick of it again. This game is too long. This game has too much entirely non-rewarding content. People complained so much about Dark Souls 2 being group battles of a bunch of dudes that just gank you but for some reason Elden Ring seems to get a free pass when it's a bunch of dudes with 6 hit combos that can kill you in three hits and also there's a guy firing lasers at you the whole time.
This game is frustrating in that it doesn't give you any clue how it wants you to play. You are told and expected to figure out something that works and that you have loads of options, but the truth is that almost all the rewards you can earn are different magic spells (useless to my non-spellcaster build) or various consumables (which I'll never use as I don't know if I'll ever get them back) or strength weapons (which I cannot use, as a Dex specialist in a game with almost zero Dex weapons). Loads of the gear in this game is... just kind of rubbish?
I still think Elden Ring is great but I honestly don't know if I'll play it again after I finally beat it. Maybe with a magic build or something that can actually take advantage of half the stuff in the game. I still have my starting weapons (2x Scimitar), so poor is the selection of Dex gear in Elden Ring! Can't believe I learned how to never block or lock on in Souls games only for them to make a game where you're expected to do loads of this. Rude.
This is a really old game which I realised I had on GOG for unknown reasons, and have actually always wanted to play properly. I had the sequel on PS2, but that had notoriously bad controls and I couldn't even get past the tutorial level. I am however very much enjoying this. You control a squad of Commandos (obviously) who all have specialist skills and you have to plan out little missions sabotaging Nazi command posts and such in occupied Norway. Each level is like a big puzzle you have to think your way through and try and figure out how best to leverage each character's skills in order to pull off a difficult objective. It's hard as nails but very satisfying to watch a plan come together.
To be fair I do find it quite obnoxious how most of these men at my command keep calling me sir when given any instruction, with the exception of the Green Beret who I love because every time you tell him to do anything he yells out "I'm coming!" with tremendous urgency. Also you're sneaking around stabbing and shooting Nazis. Hard to go wrong with that.
A friend of mine (here's his twitch channel) has set up a Minecraft Vault Hunters server recently which he plays on his streams. I've been invited in and finally figured out how to actually play it. It's early days yet, but I do love Minecraft so I expect to enjoy this. I stopped playing Minecraft earlier this year, basically as soon as I killed the Ender Dragon. Felt kind of aimless after that. Here's hoping that this helps revitalise the game for me. I'm not very far in but once I get to join him on stream I'm sure things will start to pick up steam.
A co-op exclusive puzzle game about two guys stranded in a mysterious mansion in the arctic wilderness. Generally speaking one of you has access to lots of information and clues which they have to communicate to the other via walkie talkie, to allow them to solve puzzles. It's all about communication and careful teamwork. I finished it in an afternoon ("We Were Here", the first in the series is free on Steam) with a friend and despite a few bugs and some flaky controls we had a great time. Well worth the price of zero pounds and a couple of hours.
I'm a huge fan of Zachtronics as a developer, they make weird programming and systems oriented games with really hard open ended puzzles and tons of character. Opus Magnum is probably Zachtronics biggest commercial success, and having finally gotten around to playing it I can see why. Engineering alchemical formulas by using material inputs, basic machinery, and sets of intertwining instructions is incredibly satisfying. It's less frustrating than most of their games tend to be as you have as much space, time, and equipment as you need, the bigger challenge than simply passing the levels is in doing it efficiently. It is also vastly more readable than any of their other games, particularly the programming ones such as SHENZHEN I/O and Exapunks, making it a lot more satisfying to witness the patterns of movement and production you create in the process of solving challenges.
Alongside a series of puzzles is also a fun narrative about the Royal College of Alchemy and the inter-kingdom politics you become embroiled in as a young alchemist, and all the ways in which the powers of alchemy can (and can't) be used to sway political outcomes. Opus Magnum is a fitting name for this, as it is perhaps Zachtronics finest work.
I don't read enough books. But I'm making an effort to read more, and there's evidence of that here. Thinkings follow.
Mid way through this one, I've been reading a little bit and then just putting it down and forgetting about it for ages, but I've now properly committed to getting through it. A slow starter but it's a much more patient slow-burn sort of story than what I'm used to from PKD. It's still great though. A professional informant is embedded in a drug ring to attempt to track down the source of the devastating narcotic Substance D, but in order to do this he must live a double life as both himself, Bob Arctor the recreational drug user and local nice guy, and Fred, undercover agent who is surveilling Bob and his colleagues. To convincingly spy on himself without revealing his identity as a confidential informant he must mentally divide himself in a way that matches how Substance D divides the cognitive processes of it's users, and we see a bizzarre portrait of institutionalised and socially constructed paranoia arising like fractal scaling patterns at every level of Bob's life.
