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caribouv · 3 years

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Best of 2020

If it's not first it's last, unless I write otherwise. Subjective to me not what's objectively good. Like how fast I am on a bike.

ALBUM

Dogleg - Melee Record Setter - I Owe You Nothing Daniel Avery - Love + Light Caspian - On Circles Soccer Mommy - Color Theory Age Sixteen - Discography Gabriel & Dresden - Remedy Ratboys - Printer's Devil Kill Lincoln - Can't Complaint Touche Amore - Lament

SONG

Soccer Mommy - Royal Screw Up Dogleg - Wartortle Georgia - Never Let You Go Le Youth - Waves Mild Minds - EMBRACER + FORMATIONS Lane 8 - Shatter + Don't Let Me Go ATTLAS - Shatter (Yes they're both called Shatter) Washed Out - Paralyzed + Reckless Desires Caribou - You and I Gulfer - Nature Kids

RECORD/COVER

Worst Party Ever - Ganon Main [Dogleg] 3LAU feat. XIRA - Tokyo [Le Youth] No Mana & Eddie - Fragile Human [mau5trap] A*S*Y*S - The Acid [T78] Technotronic - Pump Up The Jam [NightFunk] Ellen Allien - Bowie In Harmony [FJAAK]

SET/MIX/SHOW

The year of fucking sets. No one can play shows, so endless streams. Without exaggeration I listened to like 8 streams per week and bookmarked probably 70 of them for keeps.

Solarstone's 303+808+909=2020 mix. Once you get past Voodoo Ray, every song on this is a banger. It's a great historical primer of the god-tier Roland instruments.

After listening to this I spent an entire weekend reading about the 303 and the other Roland instruments. About Detroit Techno and Juan Atkins and Derrick May. About drum machines and synths and Aphex Twin. About Richie Hawtin, Plastikman, and acid. About electronic music genres from Techno to House to Trance and all the sub-genres within each.

I've got this whole new appreciation and foundation with which to enjoy the music that makes up 60% of my listening time, and it's all and only because Solarstone put together this mix.

Lane 8's Guest Mix from Group Therapy 370.

Lane 8's Sunrise Set at Grand Lake, CO. Really fun to watch, even better to listen to, but best is my boy's on point totally awkward dancing. After this set Lane 8's instagram was full of selfies bike riding around Colorado. Hella.

Really just further cements my appreciation for Lane 8. While you've got all these Euro Trash DJs doing sets in plush Miami beach side mansions pushing the money money bling bling brand, Lane 8 is floating around in the middle of a fucking mountain lake.

Caspian with The Losander Chamber Orchestra. SAX MAN CENTER STAGE.

Goldfinger at The Roxy Theatre. I love punk ska. Thank you for reminding me I love punk ska.

Anything Paula Temple did this year tbh.

Anjunabeats 692 with Amy Wiles: Classic Mix. Simple and straight forward classic bangers. All the Connected vinyl classic mixes with the Thrillseekers were good too.

HOR mix by Courtesy.

Sol Ortega + E110101 did a bedroom mix. Really good music on a simple mixer. No dumb fuck twisting of knobs or any of that horseshit. Just a great selection of chill music to listen to. Also, relationship goals.

BEST MOVIE

All of like ten movies came out this year, soooo seems silly. And yet, Another Round and Nocturne were phenomenal. So yes, those two. If I had to pick a third maybe The Devil All the Time. I don't think anyone is allowed to like that movie though. Maybe I'm Thinking of Ending Things?

TV SHOWS

UTOPIA except the end was just atrocious. Bly Manor except I didn't understand why everyone was the same character. The Good Lord Bird except why is everyone a buffoon?

So I don't know. Either Locke and Key or Lovecraft County. Probably Lovecraft Country.

ACTOR

Mikkelsen. Without a doubt.

VIDEO GAME

Dead By Daylight. I think in time Night in the Woods will eventually pass this, but this was the year of Dead By Daylight for me. I played so much of this game.

Night in the Woods. I can't stop thinking about how perfect this game is. Gregg rulz ok.

Pillars of Eternity 2. I hated the ship combat, but the game is still so good. Having the entire cast of Critical Role for voice acting is an insane addition. Yet another timeless masterpiece from Obsidian.

Phasmophobia. Still one of the most insane video game experiences I've ever had.

Enemy on Board. I ended up getting banned for impersonating another player... in a werewolf style game where deception is the primary mechanic... I had such a blast with this game. It's too bad the developers are such tools.

BOOK

I read more literature this year than the last seven years combined.

