Red Dead Redemption II was a game that changed how I viewed video games. I was only just starting to understand the idea of games being an art form thanks to the Metal Gear Solid series, but playing a painstakingly crafted game that featured a well written, expansive, and emotional story and a living, breathing open world that was filled to the brim with things to do made that concept obvious. It's a masterstroke of a game that I've been playing regularly since the day it came out, but despite how much love I have for it, I've always wished that I had started with the first game in the series. I mentioned finding a copy of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days at a CeX in in my review of that game, but I didn't mention how I bought Red Dead Redemption as well.

Rather than being a sprawling revisionist portrait of America like its sequel turned out to be, Red Dead Redemption feels and plays out more like a spaghetti western, as the gritty, dirty visuals and emblematic music feel like something out of a Leone or Corbucci film. One of the main themes of Red Dead Redemption is how America defines "civilization" and "savagery", as the ruthlessness of the game's government makes them no different from the outlaws and Native Americans that that they claim are the true threat to civilization, with the latter group being victims of their genocidal violence on a massive scale. Despite the game's title, John Marston's past and how it haunts him makes any chance of him redeeming himself impossible, and all you can really do is just have him do the best that he can as he watches the Old West that he always knew die right in front of him. The story is straightforward in its structure, cinematic in its execution, and complex in its themes, and the result is a brilliantly told, tragic, and unforgettable game that explores and blends many loaded topics with ease.

Aside from being incredibly well written, Red Dead Redemption is also a very fun game. The guns, horse riding, and especially the Dead Eye mechanic are satisfying (although they obviously aren't as fine-tuned as what is present in the sequel), and the game's missions often feature explosive and fun set pieces that make use of the game's many items and weapons. Exploring the huge open world is especially fun, as New Austin, Nuevo Paraíso, and West Elizabeth are all chock full of sidequests to complete, minigames to play, and gang hideouts to shoot up, and the random encounters with people in trouble even makes simply getting from point A to point B feel eventful. The score by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson is incredible, and the use of Far Away by José González led to one of the best and most beautiful moments I've ever experienced in a video game. The issues that I had with Red Dead Redemption were ones that all got fixed in Red Dead Redemption II, and while it isn't necessarily this game's fault that its sequel improved on it in every way, this was still what held me back from considering this game to be one of the very best. Even with that in mind, Red Dead Redemption is still a phenomenal game with a lot to offer, and since the copy that I picked up came with Undead Nightmare, I'll be playing that soon.

Gran Turismo 7 is a lie. For all the words spouted about how this is a return to form of the massive singleplayer campaigns and content of Gran Turismos past, it's really not. It tries, goddamit, and definetly scratches the itch that we all have of Gran Turismo 4 and such... but it never goes more than skin deep.

Because Gran Turismo 7 is just an expansion of GT Sport, and with it, the promise of new stuff to come at an indeterminate date. At time of writing it's just a buy in to a live service.

The kicker here is content. Versus GT sport there's a grand total of... 4 new tracks and two new layouts of existing ones. I'm not joking thats it, and whilst the selection is mostly good - High speed ring, deep forest, and Trial Mountain are classics - there being no completely new additions outright is really sad.

The car selection is also quite small by mainline gt standards. 400 cars which are mostly unique (compared to GT6's deluge of 20 different types of Miata) and all beautifully modelled - but lots of these are ludicrously expensive, the vast majority are imported from GT sport, and there's very few additions in the racing car categories. The overall car selection is also, by now, quite old. Most of the cars here you can track back to about 2015-ish, and there's very few non concept cars from post 2020.

And it kinda all makes sense. The reduced scope of GT7 compared to - particularly GT4, is almost unavoidable. The level of fidelity demanded these days makes something the scope of GT4 or even GT6 basically impossible, and Polyphony arent the crazed madmen sleeping at the office and making Naughty dog's crunch practices look pedestrian anymore.

And thus, the campaign doesn't really work. There's the delightful level of gran turismo charm and cheese which is lovely to have back and is probably my outright biggest criticism of Sport, but the whole thing is too linear, short, and really lacks the freedom of previous GTs.

Particularly dissapointing is the lack of the super high level events from bygone days - Like the wind, Formula grand turismo championships, etc. It's outright bizzare, the game carries the license system from previous games, but there arent even any license requirements over A in the game at time of writing. And it's so weird, because the game dangles these awesome legendary cars in front of you for stonking credit values but there's like fuck all to do with them except online!

But despite it all, there's sparks here. S-10, the final license test, has you wrangling a classic Porsche 917 around a slightly damp Spa Francorchamps. It's probably the most fun i've ever had in a driving game. The handling model in GT7 is top tier, it's implementation of weather and changeable conditions amazing, it's level of fidelity so damn high, the Car such a fun beast to drive - that it all comes together and it's downright magical. It's the apotheosis of the driving fantasy GT has always been trying to fullfill, and it's the best it has ever done it. Some of the other missions and driving tests are also great, but this moment is what makes it, and proves GT7s potential.

But we'll have to wait, i guess. More than even GT sport, this is a game where buying it is buying into a live service and years of updates which will eventually make it the game we all wanted. GT sport eventually got there. And if there's more moments like S-10 coming... I guess i'll be there to see it in GT7.