#hideo kojima i want you dead

[mojondert]

Here's to you.

[astramachina]

6 albums I’ve been listening to a lot lately! Plus one track from each that I’m especially fond of.

tagged by the wonderful @valenshawke!!

i haven't been doing much "full album" listening lately since going into a project usually means listening to a lot of tailored playlists, but i have been revisiting some... oldies.

Wish Upon A Blackstar - Celldweller; "Unshakeable" This was my first ever Celldweller album and it was introduced to me by a now defunct tumblr mutual about a decade ago. Apparently they thought "Blackstar" suited a character on my ongoing fic at the time, and I instantly fell in love with Klayton's music. "Unshakeable" is definitely on the playlist for one of my current MCs.

The Black Halo - Kamelot; "When the Lights Are Down" Kamelot is one of those bands Lil Goth me (freshman) got introduced to by an Elder Goth (senior) back in 2005, though "Ghost Opera" was technically the first ever song of theirs I ever listened to.

The Open Door - Evanescence; "Your Star" I wasn't joking about oldies. Again, surprising amount of MC vibes coming off this album which makes me fear for the poor guy's life.

POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR - Bring Me the Horizon; "1x1" So, the funny thing about "1x1" is that, at their core, every single one of my protagonists can be summed up by this one song and I don't know what that says about me as a writer. I mean, 'annihilation never looked so good' as a lyric never fails to make me want to headbang.

DEATH STRANDING: Timefall - Multiple artists; "Ghost" by Au/Ra My endgame as a creator is to become the next Hideo Kojima like I want to make my own company and make utterly self-indulgent and fucking insane shit how I want to make it and then have all my cool artist friends either star in it or record songs for soundtracks. That being said, I'm yet to come across a video game soundtrack that's just banger after banger after banger.

Love is Dead - CHVRCHES; "Graffiti" I came across this album during the beginning of the pandemic and I listened to it so many times that multiple people reached out to ask if my discord was glitched because the status kept showing the same songs over and over. I'm not sure why it latched onto me the way it did, but February 2020 was sure a time.

Honorable mentions!

7. Woman King - Iron & Wine; "Freedom Hangs Like Heaven"

8. Lifa - Heilung; "In Maidjan"

9. Pictures of Mountains - Cody Fry; "London" & "Photograph"

tagging @lucillesharpeapologist, @vanessaaftonsgirl, @opaleyedprince, @fortunatetragedy, @wrencatte SHOW ME YOUR MUSIC TASTES (but only if you want to, ofc!)

[buncoreclown]

Alright another rant cause I'm just frustrated.

I'm pro-rpf. Very much so as I write it myself. I just find it so interesting/sad that I'm caught in the middle of this weird "too dead dove-y/problematic for normies but too rpf for most proshippers" stance which I just don't understand.

I'll say this. I've been in a pretty normie fandom the last few months. And it's been fun because I like rpf! Which another thing is because I found myself outcasted- okay that sounds dramatic but honestly I just didn't feel like I fit in because I didn't actually want the two people (straight white men) to actually get together. Like... Some of these people were adamant that they were together even though one wasn't single and honestly it all gave me the fucking ick. But I felt crazy for that. If that gives you any sense on how I enjoy rpf or any ship for that matter which is just by pure vibes.

To me the people become characters once I write them. Because what I write is a piece of fiction and while I do take some things from real life it's all fictional because these stories never happened and will likely never happen. Which is why I also support dddne/transgressive rpf. Because my freak can't be contained lol but I do enjoy it. I've been reading it a lot in kpop rpf with it and it's just so tasty usually incest aus but some serial killer aus etc. and it's all so good. Like I wanna do that but I'm scared of being crucified from either side: the rpf side for writing an incest au and the profic side for writing rpf like it's so WEIRD! Anyways, this was probably a nonsensical rant but I just needed to get it out there!

(holy shit I can't believe this came from somebody saying it was weird to ship Mads Mikkelsen with Hideo Kojima as if he doesn't look at him like he hung the stars 💀💀💀)

[thessalian]

Okay. I am willing - provisionally - to give Bloober Team the benefit of the doubt. Yes, even after the shit-show that was The Medium. On at least one level, they're doing it right. Because this is the kind of shit I haven't seen in years. I don't mean the wonky combat - I may not have played the original games myself, but I watched them played, and that's not new. I don't mean the avoidable combat either - same deal.

What I mean is a gameplay trailer like this. It wasn't just fifteen minutes of in-game cutscene. It wasn't choreographed flashy combat like that gods-awful "combat trailer" that apparently Konami made Bloober release (because apparently Konami forgot that Silent Hill was never about combat sometime after they took it from Hideo Kojima and turned it into a fucking Pachinko machine). It's the kind of gameplay trailer that reflects a lot of what you're going to do - looking around, interacting with things, figuring out the odd puzzle, being really really tense every time your radio gives you feedback, dodging what combat you can't avoid, rationing your ammo because you don't get very much of that (usually by knocking down a creature with a gunshot and then beat it with a lead pipe while it's trying to get up to attack you) ... and yeah, the occasional cutscene too, but mostly just enough to see how well it flows with the rest of the game.

This isn't the kind of gameplay trailer we normally see these days, because of how the AAA gaming companies operate. They have been trying to follow the Hollywood movie formula for success - 'blockbusters', mostly. And you know what most film trailers are like right now - all the flashy moments, often out of context, sometimes moments that didn't even make it to the final cut, and basically the cinematic equivalent of clickbait. Also ... let's face it - a lot of the video games industry are effectively trying the MCU model - milk a franchise until it's dead by throwing together the popular characters and sufficient explosions and a few faux-witty one-liners that were apparently crafted by committee. The kind of thing I always fear will be the result of an AI-generated script, frankly.

AAA game companies don't actually want us to see their games anymore. Mostly because they know that if we saw actual gameplay - not just the flashy in-game cutscenes and skyboxes and a couple of snippets of action shots, but what we will spend most of the game doing - we'd think twice before pre-ordering. We might say, "Hmm ... maybe I'll wait until it's on sale", especially in this economy. They don't want us to make informed decisions about our purchases. They want us hyped enough to blow Significant Money on a deluxe edition pre-order so that they'll have our money before we find out that the game isn't quite as advertised. Hell, it's the only way to keep that sweet, sweet pre-order money coming in, given that we're not having to go to a physical shop and preorder a physical copy to ensure that there will be enough copies at the store on release day.

But I will say this: I don't pre-order games very often. After Dragon Age 2, there was a long stretch where I was happy to wait until release day. There have been two exceptions in just over thirteen years - Dredge, and Horizon Forbidden West.

This might be the third. Mostly because it's willing to show me what I'd actually be getting, and I fucking love it.

Dear video games industry: DO MORE OF THIS, YOU COWARDS! With varying degrees of regard and disdain, Thess

[fioras-resolve]

it's funny how people sometimes get their name in the title of a video game. you know the stuff. Sid Meier's Pirates!, Tony Hawk's Underground, Tom Clancy's The Division, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.

it's funny, but maybe we should do it more? sid meier can work on a lot of different games not part of any given franchise, but his name serves as a mark of craftsmanship. tony hawk didn't even design the pro skater games. he was a consultant in the early days, but his name stuck around as a branding effort, one that works to this day.

this is why i put "Angie Nyx's" on the titles for most of my games. i want people to associate my work with, you know, me, and i want people to remember my name if they liked any of my work. yes, it is a mortifying ordeal to be known, but there is something selfish in me that wants the same kind of recognition as a toby fox or hideo kojima, or even a christine love or subset games. i want to be something to someone. and if my game is good, but people don't care to find out who makes indie games, i will make them find out by force. you may see this as a form of arrogance, but someday my name will mean something in the pantheon of games

also, you know tom clancy's games? yeah, they keep putting his name on that shit, even though he's been dead for 10 years. you can just Do That

[ariadneslament]

Evil Dead Rise (2023): Review

I think I must thank my normie little sister because if it weren't for her, I would not have seen this film at the cinema just a few days after she came home with nausea because of its gory scenes. The poor lass must have thought it was just another horror-ghost/demon possession film with cheap jump scares as its shock value. She was mistaken. Gravely.

Although I have to disagree with her that it was not that disgusting, surprisingly, for a franchise that is famous for its "nothing you can exorcise, only the total destruction of the host body" headline, the violence is pretty much mainstream and digestible for non-horror fans like me. Very, very contrast to the remake of the original Evil Dead (2013) that takes a much darker and gorier path, or most of the films in this genre, especially the ones made in recent decades or years, whose only path to acknowledgement seemingly comes from their willingness to compete on who can be the most 'notorious' basis.

If you want an example, take a look at one title called Terrifier," which excels at nothing but brutality. I don't recommend it because I once had Twitter recommend a blooper clip from this film, and guess what? I felt nauseated. Then I felt a need to satisfy my curiosity by watching some clips from the franchise, and I lost my appetite for meat for 2 days (I AM SERIOUS). Hideo Kojima is correct when he said recently on Twitter that this film is not for those with weak stomachs like mine. So for your convenience, I don't recommend it (and it still amuses me even more that there are some who will pay to get cheap thrills from films like these). This is why I avoid many films in this genre, for they are nothing but repetitive, full of clichés, shallow, and, of course, deeply exploitative (oh, maybe when it comes to indie, I am just more into the pretentious side. If there must be blood and violence, there must also be context 😊).

