#nerdybits | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nerdy-bits · 3 years

Text

Ghost of Tsushima and PlayStation Prestige Storytelling

There is an unspoken, yet constantly spoken, expectation that exists in the game industry that demands that games change over time. That they evolve. Yet, it is an expectation that is demanded hypocritically, or perhaps misguidedly.

When I started writing about games I remember holding a firm stance that Call of Duty was actually garbage, because it was all just recycled gameplay with minimal facelift year-to-year. There is this unspoken standard in games, it seems, that demands a distinguishable improvement over time. Yet, it never seems to quantify its own qualifications. What does that improvement entail? Surely graphical and mechanical improvements, yes? Do those expectations also include things like gameplay evolution? Does Last of Us II need to feel different than its predecessor or is it possible to just build on the framework that its priors have already laid?

None of these questions seem to have answers. At least I have never seen anyone take the time to sit down and build a more specific set of guidelines with which one can view a game’s…”uniqueness”? See, I even struggle to find the right word for the concept as a whole.

So let me start over, if not for you than for myself.

When I sat behind my desk to start playing Ghost of Tsushima, I was immediately confronted by a feeling of familiarity. I knew how to play this game already. Combat was simple, light and heavy attack, parry, counter-attack. It all felt very Assassin’s Creed 2, or perhaps even Arkham Asylum. Truthfully, I haven’t played the game in close to three months, but the mechanics are so easy to pick up that I have no doubt it would be a breeze to return.

Ghost of Tsushima, for the last AAA exclusive release on the PS4, is largely a summary of the genre for the last generation and a half. It’s both extremely appropriate and - in a sort of way - unavoidably disappointing. See, Sony has realized its version of what we call Prestige Television. Allow me the short diversion to explain myself.

In 200, 2008, and 2010 AMC discovered that it could deliver a version of television that bordered on the production value of film, but also allowed its storytellers the ability to tell a story over ten or twelve hours. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead all established that television need not only be a procedural drama focused on serialized formulaity. They established that building a prolonged narrative arc could pay off, and draw record viewership in the process. Were they the first to do this? No, of course not. The Sopranos, The Wire, and before them the likes of Hill Street Blues, or Wiseguy. But see, the difference between the latter examples there and the former, is the accessibility. Hill Street Blues airing on NBC and Wiseguy on CBS. The Sopranos and The Wire continued the tradition of stellar television but on a far more exclusive stage. HBO wasn’t and still isn’t in most households. Then, at some point in the late 2000s, cable television stepped to the plate, and prestige television reemerged, and this time it propagated outward in every direction. Now nearly every network wants its own prestige show.

But what does any of this have to do with the Ghost of Tsushima and PlayStation? I think that Sucker Punch is another studio swallowed up by this generation of Playstation Prestige Storytelling. If swallowed up sounds a bit negative, that is on purpose. Last of Us started something, and after seven years of AAA exclusives focused on telling mature stories, Tsushima feels like the perfect bookend to this generation. A generation of exclusives full of prestige storytelling but not particularly full of unique or revolutionary gameplay experiences.

Look at both Last of Us titles, God of War, Uncharted, and Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s hard to find better single player experiences over the last 8 years. Each game is well written, expertly acted, and smartly directed. I deeply enjoyed each one. But over time it was hard to not realize one similarity: PlayStation exclusives don’t really push any boundaries outside of delivering highly manicured story and stunning visuals.

The toughest part about writing this is making clear that my opinion, despite sounding critical, isn’t. I own my PS4 for these titles. I lap them up hungrily. I feel I’ve just recognized what they are for me. Beyond a way to stay relevant, they act as a window into some of the best writing in the industry.

Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful game complimented by an equally beautiful story. That story resides in the most refined version of recycled gameplay mechanics I have ever seen. And what’s more? It absolutely works. Tsushima is the summation of open world games for the last decade. It does very little new, but everything it does, it does markedly better than its predecessors. Arguably its most unique feature is its navigational breeze. Removing the non-diegetic quest marker and dotted-line trail for a more diegetic system that draws the breeze to guide you. The flourish of foliage is stunning almost always, and by hour three I had forgotten that it was a mechanic completely, and felt it more as a system of the world’s design.

