saihara
212 Reviews liked by saihara
i'm of the understanding that the later episodes will provide a level of self-reflection on the artist's part and i certainly don't mean to shit on anyone for the sake of making art. with that said, i found this first episode of hello charlotte largely full of itself despite having a tiny runtime with which it essentially serves to throw "emotional" gutpunches at you for characters you've known for half the length of an average blockbuster, constantly throwing rudimentary puzzles and unfair deathtraps at you, and opts for loredumping and nudge-nudge fourth wall breaks instead of actually forming a relationship between player and character, character and environment, or character and character. i walked away from this first episode largely unsure of what the purpose or point of what i'd just played was, and was reminded of a lot of earlier, more competent rpgmaker works from ages before this came out. i did like the "awkward dimension's" art and i will admit some pieces of spritework felt space funeral-esque but this wholesome bean!!! style rpgmaker protag has never done anything for me and hello charlotte isn't on any better footing with me thus far on that level. i'll keep an open mind, and regardless, i don't regret paying for this game because i'd rather see independent and expressive work, even that i don't like, see funding and support.
Pentiment
2022
โโ๐ช ๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช ๐ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ด๐ซ ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ข๐ก โญ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ก๐ค๐ข. โ๐ฑ'๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก. โญ๐ฌ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ก๐ค๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ก๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ด ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฆ๐ซ 2001 ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ฅ๐๐ก ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฉ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฃ โ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฅ โญ๐๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข ๐ด๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฉ๐ก ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ก๐ข ๐ฌ๐ฃ โ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ก.
โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ช๐ข๐ฐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ถ ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ 14. ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ฐ๐๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฐ, โ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ค ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ก. โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซ'๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ซ๐จ โโ๐ก ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด. ๐๐ถ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค โ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐ข ๐๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒโ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฃ๐๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ดโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ยฃ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐โ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐พ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ช๐ท๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ช๐ฝ๐ธ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ท๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ข๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐น๐พ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฝ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐พ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ท ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ต๐ธ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ช๐ป๐ด. ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐พ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ต๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ต๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐พ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ต๐ญ, ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ช๐ป๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ช๐พ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐น๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฌ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ. ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ญโ๐ผ ๐น๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐น๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ป๐ฒ๐ถ๐ธ๐ท๐. ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ช๐ผ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ซ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐.
๐๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐พ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐พ๐ถ๐ช๐ท ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ธ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ป๐ช๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ถ๐ถ๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐ ๐ช๐ต๐๐ช๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ-๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐๐ท ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ป ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ช๐ญ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ณ๐ธ๐ซ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต'๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฟ๐ช๐ต๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต-๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต.
๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ธ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐จ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ค๐ฅ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ช๐ข๐ฐ ๐ ๐ก๐๐ถ ๐ด๐๐ฐ๐ซโ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ช๐๐ฉ ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ 14. ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ฐ๐๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฐ, โ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฉ ๐ญ๐ฏ๐๐ถ ๐๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ซ๐ค ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ข๐ช ๐ฆ๐ซ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ก. โ ๐ก๐ฆ๐ก๐ซ'๐ฑ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฅ๐ข๐ซ โ ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ซ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ, ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ โ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ซ๐จ โโ๐ก ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐จ๐ข ๐ฆ๐ฑ ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ด. ๐๐ถ ๐ช๐ฒ๐ช ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐๐๐ถ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค โ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ ๐ข ๐๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฌ๐ฒโ ๐๐ซ๐ก ๐ฐ๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฅ๐๐ซ๐ก๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ข ๐ด๐๐ฐ ๐ช๐ถ ๐ฃ๐๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ข ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ซ๐ค ๐ฑ๐ฌ ๐ช๐๐ฐ๐ฐ.
๐ฟ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด๐ ๐ฝ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐.
๐ฟ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ดโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐บ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐๐๐. ๐ด ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ยฃ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.
๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐-๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ณ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
๐โ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ช๐ท๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฎ๐ญ๐พ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ช๐ท๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ญ๐ช๐ฝ๐ธ๐ป๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ท๐ธ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ข๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐น๐พ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฝ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ผ๐ฝ๐ป๐พ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐๐ท ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต๐ผ ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ท ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ต๐ต ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ผ, ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ซ๐ธ๐๐ผ ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ช ๐ต๐ธ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ช๐ป๐ด. ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ถ๐ช๐ท๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐พ๐ท๐ฝ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ญ๐ช๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ต๐ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ท๐ญ ๐ช๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ต๐ช๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ช๐ป๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ.
๐ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ธ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ต๐ญ ๐พ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐พ๐ต๐ญ, ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ช๐ป๐ญ๐ต๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ช๐พ๐ฝ๐ธ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐น๐ป๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ท๐ฌ๐ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ป๐ช๐ฌ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ. ๐๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ผ. ๐๐๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐๐ธ๐ญโ๐ผ ๐น๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป ๐น๐ฎ๐ธ๐น๐ต๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ๐น๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ต๐ ๐ผ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐ถ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฝ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ช๐ฝ๐ป๐ฒ๐ถ๐ธ๐ท๐. ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ป๐ผ๐ฝ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐ต ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ผ๐ต๐ฎ๐น๐ฝ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ช๐ผ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ธ๐ท ๐ซ๐ธ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฎ๐.
๐๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ญ ๐๐ฎ๐ต๐พ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐พ๐ถ๐ช๐ท ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฌ๐ฎ, ๐ ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ธ๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป ๐น๐ป๐ช๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ญ๐ฒ๐ผ๐น๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ท ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐ธ๐ถ๐ถ๐พ๐ท๐ฒ๐ธ๐ท. ๐ ๐ช๐ต๐๐ช๐๐ผ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ฎ-๐ฏ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐๐ท ๐ถ๐ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ท๐ช๐ต ๐๐ฎ๐ช๐ป ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ ๐ช๐ญ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ฝ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฎ๐ช๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฝ ๐ช ๐ณ๐ธ๐ซ ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ช๐พ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ ๐๐ช๐ผ๐ท'๐ฝ ๐ฎ๐ท๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ผ๐ฌ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ต'๐ผ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ธ๐ผ ๐ช๐ท๐ญ ๐ฟ๐ช๐ต๐พ๐ฎ๐ผ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ถ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ซ๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ. ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ. ๐ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ช๐ค๐ฉ ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ต๐ฃ๐ณ๐ช๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ช๐ต-๐ช๐ฏ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ถ๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต.
๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐ท, ๐ธ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐พ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ข ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐ฟ๐๐๐ ๐ธ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ธ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
Along with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and DOOM, Call of Duty: Warzone formed part of what I've been internally referring to as "the saviour trilogy" - the three games that were up to the task of keeping me in the game of the early pandemic when everything was uncertain, indeterminate and appalling. Warzone was by no means a perfect game - it was janky, it was buggy, it was stupid (in both pejorative and complimentary senses) - but it was more than capable of performing the crucial "zoom call with the boys" function: while my girlfriend and my grandmother and my work colleagues hopped onto group video calls to play murder mysteries and do pop-quizzes, me and the fellas used Warzone as an excuse to war-room about what was (or, more accurately, what wasn't) happening in our lives while the viral battlefront raged outside.
The gameplay was mostly ancillary, but had plenty of highlights: BIG-team Call of Duty with proximity voice chat and "death screams" combined with semi-invincible vehicles and 1km+ sniper rifles lead to a lot of hilarity and outside-the-box gameplay you wouldn't expect from the franchise - chasing dudes up staircases with quad bikes, throwing tomahawks at UAVs, having a smoke+riff sesh with your dudes in a helicopter that's flying too high for the guys with SMGs and shotguns in the Final Circle to reach... the possibilities were more or less endless, and the creators of 1.0 seemed happy to permit revelry in regressive behaviour (though in reality I imagine patching a 100GB+ game in April 2020 was a living nightmare for Infinity Ward and the 13 other Activision studios who supported them).
The day Warzone asked me and the squad to download two 100GB patches in one week was the day the game died for us. We were all playing on Base PS4s with default hard-drives, luddite gamers who had no interest in Pros and Plus and Platter-Externals for the sake of a F2P Zoom call. We trailed off into the world of Hunt Showdown and Fortnite and never looked back at the gigabyte-gomorrah we uninstalled ourselves from; like Animal Crossing, there was probably some degree of post-covid relief to be found in that digital distance. I only ever really heard about the game again via the bizarre phenomenon of grown men in their thirties and forties telling me, with surprising frequency, that they'd queued for 8 hours or spent ยฃ1000 to get a PlayStation 5 specifically so that Warzone would load faster and could be installed alongside other games. Crazy, huh? Imagine being that invested in video games.