Rather than going down such a dark route, Evil Dead Rise chooses to revive the original franchise's theme of mixing gore with humour. Except in this film, the director, Lee Cronin, perhaps due to his status as an indie (horror) director, infuses some artistic elements into the writing, so what he makes is more than just a fun horror with a shallow story.

With the 2013 remake relating it to the horrors of drug addiction and Rise relating it to motherhood, childbearing, and parenthood in general. Showing how much a parent has to grow up and sacrifice in order to bring a child into a world of potential pain and suffering. It’s also about how family drama should not be used to tear a family apart. Due to Beth (Sullivan) living her life on the road, she is attempting to experience something other than what her sister does. Even the marauder represents how much a parent has to sacrifice for themselves. With the kids literally hinging on the mother's body and ripping into it. The films are so simple, but the slightest little relatable message makes them so much more enjoyable and instantly rewatchable with the blood and gore.

I must also applaud the casting department for picking Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan to play the two estranged sisters. The two Australians do not share blood relations, but they do have some similar facial features, especially the jawlines (is it just me?). Sutherland here, particularly, has minimum acting records since she is basically a model, yet her unique facial features convey more than what it takes to be enough. Adding her almost 6-ft imposing stature, her presence is perhaps the sole reason why the film stands out in the franchise. Hers is simply memorable.

All these clever decisions by the production team not only render the film a good box office performance—while many other indie horrors stuck as B-rated crap destined mostly for streaming services—but also somehow make me crave for it more, and I can't wait for the sequel by Lee Cronin.

I hate to quantify something that is hard to quantify like this. But if I have to, let's say it's 7.5/10 stars.

[laresearchette]

Friday, February 23, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: THE BRAID (Paramount+ Canada) HISTORY OF EVIL (Shudder)

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT? SACRED SOIL: THE PINEY WOODS SCHOOL STORY (TBD - Disney + Star)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA APARTMENT 404 GREEN FEVER IT BLOOMS IN JUNE JENNY SLATE: SEASONED PROFESSIONAL MARIA POMBO (Season 2) THE SECOND BEST HOSPITAL IN THE GALAXY

CBC GEM THOSE WHO STAYED

CRAVE TV ALI ARGO COBWEB DEAD MAN’S HAND THE FREAK BROTHERS (Season 2B) KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC LAST OF THE GIANTS (Season 3) ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF NOAH PIUGATTUK P.S. I LOVE YOU THANKSGIVING TIA AND PIUJUQ

DISNEY + STAR HIDEO KOJIMA: CONNECTING WORLDS

NETFLIX CANADA FORMULA 1: DRIVE TO SURVIVE (Season 6) (GB) MEA CULPA THROUGH MY WINDOW: LOOKING AT YOU (ES)

CURLING (TSN/TSN5) 2:00pm: 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts: Page 1/2. Qualifier (TSN/TSN5) 8:00pm: 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts: Page 3/4 Qualifier

MLB SPRING TRAINING (TSN4) 3:00pm: Padres vs. Dodgers

FIBA BASKETBALL (SN Now) 7:00pm: Men's Basketball AmeriCup Qualifier: Nicaragua vs. Canada

NHL HOCKEY (SNEast/SNOntario) 7:00pm: Sabres vs. Blue Jackets (TSN3) 8:30pm: Jets vs. Chicago (SNPacific/SNWest) 9:00pm: Wild vs. Oilers

NBA BASKETBALL (SN1) 7:30pm: Raptors vs. Hawks (TSN2) 7:30pm: Cavaliers vs. 76ers (SN1) 10:00pm: Hornets vs. Warriors (SN Now/TSN2) 10:00pm: Bucks vs. Timberwolves

PWHL HOCKEY (TSN4) 7:00pm: New York vs. Toronto

ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT (Crave) 7:25pm: A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration of a woman's life in Mississippi.

MILLION DOLLAR ISLAND (Discovery Canada) 8:00pm: A group of 100 Australians arrive on a remote island, each wearing a bracelet worth $10,000, and trying to survive for the chance to win $1 million.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF CHESHIRE (Slice) 8:00pm: It's Ladies Night and the Feeling's… Frosty!

BOLLYWED (documentary) 8:00pm: When Kuki decides to take on all the planning for Sarab's 65th surprise birthday party and keep it a secret from the kids, he delights everyone with what he pulls off.

GARAGE SALE MYSTERIES: MURDER IN D MINOR (Super Channel Heart & Home) 8:00pm: Jennifer Shannon puts the winning bid on a vintage Welte-Mignon player piano at the estate auction of a wealthy philanthropist, but she quickly realizes that the late owner may have led a less-than-charitable life before being murdered.

AN HOUR TO KILL (Super Channel Fuse) 8:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Young mother Piper Streyle is violently kidnapped from her home and police are at loss as to who the culprit is; all evidence points to another murder from years earlier, but an eye witness account seems to discount it.

ABOUT THAT (CBC) 8:30pm

THE FIFTH ESTATE (CBC) 9:00pm: Who’s Minding the Store?: Grocery CEOs get called before Parliament as Canadians grapple with looming food insecurity, but the heads of food stores in the North remain absent; the crew combines with APTN to investigate the cause of sky-high food prices.

CRIMETIME: FREEFALL (W Network) 9:00pm: Crime series actress Hadley Warner retires to a small town where she encounters her first real case. Using her TV crime knowledge, she teams up with Detective Caden to try and solve the mystery.

COBWEB (Crave) 9:00pm: Young Peter is plagued by a mysterious, constant noise from inside his bedroom wall -- a tapping that his parents insist is in his imagination. As his fear intensifies, he starts to believe that his parents are hiding a terrible and dangerous secret.

THE SUMMIT AUSTRALIA (Discovery Canada) 9:30pm: As the final six close in on the summit, they prepare to overcome death-defying terrain and make some of the toughest decisions yet if they want to make it to the top.

CRIME BEAT (Global) 10:00pm: Homicide 42

[sergle]

rewatching the walking dead for fun and as I go through it I’m remembering... norman reedus. I really do get it. 

[themattress]

My Top 30 Favorite Video Games

Inspired by @ultraericthered’s Top 30 Favorite Anime post. 

Although I’m doing mine in countdown form, ‘cause it’s more fun that way!

30. Super Mario Bros. - Arguably the first “blockbuster” game to be released, not only does Super Mario Bros. still hold up over 35 years later but it’s a gift that keeps on giving with how many different incarnations, remixes, fan games using its assets, etc. that we have now.

29. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - OBJECTION! While I cherish the entire original Phoenix Wright trilogy of the Ace Attorney franchise, I’ll always be the most partial to the original outing. The sheer audacity and hilarity of the concept, which is grounded by endearing characters and compelling mysteries, shines brilliantly in this little, easily accessible game. 

28. Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa - While similar in many ways to Ace Attorney, Danganronpa boasts a variety of more actual gameplay than mere point-and-click text scrolling. But what really makes this stand out, beyond gameplay or even the strength of its concept, story and characters, is the atmosphere it creates. For good and for ill, traversing the pristine, neon-lit hallways of the abandoned Hopes Peak Academy looking for clues as I’m forced to play by Monokuma’s twisted rules is an experience that will stay with me forever.

27. Star Fox 64 - Beyond all the entertainment this game provides through memes, it’s really just a fun, reasonably simple but just moderately complicated enough game that’s accessible to any player even if they usually don’t go for aerial shooters. It’s also one of the earliest console games that I ever played, so of course it’s going to hold a special place in my heart.

26. Batman: Arkham City - It’s an impressive feat when an open world game can still feel so claustrophobic in all the right ways, and that’s what Arkham City accomplishes. This game is essentially The Dark Knight to Arkham Asylum’s Batman Begins, escalating the action, suspense and sheer Batman-ness, providing unlimited opportunities to enjoy yourself playing as Gotham’s defender and facing down the greatest Rogues Gallery in comic book history.

25. Red Dead Redemption - Look, I know that Red Dead Redemption 2 is technically the superior game. But its complicated story, sprawling cast of characters, and vast canvas of a world can be pretty daunting, whereas I feel like the original Red Dead Redemption struck a much better balance. Allowing open world freedom within the confines of the straight-forward story of John Marston’s redemption really makes you feel like you’re in an old Western film, and the way that choices you make as a player impact the way that film ultimately turns out is one of the strongest arguments for video games being worthy of consideration as true art.

24. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - So, ten years ago an open world adventure video game series releases its fifth entry...and to this day, we’ve had no sixth, in favor of expansions and updated re-releases of said fifth entry. But that’s not a sign of laziness; it’s a sign the developers know they hit such a peak in quality that they have no need to rush anything further out the gate, as Skyrim is a gift that keeps on giving. Addictive in how unlimited in possibilities it is, with each playthrough never being the same as the one before, Skyrim is a gaming masterpiece that I don’t think I’m going to get bored with playing anytime soon.