But the combat is Arkham, the exploration is Assassin’s Creed, and the stealth is Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell. But the cutscenes. The attention to detail in exposition and composition is deliberate and masterful. In the opening moments Jin finds his family katana in a dark room. After a flashback, showing you his first moments learning under Lord Shimura, he unsheaths the blade over his head. The high moon shining through the torn walls casting a brilliant silver glare on across the folded steel. He positions the blade in a Jodan Kasumi stance, flaring the light of the moon across his face. This extremely good shit is painted across every scene in this game.

As much as I found myself quietly laughing at the novelty of a game made of a generation of parts, it wasn’t long before I absolutely didn’t care anymore.

That’s the trick. The conceit. Prestige television ostensibly didn’t change what film had been doing for decades. Rather it took that formula and drew it out, carried it over to a different medium, and used viewers’ desire for a good story to leverage their attention. God of War takes the Dark Souls formula for combat and boils it down, hones, and tunes it to its purposes. Uncharted is Tomb Raider with a heaping spoonful of Indiana Jones. Last of Us is almost literally apocalyptic Uncharted. Bloodborne is, well, Lovecraftian Dark Souls. You see the point. PlayStation’s story based exclusives, have built upon what has come before to hone something truly special for each of its games. Just not unique.

Podcasting and writing about games independently means you play a lot of games to stay relevant. A lot of games. I end up putting at least a dozen hours into most releases. When I like a game it generally means mainlining it to make way for the next game. I put 110 hours into Valhalla in the month and a half since it has been out. Playing that much means that when games are similar it can start to drag on you. It almost impacted my enjoyment of Ghost of Tsushima.

I started extremely critical of Tsushima’s willingness to borrow. I thought it cheap and lacking imagination. The story even immediately impacted me as a bit of a general take on very mainstream ideas of Japanese culture. I saw the combat and, though thoroughly enjoying it, kept reminding myself that it is just recycled mechanics. The first five hours of the game I tried so hard to convince myself that Ghost of Tsushima was too much of a copycat to be enjoyed. I’m honestly not even sure what it was that changed my mind. All I know is, around hour six, I realized what was really going on under the hood of Tsushima, and I fell in love with the notion of paying homage to what has come before. And that brings me closer to my point.

Ghost of Tsushima is Assassin’s Creed 2 made better. Logical visual update afforded by the passage of time aside, it’s combat is smoother, systems more diagetic, design more nuanced. It’s the culmination of a generation of games striving to be more. But it’s not the end of that pursuit. While Tsushima is incredible it’s not perfect. There are small flaws. Some persistent, some one off.

But it’s another step forward. In the journey of PlayStation Prestige Storytelling it is a logical step. An investigation of further leaning on established systems as an avenue for improvement. Expect future titles to do the same. We are definitely getting a second Tsushima game. Count on that. We also know we’re getting another God of War.

PlayStation exclusives refined themselves this generation. They are heightened storytelling experiences with a tremendous amount of good writing, jaw dropping visuals, and reimagined mechanics. Have they been a consistent wellspring of innovation? No. But then neither has prestige television. It’s a familiar system, twisted and turned, made to look fresh. And it’s perfect, and learning.

@LubWub ~Caleb

#ghost of tsushima #playstation #exclusive #article #readable #review #sucker punch #ps4 #games #nerdybits

2 notes · View notes

figdays · 5 years

Photo

“Ugly But Trying” Ringer Tee // NerdyBit

#ringer tee #tee #tee shirt #NerdyBit

36 notes · View notes

magicalshopping · 5 years

Photo

♡ 8-Bit Senpai Snapback - Link in the source! ♡

#kawaii #senpai #fashion blog #nerdybit #under 30 #snapback #hat #accessories

10 notes · View notes

midnight-pursona · 5 years

Photo

‪Shout out to @nerdy_bit for this beautiful Bowsette shirt! I love all of their shirts and gear! Go give them a follow/like and maybe by some merch!! ‬ ‪#bowsette #bowsettecosplay #bowsettemerch #nerdybit #meme #mememerch #shoutout ‬ https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq3kkIbntTz/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=h4tay8jvfwq7

#bowsette #bowsettecosplay #bowsettemerch #nerdybit #meme #mememerch #shoutout

5 notes · View notes

cosplaysonarae · 5 years

Photo

Happy to have come but sad that I’m already leaving ♡ ♡ Check out @nerdy_bit for hats (like mine), shirts, shorts, jerseys, and more! 

