My first videogame console at the age of nine was the original Sony PlayStation. Now this PlayStation kid has grown up to be the father of a three-year-old. Yes, I’ve dabbled in Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s consoles but PlayStation has always been home.
Like many kids these days, mine took to iPad games straight away, his favourite being Donut County, swallowing an entire town into an ever-growing sinkhole. But holding a gaming controller is another matter entirely. It’s part learning a language, part discovering a piece of alien technology.
Since seeing me boot up the PlayStation 5 last year he has wanted to get involved too. “I want to play Robot,” he sternly declares. “Robot” being Astro’s Playroom. The game itself is a love letter to the PlayStation brand, dating back to the original PlayStation, with real-world peripherals as collectables and environments made up of PlayStation console pieces. It’s kind of sweet seeing my son interact with my fandom four generations later.
He gradually grew more confident with the controller. Starting with the trackpad to move Astro around in ball-form, then getting used to the analog joystick to move the character around the world. I was caught by surprise when I soon found him rock climbing up a wall as Astro in the monkey suit. This requires coordination to both tilt the controller and alternate between resting fingers on the triggers to grab the next ledge. And then physically moving the controller in a circular motion to make him swing from a pole.
Now that he’s almost mastered it he doesn’t mind doing the same levels over and over again. Like watching the Paw Patrol movie for the gazillionth time. Kids love repetition apparently.
A piece of nostalgia that doesn’t quite hold up is the Crash Bandicoot trilogy remake. I had already played through it on release but now playing with my son feels like an impossible task. Of course, it’s way too hard for him so he chucks the controller in my direction, “Daddy do it.” Trying to impress him I miss jumps I would have easily landed before. He is able to do a little more with the Spyro the Dragon trilogy but there are still a few puzzles that put up a roadblock.
Maybe it’s due to the DualalSense controller, or the translation in this remake is slightly off. Maybe it’s my ageing body. Whatever the case, the maniacal laughter from the Big Bad on the Game Over screen is a regular occurrence. Might be time to give Crash Team Racing a try.
What I’m playing: Horizon Forbidden West defying my open-world hesitancy
When the kid’s not playing “Robot” I’ve been checking out the just-released Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn. Gosh, I miss when sequels just had the number 2 in the title.
The weird thing about this is I’m not that big into open-world games. Sure I’ve tinkered with Assassin’s Creeds, even finished the odd Far Cry, but it takes a lot for me to stick with something so sprawling, a world map littered with side quests. I tried to get into Fallout and Elder Scrolls, I really tried.
But there’s something about these open-world PlayStation exclusives that don’t scare me off (now that they’re on PC I guess we can’t really call them exclusives anymore). From Insomniac’s Spider-Man games to Horizon Zero Dawn (and Ghost of Tsushima to a lesser extent). The focus on story but most of all, character, is what draws me in.
The fact that Forbidden West’s characters even within side quests are fully motion-captured, each with their own personality and backstory, helps to sell that illusion. And there’s a clear path to follow with missions to tick off. There are side quests and optional objectives but I can come at those as I please. I never get lost.
Horizon Forbidden West isn’t a massive overhaul compared to its predecessor. You know what you’re getting into here. You still fire a gazillion arrows at robotic dinosaurs but the whole package feels fresh. From the Breath of the Wild inspired glider to the underwater sections and the Uncharted-style cinematic set-pieces. I feel gently guided while still having the freedom to explore.
Having not played it I don’t want to contrast too heavily with Elden Ring, another juggernaut that has just landed. Reading the glowing reviews, it is fascinating that instead of glowing icons it’s up to you to keep track of everything you find, some even recommending keeping a physical journal. Now I don’t think that helps my feeling of being overwhelmed!
But as mentioned in a previous issue about detesting difficult boss fights, Elden Ring is clearly not the game for me. Editor at GameSpot, Tamoor Hussain, had an interesting discussion guesting on the DLC podcast (my favourite gaming podcast who have now launched a Patreon by the way). He refers to Elden Ring as cilantro (coriander), where some people just aren’t hard-wired to love it and I fit into that camp. Love coriander though.
