My hottest take in the gaming world is that I've never understood the hype around Rockstar games. To be fair, it's a small piece of my grander opinion of "Some open worlds are just too open for me." Games like Grand Theft Auto, Skyrim, etc. throw you out into a world where there's endless possibilities, but that means I'm endlessly distracted from the content they want you to partake. I never unlocked any of the map in GTA IV when I was kid because I just kept driving around and killing people. Decades later, Red Dead Redemption 2 sweeps the nation. People praise the story so I sat myself down and forced myself to not get distracted, but when I go in I find the plot gratingly repetitive despite a great ending. Now GTA VI is on the horizon with people freaking out, so I've downloaded GTA V to see if something will finally click.

...It didn't.

Even less so than Red Dead Redemption, because there's so much I can do but is any of it really entertaining? Do I really want to figure out investing in the stock market, playing tennis, or doing yoga in my backyard? And then the plot is even less intriguing than Red Dead 2. I hardly care about what's going on past Trevor being a hilarious weirdo and wanting to see what he does next.

Aside from that I also just absolutely hate anything to do with planes or more specifically helicopters in GTA. The controls are awful, and while yes they may be difficult to control in game because they're difficult to control in real life, I ask again is it fun? And on top of that they ask for near pinpoint accuracy with this jank. One mission tasked me with picking up train cars via helicopter. It probably took me 6 minutes to properly align my helicopter with each pickup. Just fucking streamline it. Literally any other open world helicopter is more fun. Just Cause or Saints Row do this so much better.

Is there any good here? Yes. I really enjoy the heists. It is fun to plan out and prepare for these high stakes adventures. Also a lot of the side characters/missions are hilarious. Past that though I'm still indifferent about Rockstar, and most likely will not be getting GTA VI.

It’s hard to talk about Outer Wilds for 2 reasons:

1. People tell you that you must go in with no information at all (which I don’t necessarily think is true for everyone)

2. It’s hard to put what makes this game so great into words

I say I don’t believe #1 to be true because well… This is my 3rd time playing Outer Wilds, and the first time finishing it. This is also the first time I’ve realized how great this game is. The other times I would’ve just said “It’s fun.” I feel like it should be said to new people that getting to the end is the key to this game, especially to those who aren’t immediately on board by just being told to explore. Sure this is an exploration game but in truth this is also a detective game, and these 2 genres are seamlessly melded together. The entire game is one big puzzle box, made out of intricate clues that’ll have you bouncing from planet to planet to see every puzzle thread to its end. Hidden under all that is a deep emotional core that only shows its face if you put in the work.

Every planet within the solar system of Outer Wilds is perfectly built to easily find points of interest. This universe is miniscule but the feelings of running into the weirdo phenomena hidden within are grand. A water world of twisters. Twin planets filling each other up with sand. Whatever the fuck Dark Bramble is. Oh hey look I’m crashing into the sun. All of this is enhanced by a magnificent score by Andrew Prahlow. Makes sense that one of the games that will go down in history would also have potentially historical music. AND it’s got banjos.

The wonder of exploration is only matched with a fear of the unknown, and it makes sense to fear the unknown. It’s freakin’ space! you should be afraid, one wrong move and you’re dead. Outer Wilds once again uses fantastical eeriness to capture these feelings. There’s rocks that move when you don’t look at them and they emit a low droning frequency. There’s the Echoes of the Eye DLC which freaked me out way too much. There’s fucking FISH IN SPACE. That may not sound scary but just you wait, nerd.

To me Outer Wilds is a lot like Death Stranding. Both will have times where maybe you aren’t having fun. You may get stuck. You may even rage quit at points. There’s some creepy ass shit in there too. All of this however is important to the fabric of what makes these games great. For Death Stranding it’s to show you how connection and relationships can better the world around you. For Outer Wilds it’s about embracing the journey. Living life through its ups and downs because that’s what life is all about. To focus on finding purpose to why we’re here will make you miss out on life itself. Go hug a loved one and hang with a friend.