videogames

Faves in 2020

Normally year-ends are marked with numerous rundowns, “…of the year” posts, and favourite picks. This year has been a bit different release-wise across various media, so I wanted to do something different other than obvious game/film etc of the year and enthuse instead about my late discoveries or personal entertainment highlights from the year. Stuff I’ve missed or not fully posted about yet. Catch-up year!

‘Trail of Dead live, The Mash House in Edinburgh

In March before everything went tits up we were very fortunate to get a mini break in Edinburgh . Two weeks before UK Lockdown was even a remote possibility I was lucky enough to get to see one of my favourite bands play live in quite possibly the most crowded, loudest environment ever. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead have been a band that I’ve been a big fan of for close to 20 years now, so it was incredibly rewarding finally getting to see them live after all this time. The band played lots from their back catalogue as well as plenty from their new album this year -X: The Godless Void and Other Stories- and the gig was probably one of the most thunderous and booming shows I’ve ever been to. Volume is subjective and usually with hyperbole, but I’m not lying when I say I didn’t know bands were allowed to play so loud…legally. I had extra tinnitus for days, annnd declaring that now makes me older than ever. Sorry.

Spotify and BBC Radio 6 Music

This year I started listening to BBC Radio 6 Music in a big way and after defaulting to Apple Music for years, this year I rejoined Spotify as streaming provider. These are quite small things, but both changes resulted in me discovering and listening to a lot more bands, artists, and genres than I have in any other year. I listed to 241 new artists this year(!) and 327 total, a lot more than my usual standard plays and go-to favourites. So lots more diversity this year- here’s my playlist of my favourite songs from this year.

Lots of Films!

With lockdown and being off work earlier this year I watched a LOT of films. In total this year I watched 81 Films For the First Time, and 140 films overall. In the absence of cinema trips here were plenty of rewatches of past favourites instead, and Christopher Nolan, Michael Caine, and Peter Jackson all featured quite heavily- here’s my stats in full. Next year I’d like things to be a bit more diverse, cult, and overall varied. Any recommendations let me know!

Lots of Books!

This year I aimed to read 25 books and while I quite havent reached that target yet (there’s still tiime) I’ve read a lot more this year than normally and spent more time actively reading accordingly. My favourite audiobook this year is Pet Sematary by Stephen King, I’ve posted about that already, and one of my favourite books was We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson. Again, I’ve already posted about that, so let me offer up my other favourite instead…

Ice by Anna Kavan

I picked this up at random earlier in the year, and I read through it pretty quickly. It’s set in a distopian post-apocalyptic landscape where the cold stings and a chill bites throughout. Things happen, and there are scenes and events, but I wouldnt say there is plot, if that makes sense. It’s a maddening blizzard of a journey where things and narratives happen in paralell to each other but you’re never really sure what it real and what isnt. It’s magical in places with it’s language, sometimes feeling like a bleak fairytale in others, but it’s a piece of media that’s really stuck with me throughout the year. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely something I want to reread slower and even more thoughtfully next year.

Nintendo Firsty-Party Games

Animal Crossing: New Horizons released earlier this year and over lockdown and in the absence of structure, was something that I enjoyed and played immensely. The game really helped me relax and switch off, and ultimately give me something to obsess over instead of doomscrolling. Nine months later i’m still playing frequently. Also helpful and fun, my friend group started playing Mario Kart 8 online most sunday nights. In a time where couch-multiplayer is disappearing from games (regardless of social disctancing) these nights really felt old-school fun, and again, something good to distract and break up the week.

Online Dungeons & Dragons

Something that equally kept me ticking over was voice chat D&D, and playing over Roll20. I’ve probably played more this year than any other year combined with near weekly precision. In one campaign i’m heist happy halfling Panwick, in the other i’m dashing, dumb, dentist half-orc Henk. Both campaigns have been great distractions, and good burst escapes from reality.

Airiel

This year I listened to so much shoegaze and dreampop, and Airiel were one of my early discoveries through Spotify. BAND OF THE YEAR! Admittedly they only released one single this year and the stuff I did listen to was mainly from 2017-2004, but band of the year! I really enjoyed playing their dreamy/floaty, lets be honest, lovely discography and zoning out especially during the height of lockdown/2020 doom hell. The band are one of my favourite things this year- definitely on the list to see live once things are okay again.

Dishonored

The Last of Us Part II came out in June and really blew me away with it’s bold narrative choices and heavy story consequences, but after completion I bounced off it pretty hard and revisited my backlog. The original Dishonored came out pretty late in one console generation and early into another so it was something that like lots of things I never really got round to. I played through the base game and all it’s DLC this year and I fell in ove pretty much straight away with its open-ended gameplay and the world narrative that it’s all set against. I jumped into it’s sequel shortly after and it was the same here, but with even more polish and gameplay options to be had. I had so much devious stealthy fun with this series I really regret sleeping on the franchise for so long, especially now that it seems finished. I would still definitely recommend playing the games even now

2020 Was Pretty Bad So I Treated Myself

With 2020 continuing to be an absolute disaster culturally, politically, and more importantly personally, It’s been more important than ever to find ideas and activities to keep happy. Absolutely everything has changed in some way, and I’ve found the continued sudden stagnations and resets quite difficult if I’m honest. I might have mentioned this quite a bit already. Lets just write the year off and pretend it never happened?