23. Super Paper Mario - This may be an unpopular opinion, but I vastly prefer this game’s action-platform-RPG hybrid gameplay style to the prior installments’ traditional turn-based RPG style, which feels more at home in stuff like Super Mario RPG and the Mario & Luigi series. But gameplay aside, I think this has the strongest story of any Mario game, trading in the usual “save the kingdom/princess” fare for saving all of reality, with legitimate emotion and drama and even character development. It’s one of the Wii’s shining gems, to be sure.

22. Epic Mickey - This game’s graphics are by and large unremarkable, its gameplay is fraught with issues (that camera is unforgivable), and it’s nowhere close to the best on its system or genre. But Epic Mickey is a case study in where the effort put into crafting the game’s world and story, not to mention the obvious love and respect for the material being worked with, pays off. Any Disney fan will love this game for its story, which puts Mickey front and center as an actual character rather than a mascot and dives deep into his history as he meets his “half-brother” Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and its mystical, unique atmosphere - what the graphics can’t deliver, the fucking music more than makes up for. All of the game’s flaws mean nothing compared to the sheer heart on display, and I treasure it greatly as a result.

21. Batman: Arkham Asylum - I already mentioned that Arkham City is the superior game, but as was the case with Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, personal preference strikes again. The simpler story and narrower confines of Arkham Asylum just appeal to me slightly more, and I feel like the borderline horror atmosphere this game has could never fully be replicated by all of its sequels and spin-offs. Also, you can play as the Joker in this. WIN.

20. Metal Gear Solid - And on the subject of Arkham Asylum, it owes much to this game, which created the template of a lone badass hero having to use stealth and weaponry to liberate a government-owned island from the lunatic terrorists that have taken over. Hideo Kojima famously never wanted this game to have any sequels, and I can definitely see his point, as it’s a complete and wholly satisfying experience in of itself and I don’t feel like it’s ever been topped. At the very least, it’s certainly the most enjoyable of the series to me.

19. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Also, speaking of “borderline horror atmosphere”, we have the freakiest game that the Legend of Zelda series ever put out. What was supposed to just be a gaiden to Ocarina of Time mutated into this beautiful monstrosity that’s become just as iconic. Nobody who plays this game is ever going to forget that fucking moon and all the constant jumping back and forth in time across three days as you try to prevent the apocalypse of Termina. It’s the kind of gaming trauma that’s well worth experiencing.

18. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories - Like Majora’s Mask, this game is a case study where you can take a bunch of recycled assets and gameplay, and then make something unique from it if you have a well-crafted story with a dark and disturbing atmosphere. It’s hard to experience or appreciate the transition between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II without playing this midquel, which takes the narrative and characters to deeper levels without being pretentious about it and sets the stage for the proper console sequel perfectly. And if you can’t get into it being on Gameboy Advance, then just play the PS2 remake (which is arguably the superior version anyway) and you’re good! Just...don’t mind the cards, OK?

17. Sonic CD - And now we have another game about jumping back and forth through time to prevent an apocalypse! See the common threads at play here by this point? Sonic the Hedgehog is at his best in 2D gameplay, and I personally enjoy this the best out of all the 2D games in the series. As obscure as the Sega CD was as a system, it was powerful enough to take the blue blur’s speed to its maximum level, set alongside beautiful graphics and a kick-ass soundtrack (well, two different kick-ass soundtracks; and I actually prefer the US one). 

16. Pokemon Black & White - While there were advancements made to story and graphics and gameplay features in the third and fourth generations of the Pokemon series, nothing felt as truly ground-breaking as the second generation games until the fifth gen with its Black & White games. This was arguably the game series’ peak in quality on all fronts, but its specifically the story that lands it on this list, as its well-written and paced, subverts many formulaic elements from the previous games, is set in one of the most unique regions in the Pokemon world, and has a timeless message that has only grown more relevant with age. 

15. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - The whole series could really go here, but fortunately the most recent entry is the perfect embodiment of said series, with every playable character there’s ever been and then some. The sheer variety is unmatched by any other fighting game out there, and its story mode, “World of Light”, is quite possibly the greatest video game crossover in history given how many characters are featured as both fighters and spirits.

14. Super Mario 64 - I’m pretty sure this game used to be higher in my favor, but replaying it on the Nintendo Switch recently has made me aware of how, as the first game on the Nintendo 64 and the first 3D platformer, it’s poorly aged in several areas. However, I must stress that it is still a very good game. The fun of going to the various worlds within paintings in Peach’s Castle hasn’t changed, nor has how smoothly and seamlessly Mario managed to make the jump from 2D to 3D. Just like Super Mario Bros., the number of games that owe something to this one is too great to count, and that’s an achievement that remains timeless.

13. Dark Chronicle - Also known as Dark Cloud 2. I hadn’t heard a damn thing about this game before renting it on a whim many years ago, and I was caught off guard by just how good it was. It’s got a simple but effective story and likable characters, a timeless atmosphere, beautifully cel-shaded graphics, dungeon-crawling gameplay, action-RPG combat gameplay, literal world-building gameplay, and even a fishing minigame! This game can actually stand besides the Zelda series without shame; it’s truly an underrated gem.

12. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Oh, speaking of Zelda, this game goes full Lord of the Rings-style epic fantasy with it and it is glorious. Between the near perfect gameplay, beautiful 3D graphics, and one of the best stories in the series (with one of the best characters: Midna), Twilight Princess’ most prevalent complaint from critics all the way up to its own developers is that it wasn’t even MORE expansive and awesome given how long it was hyped, and if that’s the biggest issue with the game then I’d say it’s in pretty good shape.

11. Super Mario Galaxy - Super Mario 64 may be held back a little by how its aged, but no such thing is holding back Super Mario Galaxy. Super Mario Odyssey might be as good or possibly even better, but I just don’t hold the same feelings of amazement and respect toward it that I do for this game. From the blitzkrieg-style attack on the Mushroom Kingdom by Bowser to the discovery of Rosalina’s space station, this game had me hooked from the first few minutes, especially with it blaring that awesome orchestral score the whole way through. To this day, I maintain that this is Mario’s greatest 3D adventure. It’s simply magnificent.

10. Final Fantasy X - Ha! See what I did there? This game has caught flak for some of the awkwardness that comes from being the first fully 3D entry in the series, but I think that’s tantamount to nitpicking when compared to all it does right. To me, this was the last really good installment of the main Final Fantasy series, with a story and world so brilliantly developed that the game earned the immediate breakthrough success and acclaim that it found in its native Japan. 20 years later and, as the HD remaster has shown, it still holds up as one of the most engaging JRPG experiences I’ve ever had the pleasure of having.

9. Banjo-Kazooie - At the time, this was basically Rare’s copycat version of Super Mario 64, although considered about as good. Now, however, there’s a difference: the aging issues I mentioned for Super Mario 64 don’t apply for Banjo-Kazooie. Whether replaying it on the Nintendo 64 or on whichever Xbox you’ve got, this game is still just as fun, imaginative and hilarious now as it was back then. It’s quite possibly the greatest 3D platformer ever made.

8. Pokemon Crystal - The definitive edition of the Gold & Silver games of Pokemon’s second generation, taking what was already a phenomenal advancement and improvement to the first generation and making it even better with additional features such as the ability to play as a girl for the first time and a more clearly defined storyline centered around the legendary Pokemon featured on the game’s box art. Pokemon had been written off as just a passing fad up until this point. This was when its staying power as a video game juggernaut was proven.

7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Talk about a win right out of the gate for the Nintendo Switch! This game returns the Legend of Zelda series to its roots while also applying all that has been made possible in video games since the original game’s release, and the result is an enthralling, addictive, open world masterpiece that has set a new standard of quality for both the Zelda series and for many modern video games in general.

6. Kingdom Hearts II - The Final Mix edition to be precise, although in this day and age that’s basically the only edition people are playing anyway. This game is the apotheosis of Kingdom Hearts as both a video game series and as a concept; filled to the brim with Disney magic and Square Enix RPG expertise and paired with some of the most refined action-based gameplay there is. And when it comes to bringing the original Kingdom Hearts trilogy’s story to a close, does this game ever stick the landing. The series could have ended right here and I would have been completely satisfied (and its reputation would be a lot better off, too!)

5. Pokemon Yellow - While I maintain that this game, the definitive edition of the original first generation Pokemon games, still holds up as fun to play even now, I’ll admit that it’s pure bias that it ranks so high. It was the first proper video game I ever played, there was no way I was leaving it off the top 5! Its blissful nostalgic atmosphere is always such a delight to return to.

4. Banjo-Tooie - Remember when I said Banjo-Kazooie was “quite possibly the greatest 3D platformer ever made”? The “quite possibly” is because its in stiff competition with its own sequel! And personally, I’m in Banjo-Tooie’s corner; something about how inter-connected its worlds are and the addition of so many things to do all while maintaining your full moveset from the original game is just beautiful to me. Both it and its predecessor are like obstacle courses that I never tire of running through, which is the hallmark of brilliant game design.