Ironically, it wasn't any new feature or map or content that brought me back for Warzone 2.0 - it was the simple announcement that the install size of the game had been reduced by 80%. The wonders of next-gen gaming! As you might expect from a project that has 23,000 people in the credits, the game itself is almost completely unchanged from Warzone 1.0; while there's an initial awkward adjustment period in exchanging East European forests for Middle-East Asian fields, it's surprising how familiar everything feels - almost as if someone's run a Google Translate AI filter over all the ะะพะบะฐ-ะะพะปะฐ billboards to make them say ุงููููุง ูููุง instead; difficult questions re: globalisation that emerge in trading out Ukraine for Iran are mostly side-stepped by simply having the new war-country act as a toybox for generic PMCs. War has changed in order to become unchanging. An eternal battleground that persists regardless of what language the 400MB road signs are in. And as far as gameplay goes, my only complaint is that they made the cars and trucks are weak as shit.
DMZ, the new Tarkov/Hunt/DayZ mode, comes under much tighter scrutiny. Or it would, if it was capable of running for more than 20 minutes at a time. Essentially a mini COD MMO with anywhere-PVP, it's a classic case of a gamer's platonic dream-ideal making way for a CEO deadline-induced nightmare: progress lost; parties blocked; playlists broken; queues abound; hard crashes at crucial moments - arguably it's all launch-week teething issues that will pass like unconvincing PhysX dust on the plains of Notpakistan, but this is a mode where every mote and moment of progress is supposed to count for something: all decisions are final, and there's only one way out. Losing progress to the desktop's void stings all the tighter when so much of the moment-to-moment gameplay here involves inventory management that doesn't matter - inventory management in games never matters all that much, but it really doesn't matter here: weighing up whether to stow the Aged Wine or the Vintage Wine for the difference of $50 (to buy a gun that costs $5000+) only to walk over a lagged-out landmine moments later and lose three hours of progression... That's life, I guess, but it's not exactly condusive towards the life-escaping levels of Zoom Call With The Boys.
Feels impeccably timed that this would drop at the same time as the Qatar World Cup - a broken Middle-East-bound versimilitude of something that once existed in a cleaner, sturdier but no less morally-ethically dubious form. Why was it palatable then, but not now? We're still chewing on it with some degree of gratitude, but there's a look of hypocritical disgust in our eyes. I guess the difference now is that the wheels are now coming off of everything everywhere and we can see the cracks that 'workers' once had the time to paper over. When everyone's connected all at once, there can be no blind eyes. Hopefully they patch in the ability to gib people with chopper blades again.
The gameplay was mostly ancillary, but had plenty of highlights: BIG-team Call of Duty with proximity voice chat and "death screams" combined with semi-invincible vehicles and 1km+ sniper rifles lead to a lot of hilarity and outside-the-box gameplay you wouldn't expect from the franchise - chasing dudes up staircases with quad bikes, throwing tomahawks at UAVs, having a smoke+riff sesh with your dudes in a helicopter that's flying too high for the guys with SMGs and shotguns in the Final Circle to reach... the possibilities were more or less endless, and the creators of 1.0 seemed happy to permit revelry in regressive behaviour (though in reality I imagine patching a 100GB+ game in April 2020 was a living nightmare for Infinity Ward and the 13 other Activision studios who supported them).
The day Warzone asked me and the squad to download two 100GB patches in one week was the day the game died for us. We were all playing on Base PS4s with default hard-drives, luddite gamers who had no interest in Pros and Plus and Platter-Externals for the sake of a F2P Zoom call. We trailed off into the world of Hunt Showdown and Fortnite and never looked back at the gigabyte-gomorrah we uninstalled ourselves from; like Animal Crossing, there was probably some degree of post-covid relief to be found in that digital distance. I only ever really heard about the game again via the bizarre phenomenon of grown men in their thirties and forties telling me, with surprising frequency, that they'd queued for 8 hours or spent ยฃ1000 to get a PlayStation 5 specifically so that Warzone would load faster and could be installed alongside other games. Crazy, huh? Imagine being that invested in video games.
Ironically, it wasn't any new feature or map or content that brought me back for Warzone 2.0 - it was the simple announcement that the install size of the game had been reduced by 80%. The wonders of next-gen gaming! As you might expect from a project that has 23,000 people in the credits, the game itself is almost completely unchanged from Warzone 1.0; while there's an initial awkward adjustment period in exchanging East European forests for Middle-East Asian fields, it's surprising how familiar everything feels - almost as if someone's run a Google Translate AI filter over all the ะะพะบะฐ-ะะพะปะฐ billboards to make them say ุงููููุง ูููุง instead; difficult questions re: globalisation that emerge in trading out Ukraine for Iran are mostly side-stepped by simply having the new war-country act as a toybox for generic PMCs. War has changed in order to become unchanging. An eternal battleground that persists regardless of what language the 400MB road signs are in. And as far as gameplay goes, my only complaint is that they made the cars and trucks are weak as shit.
DMZ, the new Tarkov/Hunt/DayZ mode, comes under much tighter scrutiny. Or it would, if it was capable of running for more than 20 minutes at a time. Essentially a mini COD MMO with anywhere-PVP, it's a classic case of a gamer's platonic dream-ideal making way for a CEO deadline-induced nightmare: progress lost; parties blocked; playlists broken; queues abound; hard crashes at crucial moments - arguably it's all launch-week teething issues that will pass like unconvincing PhysX dust on the plains of Notpakistan, but this is a mode where every mote and moment of progress is supposed to count for something: all decisions are final, and there's only one way out. Losing progress to the desktop's void stings all the tighter when so much of the moment-to-moment gameplay here involves inventory management that doesn't matter - inventory management in games never matters all that much, but it really doesn't matter here: weighing up whether to stow the Aged Wine or the Vintage Wine for the difference of $50 (to buy a gun that costs $5000+) only to walk over a lagged-out landmine moments later and lose three hours of progression... That's life, I guess, but it's not exactly condusive towards the life-escaping levels of Zoom Call With The Boys.
Feels impeccably timed that this would drop at the same time as the Qatar World Cup - a broken Middle-East-bound versimilitude of something that once existed in a cleaner, sturdier but no less morally-ethically dubious form. Why was it palatable then, but not now? We're still chewing on it with some degree of gratitude, but there's a look of hypocritical disgust in our eyes. I guess the difference now is that the wheels are now coming off of everything everywhere and we can see the cracks that 'workers' once had the time to paper over. When everyone's connected all at once, there can be no blind eyes. Hopefully they patch in the ability to gib people with chopper blades again.
Live A Live
2022
some delightfully goopy visuals and sets aside, i am honestly stunned by how completely this failed to work for me. i am by no means one of the resi 6 faithful but i found myself constantly wishing i was playing that while trudging my way through this turgid exercise in insecurity. this to me far more aptly demonstrates the air of extreme desperation many people accused resi 6 of, a supremely unconfident attempt to play catchup to an entire history of the horror zeitgeist. texas chainsaw massacre, evil dead, the shining, the ring, blair witch, the hills have eyes, escape rooms, even america's most haunted and ghostwatch...it's all been thrown in and blended together until all that remains is a tasteless textureless black sludge.
the found footage angle is one i found particularly shockingly poor, as someone who counts the blair witch project a personal favorite, and who jumped back into resi 7 because of letshugbro's reflections on this point. aside from the reality show pastiche at the start (easily the highlight of the game for me) there is absolutely zero consideration at any point given to the camera or it's presence or physicality: we simply plainly see through the eyes of the character with a generic vhs filter put over it. it's brazenly pillaging the most basic imagery signifiers of this form possible without a single iota of consideration for the intent or form, purely cynical exploitation in the meanest sense of the word, a reference to it's influences as shallow as a MCU quip.
this is the entire game, a rickety haunted house built on the thinnest veneer imaginable, where every element is never deeper than the skin. the stiff and robotic movements of the bakers, with their glitchy animations, clinically transactional relationship with the player, and scripted sequences based almost entirely on simply waiting around running in circles for the switch to flip in their head that makes them do something that lets you progress, annihilates any sense of organic living atmosphere the game strains to affect, revealing these walking pathfinding algorithms for what they really are. the overtures towards being a return to classic resident evil is similarly merely an illusion that falls apart under moderately close inspection: the inventory management and shared stash is here but the considered map and encounter design that necessitates careful planning and macro-tension across the experience is wholly absent, a build of resources towards a payoff that never arrives, a series of engagements against a single enemy type that never meaningfully intimidates or frightens. a fractured facsimile of classic resident evil is here, but none of the effects it produced is, and what remains is a tedious series of empty frictionless jogs between item transactions to unlock the next area of this vacuous escape room.
