Maybe a hot take, but Cyberpunk 2077. I didn't experience most of the bugs people complained about and I loved almost everything about the game and world. It's also only gotten better as they've patched it.
For me, it could never live up to the hype. But I am glad some people have enjoyed it so much and it has come a hell of a long way since release. I've been playing recently but going to wait for the new DLC and restart.
I know I was kinda blinded by the potential early on, bu the world is the most ambitious ever created in a video game. The fact that all of the missions use it at face value is really crazy IMO. The game is groundbreaking for that alone.
Vaccines. My uncle had Polio as a child and so my Grandmother was still advocating strongly for vaccines before her death at 98. I'm happy to have received my first Shingrix shot last week. It's amazing we can get a poke, with something that's completely gone from the body in a week but we will have T-cells protecting us for a very long time.
LeBron. He came out of HS as the "chosen one" and dominated the NBA most of his career. He could have easily have crumbled under the pressure and instead ended up being a top 3 all time player.
Also, no major scandals. Seems like a decent father to his kids, been with the same girl the whole time. No cheating or partying or rumors of shady behavior or other bs.
MRNA vaccines. Not only have they saved millions of lives from COVID, they look like they are going to revolutionize other areas as well. For example, there is a wide-range cancer vaccine under development.
Pokémon Go. Like a typical hype you are sceptic at first, try it, see why everyone loves it and then see how the hype cools off again. But for those few weeks in the summer it first came out it was a blast. I met so many new people, the whole atmosphere of walking in a random neighborhood just completely changed.
I had an extra SATA port on the side of my laptop that resembled a CD-ROM drive. Plugged in new SSD, installed win10, and it was so much faster. The original installation is festering until I finally back up all the data, cause I'm a data hoarder apparently. Doesn't help I used the old drive, now D:\ as storage.
I can think of so many things that don't. Some of them in this post's comments.
Ice cold soda, beer, or fresh lemonade on a hot day. There's hype around all of them, and every single time I'm blown away.
Disturbed's classic albums. Going back and listening to them now, I'm still staggered by how good they sound and how hard songs like "ten thousand fists" hit you. Extremely overproduced, but hilariously smooth like melted butter.
Analog stuff (vs digital). I've long-time been an advocate for digital being cheaper, easier, and just as good. But... In reality, in so many cases, pure analog is just so much better, both subjectively and sometimes also still objectively. Don't write this stuff off so easy, the old farts aren't completely irrelevant. And at worse, it's another flavor that's extremely difficult to emulate perfectly.
Fresh strawberries/fruit. I've had a lot of strawberries in my life. I'm West Coast and used to live in California. A lot. But I'd never gone out to a you-pick farm. Man. Those strawberries were RIDICULOUSLY good. I think somebody there said it was a new breed of strawberry, but DAMN.
Knowing and loving yourself. This will be a lifelong challenge for most people, and some may never fully get there. But the ability to know and understand yourself and be honest to yourself while also learning to love yourself is huge. Spend the effort when you can, because this life is all you get. Human life is painfully short, and spending important parts of it being emotionally constipated is incredibly regrettable and sad. Make that bread, smile at a random person, buy the damn flowers, go on that trip, watch the sunset. I know that sometimes life can be hard and people can be unbelievably shitty. Just remember to breathe.
Which brings me to my last one: meditation. I don't mediate regularly. My parents both do and swear by it, but they can be irritating boomers. But, that being said, I have organically come to the conclusion on my own that sometimes you have to close your eyes, take some deep breaths, remember who you are, quiet the outside world and all the shitty shit out there and in there, and find some peace and solid ground. It can always be worse, but you have to try to stay in the here-and-now if it isn't a pit or a horrible place. Be thankful for being alive and then hear the space around you and accept the present. Some people call this meditation or something, so I guess that's what the hype is all about. If you don't need it, that's awesome.. but if you feel like your life is getting away from you, the hype just doesn't do it justice.
Better Call Saul. I just finished the series a few days ago and I thought it was amazing. At the moment I believe it's actually better than Breaking Bad so I'm gonna have to go and watch that next to compare.
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