I didn’t like Howl’s Moving Castle that much. While Kiki is more or less the same, Nausicaä is a clear expansion, the story of the book and the movie are very different, in a way that reading the book first made watching the movie very confusing for me. What they have in common is that I don’t think they sold the romance that well, if at all. The characters were… eh. I wasn’t on board with the themes.

There is a valid criticism of Miyazaki’s handling of war that I won’t go into here, and Howl’s is a great example for that discussion.

Ponyo on the other hand is simply adorable. In a way, it is a return to My Neighbor Totoro, in a slightly bigger way. And that’s alone is enough for me.

I don’t think I had a choice not to see Secret Level. So I did. The best episodes are the ones where the story has to deal with a game mechanic, so it is very disappointing that most of them chose the same one: respawn. The others just chose to tell the story in a world of a game, and for 10 minute episodes, sometimes even less, they were fine stories. Ultimately, not a disappointment, not by a long shot, but overall just not a memorable anthology.

Star Trek, the MCU before the MCU. Superheroes. Characters jumping between shows. A bunch of actor appearances where you go “that one too?”. Endgame.

My ovearll view on all the old Star Trek shows – at this point I’ve watched The Original Series with movies, The Animated Series, The Next Generation with movies, Deep Space Nine and now finished Voyager, – is that they are important as a cultural step, but also still mostly relevant.

Which is kind of sad, when you think about it: surely we should have fixed a lot of the problems those shows explored by now, right? Nope, some of them are just coming up now, sometimes in eerily familiar ways.

Also, all of these shows, and Voyager is no exception, have an annoying tendency to take two steps forward and one step back. Which, admittedly, still makes them progressive, and, as I mentioned, to this day – there are shows that came after that were worse.

I’m not sure what is worth mentioning about Voyager specifically. It did some cool things: the first woman captain, another interesting take on the human condition via holograms and the Borg, etc. But I can’t really say something like “if you want to explore this particular take on a theme by a Star Trek show and you can only watch one, watch Voyager”. It’s not that unique in my mind. As good all the others.

Sometimes you just want to shoot some Nazis. It’s hard to mistake Medal of Honor: Underground for a modern game, mainly because of the visuals, but it is interesting how it is pretty much a modern military shooter in every other way. From the controls (twin-stick and even aiming down sights, kinda), to the cut-scenes, from the mission objectives, to the variety of those missions (they even had a turret section). And while there are rough edges, it still pretty enjoyable experience!

I changed my mind, I don’t want one.

First of all, this is Valve, a bad company, that is notorious for only caring about profit, so it can easily abandon the project and stop supporting it. I’m not singling them out, commercial companies do that, but that’s my point: I don’t trust any of them. And I don’t trust the open source community to carry the torch, no offense.

And it needs support: it’s software based, which is my personal nightmare. A piece of hardware that is useless on its own? Horrible! That’s why I’ve been looking at mice with on-board memory.

And that’s why I’m more or less satisfied with so-called elite/pro/whatever gamepads, because they work as gamepads by themselves. If I can have a gamepad with four programmable back buttons, I’m 90% there: it’s a sweet spot between simplicity and customization.

Because customization is the greatest feature of a Steam Controller. It’s also its biggest drawback: it needs to be customized. Pads are not sticks, nor are they a mouse. They are, in my opinion, better, but only if you willing to spend time tinkering with them. A lot.

I realize that this falls into the “you want perfection but you only got good enough” category, and for some people a Steam Controller or something like it is more of an accessibility aid than it is for me.

All of this is based on my experience with the Steam Controller, which I got on day one. I liked it right away, I never had any complaints about the shape or anything like that. Steam Input (the software part, basically) was good enough to start with, and it got better over time. But after a couple of years I realized that the drawbacks outweighed the benefits: I tinkered more than I played. And in another couple of years Valve decided to rewrite the software and, at least in my opinion, made it worse.

That’s also why I don’t want a Steam Deck. It’s like those old TV combos that have a VHS or DVD player built in. One thing goes out and bye-bye the whole deal.

I also realize that the reason we are not getting Steam Controller 2 may be much simpler: a lawsuit.

Bottom line, I know myself and I like gamepads. And if there’s an interesting new one, there’s a good chance I’ll get it, even if I clearly don’t need one. But it would have to be really, really interesting, and a true successor to the Steam Controller is at the bottom of that list.

Divine Divinity is a game from the era when attitude was a valid substitute for humor, message, or even story. So it is a bit surprising that it is very restrained. Not without its eyebrow raising moments, but nothing worth calling out, I think.

Starting with the good, it makes me more interested in what else Larian has done (I’ve already dipped my toes into some of their games, but no more than that). There’s also the bad: it’s a bit junky and its difficulty is uneven, to say the least: I only finished it by cheating my ass off. Do I regret playing it? No. Can I recommend it? Eh-h-h…

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is in its own subgenre, but it’s basically a beat-them-up. It can be repetitive, but on easy is at least not demanding. It tells the alternative history version of the backstory of Breath of the Wild, and manages to tour through it’s world, bringing most of the notable characters (with some very surprising choices along the way. Fan service-y? Sure, but still easy-going fun and a good excuse to revisit this world for the third time.

At this point, I accept that I will never play another tabletop roleplaying game again. Or any video game with similar level of engagement between players. Consider, that to play something like this, you need:

1. friends,
2. …who play games,
3. …who play the same games you do,
4. …at the same time as you.

Or dealing with strangers online? Nope.

Partially because of this, and partially because it’s a fascinating thing in itself, I’ve been interested in games that approach this problem: games that require some coordination between players (otherwise why talk at all?) but don’t use (or at least don’t require) text or voice chat.

I wonder what was the first multiplayer game where jumping became a form of communication. Probably the first multiplayer game with jumping in it 🙂

Splatoon can be kind of a level zero. The game is simple enough that you can just play cooperatively and it works. Like with any game, there are ways to talk to your friends, and a coordinated team would be better, but it’s not necessary to have fun.

Games like Journey and Sky: Children of the Light go for something simple, like Splatoon, but they also invent their own thing. Calling it a language is a stretch, but there is communication. If you think about it, a lot of human communication is non-verbal anyway, and this is no different. And when it works, it’s very special.

Apex Legend’s ping ability is brilliant. It’s even useful if you use the voice chat that the game has. If you are not familiar with it, you just have a special button that you press while pointing at something and your character would say something appropriate. You can warn about the enemy, you can say that there is an item on the ground, or even that you need ammo for your gun. It is great.

You can throw the entire Dark Souls Extended Cinematic Universe in here as games that have gestures. And I find that the vast majority of people actually roleplay in these games. Sure, there are not a lot of ways to not do that, but I still think it is a design choice and a good one. When someone attacks you or helps you, it feels appropriate to the world of the game.

There are a lot of other games that do something similar or maybe very different that I haven’t played or have forgotten. For example, I am still trying to figure out what the hell Book of Travels even is.