3. Kingdom Hearts - Another case where the sequel may be the superior game, but my own personal preference leans toward the original. And in this case, it’s a highly personal preference: this game and my memories of playing it for the first time are so very dear to me. The characters and worlds of Disney put into an epic crossover RPG was like a dream come true for me and no matter how far the series it spawned has deteriorated, nothing can detract from the magic of this game. It’s got a certain, indescribable feel and atmosphere that’s never truly been replicated, and that feel and atmosphere still holds up whenever I revisit it. The gameplay may not be the best, particularly when compared to Kingdom Hearts II’s, but the charm of the story and the characters and the world and the very concept more than makes up for that. As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of Disney and Square’s greatest masterpieces.

2. Final Fantasy VII - I was aware of the hype this game got and was totally ready to call it overrated, but damn it, it got me! I don’t know what it is about this game with its blocky early 3D graphics, poor sound quality to its excellent soundtrack, and frequently mistranslated script that proved to be so gripping and enjoyable to play through, but man did it ever Limit Break its way into my heart. This is considered a JRPG classic for a damn good reason.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Do I really need to explain this one? It’s famous for being frequently cited as one of the greatest video games ever made, and like Final Fantasy VII, its hype is well-deserved and totally justified. Whether you’re playing it on the Nintendo 64, the Gamecube, the Wii, the 3DS, and hopefully the Nintendo Switch in the future, there is a magic quality to this game that permeates through every step you take in its fully 3D world. It’s a triumph that has stood the test of time, cementing the Zelda series as truly legendary.

[nullset2]

Death Stranding and The Last Man on the Beach

I had a very personal connection with Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding last year. I liked its aesthetic, the symbolism, and really enjoyed the story and characters (even though they were a bit too deviantart for my tastes at some points). Its bullet points really resonated with me. It's a fantastic and misunderstood game, with obviously undercooked parts, but still more than worth its price of admission. It's a game about estrangement, heartbreak, loneliness, stress, death, sadness, crying (oh so much crying), and humanity coming together in the face of a catastrophe of massive scale.

In DS, people live in individual isolated rooms, cannot touch each other, interact exclusively through the Internet, and have to cover their faces around each other, and the amount of impact of a voidout is communicated through a map full of expanding dots, interesting, right? Turns out DS is also very apropos with the zeitgeist.

I like its depiction of The Beach. In DS, every character has the ability to travel to an interdimensional space called The Beach after Sam Porter disrupts the balance between life and death as the first repatriate, the first baby able to come back from the dead after he gains that power from Bridget Strand's gift as an extinction entity, which eventually led to the creation of the Chiral Network.

Chiral means "hand" etymologically, by the way. I didn't know. It makes an allusion to the current state of things, where we have a very powerful network that provides wifi everywhere, and that has enabled a lot of technology, but where at the same time we're still at a "crossroads", and we still need people to deliver our packages and drive our cars. We're still a ways to go from the Singularity where all of those things will be fully automated I guess. It also makes an allusion as in how the network can be a way to seek "connection", to reach out for the touch of the Other.

And I loved it because of its implications in an era of isolation like ours. I think that people, more and more, are opting out of relationships and interconnection in the age of the Internet, because it's the easy, clean and uncomplicated thing to do. The Internet can provide bastardized facsimiles of everything you could ever want and then some. There's no reason to suffer with the real world if you can just get hooked addictively to the saccharine world Online. For more and more people every day, the Internet is enough.

In Jungian literature, bodies of water represent the unconscious mind and by proxy, chaos. Taming the balance between consciousness and unconsciousness, between order and chaos, and between light and dark truly is one of the fundamental --if not, THE fundamental-- problem of the human condition. The fact that we evoled from beasts, unaware of their own nature, unable to recognize the future and plan ahead and think, to the curreht Homo Sapiens Sapiens is nothing short of marvelous. So, that's why I like depictions of water: it represents the abyss of the unconscious and how problematic it can be for the mind. Truly, if one goes into the water without due precautions, they will drown, much as how states of depression, anxiety and all neuroses are excesses of the unconscious mind seeping into our conscious life.

Being in the beach is being in the fringe between two worlds, which is a fantastic analogy for the modern middle aged man and for the modern, technological man. Living between two realities, with two natures, is the state of many if not all, in an era where reality trascends through the Internet. By being in between, we are nowhere -- neither here nor there. By living in the culture of the Now Now, we live in the never ending present, future nor past evermore. A soothing place, if also eerily lonely --and a place that is starting to give us all feelings of Death, of maybe being the last man standing after all.

It's an allusion to the Millenial generation: stuck between the future and the past, between the digital and analogue world, a cynical, fatigued generation that had to learn to be adults twice but feels at home nowhere in the world who uses social media a FUCKING LOT.

A passage from Seneca's epistles also makes an allusion to the beach, and I quote: "People may say: "But what sort of existence will the wise man have, if he be left friendless when thrown into prison, or when stranded in some foreign nation, or when delayed on a long voyage, or when out upon a lonely shore?" His life will be like that of Jupiter, who, amid the dissolution of the world, when the gods are confounded together and Nature rests for a space from her work, can retire into himself and give himself over to his own thoughts." So the beach is kind of like a purgatory of the self where people can retire into themselves and their own thoughts according to the cultural baggage of the Western world to be reborn and to emerge a better person.

So, is this going to be the gold standard for the Aeon? Every man an island? I think the signs are pointing to it as I said before. I think we are seeing a sharp decline in personal relationships, and it's going to become more exacerbated in the future.

But is all lost? Of course not, there is Hope.

From the collision of extremes, man and woman, sun and moon, order and chaos, comes the Child. The Otter, as literally Jung says, a version of the messianic/heroic archetype, which Sam Porter very obviously takes after. I'm certain that the fact that Sam Porter's spirit animal is the Otter and wears an "Otter Hood" was a very obvious reference to this, complete with how Sam swims like an Otter when in water. It's an allusion to its two-natured self.

The Child is the androgynous Otter, who, like Bridges between nations, lives across two Universes seamlessly, yet "neither here nor there". It's the Irrational Third, between categories, the collision of two Universes, Mother and Father, which brings the panacea through his sacrifice, brought forth by being constantly in pain, in suffering and at risk of extinction. The child is the Bridge to the future, the redemption of your bloodline and the one who brings us all together under his salvation. All heroic myths are versions of this --of very high notoriety, the story of Christ.

Now, before you start typing your insults, hear me out: it's not that I'm abiding for the Christian mythos here or that I want to become a preacher. Rather, it's that I believe that the Messianic myth is the most important artifact of our Modern Society and its very foundation. It comes from the notion of the self, which is a miracle exclusive to the Homo Sapiens Sapiens; the ability to be self-aware, to self sacrifice and think forward. The Messiah is the self inside every one of us, who selflessly and through constant sacrifices moves the World forward. Death Stranding ultimately is an ode to this, to the idea that no matter how horrible the world gets, as long as we all selflessly come together in sacrifice, we will make it in the end. By seeking not division and classification, but Unity and collaboration. Neither man or woman, sun or moon, or ying and yang, but the Syzygy of them both. Neither red or blue, but purple, and royally so

Like the Messiah with its Death and Resurrection, Sam Porter gets stuck in his Beach for an indeterminate amount of time to fullfill his mission in Death Stranding, yet manages to come back once his loving friends pull him out of the beach through a line of connection, reaching out to him and bringing him back to Earth. This is a beautiful allegory too --I urge you to reach out to the friends in your lives, and telling them that you love them. They may appreciate it more than you could EVER IMAGINE. It may be the difference between life and death for a lot of people right now.

And finally, by the way, I still stand behind the comparisons I made about Death Stranding to Chul-Han's material. Have at me bro.

[2bstudioblog]

Konami’s wheels are turning... slowly

Lot’s of interesting news heading to our heads this Monday from what I heard from Yong Yea’s video about Konami wanting to outsource their IP’s to 3rd parties.

Obviously, Akira Yamaoka has kinda given away a strong hint that he’s working on a project with Bloober which in this case would be the long awaited SH remake or the direction they had with PT before it got cancelled. Akira Yamaoka also decided that (too late) he wanted to amend the article from his interview and release it later down the line. It’s very unusual that these news happen, but we all know Yamaoka is most famous for his music in Silent Hill.

Which brings me to a funny story about my own involvement of a Silent Hill game. I mentioned this on a podcast that I was part of 2 Konami-owned IP’s that went into another direction and killing off their franchises which have been like dead bodies in a morgue for the last 7 years.

I got the request to write industrial-metal music for a Silent Hill (of course at this time I only knew the IP and their most famous version of the game has been Silent Hill 2.) game. First I was of course very excited to be part of the series, but I jumped to early until I found out it was a Pachinko-machine (A japanese style pinball-game mixed with a touch-screen and a one-armed bandit and a slot-machine in one.), and my heart sank a little. I think I produced 4-5 cues for the machine, but I’m glad that nobody will be able to hear my “mediocre” masterpieces because all you would hear are metal-balls falling into a tray. But the thing about this machine, it had taken cut-scenes from Silent Hill 2, upscaled or even re-mastered/remade the graphics which would have looked great if it was its own game. But it was the same thing they’ve done with all their other IPs when those transfer over to this kind of entertainment. All what was left of it, Jim Sterling turned the game into a Meme and all I can hear is the -”HIT THE LEVER!” and the effects overpowering the music behind it. But I’m glad it didn’t go further then that. Technically here, Silent Hill(s) died with the arrival of the pachinko-slot machine and the series have tried to re-establish itself ever since.