Lightbringer by Brent Weeks. Really hard to get into because of how complicated the magic system is, and whole thing seems like Catholics v. MLK with magical Navy Seals thrown in... Which, okay... but the writing is so fucking remarkable. I don't have the literary knowledge or vocabulary to properly articulate the credit these books are due other than simply say the author is a poet. Also... I'm the FUCKING TURTLE BEAR.

I actually ended up reading some Dean Koontz book after finishing these. And just fucking lol. It really demonstrates how good Brent Weeks' writing is or how bad Dean Koontz's writing is. Or both.

Ascendant by Craig Alanson. Stereotypical and predictable and written for teenagers - which is everything I wanted from a medieval fantasy book this year.

Prisoner of Azkabananas. This book is good book. JK Rowling is a cunt.

Dungeon Born. Trash fantasy with surface value themes and motifs, but still enjoyed it.

Kingdoms and Chaos. Fun low fantasy though not much more to it no matter how serious it tries to be.

Society of the Sword Trilogy. So many things wrong with this series. Damsel in distress, enemies have inconsitent challeges which make no sense, why the fuck is he worshipping the society that would've had him dead at age 16 but for a random stroke of luck? Yet... I still enjoyed it.

POLITICIAN

No one. Not a single one. They all get the fucking guillotine.

Instead, I think Michael Osterholm from CIDRAP takes it. He always strove to tell the truth about what he knew about covid and, more importantly: what he didn't know. Anytime he ended up wrong about something he would own it, wouldn't make excuses, and moved on. The honesty was super fucking refreshing given all the bullshit (from both scientists and Republicans) surrounding covid this year.

FOOD

Every single thing my friend made for me back in August/September.

Buddha bowls. No restaurants from like March to June and so... I made a buddha bowl board with with endless combinations written on it and choosing from to make same became my nightly routine.

TRIP

I went fucking absolutely nowhere this year.

MOMENT

June's BLM riots.

General catch-all for my cats.

Iran not retaliating after Trump tried to start WW3 back in January.

Trump losing the election.

Trump's wild corona ride.

It's funny how almost all of these have nothing to do with me. I legit lived vicariously through outside events. What a fucking wasted year.

ATHLETE: I think I watched all of like two sporting events this year, both NWSL games. Soooo, Jane Campbell.

BIGGEST LETDOWN: Covid. Just fucking covid. I joke about how I'm never going to leave the house and it rocks, but it sucks. It really sucks. I miss going to restaurants with friends and I miss going to the movies with friends and I miss doing group rides with friends.

So many moments this year I felt like all I am doing is staying alive so I can work. That my entire existence is solely for legal analysis with everything else: food, sleep, etc. goes only to make sure I keep doing that.

I broke my lumbar spine amongst many other general fuckeries and I'm lucky to be alive. Excruciating pain for a month straight, but I'll take that shit again without question over covid loneliness. Easily. No debate.

THEME OF THE YEAR: Don't suck coughs. And remember to cook your raw kidney beans.

Goals for 2021: Same shit, different year. Keep on keeping on. Setting specific goals proved more effective than general ideals. I wrote a bunch of shit to accomplish month to month.

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radio-charlie · 4 years

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ORANGE

zarrah ello

1. what makes you feel warm inside?

walking around some neighborhood in the evening and seeing all the little lights of ppls home come on, animals being really bizarre, people being genuine and kind in times of great personal duress

2. what’s your favorite halloween tradition?

bleh you know what, i never really got into halloween when i was in the states. not sure why, maybe too strong a psychological association with some ppl i fell out with. the big pumpkin buckets of candy are great though haha. i was always v excited to see laffy taffy in there :P

3. what’s the last thing you learned?

that i’ve neglected to manifest more gratitude for the good people have put in my life i guess. i got too lost in some pain that’s been in here awhile

4. when’s the last time you felt obsessed?

it used to be that i thought i was too tired to be obsessed with anything. but thats because i was thinking in very narrow terms. like with what ppl usually list when they talk abt passions and hobbies. i think i’m actually obsessed with something every single day. its just the way my brain works

5. what’s your favorite article of clothing?

oh, didn’t even notice the ask game had repeat questions. besides the terrible leopard print jacket i also love my Gregg Rulz Ok t-shirt. its black and has mae’s little doodle of gregg holding his signature knife. this is all from that night in the woods game, i highly recommend it if u haven’t played it already. it’s got some really beautiful and sensitively-written moments

thanks yo

#bikerkitten

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doritofalls · 6 years

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NITW’s Head Canons?

this has been a long time coming i’m sorry

- lori m has anxiety issues, but having mae talk about her experiences with a decent therapist is helping her a lot to take the first steps. - germ has a tiny crush on both mae and gregg, but doesn’t plan acting on either. - bea is the songwriter of their band, but angus helps her out sometimes. if you’d ask, she’d deny it though. - angus is not one for enclosed spaces, and still struggles with ptsd sometimes. gregg is there to help. - i personally like to think of the bea route as canon, because it feels more finished and hopeful - mae and bea both need each other, and grow together by the end of the game. gregg’s route is also fantastic though, gregg rulz ok.