I watched the movie of this years ago (maybe a decade or more back) and while I loved the beautiful rotoscoped style I have to admit I didn't really get it. There's a lot going on in the book so I'm wondering if like many of PKD's works it's just difficult to adapt well. PKD has had an enormous influence on sci-fi cinema due to the broad range of movies which adapt his work, most notably Blade Runner and Total Recall, but many of the adaptations are a bit rubbish. I'm really enjoying the book and hope to be through it in the next couple of weeks.
I need to read more Graeber as so far I've only done Bullshit Jobs, which was great but I feel like I'm not getting enough of this guy's work. As the title suggests, it's a history of the concept of debt, although of course we also go into various economic concepts and political structures alongside. I'm listening to this as an audiobook which is certainly a good experience and a convenient way of getting through a long book, but honestly I feel like I'm going to need to secure a physical copy to have a flick through and review once I've finished so I can better understand how it all fits together. This is I suppose one of the issues I have with non-fiction audiobooks, particularly ones of such substantial scope as this.
Outside of the format though this is great. Graeber's writing remains accessible and engaging even as he's simply describing different systems of coinage or talllying, peppered with quotes from primary sources and amusing stories and parables from the ages which illustrate the meaning behind many of these ancient systems and philosophies.
Official magazine of the Anarchist Federation, this is the first print issue I've had since I joined their Patreon. It's really cool! There's a whole bunch of really interesting and rad articles, loads of artwork and photos, plus it arrived on the day of the Coronation (booooo) and contains a pamphlet entitled "Fuck The King" which was perfect timing really. Plus a poster which is *also* one of Kropotkin's essays in a clever folding booklet format, and a free copy of Dope magazine, an alternative to The Big Issue which just vendors the papers and lets them keep the money instead of basically turning them into salespeople who make fuck all. I haven't finished reading it yet but I'm really enjoying getting into it so far, and am very satisfied with what I get for my Patreon contribution.
I probably spend too much time using YouTube (if my screentime records are anything to go by) but it's genuinely a great source for loads of cool shit, so I'd may as well take advantage of all my time watching videos by turning them back into content I can write about for someone else. Circle of life, innit.
Ordinary Things is finally back with a video about the hottest topic of the minute - A.I.! I for one find AI both a very interesting topic and an incredibly maddening topic of discourse. Most of the AI world is just fucking grifters and techbro dickheads jumping on yet another bandwagon after the failures of VR, Crypto, Metaverses, NFTs, Web3, etc to change the entire world into what they wanted it to be. The hype around AI makes it near impossible to discuss properly, and even the term AI is misleading because nothing being done now is at all "intelligent".
Anyway, as usual we get a really solid grounding in the background of the topic and some of the key players, perhaps most interestingly the work of dickhead accelerationist Nick Land, who I found it very interesting to hear more on, as he's someone who briefly worked closely with Mark Fisher, someone who wasn't a dickhead. Also I hate accelerationism.
This is a really good summary of the whole business and the general background noise that informs what discussions we're having of AI today. It's nice to see such a broad summary which still nails down a bunch of the specifics, and also manages to be funny throughout.
Ordinary Things, The A.I. Mind VirusI don't know what exactly about this video I loved so much. Perhaps it's the introduction in the style of a children's story. Perhaps it's that the project is so obviously absurd: making clay pottery using nothing but the dirt taken from marketplace potatoes. Perhaps it's how earnestly committed to the work Mike is, and how he really thinks through how to solve the problem and come up with something that is still very impressive given the imposed limitations and is miles ahead of anything I could do with proper materials. Atomic Shrimp is my favourite youtube channel and I think you might like this video too.
Atomic Shrimp, Potato PotteryDid you know that Left 4 Dead had a Japan only arcade port? How the hell would that even work!? Well, now you can find out. Documented in impressive detail, a history and demonstration of how Left 4 Dead was converted to work as an arcade game in Japan, complete with it's own online services, rpg elements, and unique content seen nowhere else. I played Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 so much over the course of the early 2010s I literally cannot play them any more, I am beyond done with them. Despite never wanting to play them again, I still think they're great games and it's exciting to finally hear about a part of the franchise which is entirely new to me.
Punchy, A Deep Look at Left 4 Dead's Japan Only Arcade GameAs a lover of the MGS series, with a title and thumbnail like this (It's the boxart of MGS2), I was very curious as to what the twist being referred to was. Damn you clickbait, you've got me again! However, this is just a very solid investigation of the source material and the surprising evidence of foreshadowing of something which has retroactively been sold as a massive twist with no prior suggestion at all. Anyway, while I think MGS2 does drag a little when replaying (there's so much talking and The Big Shell is a boring setting), it's still a great game and a big deal in a design and narrative sense. It's fun to see this weird twist from a different perspective, and also just to think about MGS2 and it's marketing hype again for a bit. This was such a massive thing when the game first arrived, and I think anyone who wasn't there at the time might underestimate how shocking the twist was. A friend put me onto Gamechamp3000 recently and she's really good, most of her content is about Pokemon which I've limited interest in, but this was a really interesting video to me.
