Stop Consuming What's Most Popular
Two nights ago I got a wild hair up my ass to play on my Original XBOX. I scrolled through some pre-installed games that I totally acquired legally from my friend Vimm. I came across this one game that I've kinda had on my radar for years at this point "Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse".
I remember seeing the cover art for the game on Games on Demand back when the XBOX 360 still had a marketplace circa 2008. I never played it because back then I was a moron who never played "old" games (now look at me), it was also back in the era of Zombie Mania; Left 4 Dead, Zombieland, Dead Rising, Call of Duty Zombie, yadda yadda all came out around this time. I just thought it would be some mid-ass game and moved on.
So, I decided to play it. Good lord, what have I been missing out on? For the uninitiated, Stubbs the Zombie is a game that has the aesthetic of one of those like 1960s horror movies, think "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", "The Bride of Frankenstein", or "The Wolf Man". You play as Stubbs, a zombie with a perpetually-lit cigarette coming out of his mouth who reanimates in the retro-futurist city of Punchbowl. You walk around, eat brains, raise an army of the undead, and that's kinda it. It's simple, but it's so goofy and fun. Last night I got to the level "Cop Rock" where I had a dance off with the police chief to some butt-rockin' renditions of classic songs like Mr. Sandman. They really don't make them like they used to.
Is it this amazing game to rival other classics? No, but god damn is it fun. I spent like a solid half hour driving around in a floating car just mowing people down and watching their bodies fly into the air like someone shot a ragdoll out of a canon.
I started thinking about all these other artforms that I really like, some even becoming all-time favorites. Take my favorite album American Idiot, for example. My favorite songs aren't on the A-side of the album. Letterbomb and Homecoming are at the ass-end of the album. They don't have music videos like Holiday or Jesus of Suburbia, but those two songs quickly became my favorite after hearing them for the first time years later. Honestly, most of my favorite music from my favorite bands aren't going to be found in the top 20 most-streamed or most played. If all you know is greatest hits, you just might miss out on your actual favorite. One of my favorite Weezer songs "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" is a straight up deep cut, not even a B-side.
Sometimes the best is the best, like The Beatles' Abbey Road. However, if you don't actually sit and listen to the full album you might miss enjoying a track like "Octopus's Garden". Sometimes a band's only good tracks ARE their greatest hits (looking at YOU Poison!), but how will you know if you don't try and dig a little deeper?
Pretty much all my favorite movies aren't going to be found on even the top 100 all-time list. Tombstone, The Crow (1994), John Wick, Godzilla: Minus One (I swear if Anguirus shows up in Godzilla: Minus Zero I will lose my fucking mind, please god it would be so fucking peak), The Great Dictator, and so on.
So, again if all you know is the A-sides and singles, you miss out on the full depth of what is being offered. If you only go on lists that show "top X games of Y console" you're gonna miss out on the hidden gems like the aforementioned Stubbs the Zombie or Voodoo Vince (a fun platformer where you play as a voodoo doll).
Side note: this type of shit is what I'm talking about. Fucking Top Spin over Psychonauts and Burnout 3? Was IGN huffing gasoline? I see a lot of these lists and I can just tell these mfers have no clue what they're talking about. I see some that will list Half-Life 2 on them. Half-Life 2 on the OGX? Yeah it's Half Life 2, it's a fantastic game, but it's objectively the worst way to play that game. Play it on the Orange Box at LEAST FFS. I also can't take any list seriously that put Halo CE over Halo 2. Half these lists are written by AI anyway, and you can tell by the ones that will use a screenshot of the wrong goddamn game.
Y'know what, just stop letting the internet determine your opinions for you. That's the real moral of the story here.
Anywho, that's my tirade for the day. Go out, find something you're passingly familiar with and give it the ol' college try. Or just try and discover something new. Go to a record store and snag an album that just has a cool-looking album art. You may have just found a gem. Just make sure you know the return policy in case it sucks.
Have a good day, and be kind to yourself. Pirate out.
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as of writing this...
For once I've actually been enjoying work. We've been working on writing scripts for automation and so my role became a lot more technical which I'm glad for. Makes days not drag on for so long. Been sick the past couple days, not too bad, but definitely a cough going. Made homemade lasagna the other day and have had it for lunch the past 2 days. I'm in my Garfield-maxxing arc I guess. Gas was fucking $50 today. I drive a Nissan Sentra and remember when I paid like $28 for gas. Do you know how much tea I could have bought for $50 even with international shipping? Madness I tell you.