Games I Played in 2021

Sable

It turns out where I want to be is on a hoverbike going through the desert with a destination in mind but no need to be there any time soon, and I absolutely will go check out that cool rock formation I saw off in the distance.

Sable is a joy and a treasure. No game understands the appeal of Breath of the Wild in the way that it does. Sable cares about people, everyone has a real voice and is living their own life that you get to glimpse as a traveler moving through. The space is empty enough that it is a delight to find someone or something out there, but not so empty that it feels like a slog.

Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2

I’ve never felt better playing a fighting game than this. Hitting buttons is incredible. The online play is garbage. What I look forward to most in a post-covid time is getting to really really play this game. I like it so much I’m willing to meet random people in the real world just to get some games in.

Death Stranding

The best and worst parts of a long walk outside with a friend you haven’t seen in a couple years.

Jump King

Jump King changed my brain, it reshaped it through moments big and small. It sandpapered down all the rough feelings I had about losing progress. It snapped my firm hold on the idea of “having made progress.” You can always fall down, you can always miss a jump, you can always jump again. Moments of triumph, moments of despair, I am no mere Jump Peasant, I am a Jump King and I ascend.

Hardspace Shipbreaker

It feels good to be good at a task. I get joy out of making things. It really fucking sucks that people don’t get to work on what they want and we live in a hellscape where labor is controlled by corporations who will kill you for 1 cent on the dollar if the lawsuit that drains your loved one’s will and energy for decades doesn’t cost more than what they have budgeted.

Forklift Load

If humans build AI to think like humans, AI will build AI to serve itself. And one of those AI will be inside a forklift.

Psychonauts 2

The best game of 2008 was released in 2021. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to play this game without having played Psychonauts 15 years ago. I love movement in 3d spaces and even I forget that the 3d platformer exists as a genre.
It is a Double Fine game through and through. Does it feel good to play? Not especially. Does it have any gameplay innovations? No. Is it visually inventive? Yes. Is the writing good? Absolutely.

Mr Driller

He drill

Bloodborne

I expect greatness out of Fromsoft games. I got greatness out of Bloodborne. The best Fromsoft game will always be the first one you played. For me Bloodborne is a really close second.

A Short Hike

Deeply charming. The best parts of a nice walk alone.

Anodyne 2

I’ve never played a game as weirdly or deliberately textured as Anodyne 2. This is a game with a slow start, a slow middle, and a slow ending. You turn into a car to move around a weird low poly low resolution textured overworld, you become nano-sized in order to clean dust out of people so they no longer feel or do bad.

All of the ugliness, the weirdness, the humanity, is deliberate.

I didn’t realize how much I cared about the story until it was over.

I don’t really know how Anodyne 2 made me feel. Like a better world was possible. That just because you can feel dark things doesn’t mean you’ll do dark things. That failure is an acceptable outcome if you are willing to try again. That oppressive systems don’t remove agency. That even small victories are worth fighting for.

Music I Listened to in 2021

Bruiser Wolf - Dope Game Stupid

Bruiser Wolf is taking the best punchlines from 5 other albums and layering them one song at a time. He doesn’t have any tricks to hide his writing. If he was any more clear in his delivery we’d be listening to an audio book. Even at his most confessional he’s funnier than anyone else out. The blandest lines get punched up by a fantastic sense of timing. All of the Bruiser Brigade albums that came out this year were good, but this is the only one I had on repeat.

“I was ashamed when people’d ask me what mama do / So I made up something crazy like, ‘yeah, she work at the zoo’ “

Roar - Pathétique Aesthétique

An incredibly full 22 minutes of music. Surprisingly emotionally mature for an album that talks about the end of a relationship. If someone told me this was their favorite album, I’d get it.

“Save all your effort that cannot be measured / currently you’re just a man selling vapor / arson eyes see a world of paper”

Wiki - Half God

Every Wiki album is a gift. He doesn’t really change but on this one he feels rejuvinated.

“But it all depends upon roll of the dice, spin of the dreidel / how’s it all up to luck when things are so seemingly stable/ I think I finally seem to see a way though”

Prince Daddy and The Hyena - Cosmic Thrill Seekers

Sometimes you fall in love with a thing instantly. I assumed that I’d stop liking this album so much over time, but here we are, months later and I still listen to this every other day. It gets across big ideas in small ways. It gets across small ideas in big ways. When I first described it to people I called it Space Punk. It feels more grounded after so much listening, but it has the world appraising confidence of punk while exploring one person’s relationship to earth. I’m a sucker for punk music with ambition and I haven’t been excited about an album this much in a few years.

“these are trying times / but I’m not even trying”

Best Movie

Heat

I don’t know if I watched Heat this year or last, I could look it up, but that doesn’t matter. I think about Heat a lot. I’ve only watched it in full one time. I’ve watched half of it many times, sometimes you just need about 90 minutes of Heat to get you through this life.

Anime I Watched in 2021

Megalo Box

“They don’t make headstones for stray dogs.”

Megalo Box 2: Nomad

The real treasure of watching the first part of Megalo Box is that you get to watch the second part after. Take at least a couple weeks, or maybe years and then watch Nomad. Don’t refresh your memory beforehand, just remember how good it felt at the end. Nomad is expertly crafted to play off of your emotions of the first part, and not just for cheap tricks. Nomad respects and values that you care about the characters and uses that to tell story with some real heft.

Violet Evergarden

Best show about a child soldier turned typist maybe ever. Just pretend the movie doesn’t exist and it’ll be a good time.

Iria: Zeiram the Animation

Sometimes the 90s fucking rips. Cooler than anything else you’ve ever liked.

Addendum

I had a bunch of stuff from 2020 but I never fully wrote down that post

Music

Serengeti - Ajai

Food House - Food House

Games

Dang I played a lot of good games in 2020.

Kentucky Route Zero (Act V)

if you’ve ever seen a sentence and said “reading words makes me feel some type of way.” If you’ve ever looked at an old truck on the highway and thought about what it would be like to drive it. If you’ve ever looked at a run down store and wondered how long they’ve been in business, and how much longer they’ll stay open. Sometimes you wait a few years for a thing and it doesn’t disappoint you. Sometimes you finish a piece of media and don’t know why you are crying.

Ape Out

The most singularly cathartic ending to a game ever. The credits are like 10 minutes long and I watched every second, reveling in the ecstatic music and color.

Power Rangers Battle For The Grid

The neutral is very deep and hectic. I don’t understand why the damage is so high. I love the game, I just wish every interaction didn’t end with a touch of death combo into an ungodly mix into another ToD. Beautiful system, convinced me that fighting games don’t need motion inputs at all.

Lethal League Blaze

Best pick up and play couch game around. If your friends don’t want to play smash with you, try this.

Vision Soft Reset

A really cool concept that is well executed. A metroidvania where you use timeloops to explore. A complicated idea but actually playing the game is easy and fun. More people should know about this game. There aren’t any prizes for solving hard design problems, but I’m happy the creator did and also made a good game.

Hades Disco Elysium Ori and The Will of the Wisps Off Peak Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor Monster Train Griftlands Outer Wilds Lonely Mountain Downhill Control Tetris Effect Tooth and Tail Blasphemous