Open World

On Tears of the Kingdom and relitigating the '70s

Welcome back to Culture Club, a feature where David and I talk about what we’ve been reading, writing, and (once again) playing, for paid subscribers. Please enjoy this free preview, and consider upgrading to support two struggling journalists at once!

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Hey Sunday night Substackers,

Been fighting off some storms in the ol’ noggin, so this will be short & sweet.

I want to highlight this amazing poll—perhaps the last great piece of Twitter content around—which has almost 300,000 votes and is exactly tied. What’s your take? I voted de Niro on the basis of cheekbones alone.

As to the rest—like a whole lot of other people, I’ve been drowning my sorrows in juggernaut Legend of Zelda title Tears of the Kingdom, which came out midnight Thursday. I’d write a long hackneyed essay about the way open-world games temporarily ameliorate the claustrophobic confines of my agoraphobe’s life, but this newsletter has been perilously close to a mental illness memoir, so I’ll elide the topic and say: a stone monster with a wooden barricade full of arrow-wielding monsters on top of its dang HEAD is a bold move.

So far I’m loving Breath of the Wild 2: This Time You Can Glue Stuff together a heck of a lot.