#acc19 #animecalifornia2019 #anime #cosplay #cosplayer #manga #animecon #animeconvention #maika blend s #maikablends #kimono #nerdybit #hat

0 notes

otakify · 7 years

Photo

@nerdy_bit had the dope stuff perlers out here @lvlupexpo . Make sure to check out their stuff if you guys happen to be here the rest of the weekend. 🙏 #nerdybit #lvlupexpo #perler #anime #animeforlife #animefollow #animeaddict #animelover #animefreak #animeforever #japanese #animefan #manga #mangaaddict #mangafreak #mangalover #mangaforever #otaku #otakulife #otakulifestyle #otakify #california #losangeles (at LVL UP EXPO)

1 note · View note

crimsonsongstress · 7 years

Photo

One of my favorite things I got from the Convention was this badass Yandere hat. Originally I was like either Thicc or Waifu and some others that were hella funny, ended up with Yandere. It was meant to bed TOTALLY CHECK OUT NERDY BIT!!! They do hats, shirts, hair clips of different fandoms!. You can even get custom orders!!! Totally will be buying from them again, they are fun to talk to and awesome artists! Check their Insta out and their etsy!! @nerdy_bit #NerdyBit #8bitawesome #yandere #anime #funny #love #coolesthat #hanadokicon2017 #hanadokicon

#love #8bitawesome #coolesthat #yandere #hanadokicon #funny #hanadokicon2017 #anime #nerdybit

0 notes

costumewrangler · 9 years

Link

Superhero . . . gnomes? These nerdy bits are hilarious.

Nerdy Bits: Insane Cylon Centurion Cosplay, Superhero Gnomes, Skeletors Best Insults, Dorito...

Every day, the internet produces an astounding amount of goodies and gems. Most hilarious, some amusing, but all worth at least a few seconds of your time. We here at Nerd Bastards try to bring you the best bits of news and nerdery the webz has to offer, with a bit of snark thrown in. But sometimes...

#NerdyBits #Gnomes

0 notes

nerdy-bits · 4 years

Text

XCOM: Chimera Squad Review

XCOM Chimera Squad is my definition of a pleasant surprise. Just soldiering through quarantine on a lazy April Tuesday afternoon, across my news feed comes the improbable: a new XCOM game getting shadow dropped. Just a short ten days away, Chimera Squad would be releasing. What’s more? If you preordered, or purchased before May first, the game was only ten dollars.

Now I fully recognize, it may be the trying times we’re enduring, but that lazy tuesday suddenly felt like Christmas.

I’ve been a huge fan of XCOM since the reboot, Enemy Unknown, was released in 2012. I remember doing my research and discovering XCOM had first launched in 1994, but I never had the chance to play those games. Regardless, ten minutes into Enemy Unknown I knew I was sold.

Where Chimera Squad differs from its predecessors is, well, in a lot of places. Where XCOM 1 and 2 finds you operating as the Commander of XCOM, at first an international force assembled to fight back alien invasion, then as a resistance seeking to overthrow alien overlords, Chimera Squad is the result of an XCOM initiative called the Reclamation Project. With the war against the occupying aliens won, XCOM tasks an interspecies team of operatives to support the police of City 31. The former hub of Advent control, City 31 has become the world’s model city for human and alien integration.