#anon #mcfreakin answered

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zaggitz · 6 years

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VIDEO GAMES 2017: ONE MILLION GAMES ENTER, TEN GAMES LEAVE.

Well that sure was the best year in video games since probably 1998, wasn’t it? Nintendo put out a new console and 3 major franchise entries, basically every anticipated game of the early 10′s finally frickin’ came out, we got 4 new English Falcom games, 3 of which with good locs, and they made a new Nier? What???

What a time to be alive.

Let’s not waste any time getting to the list, lord knows VIDEO GAMES 2017 has already sucked out enough time from me for a lifetime.

Before we begin, here’s my lists for 2015 and 2016.

Honorable Mentions:

Persona 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaIo82uT0qs

It’s insane that this game isn’t in my top ten, hell, it’s insane that it isn’t in my top five. It’s less a commentary on Persona 5′s quality and more that the games that did make the list resonated with me a whole lot more. VG2017 truly was too powerful.

P5 is mired with stiff localization problems, but even without the loc in consideration, the thematic through-line of the game gets muddled and becomes a toothless version of the promising rebellious first ten hours the game provides by the time you reach the finish line, which also just happens to come 20 hours too late, in my opinion.

What a great looking and feeling game though.

Tales of Berseria:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYXwD2CfxOs

On the flipside we have this game, the first Tales game I’ve enjoyed since Tales of Vesperia back in 2008. This game has an amazing story and great characters with a thematic backbone that sticks to your ribs after you finish it.

Now if I didn’t hate the act of actually playing it and having to scour its way too big boring empty dungeons and crappily designed world, it’d be a list maker for sure.

OKAY NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE CERTIFIED BANGERS:

10. Metroid: Samus Returns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhQWJG-_Oco

Somehow my least favorite Metroid game got two remakes that both made my list two years in a row?? This game is pretty great in it’s own right though it has a few control scheme imperfections and I could see a switch port easily being the definitive version to get.

The reason this game really makes the list though is because of how it lives up to its title. Finally an official Nintendo Metroid game that comes out and undoes Sakamoto’s vile character assassination of Samus back in Other M. .

The queen is back, and she has been missed.

9. Horizon: Zero Dawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD0DByDxJBA

An engrossing open world, great stealth/hunting/gathering systems AND robot dinosaurs are just a part of what makes this first outing for what seems like an extremely promising series great.

No, what really sets this game apart from its contemporaries is how it fleshes out its backstory, culminating in the creation of what might actually be the most despicable piece of shit villain ever put to writing for a video game. And he’s been dead for a thousand years so you can’t do shit to him.

Fuck you, Ted Faro.

8. Night in the Woods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2UUFFMGcgY

This game hit extremely close to home for me. Forced to come back home to a small, dying town full of people clinging to the good old days instead of doing anything for the generation after them, having this game to play and have it be said out loud that yeah, other people are living this nightmare too, was insanely refreshing.

For as much as we all need a bit of direction sometimes, sometimes what we also need to know being a directionless 20-something asshole trying their best is okay too.

Also Gregg rulz ok.

7. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNgph1g422Q

Great gameplay, great music, fun characters, one of the most fun to explore worlds in an action adventure game. This game truly nails the sense of pure adventure Ys is known for.

It’s a shame then that it’s plagued with one of the most laughable translation efforts in the industry, much of the games personality comes from the fact that even a bad localization job can’t overwrite some character quirks, but this still leaves the rest of the script feeling extremely stiff at best and incomprehensible at worst.

I hope the re-translation patch is good. Until then, Fuck NISA and have a good day.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiU65nQdZE8

I would describe this game as a great first step in evolving the Zelda formula. That’s not even really that accurate, the real first step was in Link Between World’s item rental/no dungeon order systems.

Nevertheless, BOTW amazes with a sense of scope and exploration no game has ever really come close to, and achieves it almost effortlessly by simply giving you the ability to climb anything.

