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[leroidys]

We've been getting like 5 ranking threads a day on the gaming side, but I've always thought that it would be far more interesting to cross-reference people's tastes in books that share your taste in videogames, or a poster's taste in film with their favorite music, for example. I'll start with some of mine- the following I'm posting because they grip me in a way that is beyond any rational explanation I can muster of it's specific accomplishments. For me, these things go beyond mere "10/10" consideration, and inhabit a further realm of media that has profoundly impacted my life and my perception of art.

Music

The Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2

I have no idea what's going on with the album cover, but this is an album that has been with me for the past 15 years, and which only gets better with time. Phil Elverum's quiet cacophonies and terse prose are a genre unto themselves, but he outdoes himself here.

Bjork - Vespertine

Bjork's best album by a wide margin. Ethereal, affirming, sensual... much has been written about it's brilliance displayed, which I won't attempt to recapitulate here. Bonus: it's one of @yosp's favorite albums of the decade.

Radiohead - Kid A

Another masterpiece from the early aughts. This album completely subverted all expectations that people had for the rock-quintet who penned "Creep", and was a decisive eye-opening experience for a generation of Kids who never even considered listening to anything beyond grunge or alternative (myself included).

Literature

I feel the need to preface this section with a disclaimer: I'm somewhat of a literary nut, and have read everything form Aristotle to Zinn, but the books that I love the most are more pop fiction than deep, earthrending feats of human intellect and ingenuity. Oh well.

Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore

Yes there are cats, passing time in solitude, unexplained otherworldly events, and boners. It's a Murakami novel. For whatever reason though, this one gets me so much more than anything else he's ever written. Maybe it's the fact that the main character at once radically casts off responsibility and expectation, yet at the same time is guided minutely by his destiny. I dunno. Currently reading it for the 5th time.

Mikhail Bulgakov - Master and Margarita

Written through the 1920’s and 30’s, but not published (in a censored form) until 1967 and the “Khruschov thaw”. Master and Margarita is the tale of a hopeless-novelist-cum-lunatic-hero and his beloved, but also so much more. An incredible balance of wit, humor, philosophy, and action. One of the masterpieces of the 20th century.


Videogames(this is neogaf, after all)
I play a LOT of videogames, and there are no shortage of videogames that are 9/10, very fun games that I play through and enjoy and are simply videogames. Then there are these few that have another level of significance- games which I can play and never tire of. Games which ask for almost nothing up front, but simply invite you to come experience them, no-strings attached, and never tire of offering up whimsy and entertainment.

Mother 3

This game just gets to me in a way no other has managed to. Sure, I like Earthbound well enough, but Mother 3 outdoes it in almost every way. The humor, the beautiful pixel work, the music, the story, the characters... I honestly can't really describe why this game get's me so good, but it does.

The Legend of Zelda- The Wind Waker

This is a game that probably most of you are pretty familiar with. Its renowned for its visuals that seem to age like wine, although some are put off by the low difficulty of some of its dungeons. I was at first, but I think that now in retrospect, this is one of the games strengths. It still manages to present several interesting puzzles, but the bulk of the emphasis is on inviting the player in to explore, experience, and grow, as opposed to mastering some combat skillset or dungeon puzzle mechanic.

Ico

The story is told almost completely through gamplay, brief cutscenes, and the design of its world. When I hear people talk about “filmic” gameplay, or games continuing down a path of movie-style exposition and action, I normally cringe. Ico, however, takes themes and techniques of film and applies it in a way that actually works to videogames. The only game I’ve played to date that suggests videogames might attain their own status as an artform some day.