For the longest time, I didn't understand the point of representation in media. I didn't get why it was such a big deal for POC to get their spotlight, spewing the same falsities like, "if they were more talented, they would get the parts." I realized soon that a big reason I was turned off by the idea of representation was because I never felt represented by media almost ever. Seeing Black, East Asian, Hispanic, among many, many other cultures slowly get their limelight in western content is beautiful, but I started to feel a little sad by the lack of good Indian representation in media, ever. The closest we've gotten until this year was Hasan Minhaj's presence in comedy and that's, pretty much it for anything in terms of positive representation. That's not the same this year.

Firstly, we had Across the Spider-verse, and Pavitr Prabhakar. It was beautiful to see someone who clearly inspired by the culture of my country and embodies it in a way that shows reverence to that culture play such a major role in a massively popular film. His dialogue was clearly written by someone that was Indian (proven by the fact that Karan Soni, his VA, oversaw the writing of his character) and it shows in the jokes he makes and the way he talks. It made me feel really happy seeing him on the big screen.

Then we have this, which is about the best thing I could ever ask for. It's a celebration of the food I grew up eating (albeit in this case with meat but it's not too different) and my Tamil heritage. It's a love letter to the experience that so many parents and their children face; moving to the west in search for a better life for their kids, only for the children to feel a culture shock and not know what they want to be. I, personally, struggled a lot (and still do) with my identity and my culture, whether it be me having to learn to be more open about the Indian food I brought to school every day, or how I still struggle to get people to pronounce my name right and default to the "white" way to say it. Seeing that story (one that is absolutely not unique to me) told in a game made me tear up multiple times. Seeing the struggle that both Venba and Paavalan go through just to raise their kid in the best way possible reminded me of my own parents and the struggles I imagine they have to go through in raising me. It's a deeply personal story that I connected with on every level and makes me so happy that a story like this is being brought to wider audiences.

Do I have gripes with the game? Yes. It's simply too short for the $15 price tag, and I think the game could have benefited with more meat on its bones. Does that change the fact that this game in the way it exists right now means a lot to me and will be one I cherish for the foreseeable future and hopefully the rest of my life? No, not at all. I'm thankful for this game existing, and hope that it can serve as proof that the stories of my people deserve to be told.

Time to go eat some god damn dosa.

>Playing Deep Rock Galactic
>Walk up to dwarf
>Yell "rock and stone"
>He yells "rock and stone"

it's the little things lads

i can't say i anticipated enjoying this as much as i do but sometimes my tastes skew far more plain than i posture them. DRG is really charming. in my eyes it's the first cooperative game since L4D2 to really match that game's quickfire energy with accessible yet layered strategizing; the four available classes are idiosyncratic to such an extent that you might feel naked in any given operation without even one of their toolkits. it smartly pairs lite-monster hunter mission variability & team synergization with 2010's procgen & terrain destructibility to create these delicious scenarios where blue-collar panic is the norm as you shuffle and squirm in pitch-black subterranean sprawl. it's you and your dwarven brothers against hordes of starship troopers bugs, a wealth of toxic environs, and really all manners of cave fauna...as well as plenty of other surprises (both the extent of enemy and mission variability were genuine delights to me). i have a fondness for these kinds of titles - one where environment is integral to engagement, not just as a means of circumnavigation but as something that can be excavated, twisted, molded, and manipulated to create opportunity. the missions where you have to construct labyrinthine pipelines (and then RAIL GRIND ON THEM) or clumsily build connections to power machinery throughout convoluted geometry that has been torn apart by explosive combat, awkward digs, or meteor intervention set my brain alight. no more words only rock and stone.

There was a point in time where I cared more about Mario Kart than the mainline platformers. It was my first exposure to racing games, as it was for many people, and the dioramic racetrack designs were so mesmerizing to my preschooled noggin. Obviously the fixation subsided as I got older and found racers with tighter game design, but MK is still fun to come back to when the opportunity arrives. The go-kart setting was always the big driving force: It feels more hand-made and workshopped than traditional cars, and doesn't carry the same baggage that comes from bougie car culture.

I don't have much to say about MK8. It's good. It being the high-content-low-creativity entry in the series feels more appropriate than something like, say, Smash Ultimate. I want Mario Kart to just be a sober, playful game with family, and I appreciate their dedication to that.

If anything, MK8 makes me hope the next outing does more with the crossover content. I know 'Smash Kart' is a dumb baby concept that nintendorks drool over, but I think the kart formula is probably the best way to bring the Nintendo series iconography into a mutual setting, since you don't have to limit the roster to characters that explicitly fit the melee combat mold. I also don't trust Nintendo enough to do cool things with the Mario universe and characters anymore - especially given shit like the entire Koopalings family getting in.

What I'm saying is, let me be Advance Wars Andy in a Md Tank

I don't have particularly strong feelings for this one way or another. It's just more mario kart

Actually, I do have one strong feeling. Fuck you baby mario you little shit

Nancymeter - 70/100

It's easy to shittalk these tracks for looking mostly sterile and mobile-core, but like, y'all are playing mario kart with friends and family and nursing home residents on oxygen machines. it's a fucking party game - in the grand scheme of things, more content is gonna win over less-but-aesthetically-consistent content every time.

the real problem imo is that most tracks they lifted from tour just suck hard, they have less interesting curvature and bite than even the SNES courses. Cool to have them in a real video game for posterity's sake I guess, who knows when Nintendo's gonna pull the plug on tour and erase millions of kid's mom's credit card dollars from existence