2/12/23-2/18/23
Goldeneye 007
I’m going to lay down a harsh truth for you: Goldeneye is bad. Wait, that’s not quite right. Goldeneye was always bad.
I’ll give credit where it’s due, the team at Microsoft have at least redid the controls to work on an Xbox controller, thank god. The N64 has been fondly remembered due to a lot of misplaced emotions and nostalgia, and no feeling is more misplaced than any love for the N64 controller. Of course, despite having better controls, the actual game mechanics were created around the limitations of the three-pronged nightmare, with aggressive auto-aim, and the left trigger still doing the weird fine-target aiming which is basically only helpful when you have to shoot off a lock, not getting a headshot.
But hey, a lot of people my age have some fondness for the four-player multiplayer. I have no idea if the in-person multiplayer is any good, and this doesn’t have any online component. They only put that in the switch version, but you still have to use the old N64 controls. I don’t recommend it. Hey, at least there’s the single-player campaign which is… rough.
If all you had to do was slaughter your way to the exit, Goldeneye 007’s single-player campaign would probably be fine, but it’s all the dumbass spy shit that gets in the way of me having fun. Each level has a series of objectives to complete, but they can be finicky and get in the way. I failed the first level a few times because I didn’t either trigger the bombs at the right time or didn’t wait for all the tankers to blow up, and when I got to the escort mission with Natalya, I uninstalled everything.
At the end of the day, it’s an N64 game, and that’s horrible.
Our Colors by Gengoroh Tagame
Wow. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from Our Colors, not because Gengoroh Tagame isn’t talented but My Brother’s Husband, his other major non-pornographic work, was a very bland, and overly-broad work. Our Colors succeeds in telling a story that’s real, grounded, and heartfelt: accurately portraying what it’s like to be a closeted high school student.
Our Colors is about Sora, a high school student who is attracted to another boy in his class and who has perfected the art of passing as straight. He regularly cuts himself off emotionally from the homophobic rhetoric of his peers, and does his best to feign attraction to different celebrities. It’s not until a chance encounter Mr. Amimaya, an older and openly gay man who manages a coffee shop in the neighborhood that Sora is finally able to connect with someone and come out of the closet for the first time. To make things more complicated, Sora’s childhood friend, Nao, accidentally overhears him coming out to the cafe owner, and they now they both have to navigate his secret. The main crux is whether or not Sora will confess his feelings to his crush as Mr. Amimaya isn’t shy that his biggest regret is not doing the same when he had the chance. And then Mr. Amimaya’s ex-wife shows up!
I loved this comic. Whereas My Brother’s Husband felt like a series of PSAs that sort of boil down to “Did you know that gay people aren’t monsters,” this feels like a story that Tagame wanted to tell. He says at the back of the book that it’s for his 15-year old self, and it comes across. This hit me hard, as I also struggled to try and cover up my gayness in high school, and I could empathize with Sora on a real, meaningful level, going through the same motions he did. Although, Sora is an athletic guy with abs, not a fat loser like I was (and some would say still am!). The scene where he comes out to his parents made me nearly cry. I’ve never seen my feelings from high school portrayed so accurately. Of course, if I looked like Sora did, I probably wouldn’t have been so nervous.
High marks for this one. Like I said, this feels like a story that Tagame was desperate to tell, as opposed to My Brother’s Husband which feels like one he had to tell. I’d like to see more of this stuff from him, but I’m willing to settle for more pornography.
Cylobian Sunset by Cylob
Tales of Ephidrina by Amorphous Androgynous
Stay Down by Two Lone Swordsmen
Not as good as Tiny Reminders but still pretty good.
Pop by GAS
Wow! What a great composition!
Across Uneven Terrain: A FatCat Compilation 1997-1999 by Various Artists
All over the place, it never really feels as cohesive as it could’ve been.
Who Turned Out the Light by Scattle
There Is Still Good in You by Magic Sword
Living in a Giant Candle Winking at God by Transit Kings
Pretty good, but it felt a little too hippie-ish for my liking.
Now Is by Rival Consoles
Good!
People & Machines by Digitalism
Sort of nothing.
Infinity Ultra by Claude Speeed
Wow! This is a nice and varied work, with almost no low points. I remember the last track not being that great.
TM404 by TM404
Byen by Bjørn Torske
Variable States EP by son.sine
Double Pack by I:Cube
Lost Summer by Forever Sound
A Shell of Speed by Abdulla Rashim
Good!
At the Turn of Equilibrium by Petar Dundov
1 by Evigt Mörker
Great!
What Have We Learned by Morphosis
Starts strong, but falls apart.
Silent Warrior by Zandig
Amazing!
Internal Empire by Robert Hood
Point Blank by Robert Hood
Wire to Wire by Robert Hood
This was a real departure from what I heard from Robert Hood, with some lighter, more ethereal songs, but it’s still really good.
Omega by Robert Hood
What an amazing concept album. Charlton Heston would hate it, which isn’t a bad thing. You might be able to tell, but I really love Robert Hood.
Motor: Nighttime World 3 by Robert Hood
Paradygm Shift by Robert Hood
DJ-KiCKS: Robert Hood [DJ Mix]
Did you know that a DJ-KiCKS album could actually be good? Me neither, but it turns out it’s possible.
Omega: Alive by Robert Hood
A live version of Omega. Still really good, as it turns out.
Hoodmusic 1 by Robert Hood
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