Another game I was a part of was a Castlevania (Dracula in Japan) themed Pachinko-slot machine, with the revolutionary phrase “Erotic Violence” in it’s PR material and video-commercial. I mean, they took the music production part of this machine very seriously because I wasn’t aware of the “EV” part. I just thought it would be a machine praising the history of Castlevania. I was assigned to re-write and re-orchestrate a few songs from Neo-classical Metal music into more Progressive Metal style, and I was super-proud of this one because they had the sheet-music already available for me. All I had to do was re-arrange some parts for a string-quartet (1 cello, 2 violins and 1 viola) and I believe it was engineered and recorded by famed engineer Kenji Nakai who was under and working with famed engineer Mr Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones).

From that moment me and Mr. Nakai stroke a friendship because he has a passion for Progressive Metal and he asked me if I could send more songs his way. From this we both have been incredibly busy on both of our ends, but I hope we can be able to work on something in the future. I have a feeling that might be soon.

So a long story short, Konami spent a lot of money for recording, they approved everything and we were done. But when it turned out to be a pachinko-machine and not a world-wide videogame release, I just had to facepalm myself, asking the question why they keep doing so many poor decisions. Why leaving all those fans out in the cold and really start making Castlevania mean something. This void of “lots of fancy things, but no substance” started right here...

Konami are turning their wheels a little bit too late and too slow until now. After they got rid of Hideo Kojima (Who I believe was thinking of the international-market rather than the domestic one), Konami had only one thing on their minds: Making money quick and domestically. No more wasted time on translations, straight for the gambling crowd. No need to write interesting stories. No need to introduce kids to this adult material. They wanted to earn it back as fast as possible. But we all see their decisions put them on the map as a “black-company”, who mistreat their staff, shaming them out in the office for overstaying their lunch-breaks. Moving staff from one business to another, from a programmer to a Konami-fitness Center-staff, or as a toilet-cleaner at a Konami-owned pachinko-slot gambling hall. The management of the company has been horrendous for the full-time employee. I’m glad I was not part of these later projects and only wrote stuff for them for Pro Evolution Soccer series from 2009-2012. (My work on 2010-2012 was unfortunately un-credited work. :(

Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain In My Ass

When the playable teaser called Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes, came out on the PS3 and later on the PS4, it was an introduction for the new graphics engine designed by Hideo Kojima’s team, simply called The FOX-Engine. Basically this “game” was more of a demo rather than a full-product. But it looked great and with a fantastic score by Akihiro Honda, Ludvig Forssell and Harry Gregson-Williams, it had everything going for it to become something really awesome. It became a standard approach from Hideo Kojima now to produce “Playable Teasers” to show a great concept while offering a 3-4 hour short campaign, showing off the engine’s graphical capabilities.

Still, the story was under progress and I knew early on that Hideo Kojima really didn’t want to do it after he always felt that Metal Gear Solid 4 was final. But here is the curse of the die-hard fans, and I’m sorry to say it. No matter how many Iron Man movies Marvel crams out, at the 3rd movie, I started to feel “This does not feel like Iron Man anymore”. But that’s what the fans wanted and is a standard in the movie industry. Always produce a trilogy. Indiana Jones has always been the 3 movies from 1981-1989. The 4th one doesn’t really need to be called Indiana Jones at all. It was there I felt, just like with Metal Gear Solid V, they were beating a DEAD RACE HORSE.

I can’t deny the talents on display for Metal Gear Solid - Ground Zeroes. It laid down some really cool foundations for the gameplay, but I still believe the better game-series for stealth was beaten by the likes of Splinter Cell and most recently Thief. Stealth in MGS has always felt a little bit childish and I only really enjoyed MGS 1, MGS 2, tried to play MGS 3 (still have it one my Vita!) and will try to finish it. MGS 3 has felt like the TRUE Zeroes experience, with the inception of the story and lore behind the cloning of Big Boss. MGS 4 finally brought it all to a great finale and I felt, there is NOTHING more to tell. MGS 1, 2 and 4 is the Trilogy, MGS 3 serves as the Prequel and I see nothing wrong with that.

Mission - Erase Kojima’s Legacy

The making of MGS V - The Phantom Pain is kinda true to it’s title. Can you feel the nostalgia? Or are we just imagining the sensation of a Metal Gear Solid game past it’s prime? The missing link? The missing limb? And with the worlds biggest cop-out  of everything that had to do with story was completely missing.

Each mission is playing out every time the same, with an intro to a TV-show, giving away massive spoilers to who would appear in the mission, you do your thing (not so much of story, just a “go-here, do that approach, sneak back out, head to pick-up) rinse and repeat. I wonder how much of this was Kojima’s fault? I don’t think he was up to it. I’m sure he fought for more story but the big heads didn’t want to listen to what makes a MGS game a MGS game. The new management had now already played the hand to disown the man who put Konami on the map for games since the mid 80s.

The game is no longer marketed like before. The tagline “A Hideo Kojima Game” no longer exists and will never be part of Konami’s mission of erasing the person who gave them their fame and the recognition that a game carrying the name Konami was a brand of quality for any gamer out there. Me myself, personally only played PES because of the stellar animations, but its recently since 2012, I stopped playing the series. FIFA had already cheapened itself, PES likewise. Updating the graphics, but the same old animations have been recycled back to the PES3 days. Maybe there’s been an update in the collision engine, but otherwise everything stayed the same, with the huge amount of data collected from previous years of motion-capture, why do it all over when its all about the brand recognition? Saving money on processes wherever possible. Simple Math. And here it is. MGS V is not a MGS game.

We already knew it was going to be a massive budget behind the game of MGS V. But what can Konami do to save money on MGS V? They already have the Fox Engine running from Ground Zeroes. The assets for “Snake” (I’ll let you know why I put quotation-marks around it) and standard models will extend somewhat. Oh, yes, let’s save money on a character that doesn’t speak (Quiet), over-sexualize the character to start a fan-base of people who just dig character design, animated a sexy “shower” routine for the character for boys to go nuts over. What about voice? Let’s not really try to sync the voices to the mouths. Let’s have the guy from “24″ record his performances onto tape-logs. Kiefer Sutherland would have been a good “Snake”, but I understand now that you are not “SNAKE”. The game explains pretty soon at the end that you are just a Medic and all the tapes you’ve been listening to is the original Big Boss. You never where the character of Snake. Even though this all could have been handled better, Konami wanted to save money wherever possible. We also knew David Hayter was not asked or put forward to return as “The Voice of Snake”. But in this case I start to wonder myself, David Hayter might have dodged the biggest bullet in the most expensive, commercial and very controversial game of all time once Konami decided to kill everything that built up their reputation.

Even during production Kojima managed to start working on PT. The game Konami “silenced” after it was released on the PS-store. Guillermo Del Toro and his friendship with Hideo Kojima’s dream-game was put on ice. All because Kojima was about to get frozen out of the company that was according to Konami “Wasting too much bloody money”. I might get blacklisted for saying this, but once the new management started to mess with the other IPs for just domestic/gambling market, that’s where everything went sideways. Konami wasn’t treating their heritage with respect.

It took them 7 years to realize their mistake! And now, for those who wants to be part of 3rd party developers who would get a crack at a new Castlevania, a new Metal Gear Solid (remake I hope), Konami has realized that the only way they will survive (Yeah, Metal Gear Solid Survive killed them HARD) is to let other’s take over. Maybe my dream of scoring a Metal Gear Solid game would be somewhat more possible now rather than working in the confined space of limitations posed by the higher ups at Konami. Let 3rd party developers breathe life into the IPs because I know there are smarter ways to tell a story and I would gladly like to see the return of David Hayter in the seat, without having to deal with the blank-face approach that he was faced with every time he had to audition for Snake in MGS 2, 3 and 4! David Hayter is a fantastic writer, actor and voice-actor. He has the chops and I think we are all ready for either a re-make or a better follow up to MGS 2 and the time between that one and MGS 4.

[queenlua]

tl;dr sorry i just like hideo kojima a lot

* a friend of mine pointed out a while back that Kojima, for all his faults, is kinda the only big-budget video game auteur we really have.  say what you want about his vision (and there’s lots you can say), but—that shit wasn’t designed in a committee.  a human really, really wanted this specific game to exist, every time.  and that rules.

* same friend also observed that Kojima manages to nail US culture in a way that US artists so frequently cannot—it’s the outsider-artist thing, where sometimes someone from outside or on the periphery a culture can really nail the spirit of it, because they’ve got less baggage in the way.  which is why Kojima seems like such a spooky prophet so often; his obsession with memes and media control in MGS2 was just him noticing trends that were already there and just not often talked about in mainstream US media in 2002, for just one example.