As Chimera Squad, as directed by the Reclamation Project, you are tasked with seeking out and pacifying rogue groups in the city hoping to hamper its lofty goals, and simultaneously track down and reclaim scattered wartime technologies. But, of course, things don’t go specifically to plan. In the first moments of the game you are tasked with saving the life of Mayor Nightingale. Taken hostage by dissidents, 31PD is at a standstill and calls in the cavalry. With Chimera Squad so newly formed, Verge, your Sectoid Psionic teammate has to take a cab and catch up with the team on site.

That is the other way that Chimera Squad breaks the mold. Where other XCOM games give you a force of editable, backstory-less characters, this title has twelve operatives with names, backstories, voice actors, and personality. I wasn’t sure how I would like this change at first. Part of my love of the series is the stories that I can attach to the characters as I grow familiar with each of their abilities. And losing those soldiers becomes so much more personal when they fall in battle.

In Chimera Squad there is no such thing as losing a character. In fact, character death results in a game over screen and a “Load Checkpoint” prompt. Gravely wounded soldiers have an increased chance at earning a scar, a semipermanent debuff that can only be cleared by sending them to rehabilitative training. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about these changes. I have moments from previous games that have stuck with me for years, based on the deaths or retrieval of lost characters. Chimera Squad axes that in the interest of telling a story with its characters, and for such a radical change, it really pays off.

Dialogue in-mission feels largely the same. Conversations back at base however, really lend to the depth of the characters. I found myself constantly bemused by the tidbits of information I could glean from these operatives interacting with each other. It only takes a couple of lines to understand where Godmother gets her callsign. In one instance, Cherub - the affectionate mascot of the squad - asks Godmother to sign off on paperwork allowing the soldier and scientist who found him to adopt him. See Cherub is a clone soldier. Created by Advent for war, but woken after the Ethereal mind control had been lifted. He explains that the two people who found him, set him free, had gotten married a few years later and now they wanted to adopt him.

I truly had no expectation that I would be charmed this much by an XCOM title. But it didn’t end there.

Later in the game, given the opportunity to recruit another unit to Chimera’s ranks, I chose Zephyr, a Hybrid bruiser whose only wield-able weapons were her fists. I rarely choose melee characters, but because Chimera Squad is so unique, I figured I would try something new. In her first mission she was a blast to use. Her attack rooted enemies, meaning they can’t move on their next turn, and after her attack she is granted an additional action point so that she can distance herself from enemies that would take advantage of her close range to shoot her. I was convinced. Then we went back to base.

In her one and only base-dialogue I heard, she asked Cherub to be her training dummy. Except, she didn’t call him by his name, she called him Knock-Off. When confronted by Terminal (another agent) that he has a name Zephyr waved them away and called for Knock-Off to come along. Always the team morale agent, he complied, telling his defender that it was ok.

I never used Zephyr again. She literally developed workshop projects for the next 20 hours of my campaign.

Again, I never expected that an XCOM game would make me feel like this about my soldiers. And quite frankly, I absolutely fell in love with this game because of it.

Chimera Squad is clearly built on the XCOM 2 engine. As one would assume, with that fact comes the realization that a lot of the combat mechanics for this iteration of the game are immediately familiar. This lends to Chimera Squad feeling like an expansion in a way that few stand-alones achieve. After learning the non-complex intricacies of the Breach phase, a shock and awe stage that starts every encounter, combat falls into a rhythm that fans of the series will be comfortable with. With one major adjustment.

Rather than the “I go, you go” turn-based nature of games previous, this title takes an approach that feels far more like an initiative roll in a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The devs at Firaxis re-appropriate the term “Interleaved” here. Traditionally meaning to place blank pages between printed pages of a book, here it simply means that your enemy will take turns with you, within a timeline displayed on the right side of the screen.

This forces players, otherwise familiar with the privilege of running through all of their characters before the enemy gets a chance to act, to plan more carefully. You may only have one agent in line at the start of a fight before hostiles get to retaliate. This leads to an increase in the importance of finding the most synergistic combination of agent abilities. Who can manipulate that timeline? Who can debuff, incapacitate, or eliminate targets the fastest and with the most cascading effect?

