I'm really not looking forward to US election day tomorrow. I suspect the day will be filled with speculation and doomsaying, and then when the (I suspect inevitable) result occurs, there's going to be a real mess. At least online there will be, anyway; the vast majority of the people who claim they will "riot" should things not go their way in the polls probably aren't the sort of people inclined to actually leave their houses to do anything productive, anyway. Being a Twitter activist is much easier!

I'll be doing my best to provide some distractions for those who need it. Remember there's nearly two thousand articles on MoeGamer now, covering more than 500 games, so why not sit back and read a bit? Or enjoy a marathon of my videos? Or indeed, pop by the Discord and say hi. I've always said "no politics" on the Discord, so I will be strictly enforcing that tomorrow — not that I suspect I'll need to enforce it with you lovely folks (and the fact everyone is a bit quiet in there at the best of times!). Everyone deserves a nice quiet space with a bit of sanity to it all, and I'm damn well going to provide it.

One thing I will say in all seriousness: regardless of how invested you are in the results tomorrow, I urge you to take care of yourself first and foremost. It will be tempting to stay glued to the news to see what is happening, and to jump into arguments on social media with people trying to stir things up. I'm not saying don't do any of those things, but please do make a point of stepping away for a completely clean, social media and news-free break for a little while every so often. Play a game, read a MoeGamer article, watch a video, pet a cat. Decide if looking at what is going on is going to be a net positive or negative for your mental wellbeing — and act accordingly. I don't want to see anyone burn themselves out!

We're in tough times already and I suspect regardless of what happens tomorrow, even more challenges lie ahead. Just be sure to take care of yourself — and remember it's okay to take a break. It's times like this that arcade games were made for!

I've been in the mood for various bits of non-RPG nonsense between Atelier sessions of late, and one that I've been meaning to give a go for quite some time is Spy Hunter on the PlayStation 2. I fired it up for the first time last night and man that game is super-fun.

Most of you reading this are likely familiar, but on the offchance you aren't, Spy Hunter began as an early '80s arcade game that unfolded from a top-down perspective and saw you driving a tricked-out, heavily secret agent car along endless roads while listening to the theme from Peter Gunn in an attempt to take down enemy vehicles and score lots of points. It was monstrously difficult, impressively speedy and a lot of fun — and had some decent ports over the years, too. I have particularly fond memories of the Atari 8-bit version, for reasons that are likely obvious.

2001's Spy Hunter for PS2, however, is both a sequel and reboot. It transplants the top-down gameplay to a third-person 3D perspective, and challenges you to race through a series of missions, each of which feature various objectives to accomplish besides simply making it to the end. These vary from destroying specific targets to sticking GPS tags on things and collecting "Satcom" items; most objectives besides a mission's primary objective are completely optional, but subsequent missions are only unlocked if you've completed sufficient objectives in total.

The game handles really nicely. It's got a super-fun arcadey driving model, and the weapons controls are integrated simply but effectively. There's a touch of auto-aim and lock-on to keep things straightforward when hitting targets, and important objectives are highlighted with big flashing Sega arcade-game style reticles just to make sure you don't miss them. The only thing I do find a little tricky is the placement of some of the Satcom items; they often require the use of a jump ramp, and said jump ramps are often a little fiddly to hit at the right angle and speed. That's why they're optional objectives though, I guess, and after you've learned a stage by running through it a few times, hitting all these ramps as well as your other objectives will doubtless become second nature.

There are two other PS2 Spy Hunter games after this first one — the third of which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, since there was originally intended to be a tie-in movie — and apparently another complete reboot on Vita and 3DS from 2012. I have all the PS2 ones… judging by a little bit of time with this first one, I'm going to enjoy exploring them!

And yes, the Peter Gunn theme is present and correct.