More music, more proper dungeons, a deeper story and a few durability tweaks are basically all you need to make the next Zelda game the easy best in series.

5. Yakuza 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYB-D9qEwzI

This isn’t the best game this year, but it is easily, no question, the MOST video game this year. 110 hours in and only 60% complete, Yakuza 0 is the game that keeps on giving, with an enthralling true crime story that reshapes what we know about its protagonists. It’s pretty much a non stop emotional thrill ride to the finish line.

It effortlessly incorporates the best side story aspects from the many games in the series to come out before it, and utilizes them with a fantastical glee that keeps you with a smile on your face for the whole run. This is easily the funniest game I’ve played this year. Thank you SEGA.

4. Hollow Knight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1unm0LS10ao

God I can’t wait for this game to get ported to consoles. I bought a new laptop basically just to play this game and the absolutely enthralling metroidvania world design, hand drawn and animated aesthetic, and fantastic npc characters blew me away.

The encounter designs are tough but fair(except maybe the Colisseum) and the DLC so far has been great. I can’t wait for all the post release content to come out so I can play through it all again on Switch and probably PS4.

It’s insane only 3 people made this game.

3. Super Mario Odyssey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhciLj5VzOk

Nothing to say here that hasn’t been said by hundreds of others. SMO is pure joy distilled into video game form.

I can’t wait for Odyssey 2 to come out and somehow blow this one out of the water like Galaxy 2 did for Galaxy.

2. Nier: Automata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKOM3lNFajE

An amazing contemplation on what it means to be alive, and a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to a story that, for me at least, has been told since Drakengard in 2003. Game after game of sad tragic stories with bad endings and characters fighting an imperfect world imperfectly and only making things worse while temporarily making things better for themselves.

And really even in those cases there’s caveats.

Caviats???? Anyway.

Ending E of this game finally brings some semblance of peace for this fucked up world where a deranged killer and his dragon fell through the sky and made things the worst for everyone for literally tens of thousands of years. Finally Devola and Popola can sleep. All is well.

1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wld2q4mLhYM

Another year, another Trails game at number 1. I’ll be real with you, I’m about to drop a bunch of personal rambly stuff about what this entire trilogy means to me so if you don’t wanna read that, that’s fine.

This game is basically a perfect epilogue to a game that means a whole lot to me and serves as an amazing capper to an amazing jrpg trilogy.

When I first played Trails in the Sky First Chapter, it was the PC version in 2014. Now in 2014 I was coming off being in college for about 6 years, switching majors a few times and not really being into what I was doing but, yknow, you gotta major in something and then you gotta get a job, that’s kind of what getting started as an adult is.

So I played this weird little jrpg that was, fundamentally, about a country and the people in it trying to move on from a tragic war years prior, hiding their still fresh wounds in plain sight and just trying to go on with their lives.

It was an extremely interesting game, for how plot-light it was in the early goings, you got to really feel the struggle of these people and the unseemly past they were trying to run away from or avoid repeating. This underlying conflict builds and builds until we can’t ignore it anymore.

When I played Second Chapter a year later, I had been laid off from a job I got right out of College and had no employment prospects. I hated the fact that I’d spent basically my entire adult life up to that point doing something I wasn’t passionate about and then got let down by the system.

At the same time, the shame of my situation lead me to close up and not tell anyone about the problems I had, I was broke, I owed two months rent, on the verge of getting evicted, I felt extremely alone.

All this to get to the point that Second Chapter was ultimately a game about pulling out the dark shit we don’t like talking about and saying “it’s okay to talk about this stuff, there’s always someone who will listen.” It got me to get over myself somewhat and actually reach out for help, and I’m really thankful for it not letting me hit rock bottom.

Two years later still, I’m in a much better place, I finally feel happy about where my life is and what I’m doing and oh boy here comes Trails in the Sky the 3rd.

Completing the journey I started back in 2014, I found myself playing a game all about how it’s okay to acknowledge the bad things that happened to us, so long as we learn and move on from them accordingly.

This trilogy has so much heart, and so many memorable characters, and so much to say. It’s so, so special to me, and I was openly weeping when all the characters I’ve come to know and love over 4 years finally parted ways.

Thank you Falcom for making these games, and thank you Xseed for bringing these games to us.

