An atmospheric journey through an international racing scene that needs to be played. While the game lacks a textual story, the slow progression from being a driver-for-hire on behalf of other teams to eventually creating your own team and dominating several different disciplines gives the game an arc even without characters or dialogue. Watching your garage transform from a ratty, sun-lit single-space to a massive, sleek vehicle bay manufactures a sense of career satisfaction that many other menu-based track racers completely fail to emulate. The way features are slowly drip-fed as you progress through the world stage (such as sponsorships and the ability to hire a second driver) helps the game feel like a directed experience rather than tool where you can test car-and-track combinations at the game's leisure.

And as if that wasn't enough, the Garage Music theme is enough to justify the game's score alone.
Take a listen: https://youtu.be/sTYFkHzaOuI?si=YEYjFB9C_xjQi9UW

undertale for boring people,

also knowing that this game (of which i already had a preexisting belief that both the gameplay was mediocre and the narrative was inconsistent) is based on Neil Druckman reacting to the news report of the death of two IDF soldiers in Ramallah (this was after a two week period in which 100 Palestinians were killed by the IDF including two dozen children) and him thinking of the ways he would torture the Palestinians responsible for the killing of the two soldiers before he came to his senses and said "actually both sides are kind of wrong, we should all learn the power of forgiveness" and this weird centrist "we both have good and bad people" when Neil is very much centered in and speaking kindly about one side in particular, makes the entire game from a fundamental baseline standpoint, extremely cynical.

The main message about the cycle of violence is itself extremely harmful when applied to anything outside of works of fiction, the WLF and the Seraphites are obviously meant to be our stand in for Israel and Palestine. In fact all of Seattle is very carefully crafted to evoke the imagery of Israel, more specifically the West Bank wall. Across the game the WLF and Seraphites (also known by the nicknames the Wolves and Scars respectively) are shown to be in an almost constant cycle of violence that is meant to parallel the very same "cycle" Abby and Ellie are going through throughout the main game using the "cycle of violence" that Neil believes Israel and Palestine to be a part of as inspiration. The main issue with "cycles of violence" as a concept is that they don't really exist outside of thought experiments, this worldview both wants us to examine both sides with nuance while also asking we don't condemn any specific side in question. Furthermore, the ability to just "walk away from the cycle" as the game is insinuating we should do instead of perpetuating it as Ellie and Abby, is not something that everyone has the option to do.

To apply this to the same conflict Neil was inspired by, in Gaza, a vast majority of the population do not have the ability to just "walk away" as they are surrounded by blockades enforced by Israel (the other major side of this conflict that has the backing of almost the entire international community on their side) im sure there are ways to leave the nation but those all involve having to brave the streets while dealing with constant bombing from Israel (again the other major side of this conflict) and for most who have families it would be extremely difficult to leave without leaving them behind. So what exactly is Neil saying with his stance here? I would have to assume he must be speaking from the side of Israel, so what gives? What does "walking away" entail from this standpoint? Does it mean completely removing yourself from the side you stand for? Is it seeking to break this cycle by helping those on the other side? In practice, I think it entails simply refusing to engage in the conflict anymore. But this IS the issue, walking away is a privilege, it isnt a choice, those in Gaza dont get the option to just ignore the conflict and take the centrist "were all human" argument.

Lastly, the game is EXTREMELY cynical as previously mentioned, even from the very foundations of which this games themes and narratives lie on. When we look at these two excerpts from the Washington Post article in which Druckman speaks on his inspirations:

"Oh, man, if I could just push a button and kill all these people that committed this horrible act, I would make them feel the same pain that they inflicted on these people.’"

“I landed on this emotional idea of, can we, over the course of the game, make you feel this intense hate that is universal in the same way that unconditional love is universal? This hate that people feel has the same kind of universality. You hate someone so much that you want them to suffer in the way they’ve made someone you love suffer.”

And I feel like that right there is the main issue, Druckman believes his own worldview to be universal, he doesnt question why exactly he feels this way beyond remarking that "afterward (he) felt gross and guilty" and assumed this experience to be a universal one. When looking at the inciting moment, that being Joels death, this was meant to push us into the same feeling of hate he felt that day. However, for me and many others my immediate response wasnt one of hate, but rather one of confusion and sadness. This is where a major point of the ludonarrative dissonance comes in: We all understand why Ellie is going on her quest for revenge but over time it just becomes far too cruel to put up with, all of her cruelty is inevitable and I genuinely believe this is because Druckman believed nobody would question it. From one bloodbath to the next, she goes torturing and maiming all she can without even a thought given to the victims or if the quest is even worth it at that point.
This is inarguably the most cynical piece of gaming media I think I have ever played, as it doesnt just assume the worst of its cast. But it also assumes the worst of every human being on Earth, instead of Neil trying to deconstruct why he felt such a sadistic fantasy about these people whom he would never meet who executed two people he doesnt know, he instead looks to an answer that absolves him of any introspection by believing that anyone would feel the same way "Universal Hate" is a very cynical answer to this problem and its just nonsensical when applied to the game. I feel like if this game wasn't leaked ahead of time and Joels death was more of a surprise I feel more people would feel this game to be mediocre "TLOU2 is a bad game" became a position people only had before release due to being upset about Joels death, and in this sense that unintentionally became a shield for the game guard itself with.

All that being said though, the graphics are pretty nice so 10/10 game of the year.