New Video! Coming to Terms With Death Stranding, Five Years Later (sponsor-free!)

Hey everyone!

Just letting you know that the new video is available to Patreon supporters early! It'll be going up on the main channel once the sponsor (first one I've worked with in a while) approves things. But seeing as you are all directly supporting the channel, you don't have to sit through that guff! Plus you get to see it before everyone else!

Death Stranding represents one of the most complicated relationships I've ever had with a game. Releasing half a decade ago in 2019, it was a game whose grand ambition I could greatly appreciate, but whose structure left me feeling mixed on the overall experience. Describing said experience at the time led to one of my most disliked videos, and all the intense, downright strange bile that accompanied such a deviation from fan consensus. It was difficult to even think about returning to, let alone talk about, the game that generated such a response.

Cut to five years later, and a recent playthrough confirmed Death Stranding to be one of my favourite games. In this lengthy video, I discuss why that is, defining my own experience with the game, the nature of art criticism in an engagement-driven ecosystem, and why sometimes great art requires a little time.

Despite the aforementioned prior experience talking about Death Stranding, this felt really good to make. As I explore in the video, it feels like completing a loop somehow. I sincerely hope you enjoy it as well.

Sorry for the radio silence—some of you may know if you follow me on Bluesky, but a problem with my internet meant that my post about the AI Minecraft video that went up on YouTube a few weeks back didn't make it on Patreon in time to count as a paid post, leaving me in the perilous position of having zero income for the month of December. It was proper panic mode for a minute there—money has been extremely tight lately and it was just one more stress on top of a cavalcade that has made up 2024. This year has really sucked, man.

But thanks to the genuinely moving support I received from a great number of amazing people at http://PayPal.me/writingongames as well as the work I've been doing consulting with people on YouTube scripts/general channel consultation, any crisis was averted. To say I am grateful is an understatement. To anyone who supported at the start of the month—you helped more than you can possibly know. I cried a lot. I cannot begin to thank you all enough.

So yeah, been a bit stressful here of late, so I took things a bit easier on myself for a few weeks. I'd hoped that December would be full of videos but they all ended up taking slightly longer than expected, this one included. That said, if there's one thing to come from this hell year it's that it really felt like I did a bunch of work upfront for a ton of videos whose scripts are basically done, and I can move into production stage going into the new year. I'm genuinely really excited for what's in store, and it can only happen because of everyone's continued and unbelievably generous support. Thank you all so much.

I'll get that ad-free version of the Minecraft AI video (which I'm still very proud of) posted here in the next few hours as well—thank you so much for your patience on that, and your understanding as I've worked through a pretty tough year. I'm extremely thankful, in case you couldn't already tell.

I'll be getting another vid in between Christmas and New Year hopefully, but I'm actually quite looking forward to taking a bit of time and just, I dunno... watching a bunch of movies or something. Been busy as hell lately.

And then it'll be the tenth Game of the Year video. Feels absolutely wild to say that. Holy moly. Working on some fun stuff to celebrate.

(Oh also I hope people are enjoying the Lost In Cult Mansion book, in which I contributed a piece about the horror of The Sims! It's a piece I'm very proud of and people who have the book seem to really enjoy. Combines essay and short story, which was wild to do but super fun. You can get a copy here if you're so inclined—lot of great pieces from a lot of great writers! https://www.lostincult.co.uk/shop/p/mansion )

Whole lot to dig into now and coming soon, and I hope you enjoy it all. You are all the best. Hope you're having a good holiday season so far. You deserve it.

Thanks,

Hamish

Writing on Games