I expect nothing of my games and books

And somehow, if I get to trying it, I am often able to enjoy it. A side of me thinks my taste is pretty good because of this. I’ve never finished a book or videogame thinking that it wasn’t worth it.

To tell the truth, I also happen to get recommendations from friends and reviewers with good taste, excellent podcasts, YouTubers I trust, and all the cool bloggers that I follow here, there is so much good stuff to enjoy, I rarely put myself in a position where I think of something as a slog.

I like to think I’m not easy to please though. I enjoy quality and the effort put into an artwork that goes above and beyond. I have experienced enough to differentiate between something made with passion or lack there of.

Even if the book is not particularly enjoyable, or if a mechanic in a game feels a little unfair, I am willing to let myself appreciate it. I’d even allow my brain to be fooled into thinking it’s great. I will always try to focus on the intent behind any piece of media. To align my mindset with the artist’s.

When I played Resident Evil and its sequel early this year, I wasn’t thinking about the future beyond tank controls, I didn’t worry about the scarce save points. I put myself in the shoes of someone who just bought a PS1 and wanted to try this neat game and it was how it was. Perfect experience. I didn’t worry about outdated elements or cheesy voice acting, I lived in 1998 and everything was glorious.

As I read all of The Expanse, I wasn’t expecting the beat space opera ever, or well explained hard sci-fi. I never thought I’d completely understand the cosmical anomalies present throughout the series. I enjoyed the characters and the bombastic action sequences. I let my brain shove away any magic technology or whatever and focused on the epic character moments and intrigue of it all.

While completing Metroid Prime Remastered it didn’t even cross my mind to compare the 2D games. When someone said “this is just Super Metroid in 3D” I wasn’t even considering Super Metroid’s existence. When that one area had no save points nearby I simply took it as the challenge it was, fair? unfair? It’s a game, and I can go elsewhere to find more upgrades too. So, win?

After finishing Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss, I wasn’t worried about the countless modern sci-fi books that have done generation ship plots better, I didn’t mind the non-sensical biology of some of the world-building. I fully committed myself to the environment and its rules, and I had a wonderful time going through all of it. When annoying characters showed up, I am meant to be annoyed, and I push through that anyway.

If a game happens to have a lot of cutscenes, I push through. If I am told to backtrack for the 9th time to the same place, so be it. If a book lacks emotional moments and is more of a dry reporting of events, it is so. If the romance is outdated and cheesy, I still find it kinda cute.

This is pretty much the case for all the books and videogames and movies and pretty much any media I experience. I can pretend quality of life improvements don’t exist, I can imagine myself in the worlds even if I despise the decisions or the politics or a particular character.

Every game I’ve played this year could be in someone’s Top 5 of all time—maybe not the smaller titles/DLC that can be completed in an hour. Perhaps that can’t be said of the books I’ve read this year, but they are still pretty good as well!

Now this is where I’ll get challenged by a friend into reading through some boring stuff or playing a game that will make me suffer.

Even if a work is not as impactful for me as it may be for others, it’s usually a 4/5 stars experience for me.

Perhaps I should be more critical, as my ranking system ends up kinda useless. Or maybe my standards are too low. Or I simply happen to choose excellent games and books.

Good thing I don’t rank anything on my reviews.

This is day 51 of #100DaysToOffload