It’s hard to project oneself beyond the dense, high wall of experiential variables PAX West represents, but we can try; maybe we can establish a conceptual base camp on the other side and work our way toward it.

The form that is currently taking is the list. My list deviates somewhat from his - Spider-Man is a game I would gladly watch him play, I think Insomniac is gonna get the melee to a good spot, but if I’m gonna lose myself in the music, the moment, it’s probably gonna be in Dragon Quest.

I have precisely no Dragon Quest pedigree. I have played a couple of them, some longer than others, usually until I see the twinkle of a gum wrapper blowing in the wind and I lose my train of thought. But I catch a glimpse of those trailers, and it looks like I thought games would look in the future, without the grotesque realities of the future, like ubiquitous carcinogens and a mad dash to appease a fundamentally disinterested cadre by making the combat real-ass motherfucking time.

No, for me it’s definitely Forsaken at first, probably with Gabe and Kara, who I’ve played through the vast majority of Destiny content with. This looks like there’s actually something to sink your teeth into, Narrative wise, and Gambit’s twist on Crucible - a whacked out combination of PvE gameplay and a murderous variant on Red Rover - seems genuinely new to me. They also got rid of the mod system I never actually understood, so good for me. All the time I would have spent perceiving it I can now apply to other cognitive tasks. This change has literally given me life.

Once I discovered a workaround for how to access the Black Ops 4 beta I’d purchased (create a dummy Live account, sign in, run the game, and then switch to my actual account?!) Gabe, Kiko, and myself spent as much time as we possibly could in the earlier Beta weekend. The next Beta weekend features Blackout, the COD approach to Battle Royale, and when it was initially announced it seemed like it was just the required gesticulation to the Divine Market. I’m not so sure, now. They still own immediacy in FPS. I will be incredibly shocked if Blackout doesn’t represent an authentic attempt to surprise.

(CW)TB out.