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As somebody who has used Fiverr, there's a lot of good artists on there, but it does not cost five dollars.

Voyager has its moments, but I would consider it the weakest of the three. Admittedly, I didn't keep up with the whole series, because I was kinda bored of the concept.

TNG is classic episodic Trek, with very good writing in most of its episodes, even if the first season was a bit weak at spots. Even then, parts of the first season were still interesting. It really hits its stride on the 3rd season.

DS9 is my favorite Trek. It tackled darker themes that TNG and Roddenberry didn't want to touch, shades of gray that exposed cracks in the Federation, but still remains Star Trek. It didn't completely throw away the ideals of the Federation in a weakly-written, grimdark manner like Picard. DS9 had some of the best written episodes, and by the 2nd or 3rd season, it was (copying off of B5) telling an overarching narrative that really kept you interested.

Though, Babylon 5 is the series that really started the whole narrative approach to sci-fi. I love both B5 and DS9, but DS9 did steal a ton of ideas from the B5 bible that JMS gave Paramount, during his initial pitch. DS9 had a lot of really good individual episodes, but I thought Babylon 5 had a better, more memorable narrative.

I had some issues with the almost nonsensical decision-making of the end of Season 2. But, I can forgive some of it because of the sheer amount of risk-taking on display to show well-crafted mini-stories within the main plot. And they had the balls to really end the series with a proper finale.

Some parts were messy. Some parts were loosely-connected with bad logic. But, it was still one of the most creative series I've ever seen.

Valiant efforts, but I hope Adobe and their software die a horrible death.

Absolutely. Been using GIMP for years, and I have zero need to switch to bloated, Windows-only, monthly-subscription garbage.

DaVinci Resolve, too. The improvements on Resolve 20 are amazing.

Tooting my own horn here, but I just put out a SOMA video essay recently, for when you finish the game: The Lessons of SOMA Are Timeless (or on PeerTube)

JMS had a plan with Babylon 5. He knew how to carry a series forward, figured out alternate plans in case of emergencies, and despite everything, people still remember it 25-30 years later.

Same with Sam Esmail and Mr. Robot. Or The Expanse, despite how many cancellations it got.

The only thing people remember Lost for is how much they fucked up the ending. Or BSG... fantastic series, terrible ending. Just wasted potential tarnishing their legacy.

At least, Vince Gilligan has a good track record.

That was a long watch, but worth it.

Thanks!

I missed some of the aspects discussed in the video when playing through Soma the first time, because I was expecting Amnesia like scary monsters.

Funny, I didn't even know who the studio was until much later, so I had the opposite reaction. I found out they made Amnesia and thought "huh, okay, that explains the Proxies and other monsters".

There's a Safe Mode, and if you don't like horror games or anxiety-inducing chases, it's a good compromise. I talk about that in the intro.

Simon is the most audience surrogate of all time. Also, I think his continuous lack of understanding is partially due to his "flat" scan, being done when the technology was in its infancy.

Space Quest Historian put out a good video talking about these kinds of games. I think it's too easy for people to get so hung up on these definitions. I know everybody has these kind of expectations of what a "computer game" is supposed to be, but story-focused "walking simulators" still have a place in an interactive medium.

You can't put yourself in Simon's shoes like this in a movie or TV series, because you're controlling him in a first-person view. It just wouldn't be the same perspective, which is critically important in a game where the POV is almost a centerpiece to the story.

It's a different kind of game, sure, and not everybody is going to like the lack of traditional "gameplay" or whatever you want to call it. But, it's a category of game that should be respected as just a valid a "game" as any other computer game. It's just far more story-focused than most.