if all this wasn't enough, biohazard might honestly be in contention for the narrative low point of the series as i have experienced it. at least resident evil 5 has wesker. the game sure mentions the word "family" a lot but anything it might have to say about that is rendered so completely incoherent by this dangerous combination of shockingly underwritten narrative and tedious "the writer has just had a bad breakup" misogynistic energy that it can scarcely be believed. i was wondering whether or not this was a 1-star or 2-star affair but learning that not being unflinchingly loyal to your cartoonishly evil wife (whose evil is basically never so much as remarked upon by a game that instead chooses to heap infinite mean-spirited scorn upon a child turned by her and her compatriots into a bioweapon) gives you an unexpected Wrong Ending an hour after you make that one choice is what made me decide on the score i did. i am by no means going to defend the travails of prior entries like resident evil 5, but at least that game has been deservedly dragged through the mud for it's perspective. the fact that, five years on, the nightmarishly terrible gender politics of this title have gone almost completely unremarked upon speaks volumes to the degree to which mainstream critics in this medium are completely willing to turn the blinkers on for anything that affects even the thinnest veneer of Western Prestige.
like i say, the word of the day is desperate. frantically pillaging from every horror movie it can find without any care for intent or meaning or context, desperately floundering for relevancy in a world that rejected the apex of what it was pushing towards post resi 4. and yet, ironically, despite my total failure to invest in it, resident evil 7 can only be called a success in terms of reinvigorating the series and giving it a new direction: theme park horror, a series of shallow pastiches, a linear sequence of homage, that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous critical and financial success of resident evil village. and for those who are loving this direction i say, go with god, but there is no way in hell i am getting on board a rollercoaster with foundations as completely rotten as this.
the found footage angle is one i found particularly shockingly poor, as someone who counts the blair witch project a personal favorite, and who jumped back into resi 7 because of letshugbro's reflections on this point. aside from the reality show pastiche at the start (easily the highlight of the game for me) there is absolutely zero consideration at any point given to the camera or it's presence or physicality: we simply plainly see through the eyes of the character with a generic vhs filter put over it. it's brazenly pillaging the most basic imagery signifiers of this form possible without a single iota of consideration for the intent or form, purely cynical exploitation in the meanest sense of the word, a reference to it's influences as shallow as a MCU quip.
this is the entire game, a rickety haunted house built on the thinnest veneer imaginable, where every element is never deeper than the skin. the stiff and robotic movements of the bakers, with their glitchy animations, clinically transactional relationship with the player, and scripted sequences based almost entirely on simply waiting around running in circles for the switch to flip in their head that makes them do something that lets you progress, annihilates any sense of organic living atmosphere the game strains to affect, revealing these walking pathfinding algorithms for what they really are. the overtures towards being a return to classic resident evil is similarly merely an illusion that falls apart under moderately close inspection: the inventory management and shared stash is here but the considered map and encounter design that necessitates careful planning and macro-tension across the experience is wholly absent, a build of resources towards a payoff that never arrives, a series of engagements against a single enemy type that never meaningfully intimidates or frightens. a fractured facsimile of classic resident evil is here, but none of the effects it produced is, and what remains is a tedious series of empty frictionless jogs between item transactions to unlock the next area of this vacuous escape room.
if all this wasn't enough, biohazard might honestly be in contention for the narrative low point of the series as i have experienced it. at least resident evil 5 has wesker. the game sure mentions the word "family" a lot but anything it might have to say about that is rendered so completely incoherent by this dangerous combination of shockingly underwritten narrative and tedious "the writer has just had a bad breakup" misogynistic energy that it can scarcely be believed. i was wondering whether or not this was a 1-star or 2-star affair but learning that not being unflinchingly loyal to your cartoonishly evil wife (whose evil is basically never so much as remarked upon by a game that instead chooses to heap infinite mean-spirited scorn upon a child turned by her and her compatriots into a bioweapon) gives you an unexpected Wrong Ending an hour after you make that one choice is what made me decide on the score i did. i am by no means going to defend the travails of prior entries like resident evil 5, but at least that game has been deservedly dragged through the mud for it's perspective. the fact that, five years on, the nightmarishly terrible gender politics of this title have gone almost completely unremarked upon speaks volumes to the degree to which mainstream critics in this medium are completely willing to turn the blinkers on for anything that affects even the thinnest veneer of Western Prestige.
like i say, the word of the day is desperate. frantically pillaging from every horror movie it can find without any care for intent or meaning or context, desperately floundering for relevancy in a world that rejected the apex of what it was pushing towards post resi 4. and yet, ironically, despite my total failure to invest in it, resident evil 7 can only be called a success in terms of reinvigorating the series and giving it a new direction: theme park horror, a series of shallow pastiches, a linear sequence of homage, that has laid the groundwork for the tremendous critical and financial success of resident evil village. and for those who are loving this direction i say, go with god, but there is no way in hell i am getting on board a rollercoaster with foundations as completely rotten as this.
an entrancing moonlight dance between post-modern naturalism and mushy sentimental romanticism, this is unexpectedly great! for a free-to-play game with very modestly priced DLC that more than doubles the game's length, the depth and quality of writing and interaction here is seriously impressive; on multiple occasions i was genuinely struck by the little things the game picked up on and developed in interesting ways for both the player character and cove. when a character in step 3 commented on how i normally behaved one way but shifted that behavior in certain contexts, or how i would have the pc express outward disinterest in formal engagements but would have them throw themselves into them when they were presented, i was surprised and suddenly introspective in a way that felt extremely complicatedly real in a way i've scarcely seen from a game like this.
it's also a bit more thorny and dramatic than initial impressions might seem: while the game maintains a positive tone (in particular the adults around you are always supportive of whatever developing gender or sexual identity your character might have in a way that is nice but also feels like the part of the game most in tune with the wholesomecore aesthetic it sometimes toys with) and it's never going to spring something truly shocking or upsetting on this pleasant boat ride, you can choose to steer various scenes into rougher waters, if you so desire. some of my favorite scenes were a result of me choosing to do this, playing into the image i had built up of the player character being insecure and socially awkward in often kind of mean and selfish ways.
it's for this willingness to get real and dive into the friction it's scenarios present that the childhood segment ended up as the highlight: overall Our Life is a game about maturity and how people change, and starting off with a bunch of kids who are in turns deeply immature in very real ways and honestly bratty unpleasant is maybe the most unique and singularly well-realized part of the game. the rest of it is good too, with the teenager segment sagging a little bit maybe compared to the others, but for reasons i've talked about elsewhere I think it's the best part of the game and is instrumental to what makes it work. later scenes and conversations only work as well as they do because of the important groundwork laid down earlier, building to quiet, naturalistic crescendos of personal reflection and emotional development. the developing physical intimacy between the player character and cove on the romance route is something i found particularly powerful, as it's one of the few areas where the game puts it's foot down and had my character be realistically too emotionally immature to really get it, and when the two do eventually find a place that works for them, it really got me! our life understands i think that total comfort is ultimately suffocating: to truly appreciate how warm it is under the covers, you have to spend time away from them.
it's not going to be for everyone: i find myself wishing it asserted itself to the player a little more than it did: being able to manually customize cove's personality and appearance somewhat between steps feels like a step too far in player agency, and i'm glad that you can just choose to ignore that because it doesn't feel like the right way to engage with the game. in general, the game isn't particularly interested in challenging the player, which is fine, but it does mean that i can see it totally washing over some.
for me though, it was a surprising delight. there's a sequel in the works that seems to be aiming for less of a specifically romantic frame with more than one central character of interaction, and that has me seriously excited. cove is a really well-rounded character but i was surprisingly enamored by the entire cast, and a game that felt more able to explore that wider cast might have landed even better. very excited to see what comes next from this team!
it's also a bit more thorny and dramatic than initial impressions might seem: while the game maintains a positive tone (in particular the adults around you are always supportive of whatever developing gender or sexual identity your character might have in a way that is nice but also feels like the part of the game most in tune with the wholesomecore aesthetic it sometimes toys with) and it's never going to spring something truly shocking or upsetting on this pleasant boat ride, you can choose to steer various scenes into rougher waters, if you so desire. some of my favorite scenes were a result of me choosing to do this, playing into the image i had built up of the player character being insecure and socially awkward in often kind of mean and selfish ways.
it's for this willingness to get real and dive into the friction it's scenarios present that the childhood segment ended up as the highlight: overall Our Life is a game about maturity and how people change, and starting off with a bunch of kids who are in turns deeply immature in very real ways and honestly bratty unpleasant is maybe the most unique and singularly well-realized part of the game. the rest of it is good too, with the teenager segment sagging a little bit maybe compared to the others, but for reasons i've talked about elsewhere I think it's the best part of the game and is instrumental to what makes it work. later scenes and conversations only work as well as they do because of the important groundwork laid down earlier, building to quiet, naturalistic crescendos of personal reflection and emotional development. the developing physical intimacy between the player character and cove on the romance route is something i found particularly powerful, as it's one of the few areas where the game puts it's foot down and had my character be realistically too emotionally immature to really get it, and when the two do eventually find a place that works for them, it really got me! our life understands i think that total comfort is ultimately suffocating: to truly appreciate how warm it is under the covers, you have to spend time away from them.
it's not going to be for everyone: i find myself wishing it asserted itself to the player a little more than it did: being able to manually customize cove's personality and appearance somewhat between steps feels like a step too far in player agency, and i'm glad that you can just choose to ignore that because it doesn't feel like the right way to engage with the game. in general, the game isn't particularly interested in challenging the player, which is fine, but it does mean that i can see it totally washing over some.
for me though, it was a surprising delight. there's a sequel in the works that seems to be aiming for less of a specifically romantic frame with more than one central character of interaction, and that has me seriously excited. cove is a really well-rounded character but i was surprisingly enamored by the entire cast, and a game that felt more able to explore that wider cast might have landed even better. very excited to see what comes next from this team!