Gamechamp3000, The Greatest Twist in Video Game History is a LieFashion Youtuber "This is Antwon" takes a thorough look at the trend of "Old Money" as a fashion style, how as a trend based on exclusivity it inherently devalues itself the more popular it gets, and how fashion as signifier works in a more broad sense. While Antwon is primarily a Techwear reviewer and content creator, he actually does quite a lot of videos on philosophical concepts within fashion and culture, and this is his most recent attempt to try and break down what's actually going on behind a trend.
This Is Antwon, Old Money is the Stupidest Trend...Or is it?The Grand Finale of the 4th Mission Across Wales. The Straight Line Mission returns. A thrilling conclusion to what has been a tense and drama filled several years of failed attempts. I've loved his previous cheeky outings and mischievous adventures, but he's always been struck with some terrible misfortune mid-way through previous Wales Missions. Will he finally succeed in crossing the country of Wales in a straight line!? Go watch his channel to find out!
GeoWizard, It has all come down to this...However, Cynthia posits that they missed a serious cultural consideration about not only Japanese web design but also elements that is shares with Chinese and Korean cultures and their typical web designs. Broadly this is an aspect of cultural approaches to language and information processing, and how different cultures can favour different styles of cognitive loading. It's a really interesting video which gives some extra depth to an already pretty cool topic.
Cynthia Zhou, How Culture Made Japanese Internet Design WeirdI love music and spend maybe half my day listening to it, but I'm terrible at writing about it so please excuse my brevity in these recommendations. Note: Several of these links are to bandcamp, the employees of which are engaged in unionisation efforts at the moment and dealing with a whole load of union busting bullshit from their corporate upper levels, but until the union supports a boycott I don't see a benefit in refusing to use the service, which remains one of the best ways to just directly buy music these days. You can learn more about Bandcamp's unionisation movement here, in their own words Bandcamp United
New Enter Shikari. Like their last album, I think it's too short to allow them to fully explore the energy they're putting out and some of the ideas they're working with throughout the album. Really that just means I would have liked more of it, which I guess isn't the worst thing. It's a good album. Favourite track: Either "It Hurts" or "Bloodshot".
A Kiss For The Whole WorldI've recently been getting into Drum & Bass and Jungle via the medium of playlists of Playstation game soundtracks, which used loads of this. I love the Playstation, it's aesthetic and the common musical tropes, and not only does the linked mix have loads of great tunes on, the creator has also spliced in quotes from Metal Gear Solid to break up the mix and provide some pacing. I should find some more proper DnB artists and explore the genre more thoroughly.
PlayStation jungle mix 04 & 05 - darkside, drum & bass, techstep, etcOne of the two albums I picked up at Resistanz (I'd have loved more but most of them weren't selling CDs, the merch was pretty limited actually and I even had to pay for this one in cash), this is an excellent album I've had on regularly recently. Randolph and Mortimer are a Sheffield based industrial/ebm band with deep rhythmic grooves and hard beats, all dripping with the themes of social discontent and breakdown under late stage capitalism. It's a great album and I've seen these guys twice now and they were great both times. Favourite Track: Witch Hunt
Manifest for a Modern WorldA classical-extreme-synth-metal act, I absolutely love MASTER BOOT RECORD's entire catalogue. This was the other CD I got from Resistanz and it's arguably his best work, just a really fantastic trip from start to finish. Also when they played live there was a whole range of demoscene projections and retro-computing equipment on stage, it was partially run off floppy disks on an old Amiga! What a fucking band. Favourite Track: I don't know, he just uses part codes or protocol names for everything so I can rarely remember what the songs are called. The opening track "8086" is very strong through.
PERSONAL COMPUTERSeems weird to put this last as in many ways it's massive, but I don't really do TV so this is something of an anomaly for me. I watched Eurovision this year, for the first time in perhaps 15 years. Shockingly, I really enjoyed it! The music is decent, the fashion is exciting, the jokes are constant, and Hannah Waddingham is 5ft11. I went around my mums house to watch it with the rest of the family and we had a great evening, and I also spent the entire evening live-posting about it with friends on fediverse. It was a great time, and Finland were absolutely robbed of their rightful first place by the ridiculous jury votes. Abolish the jury, all power to the people watching Eurovision! Cha cha cha! All that is to say turns out Eurovision is actually loads of fun and like a fool I've been missing out all these years because my only memory of it was dying of boredom during the voting phase as a child. I look forward to watching it again next year.
This was a roundup of various media things I've been into recently and wanted to write about beyond just posting on social media. I might try and do these once a month, this was fun and it also elicits more in depth thought about the various things I'm into which could potentially lead to further articles and insights.
There is no conclusion other than this is the end of the article. Good day.