YouTube Obsession

Sometimes I just get in a funk where all I can think about is Quake Live, specifically 1v1 matches.

I find the flow of 1v1 Quake Live matches to be extremely calming and honestly awe inducing. First off, internal clocks these players have to snag respawning pickups is incredible. The respawn timer defines all the plays; where to go, where to defend where to pre-fire a corner. What I always find fascinating, is based on what pick-ups are about to respawn, players essentially know where the other player is, without ever seeing the other player, based on map knowledge, respawn timers and where the other player is not. I love it.

It’s too bad that the tournament scene has moved on from Quake Live, which can run in a web browser, has low-poly and easy to read graphics to Quake Champions, a game with muddled textures and hero-shooter mechanics.

Yes, I am a little bitter. Quake Live 1v1’s were the best FPS e-sport ever essentially because of it’s simplicity. Every character has the same abilities. This is why I think CounterStrike will still be played in 20 years and Valorant will not¹ . It’s simple and viewers don’t need to track 200 different character abilities to discern why a play was poggers.

Anyway, I used to watch 24hour streams of Quake Live matches on Twitch back in 2014 and I miss those days. And until they realize realistic graphics and modern mechanics are ruining their game I will watch old QL matches on YouTube to relax.

Watching

I finally sat down and watched Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron.

I felt this was, story wise, extremely similar to Miyazaki’s other films, If you’ve seen his other films, you’ve seen this. Visually? It’s a treat even if some of the visuals feel lifted directly from his other movies.

Listen, I doubt I am saying anything new here but all Miyazaki movies (Even the ones I love) feel like loosely connected storyboard set pieces and primarily exist to look cool. Like with Ridley Scott films; story is always secondary. The evoked feeling of a scene is far more important than it’s use to the overall story. And in that respect, the movie is very successful especially in it’s use of music. Or lack of music. The first 10 minutes of this film lack any score. When it finally does appear it feels cathartic and is very effective.

Overall, this just made me want to watch Princess Mononoke again.

Reading

Part Near Dark, part Kids and constructed like On the Road: Grace Krilanovich’s The Orange Eats Creeps is a pretty unique reading experience. It reads like a stream of consciousness from a teenage runaway meth addict, who may or may not be a vampire, as she hops trains and terrorizes Pacific Northwest Safeway parking lots with other pseudo-vampire teens.

Full of vitriol and anger, it really captures teen angst in full colorful prose. In fact, it would work better if it was about half as long and it concentrated its bile to a short story. As it is, it feels a bit diluted.

Playing

I picked up and played a bit of Sniper Elite 5 back in 2023 but it just didn’t click with me at the time. I’m not sure why I bounced off of it considering it’s a stealth game that encourages playing anyway you want, giving the player multiple routes to complete a level. It also has big but not overwhelmingly large maps that are intricately detailed and feel full of things to explore. It’s more unique mechanics are fun and rewarding to engage with, allowing to the player to have fun at any skill level. I have also enjoyed the other Sniper games, they are perfect middle of the road games made by a smaller studio.

For whatever reason, I dropped it fairly quickly in 2023 but I am grateful I had the urge to give it another try recently. Because the main gameplay loop of Sniper Elite 5 is shooting Nazi’s in the face.

It’s very cathartic.

It should be said that Sniper has a very interesting take on PVP as well. While you are playing through the campaign, another player can spawn in and try to counter-snipe you. Reminiscent of Watchdogs or even Dark Souls PVP. I never engaged with the mechanic but it is there if you find yourself wanting a different kind of challenge.

Other Notables

** Spectacle as a shortcut.

** Trapping AI website scrapers in an infinite maze.

** RIP David Lynch

1  This is also why Overwatch league failed.