Sonic Frontiers
2022
What a lot of people either fail to realise or refuse to believe is that the best Sonic games are the flawed ones. The games that try to innovate with bold ideas unbecoming of a Sonic game, or any game. We've had 'perfect' Sonic games before like Sonic Mania or Sonic Generations and those games are great but they can't hold a candle to the way-too-serious tone of Sonic Adventure 2, the quaint but pointless Adventure Fields of Sonic Adventure, the audacity to make half the game a slow beat-em-up in Sonic Unleashed. People love Sonic for its ambition, not its accomplishments. People love games for their imperfections the same way they love people despite their flaws. Sonic Team has, for decades now, dared to do things that are new, bold, and weird. Sonic Frontiers is a continuation of that vision, and to reduce it to petty statements of "open world ๐ค sega hire this man ๐ค serious plot in cartoon rat game ๐ค the controls ๐ค but he's slow" is a pitch-perfect demonstration of how Sonic is doomed to fail. Look at your favourite games and try earnestly telling yourself they're flawless.
Credit to smaench for planting this seed in my brain, actual review when I'm done playing it and can let my thoughts digest rather than spewing unfiltered drivel onto your webzone.
Credit to smaench for planting this seed in my brain, actual review when I'm done playing it and can let my thoughts digest rather than spewing unfiltered drivel onto your webzone.
Trombone Champ
2022
watching every scene between Gabriel Knight and von Glower more like gaybriel knight am I right folks
Cool game! I like how this series works in real-world history (with heaping helpings of total nonsense, of course). It reminds me of playing games as a kid and finding out some obscure historical fact that's stuck with me for life and will come up when watching The Chase or something. How do I know who invented the Kongming Lantern, mum? Heh...let me tell you about a little game called Dynasty Warriors...
Cool game! I like how this series works in real-world history (with heaping helpings of total nonsense, of course). It reminds me of playing games as a kid and finding out some obscure historical fact that's stuck with me for life and will come up when watching The Chase or something. How do I know who invented the Kongming Lantern, mum? Heh...let me tell you about a little game called Dynasty Warriors...
BioShock Infinite
2013
fully automated gambling is a mainstay of digital entertainment, but whenever its presence is established in other titles i never once felt the need to participate. too much time, too little reward. i imagine most players feel the same given the achievement stats for new vegas, a title where hustling on the strip is the gameโs core motif. and yet in spite of my disposition, i found myself spending an inordinate amount of time in red dead redemption II playing poker. when i wasnโt playing poker, iโd be hitting blackjack, and if i wasnโt betting against the dealer iโd be making my bones in dominoes. on paper, none of this served any real practical purpose. unlike the brisk pleasures of most computerized gambling, a round of poker in RDR2 takes much, much more time โ your opponents need to shuffle the deck, lay out the cards, or place their chips on a bet. sometimes their decisions wonโt be near instantaneous, and in all cases, the victor will smugly reap the spoils of their bet, dragging their hoard of chips inwards. as if the protracted length of gambling wasnโt enough, RDR2 axes the high-stakes poker variant from the original game, so even in the best-case scenario โ a six player poker match, no player leaves early, and you rob everyone of their chips โ you can only stand to net $25 dollars in profit. a handsome sum in 1899, but a pittance in contrast to RDR2โs other revenue streams, especially when you factor in the time investment. itโs all too likely youโll end up losing money if you gamble poorly. why bother?
i still gambled a lot though. no matter the inconvenience of the supposed realism on offer, i wanted to fleece people. i wanted to stop and think about my decisions, and i wanted to withstand droughts of bad luck only to tap in when fortune was turning in my favour. and i guess uncleโs smug aura at camp made me want to rip him off all the more. the defining trait which enables this engagement is also RDR2โs greatest strength: the level of verisimilitude it aspires to. the slowing-down-of-affairs intrinsic to RDR2 is somewhat uncharacteristic of rockstar, but theyโve thrown their immense weight behind a kind of granularity not often observed even in comparable massive AAA productions. i honestly think it saved the game for me. i had to force myself through gritted teeth to finish the first red dead and GTA IV, and iโll never finish GTA V at this rate, but conversely for close to three weeks straight i lost myself in rockstarโs portrait of the old, dying west, however illusory it was.
GTA is very much predicated on extreme player agency in real-world facsimile. the dedication the team committed to this vision creates this inherent friction where in the absence of real limitation, the world rarely feels alive but feels more akin to a little diorama or a quite literal playspace. the devil is always in the details with these titles, but i find the fetishism for the microscopic to be little more than framing at best and rote at worst. maybe if you walk the streets of san andreas in GTA V and get lost in a suburb, quietly observing the mundane (they need an umarell minigame in these games), a lived-in feeling really does exist, but this does not feel like genuine intent so much as it feels like supporting the foundation of american pantomime.
while the quotidian is nothing more than a byproduct in GTA, its function in RDR2 is the games essence. new to the series are various impositions which carefully stitch together simulation elements, asking for a stronger degree of investment from the player than past rockstar entries, both in a literal and abstracted sense. hunger and stamina have to be continually managed for both the player and their steed, money is harder to come by than prior rockstar games, and every activity (hunting, fishing, crafting, cooking, gambling, weapons maintenance, chores + camp support, horse grooming, even just simple travel given that fast travel isnโt immediately present) represents an innate time investment โ gone is the sense of casual gratification, tightened ever so slightly more for the sake of a more cohesive world. naturally iโd be remiss to not point out theyโre intrusive to only the mildest of degrees - itโs certainly the โfastestโ game ive ever played with a simulation bent - and rockstarโs aim here isnโt necessarily to rock the boat but instead one of vanity, to impress with their technological prowess and visual panache.
i understand that rockstar titles are now once-in-a-generation events subject to whatever epoch of games discourse they are releasing in but it is with great amusement that i look back to two strands of dominant conversation at the time of the gameโs release: that it is too realistic for its own good, and that its mission design is archaic. both are conversational topics that, at least from my perspective, miss the forest for the trees with critical rdr2 discussion, and at least partially feel like people taking rockstar to task for GTA IV & Vโs design after forgetting to do so the first time. firstly, everything addressed as cumbersome in rdr2 is polished to a mirror sheen; whatever truth might be found regarding rockstars digital fetishism impacting personal enjoyment loses a bit of edge when one considers that the inconveniences imposed on the player are essentially operating at a bare minimum. for every measure of sternness here there is a comical remedy. players might be expected to have attire fitting for the climate zone they travel in lest they suffer core drainage, but the reality is that preparation is easy, conducted through lenient menu selection, and at no point is the player strictly via the main narrative made to trudge through the underutilized snowy regions. even a snowy mission in the epilogue automatically equips you with a warm coat, negating the need for foresight. temperature penalties are easily negated for lengthy periods of time if you consume meals that fortify your cores. you donโt even really, honestly have to eat. the penalties associated with the โunderweightโ class donโt obstruct players very much and individuals can forego the core system entirely just to rely on health cures and tonics alike, meaning itโs a survival/simulation system carefully planned out so certain kinds of players donโt actually have to engage with the systems at all. the most egregious offender for the audience, then, is time investment, for which my rebuttal is nothing so eloquent: just that itโs barely a significant one. thereโs something genuinely fascinating about this undercurrent of somewhat strained response to an AAA production making the slightest of efforts to cultivate a stricter set of systems for immersion only to be met with the claim that it goes against the basic appeal of games, something which i at least find consistently prescriptive, contradictory, and totally self-interested. that breath of the wilds approach to open world design predates this is probably at least somewhat contributory - after all its priorities are to filter reality and freedom through more sharply accented and cohesive game design, far from the totalizing rigidity of rockstars work โ but itโs not a case of one needing to mimic the other when itโs simpler to state that the contrasting titles just have different priorities. all this is to say that RDR2 is really missing something without some kind of hardcore mode, which would have probably increased my personal enjoyment exponentially and led to a tighter game.
