Recency Bias Volume 1

In this, the very first of these updates, I want to talk about what you can expect going forward. Every couple of weeks I intend to write up and post a new volume in which I discuss the various media I have been enjoying or have at least experienced between the previous update and the current one. The primary focus will be on video games, but I will most likely always mention a movie or two, or a television series and occasionally some books since I tend to blast through at least one every week.

And with that, let’s just launch right in.

Alan Wake: Remastered

As a child, horror was not a big part of my media consumption, nor was it really anyone in my household’s. The adult version of me mourns this loss, as the horror genre has become a staple of the things I enjoy, from film to literature (Shirley Jackson stan logging on) and, of course, video games.

But for many reasons beyond my control or understanding, classic horror games can be notoriously hard to get a hold of in the modern era. I was very thankful for the remake of Silent Hill 2, which I thoroughly enjoyed in spite of a few criticisms, and not terribly long ago I had a great time playing through all of the Amnesia games.

Seriously, The Bunker? So good.

If there’s another go-to genre for me, it’s camp. My hunger for cheese is insatiable. I can always watch an episode of the original Star Trek. Twin Peaks is perhaps my favorite show of all time. I crave what is earnest and sincere, budgetary restrictions be damned! So after years of hearing how beloved Alan Wake was and how SUPREMELY dorky it was, I knew I had to try it.

What I got was a fun romp filled with callbacks to Twin Peaks and Stephen King (like, so many King references), a game which employs live-action actors selected from the dev team to perform Twilight Zone parodies and make bizarre, Lynchian recordings of the protagonist struggling to understand the nature of creation and the twisted situation he’s found himself trapped within. It’s a game with a ton of heart; awkward and goofy, not all that scary, with a reasonably fun if at times frustrating combat system.

And god damn, so many collectibles!

William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy / Cyberpunk 2077

Imagine this: you’ve just read the extraordinary trilogy of books often cited as one of the foundational works of modern cyberpunk. Excellent characters, beautiful and tragic concepts of speculative fiction, and questions on the nature of intelligence, of existing in a world which actively wants to crush you under its heels or is otherwise indifferent to you and your suffering.

You smile. “This is cyberpunk!” You cry to the heavens. “Down with corpo scum!” You dye your hair. You refer to checking social media as “jacking in”. You rewatch the Matrix movies.

Then you play CD Projekt Red’s controversial Cyberpunk 2077 and are reminded that, oh, this is cyberpunk.

The rampant Orientalism, the goofy slang, the casual violence done to women and often towards sex workers, the appropriation of West African religious practices; all of the most problematic elements that have rooted themselves at the heart of the genre.

Here it is, in all its splendor with nothing at all to say except “corporations = bad probably but not in any specific way”.

Bugs and jank aside, Cyberpunk 2077 is not an un-fun game to play. Combat is fast-paced, the world is full of detail. My favorite parts of the game were just walking around the city streets, seeing the sights and people-watching. I had a great time sneaking through dingy apartment buildings concealing drug laboratories and picking off enemies with precision and a little bit of hacking finesse.

But that’s kind of where the fun stops. After the opening several hours are gone, the game really starts to show the limits of its imagination. The writing is at times, deeply and profoundly unthoughtful. Its ceiling of quality is “mildly entertaining”, dragged further down by a pathological need to reference other games (and, bewilderingly, “The Office”), not to mention the repeated references to Gibson’s work.

Can we just agree that this should be the last game to make a “the cake is a lie” or “the cake is a lie” adjacent joke?

Not even Keanu Reeves can save this.

Star Wars: Andor Season 2

As of writing this I have only seen the first few episodes but it is truly awe-inspiring how excellent every aspect of this show was in season one and continues to be in season two. I was one of the few survivors who sat through the entirety of “Rise of Skywalker” (easily my worst movie experience ever) and even though the early days of “The Mandalorian” were promising I was doubtful that Star Wars could ever grow out of its obsession with Jedi and bounty hunters to tell a story that was unique, one focused on the intimate details of living in the Star Wars universe. A story that was altogether more adult-oriented.

Andor delivers, adding in some of the most gripping writing and performances I’ve ever seen on television. It’s easily my favorite Star Wars property and I can’t wait to finish it up and immediately rewatch the whole show.