THIS HUGE BOX: SU&SD Newsletter #69

Tom: “How long should we play a game for?”

I’ve not had to grapple with this question as vigorously as I have with Frosthaven, Cephalofair’s absolutely heaving box of 100+ scenarios that I’ve been chewing on since December. Initially, we were breaking out a scenario every night with a feverish excitement to see what this game had to offer, gorging on this rich new experience that had dominated our living room table like an especially challenging buffet. This pace, of course, was not sustainable - if I were to plot our Frosthaven plays on a graph it would look something like this:

Myself, my flatmate, and my partner play a whole load of games together but we were starved for a campaign, so when the game finally arrived, it was a true feast. Chomping down hard on the ‘Game Gristle’, hoovering up every morsel of narrative, gratiously sucking on Isaac Childres’ tactical teats (I’m so, so sorry) and for our gluttony… we were punished. We certainly lost some momentum - doing a scenario every night had turned everyone’s brains into goo - most days cleanly separated into work, sleep, and Goblin Slaughter. So taking a break from it over Christmas was certainly wise, as to have pushed on at the rate we were going would have been downright foolish! But I do feel as though we’ve lost some of that critical pointedness and momentum, some of the vigour that good coverage requires. When do I sit down to write this? What form should it take? Am I excited to review this or have I played the joy out of it by coming at it so fast and so hungrily?

One of my main focus points going into the site this year was to try and grasp reviews whilst they’re hot - to write and record at the apex of my interest rather than let things simmer and stew into stodge. You can see that happening with videos like The Medical Special; the energy isn’t where I would have liked it to be for that particular review, and that’s partly to do with the huge turnaround time from script to video - the podcast we recorded about Rush M.D was in June and the video only made it out in November. I think the final product suffers greatly here because time has been gently eroding the foundations of my excitement. That makes it hard to stir that vital, salesman-like enthusiasm that indeed sold me on so many games when I was watching the site as a student keen to get friends to the board game table.

So Frosthaven puts me in a weird position, one that I’m exercising here a little. It feels like a game where the SUSD take on it is already going to be quite evident -

“It’s huge, it’s expansive, it’s more! But it’s as expensive as it is expansive, and whether it’s worth that expansive expense is group-dependent.”

We can doll that critique up, sure, but fundamentally this is a product where folks who are even mildly into the hobby can fairly accurately draw their conclusions just from looking at the thing… so are we even needed here? Or rather, how needed are we here?

I’ve been re-watching a lot of Tim Rogers recently, if it wasn’t apparent in basically everything I’ve been making. Action Button is one of my favourite YouTube channels - these monstrous reviews are some of my favourite videos on the platform because, as sprawling and ridiculous as they are, they have a pace, consistency, and direction that never lets them become boring. If you want a great place to start, his Doom review is essential - and if you want a place to stop, it’s probably the six hour Boku No Natsuyasumi piece.

I’ve spoken to Quinns a lot about how I want to develop as a VideoBoy, about what YouTube I’ve watched and what energy I want to bring from ‘out there’ into boardgames. I was keen to make something in that style, right? Something sprawling and rambling and fixated on detail - something personal but monumental! Something totally outside of the remit of a typical Shut Up & Sit Down video - something that’s fresh for the channel. It made sense for Frosthaven to be that game, right? It is huge and sprawling and rambling, full of details to fixate on, ideas to tease out, comparisons to be made! The amount that you could say about Frosthaven is practically endless… but do I want to say those things? Is this the right game to fixate on, is this the thing that I pin my critical colours to as a review, as a statement?

I don’t know. And because I don’t know, I know, right? Just because something is huge and sprawling and could be made into a review that matches its size doesn’t mean I need to make that video, right now. Sometimes enough is indeed enough. Sometimes you’ve seen what you need to see and can easily say what has to be said. I think I’m letting go of the idea that the Frosthaven review necessarily needs to be sweeping and grandiose, it just needs to be fun, it needs to be silly, it needs to be direct! And I can save my Tim Rogers energy for a game that needs it more than this.

