Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (Switch 2)

This was not the first game I was expecting to play on the Switch 2, but it turned out to be a wonderful first exposure. This is probably the core Nintendo franchise with the youngest appeal, which meant it was not challenging whatsoever. There are no fail states, so there is no barrier to progress. Instead of being boring, however, it was a great way to feel my way around a new console—not that it is all that different from the last one. It was not at all a bad game in its own right, either. Each level is designed in a way to poke around and learn new things about a creature. This culminates in one big goal to advance to the next level, which was always satisfying to figure out. None of this is laid out in the level though; instead, it all surfaces through base exploration of the environment. After finishing a level, you are presented with a hint to one of the features you missed, encouraging you to go back later. My one complaint, some challenges also netted flowers as bonus value, but those never seemed to be all that different from the core findings, so I didn’t see the point in highlighting them. For a children’s game, it had the perfect balance of being easy without being trite. The levels interconnected nicely and were well-conceived. And as a showpiece for new hardware, the visuals were gorgeous. Lovely game.

Damnation - Opeth

This isn’t exactly what I expected when, two days ago, I learned Opeth had an acoustic metal album. I was thinking of Scandinavian ballads and this was even cleaner, surprisingly radio-friendly rock. Like, it wouldn’t have surprised me at all to hear on FM radio in the 2000s. I will have to spend more time with the lyrics, as it is dripping with emotion. As a companion piece to Deliverance, I’m so pleased to have such a juxtaposition. Now off to listen to the live album combining the two albums in one performance!

Things in Nature Merely Grow – Yiyun Li

This is an impossible book to discuss. It is a memoir of a parent who goes through the unimaginable loss of her child, twice. I am in no place to critique her expression of grief, which naturally manifests differently in any person. If she got one minute of relief by writing this book, then it was worth it. That said, I had a difficult time reading this, and not solely because of the subject matter. It did get me pondering on personal relevant situations, which was useful. The presentation of her children, what should have been most important, however, was too cold, analytical, and detached for me to connect to the writer. The focus on rationalism and intellectualism felt at odds with the tragedy. This dichotomy between thinking and feeling was a theme in the book, as it was stated many times, so this is probably the point of the book. Also, the point obviously isn’t for me to connect to the subject matter, as it’s not my life to experience. Again, grief is one of the most personal emotions, so however someone chooses to process it is up to them. I only wish it was easier to sympathize, even if the writer didn't ask for it outright.

Obsession (2026)

This was a difficult film to watch, for a number of reasons. First and most obvious, it was genuinely scary. The way the possessed main character speaks and behaves and moves around is truly cursed. This leads to the second troubling reason for watching: the character is doomed to live a shell of a life through absolutely no fault of her own. In so many horror movies, we can criticize one or all of the main characters for making bad decisions. The girl did nothing wrong, while the guy, on the other hand, got exactly what he deserved, if not a little easier than he should have. I was not aware of the discourse around the characters, but I was perplexed—as someone who struggles picking up the most basic subtext—to learn there was even another way to interpret its message. And, again, it was terrifying. I paused the movie midway through to get a snack and found myself delaying restarting it, because of how unnerving it was. I’m very glad I watched it, but I don’t need to see it again for some time. I don’t care how much money it made versus how much it cost. I don’t care that it was apparently made by a YouTuber. It is an excellent horror film.

Deliverance – Opeth

I knew Opeth had a deep catalog, but despite the fact that I think Blackwater Park is an unassailable metal record, I was not too familiar with their other albums. It wasn’t until Pitchfork issued a classic review of Damnation that I learned they had two albums, essentially written in tandem but performed in different styles. I decided to listen to them both, as they are obviously paired. This first one, Deliverance, emphasizes the heavier side of metal. I am woefully ill-equipped to categorize the many subgenres of metal, but I heard some of the speed-, the doom-, and the death- varieties. I’m sure those are either totally obvious or completely wrong; regardless, it’s an excellent follow-up to Blackwater. I’m so eager to hear where the acoustic sequel goes from here.

Clickolding (PC)

Everything one needs to know about this experience can be learned by watching a YouTube playthrough with a runtime less than that of a single episode of television. That said, watching a video rather than engaging misses the point (or, rather, maybe is the point?) and the game is still worth playing through once and watching reactions later. Even knowing the story beats, the lack of jump-scares, the ending, I was totally unsettled the entire forty minutes. Yes, you literally click a button 10,000 times (or let the space bar handle some of the workload), but there are enough other things around the room with which to interact at scripted intervals that the game doesn’t feel tedious or annoying. I can understanding someone getting tired of the gag, and it probably could not have lasted much longer than it did, but this was the right length for what it was trying to accomplish. There is also a bit of an epilogue which, while optional, I found integral to the storytelling as a whole.

Despelote (PC)

Even being ambivalent to soccer, the inescapable passion for the World Cup caught up to me as well, though not to the actual field of play. A short experience—I played through in two sittings—this was story-based game from last year about the daily life of a young person in Ecuador following their national team in its quest for World Cup qualification. Of course, the story did not hit as hard for me, nor should it have, but I appreciated the personal nature all the same. The art style was fantastic, almost as if there was a sepia newsprint filter over realistic environments, while people, the soccer ball, and other important interactive objects were stark black-and-white. (Although quite a different tone, it was vaguely reminiscent of Tom Goes to the Mayor.) Near the end of the game, there was a moment when the scene suddenly shifted to walking around in color. At first, I thought my textures were not loading properly, but the narrator soon explained I was walking around a 3D rendered Google Maps equivalent of the area. As someone who frequently pulls up Street View of favorite places when I need a pick-me-up, this was stunningly poignant.

The Undoing Project – Michael Lewis

I got this from a recommended reading list about the evaluative qualities of humans, pretty standard fare for Michael Lewis. This was more biographical than statistics piece, but Lewis still accomplished his usual goal of reducing academic theories to the understanding of a layperson. As a biography, it was not my favorite book of his. I often get the impression Lewis is too close to his subjects when he profiles them, and this was evident by constantly calling one of the authors by the familiar name, “Danny,” which became an unfortunate personal pet peeve. I was interested in the concepts presented, but not really sold on the background of the writers: their lives, partnership, conflict, reconciliation. I did find their differences in character to be insightful, but ultimately, I would have wanted a deeper dive on the writing itself rather than personal histories. For this reason, I think, it did inspire me to go directly to the source material and pick up Daniel Kahneman’s book, which I had been meaning to get to for some time.