I found myself, at the halfway point of my playthrough (about 15 hours), settling into my squad. Godmother, a mobile, agile, hard hitting, shotgun wielding enforcer. Verge, a Sectoid psionic, with the ability to disable, berserk, and mind control assailants. Patchwork, a techie drone pilot whose drone shock can arc between enemies with a chance of debuffing every target zapped. And Finally, Blueblood a gunslinger with two pistols, one that ignores cover, and the ability to fire multiple times per turn.

In any situation, I could finagle my way into disabling or dispatching two targets fully or up to eight targets partially within my first four actions. Add to this the few odds and ends you can nab from the Scavenger Market, a transient market that visits every week, or side mission rewards, and you can find yourself with a few epic weapons, specialized buff grenades like the Motile Inducer. Two free actions, immediately, to whomever you throw it at.

Finding these synergies and supplements, is at the core of Chimera Squad, and while the process isn’t entirely unique to this title, it certainly feels more important when the turns are interleaved, the quarters are close, and your innate advantage lasts a single, Rainbow Six-esque, breaching action.

Over the course of your game you will investigate three factions in City 31: The Progeny, Grey Phoenix, and Sacred Coil. Each faction has different units, abilities, and motivations, and as you take out each faction, the surviving factions will scale up in response. It is your job to root out their goals, foil their plans, and neutralize the threatening potential they hold. As illustrated by the comic book-styled cutscenes, Chimera Squad is against the wall and the clock, as unrest in the city rises you have to manage threats based on their cost to your levels of unrest in the nine districts of the city. You will forgo missions that have good rewards to manage the unrest in an unruly district. Spend your investigation points to deploy Security, Technology, or Financial teams in each district to access buffs that give you the ability to stave off increased unrest, decrease unrest in specific districts, or in the city overall.

At its core Chimera Squad is truly an XCOM game, forcing its players to train their soldiers, research projects in the workshop, manage unrest across a map, and manage resources, all while fielding an active combat team in harrowing and varied encounters. Is it XCOM 3? No, not at all, but one shouldn’t conflate the two. Chimera squad is a $20 exploration into the ways that XCOM can, and I believe will, evolve. Expect to see hero characters in the future, with backstories and voice acting. Expect to see multiple paths in the campaign, with escalative properties as the game progresses. But more than anything, expect to feel right at home with Chimera Squad, despite the ways it alters the formula. You’ve simply moved on from Sazerac to Vieux Carre. Your rye whiskey is still there, just this time you have some sweet vermouth. Enjoy.

#xcom #chimera squad #review #video #nerdybits #strategy games #firaxis #pc

20 notes · View notes

nerdy-bits · 3 years

Text

Episode 124: Holiday Question Bucket

Happy Holidays everyone! Sorry for the delayed upload. Caleb’s wife had a baby on Christmas and that kind took precedent over everything for a moment there.

We recorded this episode on the 23rd, and boy was it fun! Join the Bounty Board crew on a special holiday episode where we rapid fire some questions that Caleb definitely didn’t rip from the Waypoint podcast. We talk favorite holiday foods and drinks, discuss whether or not ham is actually bullshit, and much much more. Happy holidays y’all!

Join us on this week’s episode of Bounty Board!

BLACK LIVES MATTER

HOW TO SUPPORT BLM

You can listen to us below, or on iTunes , Stitcher, Spotify, and Google Play! So whether you have an Apple or Android device, we are available for streaming and download. Give us a rating and a subscribe, we would really appreciate it. You can also catch the episode on YOUTUBE!!!

@LubWub @sketchsawyer @sergeantsodium @TechSupreme

#holiday #xmas #christmas #bounty board #nerdybits #podcast #games #video games #xbox #playstation #game of the year #GOTY #cyberpunk 2077 #ghost of tsushima #assassins creed #ac valhalla #watch dogs legion

0 notes

nerdy-bits · 3 years

Text

An Update of Sorts

The last few months have been...rough. That’s putting it mildly. It’s been a full year now since I quit my job at GameStop, a full year of pandemic lockdowns started, and four months since the birth of my son. A heaping spoonful of good added to a stew of less than ideal. For the largest amount of that time, video games have been the only real outlet I had. The lockdown did something to my brain, to everyone’s brain, and writing, creating “content” (blech I hate that word), has taken the back burner. I did put out one review last year. But that’s really it. And I hate it.

