Touch Grass
Dario Martinez
Games Editor
No gaming article today. Instead, this editor humbly demands that you put your controller down or lay your hands off the keyboard and do something… daring.
If you are reading this, chances are winter is already here. With winter comes snow. Santa’s ashtray residue will soon cover the entirety of Quebec, so what I ask you to do is the following. First, go outside. Clear a patch of snow out of your lawn. Next, squat down and, in one gentle motion, lower your hands and caress the withering grass. The privilege of grass-touching will be revoked for a long, long time. Once you have accomplished this task, you may resume flooding your brain with dopamine.
Many players show their fascination at the incredibly advanced graphics in games like Red Dead Redemption II or Cyberpunk 2077 by declaring they “look better than real life”. While hopefully for the most part this is satire, there are those who may genuinely believe this. Those stuck in a home-school-work routine that go back every day to the old gray suburbs where all the houses look the same. In those cases it might truly feel like you’re the one stuck in a simulation while your favorite protagonist is exploring a beautiful world.
Gladly, there are solutions. Go for a walk. Run. Hike. Swim. Drive. Grab a couple of your totally-not-middle-aged Discord friends and go camping. Explore. Just like that, you may marvel at the awe-inspiring graphics of God’s creation. You might even enjoy yourself, discover a world full of wonder beyond your 1440p 144Hz RGB gaming monitor.
Anyways, here are the Game of the Year 2022 Nominees:
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio / Focus Entertainment)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware / Bandai Namco Entertainment)
God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
STRAY (BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft / Nintendo)