* shower thought this morning: i love how unapologetically optimistic Kojima’s stuff is, in a way that’s so very different than the manner in which saccharine/escapist/wish-fulfillment video games are “optimistic.”  no shade to folks who are into twee stuff, we are all but humans and we like what we like—but i think the most deeply optimistic art i know of only works when it’s portraying awful stuff, when there are horrible or ridiculous and stupid things, so that the optimistic current actually means something, so that there’s an actual thesis being made

* and just. i love how delightfully garish he is when he makes that thesis.  i mean Death Stranding is him just beating you in the face with CONNECT TO EACH OTHER and MAKE AMERICA WHOLE and you are building BRIDGES because your name is SAM BRIDGES and you are CONNECTING people do you get it, do you get it

* with someone less committed to the bit, it wouldn’t work, it would be obnoxious, but also the President of the United States is your mom and there’s a dude named Die Hardman and you’re lugging a telepathic baby around and ghosts are real and deadly so like.  nothing feels like “too much” when everything is too much

* which is the heart of how that optimism works.  in Kojima’s games, wild and weird and fucked-up stuff happens all the time, all mashed in together, and WAR IS BAD and also THINGS ARE TRAGIC, but also—you can build a bridge in the wilderness and get an upvote from some stranger and it’s just the best feeling.  or the killer nuclear tank can sing a song that reminds you of your dead mother figure.

* i mean, typing out that last sentence feels ridiculous!  that’s an actual fucking thing that happened in one of his games?  and yes, yes it is.  which is why it works.  it’s so ridiculous that, jesus, the story must actually believe what it’s doing, believe it so incredibly hard

* and that rules.  i’d love to be able to pull something like that off.

[thearkhound]

Kojima Cinema Vol. 1: Daylight

Game Hihyō (Game Criticism) was an advertisement-free videogame criticism magazine published by Micromagazine Inc. from 1994 until 2006 in which freelance writers, as well as game developers themselves, would provide their thoughts on the industry or the latest videogames. Among them was Hideo Kojima himself, who began a movie reviewing column on the February 1997 titled Kojima Cinema, which lasted for 23 issues. This first installment features a review of the Sylvester Stallone movie Daylight. If the reception for this one turns out to be overwhelmingly positive, I might translate more of Kojima’s reviews in the future (and possibly any other interesting article in the magazine that catches my attention).

Special thanks to the people at Gaming Alexandria for providing the scans.

Grand Opening of Kojima Cinema

Hello! I’m Hideo Kojima from Konami and I will be serializing an article starting from this issue. The editorial department told me “write essays about movies” and I immediately replied “if it’s about movies, leave it to me!” But then I thought about it seriously and wondered if was alright to write articles about movies in a magazine titled Game Hihyō [Game Criticism], which discusses videogames seriously, but I accepted their offer anyway since it gave me a pretext to watch more movies.

Love for Movies

I was told to pick a title freely, so I considered “Letters from Ebisu: The Sequel” after Kenji Eno’s column that used to be published in this magazine (since our companies are both located in Ebisu), as well as  “Ebisu Mail” (after Ebisu Beer) among others, but ultimately I went with “Kojima Cinema” since it was about movie reviews. I want to express my thoughts and impressions of my favorite movies and movies that I watched recently, regardless of whether they’re old and new, as well as write about Game Theory as a game auteur from the movie generation. Naturally, I also want to talk about the latest game I’m developing while it’s happening. With that said, I hope you enjoy your stay at Kojima Cinema.

Daylight, a movie to watch on Christmas Eve while smothered by your partner.

Since it premiered on the same day in Japan and the United States, I was able to watched Daylight without any prior knowledge. For better or worse, it’s a very conventional 1970′s style disaster movie. It feels like a tunnel version of Poseidon Adventure, as it depicts the tenacity and discords of people trying to survive under the extreme situation of being trapped inside a sealed underwater tunnel. The fact that it has Sylvester Stallone in the role of Gene Hackman is quite a problem. I’ll explain later why. While the explosions and collapsing scenes inside the tunnel that make use of digital special effects are a spectacle to behold, I would say the core of the movie is the human drama. The expendable characters that only exists to liven up the drama are not noticeable here and script, which distributes death equality, is somber but realistic. Particularly the resignation of the characters who realized they couldn’t be saved and their unfashionable lines before dying felt more documentary-like than cinematic. On the other hand, the plot is too light and although the tunnel is filled with poisonous gas, everyone is breathing normally and there is no sense of heat despite the characters being on the side of the flames, so there’s an overall lack of realism. I didn’t get the sense of oxygen shortage, entrapment and temperature that the movie was aiming for.

Stallone and the invisible enemy inside the tunnel

The biggest miscalculation of this movie is probably the casting of Stallone. Even though they were trying to make a human drama, Stallone is of course going to be Stallone.

That reckless and warlike mobility of him and his one-armed pull-ups are still alive! Especially in the second half of the movie, his thirst for (first) blood powers up! When a new problem (danger) arises, Stallone seems to be very joyful! It’s like he’s fighting an invisible enemy (an Enemy Zero) by himself. Conversely, putting such a character in a screenplay that goes against his type feels quite fresh. There is a scene where Stallone’s character, after risking his life and going to the place of crisis alone, gets coldly berated “why did you come here alone”, and there is another scene where he tries to lifts a car with his monstrous strength, but is unable to. It’s a reality that only the actor who played John Rambo could pull off.

P.S. It is recommended that you watch this movie during the daytime in an underground low-ceiling theater in an oxygen-free state with a full crowd. Once you leave the theater, you will truly appreciate Daylight.

Disaster & War Movies

Perhaps it’s an influence of the collapse of the Cold War structure, but lately Hollywood has been producing many disaster (kaijū) films lately such as Daybreak and Independence Day. Perhaps it’s a plan to depict drama only from the human side by making a powerful and overwhelming force (enemy) appear, such as a giant monster, aliens or a tornado, but this makes it very convenient to stand on the author’s side. All the bad things are monsters (or disasters) and every measure against them is justified. Since there is no need to come up with circumstances for the enemy’s side, it’s pretty easy to depict a valiant fighting hero. It also makes it easy to invite tears and project sympathy when the good guys win. It’s not so easy when it comes to depict a conflict between people. Even if one side were aliens, if they have a personality, it becomes a situation in which either side could be just or evil. That’s the difference between a war movie and a disaster movie.

Rewarding Good and Punishing Evil in the Game World

Ever since the days of Space Invaders, every game (including RPGs) has been made following this disaster movie template (of rewarding good and punishing evil). The enemy is always a one-sided invader or destroyer. “One day, invaders came from space.” “Suddenly monsters came from hell. A hero now stands up against those who sought to destroy mankind.” The player is clearly fighting for good and the enemy is an absolute evil that must be excluded. This formula leads to fundamental goodwill of every game. The act of defeating the enemy to proceed has become the foundation of shoot-’em-ups and action games. If you allow compassion to the enemy, then there wouldn’t be any game. “The enemy is evil, therefore he must eliminated!” That’s how games are now. Nevertheless, Metal Gear Solid won’t be using this formula. Although the theme is anti-war, it must be somehow established as a game. This part of MGS is difficult. It’s a dead end like an underground tunnel, a state of groping in the dark... But this is the theme and challenge of MGS. Perhaps one day I’ll find the Daylight within MGS.

Source

Game Hihyō Vol. 13 (February 1997)

[killscreencinema]

Death Stranding (PS4)

The first week of quarantine, I lost my job.  It wasn’t COVID related, more like “I hated my job and my employers finally realized it” related.  So it was actually really good timing that I began this game while unemployed, as virtually delivering packages to people made me at least feel like I still had a job! 

Death Stranding, released by Hideo Kojima’s new independent studio in 2019, is set in a bleak, post-Apocalyptic future where the world of the living and the dead have converged in a catastrophic event called, well, the “death stranding”.  Dangerous phantoms, called “BTs”, roam the countryside, dragging anyone unlucky enough to encounter them into their world.  The only person who can stand up to them is a porter named Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus), who has a unique condition called DOOMS which allows him to sense a BTs presence (who are otherwise invisible to the naked eye).  Paired with a child bred to act as a link between the living and dead, called a  Bridge Baby, or BB, Sam can even see a BT, making him the only candidate who can possibly bring the world back together by traveling the wastelands of the former United States, delivering packages and connecting the surviving human cities via something called the “chiral network”.

So it’s basically a fucked up, but better, version of that Kevin Costner movie The Postman.

Also, if it seems like my story summary took longer than usual, welcome to the world of Hideo Kojima!  I tried my best to explain the story in a brief synopsis, but I still didn’t even scratch the surface of it.  For example, I didn’t even mention how Mads Mikkelson intermittently drags Sam to a battlefield-like purgatory so he can steal his BB; or how Sam’s mysterious connection to the BTs makes his bodily fluids deadly to them, so you will often use weaponry made from his piss, blood, and shit to fight them; or how his primary objective is to rescue an enigmatic woman named Amelie, who may or may not be the daughter of the recently deceased President of the United States, from terrorists who want to use Amelie to bring about the extinction of humanity.