secondly, the complaints regarding mission design are reductive and downplay a much, much broader foundational problem. there are a lot more missions that i actually liked compared to the usual rockstar fare this time, in part because character dialogue is mostly serviceable and not grating, but also because several of them are content to serve characterization or to convey some kind of tailored experience. all the best missions bring the combat to a halt rather than a crescendo. serve on a mission alongside hosea, for instance, and the odds are unlikely youโll end up drawing your revolver. likewise certain missions are focused entirely on camaraderie, narrative, or some other kind of unique quality. this works really well in spite of the gameโs tendency to anchor the proceedings to the mechanically dull yet market-proven gunslinging. itโs unfortunate to center so much of this game around combat when the shooting rarely, if ever, registers as more than serviceable; pulling the trigger feels great, but its repetition, lack of intimate level or encounter design, and oddly weighted aiming reticule underscore a game in need of some kind of revision. strangely enough there are many options for mixing melee approaches and gunslinging in a manner that feels close to appealing but is never leaned on because itโs just not efficient, paired nicely with level design, or geared towards survivability. likewise, the scores of ammunition types and combative crafting options feels redundant in the face of the simplicity of the olโ reliable revolver and repeater, the lack of genuine ammunition limitation (youโre always able to stock more ammo than you could ever reasonably need) and every enemyโs total vulnerability to precise aim.
but the fact that there are genuinely enjoyable missions that focus more on the gameโs verisimilitude is indicative of my chief takeaway from RDR2: all of my favourite components of the game managed to make me finally understand the appeal of the rockstar portfolio, and all of my least favourite components reminded me that i was playing a rockstar game, with a formula and brand reputation that now serves as a millstone around the neck obstructing genuine innovation or risk. for one thing, it was absolutely lost on me until RDR2 that these are open world games which are concerned with a loose sense of role playing but donโt much care for the implementation of stats, skill trees, abilities, or what have you. because these systems are handled with more care than in the past, i found there to be genuine pleasure in this complete reprieve from the mechanical, with an emphasis towards simply just existing and being. without the admittedly illusory constraints of the core systems or the time investment required from its activities, i may not have stopped to have felt any of it โ it would have been every bit as inconsequential as GTA. but RDR2 demands to be soaked in. its landscapes really are vast and gorgeous. the permutations of the weather can lead to some dazzling displays; tracking and hunting down the legendary wolf at the cotorra springs during a thunderstorm is imagery permanently seared into my brain even after dozens upon dozens of hours of play.
however well-intentioned it is though, this emphasis on simulation betrays a tendency towards excess that is profoundly damaging and saddles RDR2 with a lot of detritus where a sharper lens would have benefitted its approach to simulation. this is especially bad when considering that a good deal of these extraneous elements are where the crunch surrounding RDR2โs development is most inextricably felt. broader discourse often struggles to find a way to discuss bad labour practices without either treating it as a footnote in the history of an otherwise โgoodโ title (thereby excising its role in production completely) or only writing about it from a pro-labour critical stance, but RDR2 makes my work in reconciling these threads easy: itโs just too sweeping in scope for its own good, and itโs difficult to see how mismanagement and crunch resulted in a better game. after years of these scathing reports and discussions, itโs hard not to let out a grim chuckle when you reach the gameโs epilogue, which opens up an entire state in RDR2, only to realize that all this landmass has zero main narrative context. new austin and the grizzlies are massive regions, perhaps not pointless in their inclusion per se, but the campaign has difficulties integrating them yet leaves them present in their totality. itโs a wealth of untamed land included for its own sake.
this is especially frustrating because the gameโs structure is suggestive of, strangely enough, sly cooper. the van der linde gang moves further and further away from the west over the course of the game into new and uncharted territory and in each chapter, comes to grips with the surrounding locales trying to pinpoint where the next great score or heist may present itself. every time seems like a small reinvention. the atmosphere at camp changes, new dialogues present themselves, new opportunities, and the narrative is content to settle on one small pocket of the world rather than its sum. perhaps itโs not the rockstar modus operandi but when i realized this was the gameโs impetus, i thought it would have been a fantastic way to try something different, for a change โ to focus on a small number of higher density regions with a bit less sprawl. i think at least part of why i feel this way is because the narrative is not one bit committed to its stakes. they want you to feel like an outlaw on the run, the law at your heels, the world shrinking around you, and your freedoms slowly being siphoned away, and yet thereโs no tangible consequence in RDR2โs worldstate for sticking around valentine, strawberry, or rhodes โ three towns that you wreak significant havoc in โ like there is for even daring to return to blackwater, the site of a massacre which kickstarts the events of the game proper. obviously the ability to return to blackwater would break the story on its hinges, which is treated as such, but itโs hard to say why any other town gets a free pass.
anyways i find it somewhat ironic that after a journey replete with as many peaks and valleys as the old west it's modeled on, it's the comparatively muted epilogue which is still holding my attention and adoration. the first game's epilogue was, similarly, a striking coda to a wildly uneven experience. after screeching to a halt for its final act, RDR1's culminating grace notes center around a hollow, self-gratifying act of vengeance which succinctly underscored the alienation & ennui of the world you were left stranded in. it was a weirdly audacious swing for rockstar to take in 2010 - to explicate the ever-present emptiness and artificiality of their worlds as part and parcel of RDR1's thematic intent โ but in spite of my dislike of the rest of the title, i found that it resonated with me.
RDR2 has a somewhat similar ace up its sleeve. following the game's highest point of intensity, the player (now with john marston taking the reins instead of arthur morgan) is thrust into a narrative scenario ill at ease with the game's prior formal language, seemingly begging at all turns for the player to put up their guns. every triumph in the epilogue chapters won by means of gunslinging bravado is, as a result, sharply dissonant; the score is often explosive, almost mythic in the way that it recalls RDR1, but there's a sort of uncanniness present because, in leveraging its prequel status, one has total clarity as to where this path eventually leads. like in RDR1, the throughline here is still one of inevitability.
complimenting this is the epilogue's equal amount of focus afforded towards john struggling to acclimate to the simple pleasures of domesticity. a natural extension of johnโs unexpectedly genius characterization in RDR2โs narrative up to this point as arthurโs perpetually irresponsible and imprudent little brother, this focus on smaller-scale character study allows for his character to be more fleshed-out than he ever was in RDR1. similarly, the missions present in the epilogue are afforded more variance than anywhere else in the main game, taking the titleโs previously established simulation elements and bringing them to the forefront of the proceedings. taking your wife out for a nice day in the town is probably my favourite mission in the game - it felt tender in a way that i have never once come to expect from these titles.
it's a taut novella that honestly represents some of rockstars finest work, so naturally it's only accessible after some 40-70 hours of ho hum debauchery and mediocrity. no reason to waste more time on this so letโs carve through the more important bullet points quickly. arthur is a wonderful protagonist, likely the best rockstar has conceptualized for how he compliments the structure of these games. heโs someone who isnโt a lone wolf nor a second-in-command, but rather a mover and shaker who is third in the hierarchy and remains blinded by both loyalty, cynicism, and self-hatred. itโs a reasonable enough marriage between the gameโs pressing narrative demands and the freedom to act that a rockstar title is built on, disregarding the horrid implementation of a trite morality system. all the little flourishes animating his character are excellent โ the journal he writes in quickly became one of my favourite features of the game. roger clarkโs performance alone is enough to carry the gameโs writing when it sags, which it often does โ clemens point and guarma are terrible chapters. side quests are also largely bad, save for a few that present themselves in the beaver hollow chapter - up until this point they are rife with the kind of desperate attempts at juvenile humour rockstar built their empire on. itโs less good that so much of arthurโs arc is connected to the gameโs worst characters in dutch and micah. rockstarโs writers just do not have the capacity and talent to bring the vision of a charismatic leader to life in dutch โ they want you to believe in the slow-brewing ruination of the gang and dutchโs descent into despotism but the reality is he starts the game off as an insecure, inept, and frayed captain and only gets much, much worse as the game chugs along. micah is just despicable and not in a compelling way, an active thorn in everyoneโs side who no one likes and whose presence makes everything worse. reading about the van der linde gangโs initially noble exploits in-game and contrasting it with an early mission where micah kills almost everyone in a town to retrieve his revolvers is actively comical and it never really stops gnawing at oneโs mind. just registers as a total impossibility that not one person in the gang considers this guy an active liability to continued survival. i think heโs someone who can be salvaged since heโs already an inverse to arthur and implicitly serves as a foil to john but not enough work was done to make these elements of the character grounded or believable. cartoon villain level depravity, dude sucks.
