And i guess any work that brings out feelings like mine, even if they are rather negative, can be considered effective art.

That’s the charitable take, and i find it very unlikely that this was the intent. But it’s the only framework that makes my experience make sense.

There’s part of me that genuinely wonders as to if the point of the game is that people often do stupid things, our attempts to fix things can make things much worse, and desolation shouldn’t be fun - and feeling empty and frustrated is intentional. If that’s indeed the case- this is truly art.

Not everyone will feel as I do, and I am sure there are many who love Prime 4. All I can do is examine where things started to go bad for me… and i keep coming back to solitary isolation vs Adam and Space Marines, discovery vs. exposition. Agency vs. duty.

All of this ultimately culminates in an ending that is guaranteed to make pretty much nobody happy, leaving the player unsatisfied.

The funny thing is that if you go back and explore once you have reached endgame, there’s a lot of satisfying gameplay there that has been locked off until then.

I normally am not one to be bothered by a sequel, or go on frustrated rants about games, so why is this one getting to me? I think its because it lies to the player about what it could be, with the lush, beautiful, and small area of Fury Green, and just treats the player with contempt.

The padding in 4 is already fairly obvious (green crystals have been talked about enough) - but even the little things add up. Damage sponges and extremely complicated doors are everywhere… But even scanning something takes significantly longer in 4! There are SO many micro-delays.

Just a couple of hours into replaying 1, I can see where several boss battles were lifted almost directly, except made less interesting. The large armored beetle, the fire drone, the war wasps - they all are directly lifted into a battle in 4 that is less engaging, yet drags on much longer.

Every power is a rebadged power from an earlier game, outside of maybe two, which mostly act themselves as keys. The empty open world itself mocking the concept, immediately lying to you that you can go wherever you want as soon as you get to it, despite there being a strict path.

I’ve started to think of it as a spiritual successor to MGS2 in terms of being a fundamentally dadaist game, and oh my god does it make a lot of sense in that context. It deconstructs the series into hunting of keys that themself require keys, with locks literally saying “spin to open”.

If you take anything away from all of this rambling, I hope that it’s a curiosity and openness to exploring some of these things if you have been on that mild to moderate threshold of “able to get by.” It’s been very beneficial to me so far, and I’m curious where this journey leads from here.

I think it would be very easy to fall in to a gear acquisition trap with all of the hearing aid options that are out there, both OTC and prescription, especially if you are a music hardware guy. I suspect that path is a most disappointing one - and expensive. Be aware of real limitations.

But i also think it’s important to temper your expectations, and be realistic about what hearing aids can and cannot do, and the fact that hearing loss - in most cases - cannot be restored to perfection. Be realistic about where you are and what can be done, and what you can and cannot live with.

I am very new to this. I’m sure that a lot of what I’m saying seems ridiculous to anyone dealing with much worse. But for you all dealing with being in that mild to moderate threshold, i encourage you to explore options, add most importantly, stick with it. We have more options now than ever.

The sonys also saved my ass when i had a sudden loss in both ears that was way asymmetrical that left me unable to normally understand anyone - not their use case, but after going through setup again, it compensated for the asymmetry and was enough help that i could get by with some effort.

At first, i did not like them, but sticking with them has paid off. They aren’t great for music, and you wont stream to them via bluetooth or anything like that - they are strictly for being out in the world, and they are outstanding for that… like, seriously a tangible difference.

Otherwise, for interacting with the world around me, i’ve settled on the Sony CRE-C20s for now. I’ve been advised that for my particular hearing loss, along with the added variability in it, these are a great starting point. They are tiny things that disappear in my ear and run all day.

For mixing and mastering, it sends best to stream through the AirPods and their “media” hearing correction and live with the delay - i can hear every audiophile screaming at the idea of this right now, but it’s the compromise that works for me - at least at the non professional level i work at.

Live electronic is a different story, with so many moving parts. For that, a separate eq for monitoring that’s the inversion of an audiogram seems like a reasonable idea, and is what I’m trying - things get muddy and weird through the aids I’ve tried, so i just do it without.

I’m still trying to figure out what i should compensate for here, and experimenting. For live music, i don’t know what options there really are- and honestly, how much it matters if you aren’t the sound guy. Just playing one instrument, it may not be a big deal - that’s all very individual.