Nice to read your take on these games, like Spider-Man last week. You bring up some interesting points with the padding of mobs and artificial hurdles put up. Sometimes the “necessity” for gaminess can hinder the experience.

Summing up my time with Red Dead Redemption 2 in the most succinct way possible:

Yeah, exactly, Katarina in the mech took us 2 tries and the final boss took us 4 or 5. I mentioned at the time too that if this is really a kids’ oriented game, one young player could never get past that boss.

Great list, don’t know a fair number of these. My Boyfriend Is A Bear is something I won’t read but I’m glad it exists. This description, while understandably dramatic, is also deeply hilarious to me:
“Ribon’s script is heartwarming with an undercurrent of tragedy as the couple braces for the bear’s inevitable goodbye…

You should read X-Statix (spinned out of X-Force) written by Peter Milligan and drawn by Mike Allred. It’s beautiful to look at and well-written, funny and moving at times. The whole series was ahead of its time, when reality tv starting emerging, they did exactly that concept. 

The big room with the circular moving radials? Cause I had a really hard time there with figuring out distance and depth there. The camera really didn’t help either.
I had a blast completing that game but finding all the orbs in that snow level was torture, hidden under the snow.

That’s interesting. I’d never heard of the game before. Looking it up, it looks pretty good. Can’t tell the sluggishness from just video though. 

I finished Knack. There’s elements of a good game in there with the visuals (soft palette, environments) and co-op but with the fighting being the main component (platforming barely comes into it), it needed to be much better than it was to elevate the game from average to good. The most annoying part is that the game…

A similar case to this one and then concluding there have to be ulterior motives at work for his arrest? I’m not reading evidence, only speculation because “culture”. Over the past few years, I’ve read a lot of positive coverage of Ghosn, hailed as savior and business guru. To me, that at least complicates his image…

Yesterday evening I played through Do Not Seek Absolution and shed my first tears. Actually hard to watch when he talks to her in those woods.
And I started the mission up in the north there too with the widow. It also makes great use of that turning point and is very moving in that it shows Arthur at his softest so…

Those are some fine points you make there. Especially that the context-sensitive prompts often rely on the context of Arthur’s character and what makes sense for him at that point. The cutscenes indeed make a lot of decisions and further deepen his character for you so the gameplay doing the same to a degree does not…

I’m playing Arthur the same way your are! Easiest solution: pay off your bounties at the post-office. I did that. A lot. It was the price for trying to be somewhat morally good.
To answer your question, there’s many factors that make you end up with a bounty on your head. Wearing a mask and absconding from the crime…

Hey, I visited the Aberdeen pig farm! A goodun indeed. Arthur’s shifty eye movement and the “mom and dad” line was amazing. It’s insane to me that this whole sequence isn’t even an actual mission. It’s a chance encounter I assume but I can’t even find it in the piggyback guide (I bought it but not using it yet).…

Haha, I also had The Horseth Element and The Horse Nine Yards in my head. Love your other ones: The Last Horse Scout (prolly gonna steal this!) and Death Becomes Horse. Hell, even Look Horse Talking is great. The Sixth Steed is clever but it needs to be horse in the title.

No playtime clock, a shame because I really like those in all my games.

Didnt like the ring of that. I run through all the options in my head before I decide. Frankly its embarassing how long I spend on my horses. 

Also, shameless self-promotion but last week it seems I was too late in joining the discussion. I copy pasted a pre-written bit about RDR2 and its simulation-aspects. If anyone should care to read those thoughts, feel free to leave a comment. Thought it was a shame to have it go to waste or maybe that’s too…

I get that some people take that stance. Seems that RDR2 is a game that’s divisive in terms of atmosphere vs gameplay. Some people enjoy the experience, playing at their own pace and making their own fun, others want a more streamlined experience with action and gameplay taking the forefront. I think both points are…

Reading this has reminded me that I totally ditched Bloodborne for RDR2. I want to get into it because after a rough start, I had a taste of the combat and atmosphere clicking and going “I GET IT, THIS IS GREAT” before that evaporated in a mist of exhaustion. It was like that word on the tip of your tongue, you could…

Back home for a wedding iblitz visit. Currently awake for 24 hours so this pre-written bit is somewhat rough and rambling.