the rest of the characters range broadly from underused & underwritten to charming in a quaint way. arthur and john are the highlights, i liked charles and uncle, the rest...mixed bag of successes and failures. javier and bill are more well-realized than their RDR1 incarnations, but most of their character work is tucked away in optional & hidden scenes. sadie is one of the few other characters to be given narrative prominence towards the end, and she kind of really sucks. the list goes on. despite this, lingering in camp is so easily one of the game's strongest draws - wandering around and seeing hundreds upon hundreds of little randomized interactions is a delight, and there's no doubt in my mind that i still missed scores of them.
those more inclined to cynicism probably won't be able to reconcile any of this game's messy threads, and its strengths will likely be eclipsed by its tendencies towards waste as well as its tactless emulation of prestige drama, but for a time i found my own pleasure in the illusion of the west. i think i felt enthralled by it realizing that this was the closest to a great experience rockstar had in them, knowing that they're only likely to regress from here on. rockstar has an unfortunate habit of only being able to conceptualize oneโs relationship to their environment if itโs predicated on danger, but at its best RDR2 is able to overcome this, however briefly it might last.
i still gambled a lot though. no matter the inconvenience of the supposed realism on offer, i wanted to fleece people. i wanted to stop and think about my decisions, and i wanted to withstand droughts of bad luck only to tap in when fortune was turning in my favour. and i guess uncleโs smug aura at camp made me want to rip him off all the more. the defining trait which enables this engagement is also RDR2โs greatest strength: the level of verisimilitude it aspires to. the slowing-down-of-affairs intrinsic to RDR2 is somewhat uncharacteristic of rockstar, but theyโve thrown their immense weight behind a kind of granularity not often observed even in comparable massive AAA productions. i honestly think it saved the game for me. i had to force myself through gritted teeth to finish the first red dead and GTA IV, and iโll never finish GTA V at this rate, but conversely for close to three weeks straight i lost myself in rockstarโs portrait of the old, dying west, however illusory it was.
GTA is very much predicated on extreme player agency in real-world facsimile. the dedication the team committed to this vision creates this inherent friction where in the absence of real limitation, the world rarely feels alive but feels more akin to a little diorama or a quite literal playspace. the devil is always in the details with these titles, but i find the fetishism for the microscopic to be little more than framing at best and rote at worst. maybe if you walk the streets of san andreas in GTA V and get lost in a suburb, quietly observing the mundane (they need an umarell minigame in these games), a lived-in feeling really does exist, but this does not feel like genuine intent so much as it feels like supporting the foundation of american pantomime.
while the quotidian is nothing more than a byproduct in GTA, its function in RDR2 is the games essence. new to the series are various impositions which carefully stitch together simulation elements, asking for a stronger degree of investment from the player than past rockstar entries, both in a literal and abstracted sense. hunger and stamina have to be continually managed for both the player and their steed, money is harder to come by than prior rockstar games, and every activity (hunting, fishing, crafting, cooking, gambling, weapons maintenance, chores + camp support, horse grooming, even just simple travel given that fast travel isnโt immediately present) represents an innate time investment โ gone is the sense of casual gratification, tightened ever so slightly more for the sake of a more cohesive world. naturally iโd be remiss to not point out theyโre intrusive to only the mildest of degrees - itโs certainly the โfastestโ game ive ever played with a simulation bent - and rockstarโs aim here isnโt necessarily to rock the boat but instead one of vanity, to impress with their technological prowess and visual panache.
i understand that rockstar titles are now once-in-a-generation events subject to whatever epoch of games discourse they are releasing in but it is with great amusement that i look back to two strands of dominant conversation at the time of the gameโs release: that it is too realistic for its own good, and that its mission design is archaic. both are conversational topics that, at least from my perspective, miss the forest for the trees with critical rdr2 discussion, and at least partially feel like people taking rockstar to task for GTA IV & Vโs design after forgetting to do so the first time. firstly, everything addressed as cumbersome in rdr2 is polished to a mirror sheen; whatever truth might be found regarding rockstars digital fetishism impacting personal enjoyment loses a bit of edge when one considers that the inconveniences imposed on the player are essentially operating at a bare minimum. for every measure of sternness here there is a comical remedy. players might be expected to have attire fitting for the climate zone they travel in lest they suffer core drainage, but the reality is that preparation is easy, conducted through lenient menu selection, and at no point is the player strictly via the main narrative made to trudge through the underutilized snowy regions. even a snowy mission in the epilogue automatically equips you with a warm coat, negating the need for foresight. temperature penalties are easily negated for lengthy periods of time if you consume meals that fortify your cores. you donโt even really, honestly have to eat. the penalties associated with the โunderweightโ class donโt obstruct players very much and individuals can forego the core system entirely just to rely on health cures and tonics alike, meaning itโs a survival/simulation system carefully planned out so certain kinds of players donโt actually have to engage with the systems at all. the most egregious offender for the audience, then, is time investment, for which my rebuttal is nothing so eloquent: just that itโs barely a significant one. thereโs something genuinely fascinating about this undercurrent of somewhat strained response to an AAA production making the slightest of efforts to cultivate a stricter set of systems for immersion only to be met with the claim that it goes against the basic appeal of games, something which i at least find consistently prescriptive, contradictory, and totally self-interested. that breath of the wilds approach to open world design predates this is probably at least somewhat contributory - after all its priorities are to filter reality and freedom through more sharply accented and cohesive game design, far from the totalizing rigidity of rockstars work โ but itโs not a case of one needing to mimic the other when itโs simpler to state that the contrasting titles just have different priorities. all this is to say that RDR2 is really missing something without some kind of hardcore mode, which would have probably increased my personal enjoyment exponentially and led to a tighter game.
secondly, the complaints regarding mission design are reductive and downplay a much, much broader foundational problem. there are a lot more missions that i actually liked compared to the usual rockstar fare this time, in part because character dialogue is mostly serviceable and not grating, but also because several of them are content to serve characterization or to convey some kind of tailored experience. all the best missions bring the combat to a halt rather than a crescendo. serve on a mission alongside hosea, for instance, and the odds are unlikely youโll end up drawing your revolver. likewise certain missions are focused entirely on camaraderie, narrative, or some other kind of unique quality. this works really well in spite of the gameโs tendency to anchor the proceedings to the mechanically dull yet market-proven gunslinging. itโs unfortunate to center so much of this game around combat when the shooting rarely, if ever, registers as more than serviceable; pulling the trigger feels great, but its repetition, lack of intimate level or encounter design, and oddly weighted aiming reticule underscore a game in need of some kind of revision. strangely enough there are many options for mixing melee approaches and gunslinging in a manner that feels close to appealing but is never leaned on because itโs just not efficient, paired nicely with level design, or geared towards survivability. likewise, the scores of ammunition types and combative crafting options feels redundant in the face of the simplicity of the olโ reliable revolver and repeater, the lack of genuine ammunition limitation (youโre always able to stock more ammo than you could ever reasonably need) and every enemyโs total vulnerability to precise aim.
but the fact that there are genuinely enjoyable missions that focus more on the gameโs verisimilitude is indicative of my chief takeaway from RDR2: all of my favourite components of the game managed to make me finally understand the appeal of the rockstar portfolio, and all of my least favourite components reminded me that i was playing a rockstar game, with a formula and brand reputation that now serves as a millstone around the neck obstructing genuine innovation or risk. for one thing, it was absolutely lost on me until RDR2 that these are open world games which are concerned with a loose sense of role playing but donโt much care for the implementation of stats, skill trees, abilities, or what have you. because these systems are handled with more care than in the past, i found there to be genuine pleasure in this complete reprieve from the mechanical, with an emphasis towards simply just existing and being. without the admittedly illusory constraints of the core systems or the time investment required from its activities, i may not have stopped to have felt any of it โ it would have been every bit as inconsequential as GTA. but RDR2 demands to be soaked in. its landscapes really are vast and gorgeous. the permutations of the weather can lead to some dazzling displays; tracking and hunting down the legendary wolf at the cotorra springs during a thunderstorm is imagery permanently seared into my brain even after dozens upon dozens of hours of play.
