my favourite texts of 2021 ⭐️

My first full year writing game reviews was a weird one - deeply concentrated on games, still understanding what they are and what they can do, all the while deep in my feelings becoming housebound from Long Covid. It was really helpful for me to write about being sick in order to process everything and make peace with it (if making peace is even possible). But I also resented writing about sickness, even when I felt the need to, because I hated how it would get stuck in my throat. Sometimes I’d start writing, find myself going off on a tangent about Covid, fight with the text, and then just give up and let it be loud like it wants to. Other times though, I managed to keep it quiet. Sometimes, I managed to write about something without giving Covid the airtime, and those happen to be my favourite texts of 2021.

A review of Love Island Season 7, in which my past enjoyment of the show comes totally undone and I break up with the series:

https://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/love-island-season-7

A review of Red Dead Redemption 2, a text where I switch in and out of a fictional voice to stir the feelings of adventure:

https://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/red-dead-redemption-2

And finally, a review of The Last of Us Part 2, where I think about what it means to do things in video games you don’t want to do:

https://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/the-last-of-us

I’m very proud of these texts :) They feel like big subjects to contend with, popular pieces of our culture. When I write texts I’m this happy with, I get so worried about what the fuck is it I’m going to write next. What if it’s all downhill from here!!!! No, I’m sure it’ll be oookayyyyy (✖﹏✖)

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