Beat Saber (2018)

I've just found this 90s rock playlist. Most of the songs are by the same mapper, SneakySpeckMan, who is awesome. Their map for Zombie is so fricking good. It's hard but it also follows the song and the emotion exceptionally well.

I love how it uses the shortened sustained notes to mark Dolores' sings "who- are- we- mistaken-" (00:55). And the long note to mark the ending guitar distortion (05:00).

https://beatsaver.com/maps/4bcae

As I play Beat Saber right after finishing Lies of P, a though comes to mind. What I liked about Lies of P bosses (and also Hollow Knight) is the same quality that I like about Beat Saber. Learning the patterns, going with the rhythm. Repetition and learning until you've got the moves into your muscle memory. I remember almost dancing in my seat as I parried some combos.

I might be in the market for a rhythm game soulslike. Something like Hi-fi Rush but more deliberate and with more emphasis on parrying and learning the song instead of just following a fixed beat. Maybe with songs featuring more complex rhythm structures, like syncopation, mutliple beats, silences and stuff. A song that also follows the evolution of the fight, with different stanzas for different boss phases, in which bosses get more aggressive or hit harder with the energy of the music. Or with calm parts of the song heal you if you not attack, as to encourage the player to also follow the flow.

I could imagine boss design also being informed by the music. Like a big hulking monster for heavy metal and a more slender and quick enemy for something more danceable.

Maybe it's not a soulslike necessarily. Maybe is more like a bossrush game like Furi.

This might be the best rhythm game I've ever played in my life...And it might even be the best VR game too because of how accessible and how simple it is. My sister, who has a motor disability, can also play this game and have tons of fun!

I put my headset on at 8:00PM yesterday, and played a "couple" of songs. Took off my VR for a break and it was 11:30PM! This game is the definition of addicting, and time just zooms by when I'm playing it. A lot of games can be overhyped by its fans, but this game deserves all the hype it gets. And because of custom songs, this game becomes infinitely replayable.

And for those into fitness, it's a fun way to get some exercise in. It won't burn as much cals as running a 10K, but it sure is 10x more fun than running a 10k.

I was playing a map half paying attention and mostly thinking about the complex emotional moments I'm going through.

I'm preparing to move to another country for another job, leaving friends, family and cats behind. I also finished my PhD so now I'm kind of between jobs, without a very clear objective in mind to direct my research efforts. But I'm also super excited for my new position in a whole 'nother country with different people and studying something I'm super interested in.

The country I'm leaving is in shambles. The economy has been on the edge for like a decade and the current government basically took a forward. Poverty is up, inflation is up, my in-laws are barely making ends meet and having to close their main source of income.

On the other hand, my girlfriend and I bough a plot of land with a couple of houses for vacation rentals which the in-laws are going to manage (and get income from). The place is gorgeous and it's a great change of pace from them and hopefully a good source of income without the gruelling work their shop demanded.

The national scientific system, which was already in a extremely precarious situation, is basically being destroyed and the damage is going to take generations to fix. Every meeting we have in our research group devolves into sadly talking about how there's no funding and no new PhD students in the pipeline. Before we would almost have to fight for places in our part of the building, which was barely large enough for all of us, and now there are empty chairs and computers (admittedly, part of that is working from home). People I know in the National Weather Service (which is also severely understaffed for the size of the country) don't know if they are going to have a job in a few weeks.

The university my girlfriend and I used to teach at has brutally cut down on teaching staff and resources and now my she is teaching a virtual class of almost 50 students by herself using a Zoom account she had to pay for.

It's also coming up to the 1 year anniversary of my mom's death, which also brings up a lot of emotions, both good and melancholic.

So a lot of things going on and it's clearly too much for a human brain so I'm trying my best to ride the wave keeping myself busy with work and videogames.

And then I finish the map and BAM, highscore!