however well-intentioned it is though, this emphasis on simulation betrays a tendency towards excess that is profoundly damaging and saddles RDR2 with a lot of detritus where a sharper lens would have benefitted its approach to simulation. this is especially bad when considering that a good deal of these extraneous elements are where the crunch surrounding RDR2โs development is most inextricably felt. broader discourse often struggles to find a way to discuss bad labour practices without either treating it as a footnote in the history of an otherwise โgoodโ title (thereby excising its role in production completely) or only writing about it from a pro-labour critical stance, but RDR2 makes my work in reconciling these threads easy: itโs just too sweeping in scope for its own good, and itโs difficult to see how mismanagement and crunch resulted in a better game. after years of these scathing reports and discussions, itโs hard not to let out a grim chuckle when you reach the gameโs epilogue, which opens up an entire state in RDR2, only to realize that all this landmass has zero main narrative context. new austin and the grizzlies are massive regions, perhaps not pointless in their inclusion per se, but the campaign has difficulties integrating them yet leaves them present in their totality. itโs a wealth of untamed land included for its own sake.
this is especially frustrating because the gameโs structure is suggestive of, strangely enough, sly cooper. the van der linde gang moves further and further away from the west over the course of the game into new and uncharted territory and in each chapter, comes to grips with the surrounding locales trying to pinpoint where the next great score or heist may present itself. every time seems like a small reinvention. the atmosphere at camp changes, new dialogues present themselves, new opportunities, and the narrative is content to settle on one small pocket of the world rather than its sum. perhaps itโs not the rockstar modus operandi but when i realized this was the gameโs impetus, i thought it would have been a fantastic way to try something different, for a change โ to focus on a small number of higher density regions with a bit less sprawl. i think at least part of why i feel this way is because the narrative is not one bit committed to its stakes. they want you to feel like an outlaw on the run, the law at your heels, the world shrinking around you, and your freedoms slowly being siphoned away, and yet thereโs no tangible consequence in RDR2โs worldstate for sticking around valentine, strawberry, or rhodes โ three towns that you wreak significant havoc in โ like there is for even daring to return to blackwater, the site of a massacre which kickstarts the events of the game proper. obviously the ability to return to blackwater would break the story on its hinges, which is treated as such, but itโs hard to say why any other town gets a free pass.
anyways i find it somewhat ironic that after a journey replete with as many peaks and valleys as the old west it's modeled on, it's the comparatively muted epilogue which is still holding my attention and adoration. the first game's epilogue was, similarly, a striking coda to a wildly uneven experience. after screeching to a halt for its final act, RDR1's culminating grace notes center around a hollow, self-gratifying act of vengeance which succinctly underscored the alienation & ennui of the world you were left stranded in. it was a weirdly audacious swing for rockstar to take in 2010 - to explicate the ever-present emptiness and artificiality of their worlds as part and parcel of RDR1's thematic intent โ but in spite of my dislike of the rest of the title, i found that it resonated with me.
RDR2 has a somewhat similar ace up its sleeve. following the game's highest point of intensity, the player (now with john marston taking the reins instead of arthur morgan) is thrust into a narrative scenario ill at ease with the game's prior formal language, seemingly begging at all turns for the player to put up their guns. every triumph in the epilogue chapters won by means of gunslinging bravado is, as a result, sharply dissonant; the score is often explosive, almost mythic in the way that it recalls RDR1, but there's a sort of uncanniness present because, in leveraging its prequel status, one has total clarity as to where this path eventually leads. like in RDR1, the throughline here is still one of inevitability.
complimenting this is the epilogue's equal amount of focus afforded towards john struggling to acclimate to the simple pleasures of domesticity. a natural extension of johnโs unexpectedly genius characterization in RDR2โs narrative up to this point as arthurโs perpetually irresponsible and imprudent little brother, this focus on smaller-scale character study allows for his character to be more fleshed-out than he ever was in RDR1. similarly, the missions present in the epilogue are afforded more variance than anywhere else in the main game, taking the titleโs previously established simulation elements and bringing them to the forefront of the proceedings. taking your wife out for a nice day in the town is probably my favourite mission in the game - it felt tender in a way that i have never once come to expect from these titles.
it's a taut novella that honestly represents some of rockstars finest work, so naturally it's only accessible after some 40-70 hours of ho hum debauchery and mediocrity. no reason to waste more time on this so letโs carve through the more important bullet points quickly. arthur is a wonderful protagonist, likely the best rockstar has conceptualized for how he compliments the structure of these games. heโs someone who isnโt a lone wolf nor a second-in-command, but rather a mover and shaker who is third in the hierarchy and remains blinded by both loyalty, cynicism, and self-hatred. itโs a reasonable enough marriage between the gameโs pressing narrative demands and the freedom to act that a rockstar title is built on, disregarding the horrid implementation of a trite morality system. all the little flourishes animating his character are excellent โ the journal he writes in quickly became one of my favourite features of the game. roger clarkโs performance alone is enough to carry the gameโs writing when it sags, which it often does โ clemens point and guarma are terrible chapters. side quests are also largely bad, save for a few that present themselves in the beaver hollow chapter - up until this point they are rife with the kind of desperate attempts at juvenile humour rockstar built their empire on. itโs less good that so much of arthurโs arc is connected to the gameโs worst characters in dutch and micah. rockstarโs writers just do not have the capacity and talent to bring the vision of a charismatic leader to life in dutch โ they want you to believe in the slow-brewing ruination of the gang and dutchโs descent into despotism but the reality is he starts the game off as an insecure, inept, and frayed captain and only gets much, much worse as the game chugs along. micah is just despicable and not in a compelling way, an active thorn in everyoneโs side who no one likes and whose presence makes everything worse. reading about the van der linde gangโs initially noble exploits in-game and contrasting it with an early mission where micah kills almost everyone in a town to retrieve his revolvers is actively comical and it never really stops gnawing at oneโs mind. just registers as a total impossibility that not one person in the gang considers this guy an active liability to continued survival. i think heโs someone who can be salvaged since heโs already an inverse to arthur and implicitly serves as a foil to john but not enough work was done to make these elements of the character grounded or believable. cartoon villain level depravity, dude sucks.
the rest of the characters range broadly from underused & underwritten to charming in a quaint way. arthur and john are the highlights, i liked charles and uncle, the rest...mixed bag of successes and failures. javier and bill are more well-realized than their RDR1 incarnations, but most of their character work is tucked away in optional & hidden scenes. sadie is one of the few other characters to be given narrative prominence towards the end, and she kind of really sucks. the list goes on. despite this, lingering in camp is so easily one of the game's strongest draws - wandering around and seeing hundreds upon hundreds of little randomized interactions is a delight, and there's no doubt in my mind that i still missed scores of them.
those more inclined to cynicism probably won't be able to reconcile any of this game's messy threads, and its strengths will likely be eclipsed by its tendencies towards waste as well as its tactless emulation of prestige drama, but for a time i found my own pleasure in the illusion of the west. i think i felt enthralled by it realizing that this was the closest to a great experience rockstar had in them, knowing that they're only likely to regress from here on. rockstar has an unfortunate habit of only being able to conceptualize oneโs relationship to their environment if itโs predicated on danger, but at its best RDR2 is able to overcome this, however briefly it might last.
