One of the side effects of living in a time of media abundance is that while there’s no shortage of decent media to consume, it raises the bar for great media a little higher.

I was watching a movie a couple months ago, and while it was a perfectly decent action film, I found myself unsatisfied because it was so damned movie-ish that even though it was engaging, the beats were predictable and it left me feeling sort of meh. Likewise had that experience with some video games recently; Avowed was a pleasant AAA RPG with good combat, but the overall experience was so familiar and similar to other massive RPGs that it instantly faded into apathy.

Thankfully, the newest game I’ve picked up is the much-ballyhooed* Expedition 33, which is an early favorite for Game of the Year. And it presents a unique and engaging story that has really wowed me, even though I’m only a few hours in.** So hooray for that.

Also in better than average news, one of my recent columns seems to have spurred multiple laudatory letters to the editor, which I am very excited about because overcoming the apathy barrier with positivity instead of negativity is rare***, so it was very gratifying to know the column resonated with people. Maybe it will also resonate with you:

Will Work For Food (Eagle)

Will Work For Food (Banner)

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* I don’t know if anyone even says ballyhoo anymore, but if they did, they’d say it about this game.

** Apparently AI searches suggest that you should play Expeditions 1-32 first for more backstory, a suggestion marred only by the fact that they don’t exist.

*** For me, or really for any non-famous person. No, a newspaper column does not make me a famous person. Frankly, I’m surprised you’ve heard of me.

Tags: ballyhoo, Expedition 33

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 31st, 2025 at 12:23 am and is filed under Column nods, Seth Brown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.