That realisation has been helpful in a way that’s honestly quite eye-opening. Anyone who follows me on Twitter Dot Com probably can tell I’m an anxious sort, I’m a worrying sort, and I’m a sort who writes things in sets of three to take the edge off something when it gets serious. And for the past few months I’ve been taking a lead on ways in which we can run this site, considering how we can put some pep in our post-pandemic step…. and I’m fried! Being able to comfortably put this desire for something more on the backburner has cleared my mental slate somewhat.

For what it’s worth, I came to these conclusions whilst writing this piece for the newsletter - Welcome to Tom’s monthly writing therapy session! It’s legitimately been very helpful to write these thoughts down rather than let them swirl in my head with all number of other things that are bumping around in there at the moment - so if you’ve read all the way through here, thank you so much, and hopefully the next newsletter is a bit more fun!

­What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: My games this month were mostly replaying Dishonored 1 and 2 - both fabulous games that really emphasise your presence in the world, something that I’ve really come to enjoy in first person action games. But one of the most remarkable things to witness is the jump in level design between the two games - Dishonored flashes up Arkane’s typical ‘Play Your Way’ message at the opening of one of the first few missions, but rarely do those spaces feel truly intricate and winding like their counterparts in the sequel. Dishonored 2’s winding streets and towering buildings let you believe in that message, and to shimmy your way around all kinds of strange architecture to accomplish more complex plays and goals. It’s wonderful.

I’ve also been playing the absolutely delightful Rain World again - like many folks I was swayed to return by seeing many pieces praising its excellent Downpour DLC and I'm so, so glad I gave it another shot after finding it a tough hang the first time round. The strength of the game sans-DLC was how it made you behave like a tiny, scared little creature - a punishing and difficult world that forced you to find food and shelter; playing it safe, observing and escaping rather than standing and fighting. In co-op, these aspects stay largely the same, but with the masterful addition of being part of a pack. When you hide, the tension hangs between yourself and the monsters - but also between yourself and your friend! When you watch, you share theories about what exactly is going on, and how you can get around it.  When you hunt, you can work together as a pack to best a larger foe, dragging its attention one way and the other to slip past efficiently -  And when you run, it comes close to the giddy high of schoolkids getting chased out the shop for pinching a Mars bar. I really recommend it. If it’s too tricky, there’s options for making it a smoother ride, too!

Quinns: I’ve been playing a video game that’s a bit of a contradiction. Dave the Diver is currently in early access and is, on the one hand, an addictive game that feels like it’s constantly coaxing you forward with extra unlocks and progress. It’s almost like a trashy mobile game in that sense. But then on the other hand it’s also just exquisitely made! Every NPC has a peculiar amount of character, the pixel art is often lush, the world is funny and the game never stops surprising you with bizarre little extras. I think Mintrocket has to be just a really, really talented independent game studio.

Tom: Hate to burst your bubble - but Mintrocket is an offshoot of NEXON! It's got loads of content for an indie game because it… isn't! It shocked me when I found out!

Ava: Oh god. Somebody recommended Vampire Survivors and it tipped me over the edge, and I didn’t realise it was going to eat several days of my life. Possibly not advisable for folks with ADHD like myself, but it’s a stunning little thing. Retro stylings made me think about the way we play games now compared to the past in ways I won’t try and go into here. But it’s fascinating. It is essentially using a lot of the tricks and manipulations of a certain type of casual game in a dungeon crawl RPG bullet-hell roge-like chaos THING. It’ll eat time, and fascinate. Is it good? I’m not qualified to say.

­What are we music!  🎵

Tom: My christmas present to myself was a pair of really fancy headphones - and as such, I’ve been delving into records that make the best use of them. Denzel Curry’s Melt my Eyez See Your Future has been on almost constant rotation - Walkin is one of the best mission statements I’ve ever heard on a record! What a delight.

I’ve also been really enjoying Caterina Barbieri’s Spirit Exit - returning to the discography for the first time since listening to Fantas so many times I heard it in my sleep. She’s one of my favourite musicians out there that’s using modular to its fullest extent - looping, longing tracks that glacially shift and evolve in such nuanced and fascinating ways.

What are we watching? 📺

Tom: I watched The Menu and I thought it was good, but I feel as though a far better film is smothered within it. Is it class-conscious film-making? Kinda? I worked in food service for three years - not the longest amount of time, for sure, but I did the whole spectrum - from a hair above fast food to white glove service. I have so, so much respect for the oftentimes frustrating and argumentative head chefs who poured their life into creating truly exceptional food, and the pride that they found in that work.