Death Stranding
2019
๐ compelling and stylish opening, got me excited to finally sit down and play this
๐ seeing lea seydoux here after enjoying her in crimes of the future (my favorite film of the year) is lovely and her (fragile's) spiky black outfit is sick as hell, also she eats a weird floating space grub and seems to be aroused by this
๐ฅ the bt scene where a necrotic human body triggers a voidout - everything going on here is wild and mysterious and holy shit all at once
๐ฌ uncanny del toro with some other guy's voice
๐คก "make america whole again!" the word "america" appears in dialogue about 600 times in 30 minutes, and i'm thinking this is taking a turn for the very dumb and the already extremely blunt themes of social reconnection should be more universal, in some anonymous earthly setting... but no - america, y'all
๐ฑ are you a bad enough reedus to carry the president's (also your mom's) corpse to the incinerator before she makes neo knot city e-x-p-l-o-d-e
๐ง๏ธ long stretch of solitudinous trekking, leaden interactions with npc holograms praising you-reedus and almost a hint at something about the working class and their labor being the lifeblood of a functioning country but this game isn't that subtle and that's probably not even remotely within kojima's wheelhouse
๐ผ while sam's laconic and distant demeanor is familiar and comfortable to me, i also find myself identifying with his affinity for bb more than i had expected
๐ฉ lol poop grenades
๐ฌ none of the structures i build are getting likes from other players (some of them have tens of thousands) and the gameplay loop of making deliveries is buckling under the weight of kojima's hubris... i'm getting some sort of comfort or fulfillment out of working out the logistics of making deliveries and prepping for each journey, ensuring that i have the blood bombs and repair spray i may need, etc. but if this goes on for 20-30 hours uhhh idk
๐ do i even like this game? it's painfully heavy-handed and none of its characters are particularly interesting, least of all the fucking cool looking golden skull masked villain voiced by a troy baker devouring scenery (going hard, as everyone says too much now) while saying virtually jack shit... right now i would say the phantom pain was actually much better, and death stranding is starting to feel like its inverse - a failure of a game driven by some really cool ideas
๐ i do feel, still, that i could come out at the end of this feeling all the drudgery and vacuousness were worth it, so i will continue playing (it's a relaxing distraction from my fucked brain anyway) and perhaps say more when i am done
๐ seeing lea seydoux here after enjoying her in crimes of the future (my favorite film of the year) is lovely and her (fragile's) spiky black outfit is sick as hell, also she eats a weird floating space grub and seems to be aroused by this
๐ฅ the bt scene where a necrotic human body triggers a voidout - everything going on here is wild and mysterious and holy shit all at once
๐ฌ uncanny del toro with some other guy's voice
๐คก "make america whole again!" the word "america" appears in dialogue about 600 times in 30 minutes, and i'm thinking this is taking a turn for the very dumb and the already extremely blunt themes of social reconnection should be more universal, in some anonymous earthly setting... but no - america, y'all
๐ฑ are you a bad enough reedus to carry the president's (also your mom's) corpse to the incinerator before she makes neo knot city e-x-p-l-o-d-e
๐ง๏ธ long stretch of solitudinous trekking, leaden interactions with npc holograms praising you-reedus and almost a hint at something about the working class and their labor being the lifeblood of a functioning country but this game isn't that subtle and that's probably not even remotely within kojima's wheelhouse
๐ผ while sam's laconic and distant demeanor is familiar and comfortable to me, i also find myself identifying with his affinity for bb more than i had expected
๐ฉ lol poop grenades
๐ฌ none of the structures i build are getting likes from other players (some of them have tens of thousands) and the gameplay loop of making deliveries is buckling under the weight of kojima's hubris... i'm getting some sort of comfort or fulfillment out of working out the logistics of making deliveries and prepping for each journey, ensuring that i have the blood bombs and repair spray i may need, etc. but if this goes on for 20-30 hours uhhh idk
๐ do i even like this game? it's painfully heavy-handed and none of its characters are particularly interesting, least of all the fucking cool looking golden skull masked villain voiced by a troy baker devouring scenery (going hard, as everyone says too much now) while saying virtually jack shit... right now i would say the phantom pain was actually much better, and death stranding is starting to feel like its inverse - a failure of a game driven by some really cool ideas
๐ i do feel, still, that i could come out at the end of this feeling all the drudgery and vacuousness were worth it, so i will continue playing (it's a relaxing distraction from my fucked brain anyway) and perhaps say more when i am done
metal gear solid 2 is arguably the most discussed videogame ever. you can just google โmetal gear solid 2โ with the words โmeaningโ, โthemesโ, โanalysisโ, โessayโ or something like this that you will find plenty of articles and youtube videos. a lot of very good reviews on this game page here on backloggd, too. soโฆ what can I say about it? everyone already said something. everyone already called it a postmodern masterpiece, everyone already called it a prophetic game, everyone already said how great the level geometry is, how deep the mechanics can be, everyone knows about the marketing campaign and how sexy raiden is and how well-written his relationship with rose is. everyone knows everything. what more can i say? still, metal gear solid 2 is the kind of game that you do want to say something. it feels impossible not want to, even if you lack words. for me, what i want to say this time, finishing it for the first time in 7 years, is: this is a very life-affirming game. it tells us that, even in the capitalist system we live in, controlled by the same old people, influencing everything we consume, molding our thoughts and ideals, we can still break free, shape our own personality and look for the meaning in our lives, building the future for the next generations. maybe we will not face a revolution, maybe we will not change the world, but someone will. our sons, grandsons or anyone influenced by our mark, we just need to pass the torch.
Just finished it and although it isn't as good as the first one, it has its charms. The characters are hit or miss, except Fran who never misses, and almost all the side characters are better and funnier than the main cast. If you liked the first game, don't come thinking it's a talltale game. There are multiple choices and quick time events like the first one, but the dialogue charm of the first just isn't up to par with it.
The villain and the mega corp were nothing special as well. It was just Hyperion, but written to fit the Tales style. A bit of a spoiler, but the main villain literally copies Handsome Jack's pre-sequel machine, but actually uses it. Although she copies Jack's plans, she has no charm like Jack and you can't really sympathize with her either. This just makes her a cold and ruthless character with no real motivation apart from greed which doesn't hurt her character, but nothing makes her stand out apart from being technologically inept despite owning a mega corp.
Really had high hopes for the game, but it really was just alright at best. Like it's bad when the only thing that was reaction worthy was the last ending scene with Marcus. I feel like they wanted to make a new story without the cast relying on old characters, but that was the appeal of the first game in a lot of ways. They could have used them in a meaningful way like they did with Scooter in Tales, or just as an action cameo like with Brick and Mordecai. In the end I hope they use that ending as a stepping stone for Borderlands 4 and actually used the characters teased.
P.s. I don't know if my other logged got posted since it froze, but I'll delete the old one if it duplicates.
The villain and the mega corp were nothing special as well. It was just Hyperion, but written to fit the Tales style. A bit of a spoiler, but the main villain literally copies Handsome Jack's pre-sequel machine, but actually uses it. Although she copies Jack's plans, she has no charm like Jack and you can't really sympathize with her either. This just makes her a cold and ruthless character with no real motivation apart from greed which doesn't hurt her character, but nothing makes her stand out apart from being technologically inept despite owning a mega corp.
Really had high hopes for the game, but it really was just alright at best. Like it's bad when the only thing that was reaction worthy was the last ending scene with Marcus. I feel like they wanted to make a new story without the cast relying on old characters, but that was the appeal of the first game in a lot of ways. They could have used them in a meaningful way like they did with Scooter in Tales, or just as an action cameo like with Brick and Mordecai. In the end I hope they use that ending as a stepping stone for Borderlands 4 and actually used the characters teased.
P.s. I don't know if my other logged got posted since it froze, but I'll delete the old one if it duplicates.
Resident Evil
2014
Goes without saying, but the Resident Evil remake is one of the best that has graced the medium. While there are plenty of great remasters or remakes out there, very few get to this level of polish and acclaim to the point where it really is the definitive way of experiencing it. Though obviously, what the remake really highlights is what a great and revolutionary game the original is at its core.
The fixed camera angles, tank controls, and a clear lack of field of vision make for an always tense gameplay loop that excels here. I had played most the other modern Resi titles before this one, so going into this with a limited amount of inventory slots, with no expansion makes the game so stressful. This is a game that makes you have to do tough decisions, and I love it in terms of making the game feel so agonizing and terrifying, even if I do perfer the inevitable upgrades you get later on. But to add to the original's stressfulness, even killing zombies isn't the end in this one, having to try and guarantee headshots, burn the body, or risk an even more powerful enemy later on. The on the fly decision making you have to make is what makes this game so good at its core.
That is to say nothing about the look of the game. Maybe one of the best looking games, ever? The pre-rendered backdrops, even now, are some of the spookiest and most memorable locations I can remember, only highlighted by the camera always changing, keeping you on your toes as a zombie slowly appears just out of frame.
I'm not saying anything new here. I don't think I need to, there is a reason the original game had such an electric reaction when it first released, and the remake gives people the opportunity to feel that power of, for many, the first true horror game at all times with no compromises. Just an insanely well designed game, and an excellent reimagining of this iconic and often very goofy world.
The fixed camera angles, tank controls, and a clear lack of field of vision make for an always tense gameplay loop that excels here. I had played most the other modern Resi titles before this one, so going into this with a limited amount of inventory slots, with no expansion makes the game so stressful. This is a game that makes you have to do tough decisions, and I love it in terms of making the game feel so agonizing and terrifying, even if I do perfer the inevitable upgrades you get later on. But to add to the original's stressfulness, even killing zombies isn't the end in this one, having to try and guarantee headshots, burn the body, or risk an even more powerful enemy later on. The on the fly decision making you have to make is what makes this game so good at its core.
That is to say nothing about the look of the game. Maybe one of the best looking games, ever? The pre-rendered backdrops, even now, are some of the spookiest and most memorable locations I can remember, only highlighted by the camera always changing, keeping you on your toes as a zombie slowly appears just out of frame.
I'm not saying anything new here. I don't think I need to, there is a reason the original game had such an electric reaction when it first released, and the remake gives people the opportunity to feel that power of, for many, the first true horror game at all times with no compromises. Just an insanely well designed game, and an excellent reimagining of this iconic and often very goofy world.