I am incredibly disappointed in my personal decision, back in 2020, to feed into the outrage of the leaks and ignore the game at launch, despite my initial excitement. While far from perfect and fails to match the cohesion of the first title, the mostly successful narrative risks Part II decides to take can only be understood through a proper playthrough.

I find myself grappling with the narrative and structure more than anything given how fine-tuned and excellent the gameplay experience itself is. There seems to be a collective tired attitude towards the onslaught of cinematic Sony titles (rightfully so), but Naughty Dog is undeniably the peak of this direction. A realistic level of fluidity and weight to the combat and high attention to detail pairs well with the unavoidable insertion of cutscenes. Similar to the first, there's a toll to your actions as a player that would not have the same effect in any other medium, even if the delivery is awkward at moments (quick-time events, for example).

To summarize the problem, the narrative's delivery is largely disrupted by the structure, mainly boiling down to Ellie's section in Seattle. The game's opening is shocking yet effective, but the following 10+ hours feel poorly utilized. I appreciate the growing severity in her kills that leads the player to question the necessity behind enacting revenge, but your days in Seattle are mostly uneventful and incredibly repetitive. Ellie is forced to follow along the clues Tommy have left behind, with very little else happening in between. The flashback sequences, which are incredibly meaningful and effective in piecing together the moments between the two games, feel like a direct acknowledgment of the slowness, as very little plot progression is made to entertain the player in between. The enjoyable gameplay sequences keep the player stringing along, but even this aspect had its lower moments; Mainly, the open area segment when Ellie first arrives in Seattle, carrying over one of the weakest and blandest aspects from Uncharted 4.

Abby's route mostly resolves these issues, but suffers from the absence of an "end-goal" that consistently drives the plot. It makes the events feel relatively insignificant when compared to the ongoing Wolves vs Scars conflict and the tension in Ellie's hunt, but that insignificance is critical to humanizing her character. The moments are not equally engaging, but convincing, which is a worthwhile trade-off for the goals of the game.

Poor structure and consequently characterization stand out far more given how exceptionally executed these factors are in Part I, where the clear end-goal allowed for time spent to develop the relationship of Joel and Ellie and their interactions with the sparse yet memorable side cast, while narrative progress was still being made. The majority of Part II's side cast feel like plot devices to fuel the grief and fury of Ellie and Abby; That isn't to say their interactions are not believable nor engaging, but they never create a level of emotional attachment established with the cast of the first game.

Fortunately, these flaws are the sacrifice for an exceptional thematic continuation of Ellie's journey. I cannot understate the importance that physically playing through the game has on your perspective towards Ellie and Abby's actions. It goes beyond understanding their fuel for revenge, but the misery of watching their lives spiral into chaos as they act on these feelings. The switch in protagonist is not a shallow explanation that there are two sides to every story, but a greater comment on how the first-person gameplay experience forces us to attach ourselves and root for a side, where our actions and emotional attachments are irrational.

Not only are these feelings irrational, but most importantly, inconsistent. If time reverts and events change, where Joel now forces himself into the emergency room, and Abby is now at the side of the doctor, would he make the same decisions? Abby's physical presence does not change the fact that killing the doctor will leave the child fatherless and spark a thirst for revenge, but the ability for Joel to know beforehand may have led to a completely different ending where Part II cannot exist. This is the main aspect of the narrative I feel is misconstrued, that Ellie's vicious killing of Scars and Wolves is contradictory to the stance she takes in the end, as if that itself is a flaw when in actuality it's the point. If not for Ellie, Abby's interactions with Lev and Yara is Naughty Dog being as blatant as possible. I find boiling the game down to the shallow conclusion "Revenge is bad" does a disservice to the numerous moments throughout the game where Ellie and Abby's humanity are challenged, and that their development as characters is not so linear in their realization that their actions have consequences. The final few scenes could not be a more horrifying yet beautifully portrayed depiction of inconsistency.

Even after the sweeps of controversy that consumed the launch of Part II back in 2020, I find myself satisfied with Naughty Dog's consistent level of quality and effort to take risks in an era of Sony that feels stale and safe. I love the Infected world of Last of Us but am looking forward to how ND's talent can be handled in a new series going forward.

I’m not much into farming sims, but I had heard a bunch of former Blizzard devs make up a big chunk of the team that worked on it, and I’ve been craving a game that really invests in the community the way theirs used to, plus it’s free so no harm in trying. My biggest disappointment is how downplayed that community aspect is, there really isn’t a whole lot to do here with other players, labeling this an MMO feels like an afterthought. The Switch version is also very rough with crude graphics, frame drops, and your character sliding around like they’re figure skating. Tempering my score is A) the fact that it’s technically still in Beta on this system, and B) an acknowledgement of a certain level of “it’s not for me.” There are aspects of quality here, but in terms of what I expected from this game, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed.

This weekend, in addition to space piracy, had another pleasant surprise in store for me - a trip to the new cozy little place Palia. I’m currently building a single Chain of Worlds that includes Terraria, Stardew Valley, Starbound, Spiritfarer, My Time At Portia, Sun Haven and Moonlighter, where I want to achieve maximum development, so I couldn’t refuse another world to explore.

The plot of this game begins with the fact that a young goblin scientist named Gina is delving into some ancient ruins with might and main. Since childhood, the spirit of research has been in her blood, so she decided to devote her life to archeology. But she had no way of knowing that her new discovery would seriously change the lives of the inhabitants of the island of Palea. The unknown device that she managed to dig up in the ruins turned out to be a remote control for a spatial bridge that connects other worlds through the ether. Gina did not have time to figure out the structure of her find, as an owl bear suddenly appeared, snatched the sparkle from the hands of the naive goblin and rushed towards the ruins of a strange temple.