Immediately following my exodus from GameStop I found myself drawn to games that replaced the feeling of having a job. I dove headlong into Stardew Valley. I found a lot of solace building a routine in that game, internalizing my tasks, fostering relationships with the locals, making progress towards a sustainable farm. IT was nice, and completely out of character for me. I generally played fast-paced shooters, Rocket League, or any number of other competitive multiplayer games. Stardew acted as a salve. A respite from the harebrained frenetic back and forth of Call of Duty.

But as time went on, Stardew fell off. Not exactly sure why. I miss it greatly, but my buddy Ryan and I have struggled to make time for it since we last put it down. We’re only just now making plans that we seem to be adamant on following through with. Still, despite finding games throughout the last year to help take my attention away from the in-person interaction deficit we all faced, I could not find the motivation to create. To really make things.

The last few months have been rough. After my son was born, on Christmas (poor bastard), everything changed. Not in a negative way at all. But the months immediately following his birth meant a lot of time away from streaming, podcasting became a second or third priority, and personal creation - already at an all-time low - took another hit. Now, with my wife back at work and the kids spending the majority of afternoons at the in-laws, I find myself trying to reacclimate to being in my office. Trying to utilize my time and tools to get back into a routine of making things.

And it has been unbelievably hard. Far harder than I would have hoped.

Being an independent journalist is hard. File that next to other supremely obvious statements that I have made so far in this piece. It’s a struggle I am familiar with, sure, but in this exact moment the difficulty comes with a mental roadblock I generally try to avoid.

Depression is a weird and all encompassing beast. My journey with it started back in 2011. I quit playing baseball that year. An outlet that I had in my life for nearly 15 years. I would play a few seasons of summer ball outside of school, but for the most part that hobby died on the vine. I could have taken that further. I hate myself for it at least once a week.

Shortly after that two things happened. I started smoking and I started down the path of being a game journalist. Some good with the bad.

I have done some pretty awesome things writing about games, from getting early code for games, to getting into a few events due to my credentials. I have written some of my best work as well. A review of Far: Lone Sails that would grab the attention of the creators, a touching piece about playing Florence in the ICU waiting room as my grandfather’s passing drew close. All of these things have served as a sort of “proof of concept.” A means for me to step back and say to myself that I can do this. But at the same time that I was writing those I was also encountering a deep sense of imposter syndrome. Did I belong in this space? If the only pieces I could write were centered on the death of my grandfather could I really call myself a journalist? Other articles came and went, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was a bit of a fraud. Banking on emotional trauma to draw attention.

The last few months have been rough. With an ongoing battle over managing my time between being a father and husband, overcoming crippling depressive bouts, fighting against overwhelming feelings of imposter syndrome, and trying to dodge the expectations that I put on myself and others have I have found myself in a rut. A deep, dark, and lonely rut.

The last couple years have been tough for podcasting. We lost one member to work and family expansion (congrats Eric, truly), another left for personal reasons that I’m not quite sure I understood at the time or understand now, but we bounced back. We added Ben and Tech to the formula and things have been going great. For the most part. I can’t escape the feeling that I let all of them down on a regular basis, largely because of a lack of output on my part. A lack that I know is coming from severe mental struggles and balancing an ever complicating home life. The point is, I know I’m falling short. And I hate it. But I’m kind of afraid to express my regret and explain myself because my imposter syndrome makes all of my genuine reasons sound like vapid excuses. After all, other people are making things, why can’t I?

Wanting to get into journalism or, on the macro level, into the gaming industry at large remains my primary goal. I’m just struggling right now. I don’t want anyone to feel required to do work that I can’t consistently pull off. I don’t want anyone to feel like they are holding NerdyBits up while I’m over here wallowing in a pit. I have big plans. But big plans require mental fortitude, and that is an ongoing battle.