TL;DR

#game of the year #trails in the sky #nier automata #night in the woods #ys #metroid #mario oddysey #hollow knight #yakuza 0 #zelda breath of the wild #horizon zero dawn

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bmaxwell · 4 years

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Number 20: Night in the Woods

Like books and movies, video games are an escape. Forget your own problems while we show you someone’s problems! Sure, Australia is literally on fire, an incompetent shambling monster is trying to start WWIII, my kids can’t get through a week of school without a call from the principal, and we’re one missed paycheck away from financial disaster, but Mario has a princess to rescue and a an evil dragon turtle to defeat. So ba dum bop ba dum ba BOMP.

I gotta tell you, dear non-reader, sometimes that shit don’t cut it. Sometimes I want to curl up with a game that is rooted in some sort of reality with relatable problems that don’t involve shooting a bunch of enemies, or moving the blocks in the right order.

Night in the Woods presents the story of a 20 year old girl named Mae who abruptly quit college and came back to live with her parents in the failing mining town where she grew up. She’s also an anthropomorphic kitty cat, but that’s irrelevant (truly). The town is kind of like she remembers it, but some of the old shops are going out of business or are already gone. And her old friends are there, but they’re not quite the same either. Her parents are loving and happy to see her, but they want some answers. What happened at school? Mae isn’t ready to talk about it, and her mom eventually demands answers, bringing up the house mortgage and the predatory school loan they took out for her education.

Mae’s mom is working at the local church. Dad is working the deli counter at the grocery store (the Ham Panther, one of many fantastic business names in the town of Possum Springs). You run into unemployed and underemployed people in town. The surreal experience of coming back home is captured really well here.

You spend much of the game deciding how to best waste your days, choosing between hanging out with Gregg or Bea. I initially hung with Bea for my first time through the game because Gregg seemed like kind of a spaz. And he is. Bea seemed like she was having none of Mae’s shit, and I was intrigued because she seemed kinda bitchy early in the game. There’s a scene where Bea is giving Mae a ride home; Mae asks how Bea’s parents are and Bea responds by pulling over and telling Mae to get out of the car. “Oh! Uh, my house isn’t for a few blocks yet actually.” “I know where you live. Get. Out.”

It turns out that Bea’s mother died a few years ago while Mae and Bea were in high school, and Mae kinda forgot about that. Mae is kind of a fuck up a lot of the time, but that’s one of my favorite things about the story. Mae isn’t the hero swooping in with the perfect choices to fix everything. She can’t do that. She’s lost and overwhelmed. Bea has to run the family hardware store because since her mom died, her dad has been in a bad way. She wants more than anything to get away from Possum Springs, so seeing Mae get a chance to go college then drop out because “things didn’t work out” makes her understandably disgusted with Mae.

I played through the game a second time to spend time with Gregg instead of Bea. First off, Gregg rulz, ok? He’s super excited to see you back in town. He works at the Snack Falcon, lives with his boyfriend Angus, and has cups on his ears. He takes you out behind the store to smash fluorescent light bulbs with a bad, and takes you out to the woods to play knifey-stabby. Which is fun and all, but I was surprised when he opened up about wanting to leave Possum Springs for a more gay-friendly town, expressed doubts about being good enough for Angus, and hinted at having bipolar syndrome.

One of my favorite scenes in the game involves Mae, Gregg, and Angus going out to Donut Wolf for some pastries. Gregg and Angus are going, Mae invites herself along, and Angus is very cold and shitty toward her. Not knowing how to deal with the tension in the room, Mae excuses herself to the public restroom and proceeds to destroy the place. Afterward Gregg and Mae have a heart to heart where Gregg says “I can’t go back to being who I was in high school, Mae. You have to let me change.” And Angus, despite being more of a side character, might be my favorite of the bunch. He’s quiet and intelligent, and opens up with some stories about his childhood when you spend some time with him.

There is a surprising number of hidden little side stories that require you to be in the right place at the right time. The game unfolds against the backdrop of an air of impending danger, as the group finds a severed arm outside the cafe one night. Mae also has disturbing dreams every night where she’s running through a dark town seemingly searching for something. The dichotomy of drifting through your days and trying to enjoy yourself while attempting to forget the impending doom coming your way feels very familiar to me. The cast and dialogue are the star of the game for me, though I did enjoy the story.

The town of Possum Springs feels so authentic to me. The way every character in that town is written feels convincing and not forced. The music is a big part of the game’s aesthetic of melancholy dark humor with a tinge of rebellion sprinkled over the top. It could have easily ended up a snarky, jaded production but this game has heart. I feel like I understand everyone of the main characters in the game. Mae’s morning chats with mom and late night talks on the couch with dad feel like a slice of life. Few games have moved me the way Night in Woods has. I’ve played through the game three times now, and will likely do another at some point.

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