The Weekly Digest is a weekly (no shit?) update that captures highlights from the week that was. At the end of each week, I share a collection of thoughts, recommendations, and links. Like everything else I write, it's awesome, but it may be too long for email so make sure you click through.
🌵 Lost in the Desert
I am still sick. It is a combination of seasonal allergies and sinuses and having a three-year-old who doesn’t cover his mouth when he coughs. Illness is energy and motivation sapping, so it’s a double whammy. Even when it’s perfect rainy weather to spend all day curled up with books, I can’t seem to break the inertia to get into a reading (or writing) state.
Instead, I’ve been obsessing1 over Crimson Desert. This is a new open-world, adventure sandbox game from Korean developer Pearl Abyss. The first thing to know about Crimson Desert is that it is gorgeous.
It’s making news because it sold 3 million copies in its first 5 days, and because initial reviews of it were mixed. When a massive game like this drops (think Red Dead Redemption 2 or any GTA game from 3 onwards), it is usually met with effusive praise because there is no such thing as video game journalism. But CD caught a lot of early flak for a couple reasons.
It looks like Witcher 3 (and similar games), but there is significantly less focus on story hooks early on. CD meanders at the start, which is fine if you’re already preparing to sink 100+ hours into the game, but not fine if you’re trying to make a good first impression.
The controls are atrocious. Game design is iterative; this is why you can pick up any side scroller and figure out punch, kick, jump, and move pretty much instantly. It’s also why trigger buttons are used for attacks, D-pad buttons are for quick equips, et cetera. For whatever reason, Pearl Abyss said “no, fuck that” and created an incredibly unintuitive control schema. I played one day, took a day off, and when I came back a day later, I’d forgotten all the controls. I’ve been watching a professional streamer with over 30 hours into the game, and he’s still biffing the controls.
The menu systems are labyrinthine and needlessly complex. They also launched without hotkeys for things like inventory and map. An infuriating and head-scratching decision to anyone who has ever played a game that has either an inventory or a map.
That said, in those same first few days, Pearl Abyss has unleashed a torrent of patches and updates. They added a ton of quality-of-life improvements that make the game much less frustrating (though still not perfect). Removing some of those frustrations has really let the game they made shine. I’ve barely scratched the surface after 6 hours of playing (though I did become the local arm-wrestling champion). That guy I mentioned with 30+ hours? He’s just unlocked the third (of 3) playable characters and has played 0 minutes as either of the second ones.
I’m trying to think of an apt comparison, and the closest thing I can think of is: what if someone discovered a 2,000 page near-final draft of Moby Dick 2? That’s the amount of sheer content a game like this has on offer2.
As much as I enjoy video games, they do not require the same amount of mental exertion or focus that a good book does. That is why they are my fallback when I’m feeling mentally drained or overwhelmed (which is frequently because I don’t like saying “no,” and I bite off more than I can chew). The downside of this is that, obviously, I’m not reading as much and I’m not getting through my backlog of Substack novels and reviews. The upside is that I’m not rushing through those either to tick them off my to-do list.
This is why I always add the caveat of “eventually” whenever I say I will read/review a book. You are forever at the whims and fancies of my fractured brain.
📚Book Bits
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman (Finished)
Sigh, this was great and now I’m on to Book 2, Carl’s Doomsday Scenario.
Recent Book Haul:
After last week’s MASSIVE haul, no new books arrived this week. Probably for the best.
💡Substack Spotlight:
I mentioned this last week, but it’s been my only substantive Substack read this week: Alexander Sorondo’s profile of Bret Easton Ellis for The Metropolitan Review. In truth, I have not finished it. Not because it is long (though it is), but because I am savoring my way through it. I devoured the Vollmann and Moore pieces in one sitting each, so I’m taking my time with this one. Alex is one of the best of us, and I will add my name to growing list of folks that believe he will leave all of us in the Substack ghetto behind in due time.
You should also check out Sorondo’s Cubafruit, an excellent political thriller that I reviewed here, and is up for the Woman of Letters’ inaugural Samuel Richardson Award for self-published fiction.
📰Substack Headlines
Nah, bro.
If you’d like to be featured in this section, you know how to find me. And if you don’t, you’ll learn.
🖋️Writing
I haven’t even been journaling much these past couple weeks. I’m in the process of interviewing for new roles within my company and it has ratcheted my anxiety up. I have a tendency to get melancholic when I don’t get picked, so I’m drowning in a soup of my own emotions. It’s like having too many processes running in the background, stealing all my mental bandwidth, making me sluggish. I want desperately to be on the other side of all this so I can have some of my focus back.
🌸Fleeting Thoughts
I mentioned on Notes that I had some good news to share. I suppose it’s not really news that a mediocre white man3 has failed up in America, but I did land a new role at my company that comes with a not insignificant pay bump. There had been this low-level current of anxiety coursing through my life for the past few weeks and months as I looked for a new job, and I felt it start to abate Thursday evening when the offer came in. Naturally this will come with a whole new set of problems, but it does mean that I am out from underneath a toxic manager and now reporting to one that at least understands my value.
On the horizon you can expect to get see more Substacky content. In addition to The Unmapping, I am planning to read and review pieces by Tom Schecter and Stefan Baciu and bring back the Live with Vinny Reads interview segment with at least those two4.
Until then.
🍻+🤙,
— V
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“Obsessing” is the wrong term. It’s more that CD has become the focal point of my vegetating. The nothing that I’ve been doing is related to that game, more or less, consistently.
Of course, content does not equal narrative depth because video games are not books and vice-versa. Video games are 1. games and 2. inherently more collaborative (and potentially combative) between the creators and the consumers.
I say this jokingly. I have met many mediocre men, and I can safely say that, comparatively, I am above average in every conceivable way including humility.
Oh god, am I becoming a podcast bro?
Congratulations on the job thing. That; s important.
‘Grats on the promotion!