And so, I found that the smirking attitude taken towards this kind of ‘fine dining’ by The Menu pours a great trough of mud into the water because it makes the ultimate message of the movie (to respect service workers) fall flat. We’re told in no small way by the film that the food being created at this restaurant, by these people, is nonsense and absurd throughout! So are we meant to respect or resent the work of these people - the service staff? Are we meant to appreciate the skill and dedication of high-end food or is it a punchline? And that’s before the killing happens!

Here’s the thing - The Menu doesn’t really care - the ‘mad chef’ is just such an enticing archetype for a horror villain that nothing else matters. There’s so much juicy theme to chew on here that I really feel like The Menu misses the point by playing it so straight.

Quinns: You know, I felt the same! I enjoyed The Menu but also felt gently unsatisfied at the end. In particular, I felt the movie didn’t have the courage of its convictions in the final third, where it seems to abandon its themes to hew more closely to genre expectations. I feel like it fumbles an opportunity to leave us thinking about what it had to say, and instead gives us an ending we’re supposed to cheer at? I don’t know.

What I DO know is that I finally watched RRR last night (spurred on by the viral clip of James Cameron praising the director) and yep, it’s precisely as good as everyone says. It’s just so cool to have one of the best movies of 2022 being a Bollywood film, replete with musical numbers and an admirable lack of irony. You love to see it.

Ava: So just before the solstice, I went into hospital to get my appendix taking out, removing the source of repeated horrific tummy pain episodes that have been brushed aside for a while. It was pretty abrupt, but the NHS is incredible, and I’m so glad it exists, for all the waiting times and inefficiencies. I got sucked into a machine that just decided to make me better. Incredible.

What’s that got to do with watching? Well. It’s been binge-watch-ageddon in the Foxfort Foxhole, as I try to rest up enough for my insides to knit themselves back together again. Can I remember what I’ve been watching? Largely no. But there’s been some delights. Glass Onion was a surprising little pickle. Finally getting past the first episode of the Watchmen series was an a delight I wasn’t expecting. Catching up with Happy Valley, a miserable and bleak police drama set in the valley I call home. (I’ll be honest, there’s a major whiplash to watching something utterly horrific and then going ‘oooh, that’s the shop I get my fizzy pop from’). I’ve rewatched chunks of The Wire and Euphoria. Wait has my recovery almost entirely been the horror of society? Maybe. But this is because I’m focussing on the good stuff and skipping the trash. There’s been a lot of trash too, I promise.

But the thing I want to tell people about is to just repeat myself again. Our Flag Means Death is now available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer, and I honestly would wish that everyone watch it as soon as they can. Don’t switch off if you find the first few episodes a bit predictable, you’re missing something that I promise you’ll see in it soon. It is not the show it looks like from a distance.

Tom: Sneaking this in right at the end here, but watch Paul T. Goldman, and watch it without knowing anything. It's a treat. For fans of The Rehearsal, and for fans of The Room.

What are we reading? 📚

Quinns: I am GLUED to Lauren Groff’s Matrix this week - I properly can’t put it down - but that’s not the book I’m going to recommend this month because everyone I’ve given one of her books to hasn’t enjoyed her writing as much as me. I’ve very much lost my never when it comes to recommending it.

Instead, if you’re looking for something to read then I’m going to suggest Maxwell’s Demon by Steven Hall. In a nutshell, it starts as a quaint mystery novel starring a likeable failed novelist and then slooooowly picks up speed until you get to an ending that... well, to say anything else would be spoiling it. But if you’re a fan of weird books (the cover has a quote from Mark Z. Danielewski, author of House of Leaves) then I’d recommend it very strongly indeed.

Ava: I’ve been struggling to focus on reading (see ‘watching’ for the why), but I’ve slowly been moving through Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks, a book about the philosophy of time and living that somehow manages to be an abstracted version of a self help book. It kind of washes over you a lot, trying to help spark a change in attitude, and it’s surprisingly interesting. I think I understand Heidegger very slightly more than I used to, and as I understand it, that’s exactly what a friend of mine got from doing a PhD on Heidegger. So what a time saver?