What you can do right now: Ukraine
The biggest news right now is Russia waging war on Ukraine. While I’ve seen ways to donate directly to the Ukraine military, that doesn’t sit right with me. Instead, I have donated to the Red Cross which directly helps civilians.
I’ve been listening to The Daily podcast that has reporters on the ground interviewing civilians fleeing and those deciding to stay.
Action: Donate to one of these organisations:
Ukrainian Red Cross (UAH₴400 is the equivalent of about NZD$20)
What you can do right now: NZ
I haven’t written about COVID this entire pandemic. Partly because it is everywhere, both literally and in the media. Also because I don’t have the expertise to add to the discourse (admittedly that hasn’t changed).
I was in favour of our government’s response, at least at first. We were “the team of 5 million,” pulling together for all of us. Now that we’ve approached this new framework, putting the onus on individuals, I feel we are leaving our people behind; our children and our vulnerable.
Our healthcare system is already overloaded. Yes, we put ourselves in a good position with vaccines but people are still dying. Just because that’s the norm for other countries it’s no less heartbreaking to see death counts when we clearly set ourselves apart before.
And yet we’re treating these lives as expendable. A price for our freedoms. Are we any better than the protestors that were outside parliament? Although they’ve now been cleared from parliament grounds I’m still tired of these protesters taking up the spotlight when the majority of us support health protections. If you feel similar you can sign up at Aotearoa Stronger Together.
There’s a large element to these protests that is laden with conspiracy theories. There’s been some useful reporting on all this. I recommend these pieces:
Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara’s Twitter threads on the protest developments.
Morgan Godfery on the far-right element lurking within the protest.
Marc Daalder, on how the far-right infiltrated the movement.
Dr Siouxsie Wiles made an appearance on the 1/200 podcast to discuss how we could do better with Omicron and our public health measures.
Actions:
Sign up on Aotearoa Stronger Together.
Sign the open letter to provide respirator masks for all.
Donate to The Big Clean Up to restore the parliament grounds and surrounding areas.
Odds & ends
Several members of my favourite (and previously commended) sketch comedy trio, Frickin’ Dangerous Bro, have recently released individual projects.
The first is James Roque teaming up with Chye-Ling Huang for a Radio New Zealand podcast; The Elephant in the Bedroom, exploring sex, love and race. Both of them founded Proudly Asian Theatre and the series came about from both of them noticing a pattern in their dating lives; that they exclusively dated white people. The series is a journey of personal discovery as they interview friends and experts to find answers.
Next, we have Pax Assadi with his new auto-biographical television series, Raised by Refugees, (available on Prime, Neon and Sky) about his parents moving to New Zealand in the ‘80s and teen Pax trying to fit in at school after 9/11. I’ve watched the first few episodes and it’s a really solid comedy, but sweet and moving in all the right places.
It is a little surreal how all these shows are coming out set in the ‘90s and early 2000s, with both Yellowjackets and The After Party as well. I may write more about this in a future issue.
As mentioned in my last newsletter, movies are coming to streaming services earlier and earlier. Here’s a bunch of note:
Disney+
West Side Story - Apologies to Spielberg, I’m still planning to watch the original screen adaptation first.
Turning Red - 11 March - Pixar’s latest is going again direct-to-video, I mean, streaming.
The King’s Man (or on Neon) - A prequel to the off the wall Kingsman films, set in World War I. This one looks even wilder.
The French Dispatch (or on Neon, 19 March) - Wes Anderson’s short film anthology about a team of journalists. As a result, it’s less cohesive than his previous films. Still pretty to look at.
Prime Video
Spencer - Kirsten Stewart as Lady Di spending a terrifying Christmas at the Queen’s Estate. An intimate fairy tale that puts you into the head of the late Princess. I really dug this one.
Being the Ricardos - I’m a little young for I Love Lucy so this was an interesting look into an eventful week on set.
Netflix
Windfall - 18 March - I love me some Jesse Plemons. A home invasion directed by Charlie McDowell who made the small sci-fi, The One I Love.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, don’t show it to your three-year-old.
Michael