I guess what I am trying to say is: The last few months have been rough. But I’m not going anywhere, I’m just building up my focus again. Stacking stones. Steeping the tea leaves. I’m starting a series focused on storytelling in games for Bounty Board, and that is going to be followed by a series focused on games and depression. I have articles that I’m tumbling in my head. I have a new capture card on its way so I can get back to streaming more. I have creative projects in progress for the first time in what feels like years. I’m starting to get that first domino to rock. As soon as I can get it to fall, I know things will start happening more regularly.

So this is a progress update. Patch notes if you will. Bug fixes and network stability patches. I’m Outriders right now. A good game marred by a bit of launch instability but nevertheless a work in progress that will inevitably be a place for people to spend countless hours. The NerdyBits Show rocks, Bounty Board is still strong, the stream is coming back. Articles are in the hopper.

Be kind to yourself, everyone. The last year will have an impact on all of us for the next several months, perhaps even throughout 2021. But everyone is hurting, in a weird place mentally. But MLB The Show is on Xbox for the first time ever and ya boy is jacked. Stick with it, fight through the voices within and without, put your blades to the whetstone and sharpen your wit. We all could be better at communicating with each other. So let’s get better together, eh? Also...did I mention baseball is back on Xbox!?

Let’s see what we can do with NerdyBits in 2021.

#depression #games #video games #article #readable #personal #post #nerdybits #blog

0 notes

nerdy-bits · 3 years

Text

Letting My Mind Drift

My family has always been enamored by cars and motorcycles. For a long time that fascination focused on motorcycles exclusively. My uncle bought a harley, which led my grandparents to buy a Harley and Royal Enfield (grandpa and grandma), which led me to buy a Suzuki V-Strom. This was complemented by friends buying yet another Harley, a Kawaski Vulcan, and a Yamaha F-07. Motorcycling controlled our get-togethers for more than 4 years. Eventually the moto-fever faded, but not before it made a lasting impact in our lives. We watched motorcycle documentaries like Why We Ride, shows like The Long Way Down and The Long Way Round, and fell in love with small market makers like Shinya Kimura and even Keeanu Reeves’ Arch Motorcycle Company. In the height of this fascination we also fell in love with BBC’s Top Gear.

As motorcycles transitioned out of our main means of transportation the love remained, but a growing interest in automotives began to seep into the cracks. Top Gear was always on repeat in the Sawyer household. As comes with watching a show this closely, we began to think and even jokingly speak as hosts Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond when we saw cars. Now, years after the Top Gear fallout, The Grand Tour is making its way into our sphere of conversation. But it isn’t alone.

I have always dabbled in driving games. I have fond memories of winning a few races in Gran Tourismo well before I was old enough to understand the ins and outs of tuning an automobile for the track. I remember outrunning the cops in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Street races in Midnight Club, drag races for pink slips in Blur (I think?), drifting in Need for Speed Underground. I have fond memories of specific moments of car games, but very few of those same games have kept my attention for very long.

I tend to attribute this attention deficit to the same reason I don’t really play fighting games. I tend to play my games for the story, diving headlong into narrative adventure, strategy, or roleplaying games. I can play XCOM, Mass Effect, or God of War for days. I find the simplicity, or lack of implicit depth, a bit of a turn off. That’s not me saying those games don’t have depth. I love watching EVO tournaments and enjoy duking it out with friends on occasion, but the learning curve to skill in those games is often steeper than I have patience for, given the fact those games tend to be just that: learning the core mechanics of the fighting and perfecting that knowledge.

I loved to hop into a few races, trade some paint, slide out a slick drift, and grab some air, but I rarely stuck around to perfect any of those skills.

Fast forward to Forza Motorsport 4 and 5. If there is a better example of dipping your towns into something, I’m not sure I know it. I specifically remember jumping in with Ryan (@sergeantsodium) on one specific occasion and attempting to drift. I failed miserably. Then, as if to rub salt in my wounds, Ryan had me pull my vehicle about twelve feet from the wall and proceeded to drift the entire bend leading to my position, and weave his car neatly between my own car and the wall at a cool 50-60mph. It was a marvel to behold. It was also my signal to log off of the game, not come back for weeks, and trade the game to GameStop a month or so later.