The young goblin, out of breath, finally caught up with the thief and took the strange battery from him, but her unfortunate touch launched a device that caused a resonance in the ruins of the temple. There was a bright flash, a bang, and then there was silence. Our heroine opened one eye and noticed that she was not alone here. Standing in front of her was a strange humanoid-type creature whose skin was beige in color. Gina immediately forgot about her fear and began to closely examine the alien through her round glasses. The creature turned out to be talkative and understood the goblin’s speech, but in fact it turned out to be kind and friendly. This is how the inhabitants of Palea became acquainted with the human race and became close friends with them. Subsequently, many travelers, including us, entered this world through the interdimensional gates. Now our task is to get used to the new world and build our home here. There is an endless summer ahead, cool nights and evergreen grass. We're here forever.

Here we have a classic farm in an MMO wrapper. There are no PVP battles, struggle for resources, or clan dungeons, and leveling occurs automatically while we are engaged in a certain activity. We will have several tools at our disposal that will allow us to actively interact with this world, namely a pickaxe, an axe, a fishing rod, a hunting bow, insect poison, a hoe and a watering can. We will mine stones, cut down trees, fish, hunt animals, collect insects for a collection and do gardening. The basis of the game is reputation points. We will be able to improve our relationships with residents, give them gifts and even romance them! I already liked a couple of cute little girls here, which I immediately began pumping up and conquering (and here you can also seduce a huge stuffed scarecrow).

The gameplay here is as sluggish as possible - a lot of grinding, timewalls and an extremely poor economy. To make money here, you will need to put in a lot of effort. So far, the best way to farm currency is fishing, but it’s also inconvenient. You need to wait for the bite (the fish will jump up), and then hold down the left mouse button and make sure that the float is in the green circle. Some fish here can be nimble, and if they stay outside the circle for a long time, they will break off. So far, the price for a fish is mere pennies, from 23 to 50 gold, which is very little for price tags of 5k and above. It’s good that moving around the world is convenient - you hit the shift and you rush to your stamina without penalties, and if you also jump, then in general the speed becomes cosmic. The only annoying thing is the slow animation of picking up objects, which wastes a decent amount of time.

From the start we will be given a free piece of land on which we will develop. This is something like a closed lobby where we go and are there on our own, but you can set up access to your guild or friends farm. Here we will build our own house, we will be able to furnish it and even have several garden beds. The problem of producing boards/bricks and other things can be solved by simply installing more crafters, but even here there are limits that will have to be expanded for a little gold. In the future, our piece of land can be increased by purchasing additional squares on the map, and the dimensions there will be impressive. The problem is how to fill such large spaces.

The game suffers from a lack of detail. At the moment, the Palea map consists of numerous fields and forests with stones and rare trees, where there will be just homogeneous bare land. As a result, the landscapes immediately become plastic and boring, despite the fact that the graphics here are quite nice. The central city itself and its inhabitants are beautifully detailed, it’s interesting to be there and look at the details. The soundtrack is really relaxing and not boring.

In the end, everything is quite modest so far. Wooden character editor. NPCs are colorful dummies that wander along routes and demand gifts. There is nothing to do here other than endlessly digging for resources and completing quests. It’s good that the donation here is only cosmetic (although $20 for an item is a lot), so it’s not very noticeable. Yes, building a farm, arranging it with furniture and some other details like collecting insects and fish in jars really look cool, but on the scale of a moss this is criminally small. Of course, there are all friendly ladies here, blue skies, jelly banks, but so far it feels very modest and there is simply nothing to do here other than farming resources. I, of course, liked what I saw, because I love this kind of addictive gameplay, and I also need games that I can run on the second or third window. But whether to jump into this universe or wait is up to you to decide.

P.S. For those who still decide to visit Palea, add my character named Ranfalla Olgerd as a friend. She likes to cosplay Turanga Leela from Futurama, but that nickname was taken, so I had to come up with a new one.

[review has been translated by Google Translator]

This is a review of the Fontaine part of Genshin Impact.

Starting off with the first couple of acts in a sort of Ace Attorney/Danganronpa/Umineko court trial situation (with gameplay!), Fontaine's storyline quickly grabs the player's interest as new developments come to light constantly. There are some pacing issues in acts III and IV, but when act V rolls around you get to see Genshin's best main story quest yet. Not only does it effectively use various perspectives (you play as different characters, not just the Traveller, etc.), but has more effort put into direction than ever before. Genshin's usual... bland camerawork is replaced with a lot of style, not to mention the gorgeous cutscenes. Even the final fight, which, despite not being the coolest Genshin fight, was very fitting as the climax of this story, and was absolutely stunning and experimented with a musical style that Genshin hasn't done much yet.

The biggest highlight, though, is the characters. Genshin has always had some pretty strong character writing in places, but in terms of main quest lines it shines here the most for sure. Furina is an extremely compelling character, the Fatui for once don't take a simple antagonistic role and actually have more moral ambiguity, the returning cast from previous regions aren't just there for show, but actually contribute to the plot, and the resolution of this part of Genshin's story was genuinely emotional. Additionally, just like in Sumeru, the Traveller takes a lot of action on their own, and do not need Paimon to peak on their behalf. There is potential for this character.

Also, the new diving mechanic leads to some stunning underwater scenery. It is so pretty. Though I think the surface of Fontaine is not as interesting as Sumeru or Inazuma, but that's okay.

Anyway, I did say I was blown away by Sumeru, but this absolutely clears it. Genshin has really started to experiment and become more ambitious with the stories it can tell. Over time I've even changed this to 5 stars, because I felt like I prefered this to a lot of stories in various video games and other works I've consumed. I really hope the quality keeps up for following arcs.