Anything but a restful summer

It's felt like I haven't had much breathing room since summer started. Between taking summer classes, working, and the not insignificant amounts of homework (turns out, learning a new language takes a lot!), my leisure time has been limited. Reading has mostly been some manga here and there while on breaks or on the bus.

I'm looking forward to the load lightening as I've accumulated quite the backlog in terms of pretty much all media I enjoy. Trying not to fall victim to 積ん読つ　　どく, but it's also nice to have a lot of choice for when I have more time to enjoy these things.

A couple weeks ago I had some time and played a bunch of Severed Steel, which turned out to be very cool. It was described to me as an FPS take on a mashup of Max Payne and Hotline Miami, by way of neon soaked cyberpunk aesthetic, which having played it, is pretty darn accurate. A first-person action game in which you can wall run, slide, flip over enemies, and slow down time, it provided me with a lot of entertainment. Pulling off cool maneuvers and having your abilities extended is very satisfying. In addition to the campaign and score attack modes, there's apparently a roguelike mode, so there's no shortage of game here.

I've also been able to sneak in some sessions of Monster Hunter Rise here and there with some friends, which has been a lot of fun. Not much to say here, I'm trying out new weapons and have been having a lot of fun with the insect glaive.

Alongside watching Monster with my partner, I've been making my slow way through some series while others appear to be on a long hold until I have time to catch up (I swear, Geats, I'll get back to you). Most recently, I finished Tomo-chan is a Girl, which was a lot of fun. Dave of Gamesoft Robo Club summed up a lot of the appeal of the show better than I could which was what initially made me look into it.

Recommendations

I figured I'd give this a go, and have it as an easy way to just share things I've read, seen, or otherwise think others would be into!

インディー通信 Indie Tsushin are having a summer funding drive so they can go to events, purchase games to cover, and generally continue providing the great coverage they already do. I think they're pretty cool and think others might too!

I read this newsletter/article (what are we supposed to call these) on optimization culture by Anne Helen Petersen today and really liked it. I'm just going to share this quote from it, I recommend reading it.

Remodeling is the attempt to find “the one best way” with our physical spaces; wellness culture is “the one best way” with our bodies; productivity culture is “the one best way” with our work lives. And like all quests for optimization, they’re sinkholes.

Renkon shared a post recently mentioning an indie SFF zine, featuring writers primarily from Asia and East Asia, called Rikka Zine. I haven't had the chance to get too far into it, but of the three stories I've read of this first issue, I'm really enjoying it.

Someone on Mastodon shared this postcast episode from srsly wrong, which gives an extended history of copyright, piracy, and the utopian possibilities of filesharing. It also got me to check out some more episodes from them and dig into their idea of library socialism a little, which has been sounding pretty great to me.

Last one, this short video about why there is violence in games was shared in a boost on Mastodon, and I highly recommend checking it out! It's often tough to get out of the algorithm space of whatever language you are speaking, and it's always good to broaden whose voices are heard.

That's all for this week, catch you next time!