Then three things happened: Forza Horizon 4 came out. I learned that my control scheme wasn’t conducive to what I was wanting to do. 2020 happened.

Let's break that down. Forza Horizon 4 came out in 2018 to great reviews. What’s better, it was on Game Pass, so I had no reason not to at least try it. The opening moments were like an IV drip of endorphins. A shot glass full of joy. The music, the changing of seasons showcasing their weather systems, the production, the cars, the visuals. It was an all out assault on the senses.

About a year after that first experience, after again watching Ryan drift an entire roundabout, weaving in and out of traffic without missing a shift or beat, we joined a session together with the express goal of teaching me to drift. In moments I learned that a) I was doing it all wrong, and that b) my settings were also getting in the way. Traction Control off, ABS off, manual shifting on, in moments I felt like a new person.

Then 2020 happened and all of the outdoors interaction in most people’s lives came to a grinding halt. No more bike nights at Schlafly Bottleworks, no more long road trips, nothing. Sometime around May I found my way back into Forza Horizon 4. Sometime around May I found my niche.

Having learned the tricks to drifting, all that remained was perfecting the use of those skills. So i took to the tarmac with my Ford Focus hatchback, a car I actually owned at the time, and began working out the kinks of letting the rear end slide out, handbrake turns, feathering the gas, up and downshifting, using gravity, and nailing the perfect run of drifts. Strangely, a process that once turned me away, turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It was simple and complex, bundled into one. It was almost zen like at times. The music in my headphones pulsing, the engine roaring under the hood, the snap-crack of the exhaust, the screech of tires. While grinding out the skill of drifting, I began to let my mind, like my car, drift.

Drifting became an escape and car building became an obsession. I would log into Horizon and skim through the car catalogue looking for cars that piqued my interest. Turns out I have a type. Retro and boxy-body, or modern import tuners. I have an ‘80 Abarth Fiat 131 (typically a rally car), a slick ‘81 Volkswagen Scirocco S, an absolutely sharp ‘69 Nissan Fairlady Z 432, a ‘97 Mazda RX-7, a Hoonigan inspired ‘73 AMC Gemlin X, a rip-roaring ‘69 Chevy Nova Super Sport 396, an 81’ Ford Fiesta XR2, and - to keep this list short, ha - a spritely ‘74 Honda Civic RS. You’ll see I left out my ‘17 Focus RS. Honestly, though it started the craze, it is far from the top of my priority list.

Each of these cars I have learned extensively, though I shy away from saying I’ve learned them inside and out. Each has its little quirk, be it powering through longform extended bends or nimbly sliding through tight switchbacks. But still, each feels like a piece of art I built, and each rev, gear shift, and spinout builds my knowledge, banshee shrieking through the streets of Edinburgh, sliding the rain slick streets of Lakehurst Forest, or ripping up and down the rolling switches in Derwent Valley.

When riding a motorcycle there is a moment where your conscious brain, focused on the road and balance, recedes into unconsciousness, allowing your normally subconscious thoughts to creep to the front. You think of abstracts: color, sound, smell, feel. The taste of the rain, the spidering cracks in the concrete beneath you. Forza Horizon 4 has granted a return to a form of that process for me. As the controller rumbles and vibrates in my hands I feel the tires slip out, the engine scream for air, the exhaust bark in protest. My mind drifts into a less stressful place, focused instead on the power I lend the engine, the grip of my tires, the sound of my tachometer redlining out of a turn. My mind imagines the smells of fall leaves, spring showers, summer concrete, and terpene-hinted snow.

And then there is rally. Like drifting, a whole skill unto itself demanding practice. The brief silence as you catch air, a pensive pause, the slam of the suspension when gravity pulls me back down, the crash of water. Feeling the rocks and gravel tumbling beneath my wheels is a new sensation. My ‘82 Lancia 037 Stradale is bucking for more.

@LubWub ~Caleb

#racing #forza #driving games #sport games #forza horizon 4 #drifting #rally #nerdybits #article #readable

1 note · View note