With that in mind -and with all previous lookingforwards delayed or cancelled- back in August I decided to proper treat myself and preorder a Sony Playstation 5. Since that preorder went off it’s been my go-to calendar excitement, and incredibly fulfilling having something to look forward to daily. It’s perhaps a purchase sooner than necessary: gaming backlogs grow and are at this point forever, but the allure of shiny new boxes that play shiny new games is an insatiably maddening one, so here we are! After 27 years of playing videogames and having that as an interest I get my first “day one” console! I’m only a few hours in and still really need to play things properly but so far I love every bit of it. I have the next few days off, so while my birthday plans changed, my Denmark holiday was cancelled, and all those weddings I was hoping to attend were delayed, this is hopefully going to make up a little for some of the previous inconveniences of 2020. I feel better already…

August Links

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Some interesting stories, thoughts, and ideas i’ve discovered throughout August, rounded-up.

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Microplastics have moved into virtually every crevice on Earth - this sounds like a horrible nasty plot from a Doctor Who episode, but it’s actually happening right now (and for a while obv given findings), under our noses. Absolutely terrifying stuff.

The Unravelling of America - this is an immensely fascinating read by anthropologist Wade Davis on the formation of the United States, the history there-of, and it’s place now in a post-pandemic post-truth world stage. America now is where it’s been heading for a long time, and it’s a fall that’s happening real-time. Of note, “Trump is less the cause of America’s decline than a product of its descent”. Really recommend giving this a read.

‘We Are the Guinea Pigs’: Hollywood Restarts Its Blockbuster Machine - Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is probably one of the worst sequels in a while, but it’s interesting reading about the development and filming of it’s upcoming follow-up, and how they’re committed to continue filming safely, despite that whole 2020 Global Pandemic thing.

Fall Guys is Pure Saturday Evening Television After a hundred different first-person shooters, third-person shooters, and even Tetris, the Battle Royale genre finally gets the game it was invented for- I played it for a whole saturday night this month, LOTS of fun.

Bella Mackie: Is It Really A Bad Idea To Give Into Rose-Tinted Nostalgia Right Now? - I can relate to this so much, particularly about “the good old days”, taking things for granted, and honestly, just having happier times in general. 2020 has been incredibly awful- this year more than any other has just made me thankful for everything I do have.

The Matrix as a Trans Allegory - I haven’t seen The Matrix in a decade plus, but here’s a great Twitter thread by Netflix breaking down the connection between the cyber sci-fi action film and some of the transgender themes that it contains, compiling lots of links to supporting pieces in the process. Rewatch due soon.

What Dungeons and Dragons Taught Me About Politics - D&D is a game all about rolling for success, correct dialogue choices, and working well as a party, so this is an apt comparison. Travelling to Barnard Castle and rolling for an Intelligence Saving Throw isn’t something I remember in my adventure, however…

Get Happier by Rereading Your Favourite Books from Childhood - 2020 has been hellish. I’ve still got a massive backlog of both children and now adult books to catch up-on, but dipping in to familiar favourites in any media can be comforting. I rewatched a lot of my favourite films in lockdown.

Is It Possible To Have A Healthy Relationship With Social Media? - Why is disabling social media or leaving your phone at home so hard to do? I’ve been very guilty of doomscrolling these last few months, and some of these tips really helped me. It’s good to switch off.

Video

“This Is...” A Personal Ode to Going to the Cinema by Matthew Mulcahy/Little White Lies is a lovely short full of cinematic nostalgia and the memories created from cinema trips. I haven’t seen many of the films in the video so my own one would be quite different, but the sentiment here resonated with me a lot.

How a Last of Us Part II Level is Made - The Last of Us Part 2 is probably my game of the year, and narratively, one of my favourite stories ever. This is a great video by the always excellent Game Maker’s Toolkit/Mark Brown examing some of the environmental design and development. [SPOILERS]

The Batman - DC FanDome Teaser - You know, maybe it is time DC branched out a bit with their films and roster of Superheroes, but when there’s still so many possible interesting stories/casting/and set-pieces yet to happen, maybe more Batman isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This trailer really nails the character.

Audio

Kermode on Film: Christopher Nolan Special - my favourite film critic discussing films by my (probably?) favourite film director. This is a big two and a half hour ranking of every film directed by Christopher Nolan with lots of interesting consideration and discussion about each one. My favourite, still, is The Prestige.

2020 Best Of - Just a very loose WIP playlist on Spotify of my favourite music this year so far: i’m going to add stuff as I discover it!

Other

Would You Search Through The Lonely Earth For Me - a one page, one player, journalling rpg, that focusses less on the quest and the adventurer and more on the treasure or artefact itself. I’m hoping to play a lot of solo-RPGs over September to get something creative going, this one is probably going to be the foundation.

Ailpol on Instagram - i’d be remiss if I didn’t link this, but my partner has been working hard and posting a lot of really great art on her instagram recently, go have a look!