This game is bananas, ya’ll... but in the best way.

I started this game with extremely low expectations, as it had been critically lambasted by most of the major gaming sites and YouTubers.  From the previews of the game I watched, it just seemed.... weird.  I didn’t understand what the hell I was looking at - Norman Reedus with a pod baby strapped to his chest, and a strange flappy doodad on his shoulder, while walking on a tar beach strewn about with dead whales?  What the fuck, Hideo?  Visually alone the game was such a stark (and I mean *stark*) departure from the Metal Gear games, so when I found out the gameplay was delivering packages, I became convinced that Hideo Kojima had done lost his goddamn mind. 

Turns out... and this should hardly come as a surprise... the man is a goddamn genius.

Truly brilliant art always offends and bewilders the senses at first because your mind doesn’t know how to cope with what its experiencing.  Watch any given David Lynch movie and you’ll see what I mean.  The human mind has trouble processing totally new information that has no frame of reference in memory or cultural awareness, which is why “weird” art initially repulses before it gains a following (and many great artists die in poverty before they are recognized for their genius).  Imagine introducing a peasant from the Middle Ages to a helicopter - they’d think it looks absolutely ridiculous, so when you tell them it can fly, just IMAGINE their incredulity. 

Anyway, I think that is why initial impressions of Death Stranding were so negative - it was a lot to take in for a lot of gamers used to being spoon fed repackaged versions of the same games but with different titles.  Even things that seem at first “original” have recognizable gaming mechanics that ease the player in.  I mean a game set in the apocalypse where the core gameplay is centralized on package delivery???   There’s nothing like this!  So your reaction is either going to be “This is brilliant” or, like the medieval peasant, “this is ridiculous”.

Mind you, I’m not saying if you don’t like this game, you’re as stupid as a medieval peasant.

I get why people would hate this game - it’s very different than a lot of games out there.  Death Stranding is bold and audacious in its storytelling and its gameplay.  It takes a lot of risks that most AAA publishers (like Konami for example) would balk at, which is why Kojima had to create his own company to make it.

The gameplay seems simplistic at first - deliver packages from point A to point B.  However, it’s a little more complicated than that.  For one, the key element of the game is item management and learning not to bite off more than you can chew.  Sam can only carry so many boxes, and the more you stack on top of him, the more difficult the journey will be, especially when crossing BT territory or bandits (called MULES) nipping at your heels.  You also have to take into account the rocky terrain, river crossings, and weather (oh, did I mention that rain in this game, referred to as “Time Fall”, can rapidly age items and people?).  The game is all about carefully choosing equipment you’ll think you will need, whether it be weapons, ladders (for climbing large cliff faces or crossing deep rivers or chasms), sprays for repairing damage to packages, or even a spare pair of boots in case the shoes you’re wearing wear out.  So to say that the game is “just delivering packages” greatly diminishes some of the nuance going on here.  Yes, there are lots of long stretches of just walking across a landscape to some of the most melancholy music ever assembled on a soundtrack, but I’d argue that having patience for those moments is part of the gameplay. 

The game can be frustrating, such as when Sam refuses to climb a ledge you KNOW is climbable, so he just trips and falls over instead.  The vehicles that you eventually unlock are some of the most goddamn frustrating vehicles in video game history.  At first, I figured it was because I would eventually unlock better modes of conveyance more adequately adapted to crossing rough terrain, but no - they all drive like shit.  Just getting the truck to drive up a hill without spinning out and rolling backwards can fray on one’s nerves.  It’s hard to discern how much of it is the vehicle and how much might be poor controls.

The story, as alluded to above, is ambitious at best and pretentiously bloated at worst.  However, if you’ve played any of the Metal Gear games, you know what you’re signing up for when it comes to high concept, over-indulgent story.  I would say that for the most part, Death Stranding’s story is coherent enough to enjoy, although there are long expository cut scenes that convolute the plot more than clear it up.  Fortunately, the characters are well developed enough, and are interesting enough, to keep you invested (a storytelling skill that is perhaps Kojima’s saving grace).  Also, the more dramatic beats of the story are impactful enough to still resonate, even if you’re not entirely sure what the fuck is going on.  It helps to have talent like Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelson, and Lea Seydoux in the cast, whose performances bring the characters to life.  Sam in particular might have been an insufferable loner, were it not for Reedus’ gruff likeability that made him famous from Walking Dead. 

If you’ve avoided this game because, like me, you were convinced by bad reviews that it sucks, I would highly suggest that you reconsider.  It may not be as fun, or compelling, as a Metal Gear Solid game, but it’s an interesting departure and one worth experiencing.

[altalksaboutstuff]

My Top 5 Games of the Past Generation Youtube Script Plus Notes

This is, more or less, the script for My Top 5 Games of the Past Generation video that I just published on Youtube: With the Xbox One and Playstation Four about to head out of the door to make ways for the Xbox Series X and the Playstation 5 respectively to lead us into the next generation of consoles were only Nintendo has been sitting comfortably with the Switch, the Wii U has been long gone and Nintendo also recently announced the official end of the Nintendo 3DS line cutting all the ties to this last generation.  With that almost everyone is now releasing their lists of the best games of the current generation, myself included, I couldn't help but notice a lot of same-soundy lists such as Game Informer's top 5 list.  I myself have to disagree with these, not to say that any and/or all five of those games on Game Informer's Top 5 aren't good, important or worth playing just that I don't think they are the best representative of this generation in terms of impact and wide appeal, so much as had the most money backing them. That these games on the list are more the best representative of the biggest Triple A titles.  The games that I had in mind are more impactful on how this generation swayed and set new standards.  I want you to keep in mind that while I liked some of these games, these aren't my personal top 5 of the past generation either but I think closer to what best represents our closing era of gaming, when I say the “best games of the current generation.”

First off I'd like to make an honorable mention of PT.  PT or playable trailer was supposed to be a demo for the new Silent Hill S game that unfortunately never came to be for the Playstation 4 from Konami.  A joint venture between film director Guillermo del Toro and the famous creator of Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima, this demo spooked the pants off of everyone and was probably the reason a lot of people decided to buy a Playstation 4.  Unfortunately Konami let Hideo Kojima go under less than favorable conditions and the demo vanished with him in time.  Since then the immersive, first person perspective horror game demo changed the landscape of what survival horror could be.  We then saw Resident Evil VII by Capcom, the Park by Funcom, Layers of Fear by Aspyr and Death Standing by Hideo Kojima's new studio Kojima Productions that were all heavily influenced by PT (this point made more obvious for Hido Kojima's Death Stranding) and the future of Survial Horror / Suspense games seems to be headed there with upcoming games like Resident Evil VIII: The Village.  The only reason this isn't officially on the list is because, well, it was sadly never a game but its influence was too important for me not to mention.

Number 5: Sonic Mania.  Ok so Sonic Mania isn't anything new but it is very important in the sense that it is a major franchise, Sonic, by a well established publisher, Sega, and they had officially given the keys of Mobius to the fandom to make a new game and it was fantastic. While that's oversimplying things a bit errr a lot, since Sega just didn't come out of the blue offering that opportunity.  Rather Sega saw a Sonic game pitched by Christian Whitehead, aka Taxman, who worked on porting previous ports of Sonic games to Mobile platforms. Why I think it is important is that this validating the bridge between fandom and passion projects in world where game hacks and fangames are traditionally shut down almost immediately after gaining the slightest attention.  While Sonic Mania isn't a fangame, its roots were deep from the Romhack community.  This represents cracking the door between what the fandom produces and what the corporate offices allow being available to consumers in a world were popular fangames and hacks result in cease and desist orders - which is why I think is very important to put Sonic Mania as the number 5 game of this console generation.

Number 4: Rocket League.  As of today, Rocket League is a now free to play game for better or for worse.  Rocket League is high-octane fun, blasting balls across various courts and fields such as basketball and football with fast automobiles but what it is most well known for is basically soccer with cars.  Rocket League is a lot of fun to play and has a large audience of  in the streaming and esports field which would be reason enough to put this game in a top 5 but what this game marks maybe even more importantly is cross console online play. While other games have and do continue to have online play across systems, back in March of 2016 Microsoft was very interested in allowing online play between Xbox One and other consoles them being extremely hopeful for Playstation 4 in particular, however Sony was holding out.  Sony was hesitant, citing their emphasis on providing a certain quality online experience but finally came to the party and in 2019 you could finally play Rocket League online with all your friends whether it be on PC, Xbox One, Switch, or Playstation 4. Since then we have had other games slowly roll out this feature such as Wargroove and the trend seems to be expanding.  I hope to see all games adopt this in the future and since Rocket League “birthed” this concept coming to the table for cross console online play for us all to enjoy, this is why I think Rocket League deserves the number 4 slot.

