I haven’t written the full list out this year. I got to play a lot of games, but I don’t have a lot to say about them.
...I don’t always get to watch a lot of films. At some time around March 2022, I realised that I’d watched at least 5 films each month, and I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can keep that up”. I tried, and I did. In doing so I ended up with the most diverse year of film I’ve ever had, and I’ve learned a lot about art along the way. Here are some themes and highlights.
...It’s almost the end of 2022 so I know what you’re all thinking: what did Mac play in 2021? Well, here you are, here’s the list.
...In the midst of a pandemic, in a locked down country where we weren’t allowed to see other people, I played Death Stranding. It is a game about reconnecting people who have been scattered across America, unable to go outside, trapped without communication. The invisible threat in the game is rather different to our own virus but the parallels between what the characters experience and our experiences of a pandemic are clear: Kojima imagined a world in which we hide indoors and rely on couriers. Those who go outside wear protective clothing and are made hard by the world.
...In 2020 I played Watch_Dogs, Ubisoft’s 2014 open world game that functions very much like every other Ubisoft open world game. It is generic, and very triple-A, and it’s absolutely fine. The story is bold and basic and predictable. It’s a 6 out of 10. It’s fine. It’s fine. It also isn’t fine in a bunch of ways I’d love to talk about but I don’t know enough about politics or sociology to be educated about it, but that’s not the point. Well, it sort of is the point.
...