Number 3: Bloodborne/Dark Souls III.  This past generation and hell even to some extent decade, spanning to the PS3/Xbox 360, has lead us to compare every challenging game that comes out to Dark Souls.  Cuphead is the Dark Souls of run and gun shooters, Dead Cells is the Dark Souls of Metroidvanias, Celeste is the Dark Souls of platformers, etc.  While the meme of “X is like the Dark Souls of” is hard to find a concrete start, according to Google Trends this first seemed to spike in April of 2015 around the release of Bloodborne, the PS4 game created by FromSoftware.  While not technically a Dark Souls game, it was made by the same team and the game play and feel is very Dark Souls in the sense that I feel the phrase is used today, in contrast to the first two Dark Souls games.  Then we can see that in/and around October 2017 the trend has risen to its peak a little after a year and a half of the release of Dark Souls III.  While this justification may seem more flimsy and ultimately the Dark Souls brand was established in 2011, I do think Bloodborne/Dark Souls III is more in the zeitgeist, if you will, of the “X is like Dark Souls” comparison that has shaped the conversation of so many games today.

Number 2: Undertale.  Undertale is perhaps the darling of this generation. A game chock full of charm with multiple ways to approach it.  Will you save everyone, sacrifice everyone, or something in-between?  This game does look next gen, current gen or even comparable to past gen games until you hit perhaps the SNES or even late NES.  Maybe a number 2 spot is too high on list – this game didn't revolutionize the industry in ways that the other games on this list did nor was it the first anti-RPG of its kind, that would probably go to MOON, but Undertale just had such a powerful impact on gamers when it came out and became so unforgettable.  I feel like Undertale will be a game that we remember for a long time and to not include it in this list because its an indie game would be a real tragedy which segways me to my number 1 game.

Number 1: Shovel Knight.  Shovel Knight is the indie game that, I think, lead to the current boom of retro inspired indie games we have been enjoying.  A love letter to the NES games of the past such as Castlevania, Mega Man and Ducktales to name a few.  Shovel Knight wasn't the first retro inspired indie games but I feel like the attention to detail in trying to stay as true to what the hardware could run in terms of look, color, sound and pixel art with its overwhelming success showed that there was a market for these type of games.  Its success kickstarter in 2013 also showed that Kickstarter could be used as a viable platform to create indie games for a wider audience without having to rely on that Triple A model of good gaming synonymous with big budget corporate funding.  I firmly believe that we wouldn't have the great retro inspired games like Celeste and Dead Cells or the Kickstarter'd Yooka Laylee and Bloodstained or games that did both like Blasphemous if it wasn't for the hard-work and ingenuity that Yacht Club Games paved with Shovel Knight.

To use a popular Youtube cliché to conclude this list, “At the end of the day” I didn't make this list to put Game Informer or anyone's personal preferences down.  If you believe that they got the Top 5 games of the decade right that's perfectly ok and valid too, to have as your opinion.  I also want to reiterate that those five games – The Last of Us Part II, the Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Zelda Breath of the Wild and God of War are all important to this generation coming to a close as well in their own way.  While this list isn't my favorite games of the past generation, maybe I'll do that in the future, they are my subjective “best games list” of the past generation for what I think they did to the industry and you are free to agree, disagree, pick and choose between my list and Game Informers list or make a completely different list of your own.  I'm personally excited to see what the future of gaming has for us in this coming generation and optimistic for what's both around the corner and late into the next systems' life-cycle.  Happy gaming to you however you play.

Webpages noted: https://www.polygon.com/2020/9/17/21443683/nintendo-3ds-discontinued-lifetime-sales-hardware-software-units

https://www.fandom.com/articles/sonic-mania-just-nostalgia

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/15/15807138/sony-playstation-cross-network-play-xbox-block-response

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/were-ready-microsoft-says-about-xbox-one-ps4-cross/1100-6438654/

https://www.rocketleague.com/news/full-cross-platform-play-now-live-in-rocket-league/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yachtclubgames/shovel-knight

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DavidDAngelo/20140625/219383/Breaking_the_NES_for_Shovel_Knight.php

Games shown/referenced in the video:

The Last of Us Part 2

God of War

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Red Dead Redeption II

Witcher 3

PT / Silent Hill S

Sonic Mania

Rocket League

Blood Borne

Dark Souls III

Undertale

Shovel Knight

Shantae: Half Genie Hero

Cuphead

Celeste

Yooka Laylee

Mega Man 2

Ducktales

Castlevania

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Blasphemous

Dead Cells

Resident Evil 7

Resident Evil 8

Moon

Layers of Fear

The Park

Death Stranding

Bonus Footage:

Xbox Series X reveal trailer

PS5 reveal trailer

Also note: I messed up in the original video and said the phrase, “X is like Dark Souls of” spiked in April of 2015 when I should have said first peaked in January to April of 2015.  I noted it in the video but wanted to note it again, sorry.

[sparrowsabre7]

Ok, mountain time. Let's see how far an unsuspecting onliner's bike will get me.

Cargo immediately damaged by vehicle vibration... sorry, comrade your bike is abandoned.

Man, I hope that distant truck is a porter, though the pop up hint "attach armour plates to protect from gunfire" does not give me hope...

Yeesh, thunder, timefall must be imminent, weather forecast says yes but if I can get to the valley in 10 minutes I can avoid it in the final stretch. If not, the rest of my run is going to suck. Oops, too late, BT zone ahead. Shit on it. Going to hope the anti-BT weapons work better before they grab me.

IDIOT! Fucking IDIOT. Was avoiding them so well and crossed a river to get by but wasn't paying attention to my constitution. Got washed WAY back downstream and lost a blood grenade for my trouble. Fuck. FUCK! My own stupid fault. Nonetheless, avoided the BTs and navigated some more rapids to get past. Cue another Low Roar banger and another incredible vista. It may be a repetitive trick but it still works every time.

Finally hereby no holo to greet me. Interesting. Peter Englert the pizza guy also has no holo and that does intrigue me more about him, he leaves the funniest emails. Going out on a limb and saying when we finally meet him he's going to be Hideo Kojima.

Huh, now there is a holo, which seems to be Mama. It's Lockne, Mama name dropped her earlier so guessing a family relation. Ah yup, twin sister Die-Hardman just told me. They can apparently communicate over long distances without tech. DH just said they are "like two people sharing one body" why do I get the feeling that's exactly what they are in typical weird Kojima twist fashion.

Ok, she's not letting me use the facility at all and new objective is "change Lockne's mind" oh creepers christers you're gonna make me go all the fuck back to talk to Mama aren't you? *checks internet*

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Absolute twat Hideo.

Know what? Fuck it. Imma save and then jump in the stream and get washed back to north distro. Up yours.

That... worked surprisingly well. Minimal BB distress, no health damage, pretty happy with that. Bola-d my way past some terrorists and hijacked their truck to get to north distro for a port to south Knot to get to Mama's lab. Ok, whatdya got? Ooh, new weapon cufflinks? They can cut BT cords!? Shit that sounds too good to be true, guessing I'll need to be in melee range... yup, essentially stealth takedowns. Oh man, she wants me to test it by cutting her BT baby's cord. This is pretty sad. Ok, doubly fucked up: not actually her baby, it was Lockne's. M's ovaries don't work and L's uterus doesn't, so M became a surrogate for her sister. This whole thing is Kojimically fucked up.

And now you want me to w h a t.

I have to take your tragic ass all the way back to fucking Lockne, good grief. Still don't get why these lazy flickers can't walk with me until it gets difficult...

Oh no.

Not now.

Please.

Higgs.

Please take your dramatic ass and fuck the fuck off... I don't want to fight a BT kitty cat right now.

Aargh! Why must I drop the handgun if I use a grenade, and why can it not go back on the tool rack instead of dropping Mama!

COWARD! Fucking shit ran when it was inches from death. Bastard.

Ok, vroom vroom it is. Zooming over hill and down dale. Gotta say compared with my last run through, it was pretty exhilarating to just boost through the terrorist camp and not catch any heat, and that generator they revived Tyreone saved me again. Not too much further now.

Ditched the bike in the BT zone, tried to cut the cord but no prompt appeared and it almost grabbed me so fuck you very much for that suicide tip, Mama.

Fuck me we're finally back where I was over an hour and a half and 10 kilometres ago. Aaand she's dead. Good god what a waste of time. I mean sure, family reunion, lovely, but maybe just pick up the fucking phone. Either way, let into the network so I guess that's swell.

Feels weird to say given it's the same actress but Lockne seems a lot more wooden than Mama. Given she's supposed to be more closed off that could be an acting choice.

Ok, story needlessly complicated further: Mama was actually part dead, her body alive but her soul passed over. She was alive only thanks to the BT baby keeping her soul tethered to her body. Not sure why that wrinkle needed to be added to an already complex backstory, especially when said character has just died and this is relayed posthumously.

Oh wait, now Lockne can hear Mama's voice through the Beach and they are one again. Lockne strokes her face with two crossed hands in a deeply weird way to demonstrate.

Die-Hardman tells me the Intel has been gathered on the battlefield and suggests it could well be I was sent back to WWI or it could be that it was a Beach shaped by the user I.e. Raving Mads Mikkelsen to become a battlefield.

In any case, it's been a long night and I'm glad to get to bed.